Flipkart vs Ebay vs others, Why so much price disparity?

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anprav

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Recently i decided to upgrade my old Nokia Black & white mobile with a spanking new smart phone and began my quest by browsing the best offered deals on the net.

I had zeroed in on the Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro for my requirements and came across a couple of quotes amongst the usual Flipkart, Infibeam, Sulekha and other Web retailers.

But my attention was drawn to a deal offered on Ebay which had huge difference of more than Rs.5000 compared to the one at FlipKart. Even Sulekha & Infibeam are offering the same product at much lesser price compared to Flipkart.

Here they are,

NEW SONY ERICSSON XPERIA MINI PRO SK17i WHITE "ANDROID 4.0 UPGRADABLE"3G MOBILE | eBay

Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro SK17i: Price in India, Reviews, Specification: Flipkart.com

Xperia Mini Pro Price in India, Buy Xperia Mini Pro, Reviews & Features, Sony-Ericsson Mobiles India - Infibeam.com

Sony Ericsson Xperia mini pro - SK17i - White Price in India, Specifications | Sulekha Deals

My doubts are

1. Why so much disparity between Flipkart & Ebay, is it generally the norm for most of the products to be priced more on Flipkart than on Ebay?

2. Is the kind of Ebay deal offered above reliable, since the seller has a power seller rating with 99.8% positive feedback?

3. How about the other sites like Sulekha & Infibeam beating Flipkart with their competitive prices on the same item? Are they reliable?Trustworthy?

I have dealt with Flipkart before and didn't have any problems with timely delivery of items or their conditions.

So please do share experiences if you have come across such a scenario. Can i go for the Ebay deal?

PS:Oops this is embarrassing, I goofed up on the spelling of Disparity in the thread title, Admins please help:facepalm:
 
Warranty on this particular phone from ebay is SELLER warranty which essentially means almost no warranty. That's why less price. It is like grey market piece.
 
@raksrules Thanks for the clarification. So the Ebay seller/dealer decides whether the item can be replaced or not in case of any defect, whereas Flipkart provides manufacturer warranty in the event of a defective product, right?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
anprav said:
raksrules Thanks for the clarification. So the Ebay seller/dealer decides whether the item can be replaced or not in case of any defect, whereas Flipkart provides manufacturer warranty in the event of a defective product, right?
Click to expand...

in case of seller warranty, you ship it back to the seller for RMA whereas manufacture warranty can be claimed from service center around your city.
 
Well, I found the same with prices of books as well. I wanted to purchase some GRE books. Books were not available on Flipkart so I emailed them so that they can make it available in stock. After one week, they made it available but at 30-40% more than the regular price :O I got the same for much lower price than Flipkart from LandmarkOnthenet.
 
For anything you need to look around a few sites. One site that seemed very expensive for a product may be the offering another at the lowest price. One needs to be patient enough to browse a bundle of sites before finalizing.
 
Agree with Jambumali
We can't justify based on a single item. Some products will be lesser in one site compared to others. No need to blame the sites for the prices. So we always need to search where we will get it for lesser price. All we need to worry about is
1. Reliable or not
2. Refunding process
3. Shipping

According to my opinion the above three should be considered and compared between the sites. Prices in online shopping sites will not be the same all the time. Sometimes we can observe a fall of price on a product in some sites which sold them previously at higher prices.
 
Anprav, there are two things.
1) Firstly the warranty type:
a) Manufacturers warranty. Every Manufacturer (Samsung, Nokia, Sony, etc..) allows a set sold through a retailer who has obtained his stokcs from an authorised distributor to be serviced at their service center, under a manufacturer's warranty. (Usually 12 Months)

b) Sellers Warranty, For retailers who do not procure goods from an authorized distributor, the Brand refuses the right to service their goods at a branded service center.
Under such cases the retailer assumes responsibilty for repairing the set ( The period for this warranty is usually shorter). Its not necessary that a non authorised distributor is selling grey/used or defective products. Sometimes Brands de-authorise a retailer if they violate pricing or sets via that channel have a lot of issues (indicating that the distributor may be mixing grey stock)

2) Amonst retailers selling goods with manufacturers warranty (E.g. Flipkart, Infibeam, HS18, Saholic) the prices can vary based on
a) The Procurement manager takes a bet on each unit by projecting a sales target and in turn pre ordering a certain number of hadsets, now higher the target the better pricing he can get and in turn pass on higher discounts, also relationship with brand matters in this case)
b) Sometimes when a distributor or Retailer is stuck with stock, a liquidation sale can occur, where massive discounts are offered just to free up warehouse space and free up cash flows.
b) The Marketing Manager requests special deals on certain products which are likely to do well given the news stream, (e.g. ICS update) and in turn reduce his Cost of Acquisition.
c) Flipkart's case is different, they need to show to their investors that the Millions of $ gone in Building Warehousing, Advertising, etc.. can be used to justify a higher cost and in turn profitability. Read this:- Forbes India Magazine - Can Flipkart Deliver?

