Feb 19, 2015 10:54 PM
20585 Views
(Updated Feb 19, 2015 11:14 PM)
This is from my recent experience of trying to "Buy" this so called Yu Yureka phone from Amazon.
Sequence of Events
Registered with Amazon on a Tuesday(16th Feb) for the next Thursday sale(18th). Got confirmation on registration. So far so good.
Waited for 18th with bated breadth. Thanks to modern day connectivity, did a Work From Home to ensure that I was able to balance work as well as log on to Amazon site from the comfort of the High speed 8MBPS dedicated line at home.
Logged on sharply at 1.50pm for the 2.00pm show, refreshed my screen regularly to ensure that the session is not closed by Amazon. The system was continuously showing the countdown time and refreshing the same. My system is a Lenovo Core i5 Laptop with decent configuration 8GB RAM, 64 Bit Win 8.1 Pro, no junkware, recently formatted and hence very fast. The network speed/efficiency was also at full throttle which I verified just prior to the d-time.
At the stroke of 2pm, the moment the timer gave way and was replaced with the Add to Cart button, I clicked. This would hardly have been 1second into the sale start.
At this juncture, I got the usual circular mouse pointer indicating furious action at the server end, with a status message declaring that "100% claim has been achieved" and I have been placed on a waitlist! This when ordering the phone in the very first second of sale!
For a few minutes I was in a state of shock and could not believe the Status I was shown on screen. After checking the status at regular intervals I waited patiently till the 3pm deadline indicated on the waitlist timer.hoping against hope that all this was just a bad nightmare and I would eventually get a green signal to buy this phone.surely not after ordering the phone in the very first second of sale! But alas the doors were truly shut on me when the I was formally chucked out of the sale event and asked to "revisit/register" for the next sale.
So the following are my observations from this entire episode
Even Flipkart during the hey days of their hype sale( I mean flash sale) did not throw out customers who had ordered in the very first second.
During the waiting stage for the Yu Yureka, I also saw the price of the Yureka change to 12500Rs a fact confirmed by the reviews/queries from other users on the Amazon site. At a price of 12.5K the phone is costlier than Redmi Note and loses its edge. If the 9K price is only for the first 10-20 phones, Amazon and micromax should have been open about it.
The concept of Flash sale was catchy in the initial period it was introduced. Nowadays it is more of a snob value rather than anything genuine. The main competitor Xiaomi is selling their Note 4g in the open market now. Micromax is NO Apple or for that matter comparable EVEN TO Xiaomi(which has overtaken Samsung in global scale). The concept of ridiculous flash sales by Micromax and Amazon is like a donkey trying to pass off for a thoroughbred stallion! Micromax should realize that consumers are not dumb enough to run after its products for long.
If Amazon and Micromax really do not have the required Supply chain or logistics or systems in place to service their customers, they can just close down the Yu Yureka sale and do something else instead of wasting the time and patience of its customers.
To Sum it up #AmazonSucks #YuYurekaIsAScam #MicromaxStayAway. STAY FAR AWAY FROM THE YU YUREKA SALE AND DO NOT BOTHER WASTING YOUR TIME. FEEL FREE TO PASTE THIS REVIEW IN ALL ONLINE FORUMS. Greedy corporates should know that in this day of social media empowerment, these type of scam sales will not be received kindly by Customers. DO NOT TOUCH THE YU YUREKA EVEN WITH A BARGE POLE.I have since shifted to the Redmi Note 4G on the day Amazon and Micromax threw me out. Hopefully more people realize these type of scam flash sales and stay away from these scams thus saving time and energies on other useful things.
Since this is a review and I have to give the other side perspective, I am giving the details for my choice of Smartphone in the first place.
Background
My old smartphone, the venerable Samsung Galaxy S2 had finally gone bust, unable to cope up with the ever increasing onslaught of ever powerful softwares targeted at monster hardware that pass off for "basic system requirement" these days. To cut a long story short, I was not interested in iPhone thanks to their closed ecosystem. The Windows was ruled out due to the nascent App market even though the Nokia smartphones were decent.
Considerations
Primary considerations were the "Open"ness of the platform, rich app ecosystem, Large screen for easy read/usage(I am a tech buff, read a lot and have a diversified set of interests spanning multiple knowledge areas), decent camera( I had my own DSLR or HD Camcorders and did not need a super camera), decent hardware to let me work/play and last but not least decent price. There were bad experiences with losing/breaking smartphones and I was categorical that something as abused as the smartphone should not cost a bomb.
Players considered
Given the glut of Smartphones in the market across various price ranges and stuff, I had narrowed down to the OPO, MI4 initially. These were strong phones with top of the line hardware/configurations and decent quality. I was even close to an invite for OPO but the news about software updates for the Cyanogen put me off. The MI4 was great no doubt but the MI3 was 13K, had great features and was an excellent value for money. Alas MI3 was killed by Xiomi without even giving a chance for Indian buyers to buy it. Only a select few lotteries were won by the lucky folks who got their hands on one. So the OPO and MI4 did not justify the high cost(relative to my essential needs) even though they are great phones no doubt about that.
So that left me with 2 significant players, the Xiomi Note 4g and Yu Yureka. Both of these had decent configurations and super affordable. Now Xiomi Note was available off the shelf after Flipkart and Xiomi finally saw sense and improve their supply chain to ensure open retail deliveries. Since the Yu Yureka had a tad cheaper price of 8999Rs with comparable/supposedly better hardware, I thought of giving it a try. And here is the experience.
