BANGALORE – India’s largest e-retailer Flipkart claimed to have got a billion hits for its special sales offer, but millions of buyers felt cheated on its discounts, as they alleged the prices quoted were higher, even as its portal crashed during the day.
“The prices printed in its advertisements in leading newspapers on many electronic products and consumer goods did not match with the rates mentioned on the portal when I logged to place an order,” complained Mahesh Inchal, a registered user with Flipkart. The social media was abuzz with such complaints.
Another registered user in the city, who wanted to buy a colour television set, told here that she could not log onto the portal, as she got “error” message and gave up after repeated attempts.
“I tried to log into the website. But the system did not accept. To my surprise, I found other e-portals like Snapdeal.com offering the same product at a lesser price than what Flipkart quoted — offering at a discount,” said the user who did not want to be identified.
As the online traffic surged for the day-long special sales that began at 8 a.m., the company’s portal (Flipkart.com) crashed late afternoon, resulting in outrage against the e-retailer in the social media for the website being inaccessible for hours after 2 p.m. and inflating prices before offering discounts.
“We got a billion hits on our site today (Monday) and achieved our 24-hour sales target of $100 million (615 crore) in gross merchandise volume (GMV) in just 10 hours,” the city-based e-commerce major said in a statement.