In summary, pricing on ecom companies is a very intricate process and can change from minute to minute.
If you think that a retailer deserves credit for delighting you always and investing in superior logisitcs and advertising, please be willing to pay a little extra.
If you dont care about these things use a price comparison engine like MySmartprice or 91mobiles and look for the lowest price
If you do not even care about warranty, go to ebay and pick up a seller with best ratings.

---------- Post added at 06:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:51 PM ----------

Disclaimer: I Work at an Ecom COmpany Saholic.com, views expressed are my own and not those of the company.

---------- Post added at 06:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:52 PM ----------

One small point, some sellers on Ebay also provide manufacturer's warranty, but in such cases their prices are in the same ballpark as other e-retailers. You can chose those too.
 
amathur2k, Thanks for the wonderful explanation. You cleared all my doubts. I haven't shopped with HS18, Sulekha and other Net retailers but definitely thinking of trying out them in future(something small) and see whether they can stand up to the reputation Flipkart has built so far. With improved service and better customer satisfaction they can offer stiff competition to Flipkart, which will truly benefit the consumer.
 
actually they imports as bulk with better bargain and sell in india by giving the best price.
Those people getting more profit from this rather that selling the indian piece.
 
Seller Warranty - Most of the times not honored, and its usually applicable on the software of the phone, the best he'll do is reset the phone. If there's any hardware damage, its your headache then. Very few sellers cover hardware warranty, don't jump with joy seeing their feedback, many of the buyers leave a feedback the moment they receive a product "Good Product", "Thanks", "Excellent Deal" however they 'may' encounter problems after a few days, am not saying all sellers are bad but you never know if its your bad day?

Manufacturer Warranty - Sony/Samsung/Nokia takes care of your phone for you (Do note that within each service center, the user experience differs, ex. a sony repair center in Ludhiana may not bother about customers while Mumbai center may do a bit extra to care for the customers).

If I were you I'd buy from Flipkart.com, its better to spend a few extra bucks and sleep peacefully at night rather than save those bucks and suffer insomnia, if you know what I mean. They pack carefully, deliver on time, have return policy.

I do shop a lot on Ebay, but never for phones, this incident occurred last week.

A seller hsdistributor was selling Motorola WX295 phones @ Rs. 1600/- per piece, I was looking to buy 5 cheap phones as a rakhi gift for my sisters, so I asked if he can lower the prices, he agreed @ Rs. 1299/- per piece and said "Boxes are in average condition but phones are new and unused"

I asked him to send the pictures to my email address and if it looked okay, I'd buy it.

He sent an email and the boxes weren't so bad but not giftable so I thought I'd pack in some alternative box, the manufacturing date was 2010 August, so I asked "Please check if all 5 phones are alive as it is old stock", he said it is working fine (All this happened on Saturday)

Now he listed the phones and I paid promptly on Saturday evening itself.

On Sunday I asked whats the status? (Says will ship today)

On Monday he says "Sorry could not ship yesterday so will ship today"

On Tuesday I get an email saying "Only 4 phones are in GOOD condition"

ibrNhcUzBKxblN.JPG


Was pissed off as I paid for brand new, box damaged phones and not 'Good condition' phones, so I sent an email asking for a refund as that wasn't what I paid for, hsdistributor doesn't want to respond.

Did some google, and found I will get the refund on 13th if the seller doesn't enter any shipping data by 12th (Paisa Pay Guarantee)

Lesson Learned
-Ebay sellers can sell you old stock
-Ebay sellers can block your money
-Ebay sellers will NOT accept returns

I know this incident was a bit offtopic, but am pretty sure it'll help you know what the reality is, I bought 5 Moto KRZR K1 from Aliexpress yesterday evening.

Just a note, the phone you selected isn't good (Screen too small and resolution is very poor), I hope you did a lot of research before zeroing in to that model.
-m007
 
montsa007 said:
Just a note, the phone you selected isn't good (Screen too small and resolution is very poor), I hope you did a lot of research before zeroing in to that model.
-m007
Click to expand...

mosnta007, Thank you very for that informative & helpful reply. Regarding the phone, i had chosen it because that was the only Android device with both physical qwerty keypad & Capacitive touchscreen coming from a reputed brand falling within my budget. I would've selected its elder brother the SE Xperia Pro if only the cost was within my reach.

So one thing I'm definitely going to do if i ever order from Ebay is, open the package in presence of the delivery guy, check the contents, verify to make sure it is not dented or damaged and in fine working condition and then only sign the POD and if not, refuse to take delivery.
 
Looking into this matter once again, i think it is a simple case of parallel import. (!)
Should be avoided.
 
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