Google Pixel 2 XL Black & White Pre-Order Shipments Delayed in India, Flipkart Offers Compensation

Just a day after Google formally began its sale of the Pixel 2 XL in India, the Black & White version of the smartphone is out of stock on Flipkart. The online marketplace is claiming an "unexpected delay" in receiving stocks for the Black & White version that sports a "Panda" or Black & White colour job. Customers who pre-ordered the handset are disappointed with the delay in delivery, and some of them have also started an online petition.

The delay came to light following the receipt of an email that Flipkart circulated on Wednesday evening to all its customers who pre-ordered the Panda Pixel 2 XL in 64GB storage. "We're sorry to let you know that the seller is facing an unexpected delay in receiving stocks for Google Pixel 2 XL (Black & White, 64GB) from the brand," the company said in the email.

In addition to officially confirming the delay in shipments, the Bengaluru-based e-commerce giant stated that the orders would now be delivered on December 1. The company has also agreed to pay an amount of Rs. 300 as compensation for the postponed shipments. This compensation will be available in the Gift Card section of the Flipkart wallet once the order is shipped by the seller.

Flipkart email sent to Pixel 2 XL Black & White pre-order customers

The trend of giving compensation isn't something that Flipkart has exclusively initiated. In fact, as reported by Android Police, Google had itself compensated customers ordering the Pixel 2 in the US with a free Live Case worth $40 (approximately Rs. 2,600) after it skipped the original shipment date of October 23.

In addition to the delay in shipments through Flipkart, the Black & White coloured Pixel 2 XL is not in stock with offline retailers. In a conversation with Gadgets 360, Manish Khatri of Mumbai's Mahesh Telecom revealed that despite high demand, the Panda variant is unavailable. "The Panda colour variant of the Pixel 2 XL is quite in demand among our customers, but it's not in stock since its launch in October. People are even moving to the iPhone X due to the unavailability of the Pixel units. However, the latest iPhone is also facing a massive shortage in the market," said Khatri.

Protesting against the delay, some Pixel 2 XL customers have published a petition on Change.org. The petition that received over 125 signatures at the time of filing this story will be delivered to Flipkart executives Binny Bansal and Kalyan Krishnamurthy as well as Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

It appears that India isn't the only market where the Panda Pixel 2 XL variant is not available. The handset wasn't in stock in the US until November 10, as reported by 9to5 Google.

We reached out to Flipkart and Google for their comments on the situation. A Flipkart spokesperson put the blame squarely at Google's feet, and said, "The shipping of the phone's variant has been delayed from Google's end to both offline + online channels in India. No retailer in India has received the variant yet. The variant being referred to is is Google Pixel 2 XL (Black & White)."

A Google spokesperson had this to say in the meanwhile, "We apologise for the delay in shipping the black and white Pixel 2 XL, and are working hard to remedy it at the earliest. We thank our users for their patience, and look forward to welcoming the new owners to the Pixel family."

It is worth noting here that while the Panda version is not available, the Pixel 2 XL Jet Black variant is available through both online and offline channels across the country.

Starting at Rs. 73,000, the Pixel 2 XL is the larger version of the Pixel 2. The smartphone features a 6-inch QHD+ (1440x2880 pixels) P-OLED at 538ppi with 18:9 aspect ratio. Under the hood, it has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC, coupled with 4GB of RAM and up to 128GB storage. The smartphone packs a 3520mAh battery and runs Android Oreo out of the box.