Snapdeal has removed from its website the flat Rs. 10,000 cash back offer on iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus that it was providing American Express card-holders as part of its sale that started on Wednesday. The offer, which was heavily advertised ahead of today’s sale, is no longer available when users enter their American Express credit card details.
This has been a cause of severe disappointment for many Snapdeal customers, some of whom had been waiting for the sale to start since early morning. In fact, the offer was being shown on the Snapdeal home page at least till 10am, but it seems even the users who had logged into the website before that did not get to avail the offer. On the other hand, the e-commerce player is still offering the 10 percent discount to SBI debit and credit card holders, up to a maximum of Rs 2,000.
Some potential iPhone 7 buyers, who were disappointed by the company rescinding the Rs 10,000 discount, took to Twitter to air their grievances.
So @snapdeal gives a full page iPhone7 ad for Amex.When check on their portal not a single iPhone. Does @AmexIndia approve this falsehood?
— Vishal Kelkar (@vishalkmumbai) October 12, 2016
Snapdeal lists iPhone 7 with Rs 10,000 Cashback but sadly no one can avail it. No wonder people don’t buy from them because of these tricks. pic.twitter.com/TYW1HHjaJ5
@amitbhawani True, I sat with my Amex card ready but it just didn't work.
— Abhijeet Mukherjee (@abhijeetmk) October 12, 2016Snapdeal’s customer support team on Twitter has said that the product – iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus in this case – is out of stock. However, when we tried to buy a 128GB iPhone 7, the product was very much in stock but we still could not avail the Rs 10,000 American Express discount. The SBI offer, on the other hand, was still available. This seems to go against the “offer valid only for today and/ or till stock lasts [sic]” mentioned in Snapdeal’s promotions for the iPhone 7 offer.
To recall, this year's iPhone models come in three storage variants - 32GB, 128GB, and 256GB. Both the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will be available in Gold, Jet Black, Matte Black, Rose Gold, and Silver colour variants in India.
The 32GB iPhone 7 has been priced at Rs. 60,000, while the 128GB iPhone 7 has been priced at Rs. 70,000, and the 256GB iPhone 7 has been priced at Rs. 80,000. The 32GB iPhone 7 Plus has been priced at Rs. 72,000, the 128GB iPhone 7 Plus has been priced at Rs. 82,000, while the 256GB iPhone 7 Plus has been priced at Rs. 92,000.
Snapdeal is hosting its second festive season sale this week, less than a week after its first sale concluded. However, the company has been unable to offer any tantalising discounts to consumers this time around, which is especially troubling since Paytm is also hosting an online sale during the same period. Amazon and Flipkart seem to be matching many discounts that Snapdeal is promoting even though they are not hosting sales right now.
Update 12 October 6:50pm: Snapdeal has said on it website that the Rs 10,000 discount on American Express cards is now over.
Disclosure: Paytm's parent company One97 is an investor in Gadgets 360
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