Discussion Are offline smartphone sellers ripping off naive customers?

[hike]

See shopkeeper will do this with you if you are from small town otherwise in Jaipur shopkeeper sell month old model on online price. Where as latest model you need to pay just ₹500 more. It'syour negligence that she pay that big amount. She could get 5G by paying 2K more.

 

[iDJ]

See shopkeeper will do this with you if you are from small town otherwise in Jaipur shopkeeper sell month old model on online price. Where as latest model you need to pay just ₹500 more. It's your negligence that she pay that big amount. She could get 5G by paying 2K more.

How is it my negligence? I offered to buy online. It's shopkeeper taking advantage of naive customers. They are not doing anything illegal by selling MRP of the order but being unethical knowing the value of the device. Sooner or later most people are gonna be aware of this. These offline sellers will lose their business. Even 10 years ago when we had our own electronic store. We sold mobiles. We didn't charge the box price as it was heavily inflated.

 

[kanagadeepan]

From what I have seen, exclusive stores especially of big brands behave like, they are doing you a favour by selling you their Co products and only they are capable of selling "ORIGINAL" product of the brand. Similarly small shops can't give deep discounts as well.

Let me share my experience, as it's very different. I was looking for a very very specific phone as below:-
[1] Samsung or non-chinese phone
[2] with METAL frame
[3] NO Glass Back or Curved Screen for durability reasons
[4] Dedicated SD slot or more internal storage, if Hybrid slot present.
[5] minimum 3CA LTE+
[6] preferably with snapdragon processor for a change (my another phone has Exynos -- But still it was great).
[7] Camera with OIS
[8] Bigger battery and fast charging support

There was only one phone at that time (even now). Samsung S10 Lite -- 512GB version. I am OK with either online or offline purchase and budget was very flexible. Price of that phone was around 48 to 50k on both online and offline stores at that time.

I enquired Samsung exclusive store first and was getting irritated by their behaviour, as they believed offline buyers are by default noobs. Later I went to a multi-brand showroom, in the same mall "Chennai Mobiles". There was one guy, employed by Samsung wearing Samsung Tee Shirt. I told him, "I am happy with the phone, but not with the price". He then told about some upgrade offer or something. The code generated from my Note10 Lite was surprisingly not working. Then he generated code from the iPhone 11 (or XR not sure), sold just now in the same store (that's what he told) and gave the phone for around Rs42800.

Later I have gone there on the same day Samsung Tab A7 (4G + WiFi) was launched and he gave nice discount around 1k [22500 to 21500 == online price 22000Rs] (He told, "We never give such discount on new product" -- which is a fact)..

The Thing is we have to be a hard negotiator & make sure the guy is desperate to sell (month-end target) and he must understand that this customer is genuine and not a window shopper. Patience is the key, as you should not hesitate to goto 3 shops for best price.

 

[amty]

From what I have seen, exclusive stores especially of big brands behave like, they are doing you a favour by selling you their Co products and only they are capable of selling "ORIGINAL" product of the brand. Similarly small shops can't give deep discounts as well.

Let me share my experience, as it's very different. I was looking for a very very specific phone as below:-
[1] Samsung or non-chinese phone
[2] with METAL frame
[3] NO Glass Back or Curved Screen for durability reasons
[4] Dedicated SD slot or more internal storage, if Hybrid slot present.
[5] minimum 3CA LTE+
[6] preferably with snapdragon processor for a change (my another phone has Exynos -- But still it was great).
[7] Camera with OIS
[8] Bigger battery and fast charging support

There was only one phone at that time (even now). Samsung S10 Lite -- 512GB version. I am OK with either online or offline purchase and budget was very flexible. Price of that phone was around 48 to 50k on both online and offline stores at that time.

I enquired Samsung exclusive store first and was getting irritated by their behaviour, as they believed offline buyers are by default noobs. Later I went to a multi-brand showroom, in the same mall "Chennai Mobiles". There was one guy, employed by Samsung wearing Samsung Tee Shirt. I told him, "I am happy with the phone, but not with the price". He then told about some upgrade offer or something. The code generated from my Note10 Lite was surprisingly not working. Then he generated code from the iPhone 11 (or XR not sure), sold just now in the same store (that's what he told) and gave the phone for around Rs42800.

Later I have gone there on the same day Samsung Tab A7 (4G + WiFi) was launched and he gave nice discount around 1k [22500 to 21500 == online price 22000Rs] (He told, "We never give such discount on new product" -- which is a fact)..

The Thing is we have to be a hard negotiator & make sure the guy is desperate to sell (month-end target) and he must understand that this customer is genuine and not a window shopper. Patience is the key, as you should not hesitate to goto 3 shops for best price.

agree with each and every point.... and when we go to buy any product from shop... prices would be high as they have cost....like rents, salaries of staff, electricity bills ..... where as online stores have no such expense....

 

[hike]

Patience is the key, as you should not hesitate to goto 3 shops for best price.

And that's your solution @iDJ mistake happened this time no worries. Ask your sister to shop around and cross-check online too. Then, buy any phone next time and it's you who could help her out choosing best deal. But one thing I'm sure about that the shopkeeper lost its genuine customer for sure.

 

[Sai Jai]

In this situation we have to use the word "Bargain" else we'll be the loser .. Online they will give discount as well as price will be a correct one

I stopped buying offline stores only coz of this price varies

Anyways congratulations to cousin sister for buying new smartphone vivo instead of junky realme u must be happy & lucky for that

@iDJ

 

[rohitvatsa]

I have come across stupidity one on one today. It was my cousin sister's birthday. I promised her a new phone. She specifically wanted a Realme phone. I wanted to wait for couple of days and get a good deal. She didn't have patience. I ended up giving her the money. I came to know she bought a Vivo phone. I was excited because Vivo phones have good cameras. Today I went to see. Guess what happened. She bought a Vivo Y21s which is costing ₹9990 on Amazon for ₹13,999. Exactly the mrp from a offline retailer. I am wondering whether this is a stupidity of not researching before buying or offline sellers ripping off customers by being unethical.

How has your experience been with offline sellers?

Haven't purchased any mobile from Brick and Mortar store since 2010 when i purchased BB.Purchased at whooping cost of around 20k at that time ,somehow i didn't liked the phone after purchasing and went back to the shop after 3-4 hours to replace it with someother phone i liked(I hadn't done anything except powering on the phone).The words of the shop owner still lingers in my memory.He told me "Sir,the moment you go out of my store after purchasing the phone,its value reduces by half,if you come after 2-3 days i will give you back only 10% of the purchase price".

 

[Bapun]

Source

 

[Esmail]

The only argument in support of offline store is the real world experience. By going to store which have real physical phones like Reliance digital or Apple store, you can use the phone before buying it. That is not the case with online. You will buy only by looking at specs.

In that case you can go to the physical stores and test all the models on display and make up your mind on which one to buy. Then compare the price quoted by the store and the one offered online and order from wherever you are getting the best deal from. Not necessary if you test it u got to buy it.