 "Flipkart pulls down Samsung Galaxy S9, Galaxy S9+ before sale on March 16")
Home-grown e-commerce major Flipkart seems to have removed the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus from its portal before the start of the smartphones’ official sale on March 16. The flagship smartphones were first announced a day before the Mobile World Congress and unveiled in India on March 6.
The pre-orders for the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ began in India through Samsung online stores soon after the international unveiling at the MWC. However, Samsung’s partner for online sales, Airtel online store and Flipkart, had started taking pre-orders after the official launch on March 6.
Starting March 6, Flipkart not only started taking the pre-orders but also listed the two smartphones as bundled with offers like Rs 5,000 additional discount on exchange, cashback of Rs 6,000 for HDFC credit and debit card holders and no-cost equated monthly instalments removing the interest component from EMIs paid to banks on the purchase of devices using a credit card.
The online shopping portal also ran a promotional #special9 offer, which assured free devices – the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ – to 9 lucky winners who pre-ordered units before March 10, and one day advance delivery, along with a “special surprise”, before the official sale on March 16.
“The 9 winners will be declared on S9 store page on 12th/13th/14th March,” stated the company’s frequently asked questions section on the offer’s terms & conditions page. However, the online shopping portal not only pulled down the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ product listing page –it says the products are ‘temporarily unavailable’ – but also failed to upload the list of winners.
A tweet has been marked to Flipkart’s official handle seeking an explanation for the missing details, but the company has yet to respond to the query.
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