Customer Buys Samsung Galaxy S20+ on Amazon at Full Price, Flipkart Threatens to Brick it For Defaulting on EMIs

Update: Flipkart has reached out to the customer asking for the IMEI of the device, and other details.

A customer in India is facing a troubling situation after she received a Samsung Galaxy S20+ as a gift from a family member. The device was purchased from Amazon India in October 2020. However, a few days ago, the customer, Jaya Bhattacharji, began receiving pop-up notifications on her phone which stated that it was purchased using Flipkart’s Smart Upgrade Plan and payment was pending from her end. The Flipkart notification also said that the phone would be locked on November 21, 2021, if the payment of Rs 15,000 was not made.

. #Flipkart #FlipkartScam #MobilePhone #Samsung #Amazon
In Nov 2020, I was given a @SamsungIndia phone that had been bought on @amazonIN . The payment was made in FULL. For some days now I have been getting messages from @Flipkart to say that I need to pay Rs 15,000. Why? 1/n pic.twitter.com/UWJmW7LppT

— JayaBhattacharjiRose (@JBhattacharji) November 16, 2021

When Bhattacharji sought support from Flipkart regarding this matter, the e-commerce company asked her to contact Amazon India since the phone was not purchased from its platform.

. Last night, I tweeted about it. @flipkartsupport responded immediately. Only to say that since the phone was bought off @amazonIN , it is best I contact them. @Flipkart will be unable to help! Screenshot of conversation is attached. 4/n pic.twitter.com/m2EKmROQ95

— JayaBhattacharjiRose (@JBhattacharji) November 16, 2021

When Bhattacharji got in touch with Amazon India, the company informed her that the messages appeared to be a scam, and assured her that the device wouldn’t get locked.

. I tweeted to @AmazonHelp. They too replied immediately. They asked me to call customer care. I did. @amazonIN said this was a #scam. Hopefully my phone will not get locked on 21 Nov. Apparently, no seller can do so. Certainly not of a high end phone. 5/n

— JayaBhattacharjiRose (@JBhattacharji) November 16, 2021

MySmartPrice reached out to the Bhattacharji, who shared a copy of the invoice and a screenshot of the Amazon order. She stated that she needs to be reassured that the pop-up messages will stop and that her phone will not be locked. “If the payment has to be made, then the seller should be responsible. Not me, the customer, who had no clue about this scheme or that this phone was preconfigured. One fine day the messages began popping up on my home screen. I could not delete them or do anything. I chose to ignore but a couple of days ago I received a message saying that my phone will be locked on 21 Nov if I did not pay the Rs 15,000. I was so surprised. This phone is a gift from my family. So I asked if any scheme had been availed of. They said no,” Bhattacharji told us.

From the order details, as are clearly visible in the screenshot below, we see that a Samsung Galaxy S20+ with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage in Cosmic Black was ordered from Amazon India, for Rs 57,499 on October 29th, 2020.

The Amazon order mentions that the seller is the Bengaluru-based New York Plaza, whereas the Amazon invoice mentions that the device is sold by Divine India. It’s possible that the latter is the registered billing address or the parent company.

Using the GST and PAN numbers on the invoice from Amazon, we were able to locate Divine India, which turned out to be a wholesale and warehousing business based in Mumbai. The business is not e-KYC or Aadhaar verified. MySmartPrice managed to get in touch with the proprietor about the issue, but he claimed that he was on vacation and would send us the phone number of his office. However, we haven’t heard back from him yet.

New York Plaza, the seller seen on the order page on Amazon has an 84% positive feedback rating over the last year. On closer examination, it seems to be selling only a few phones from Samsung and a couple of Galaxy watches, alongside the GoPro Hero 9 and a renewed Fitbit Inspire 2 Health and Fitness Tracker. However, there are several negative reviews from customers which are struck out with a message from Amazon saying “This item was fulfilled by Amazon, and we take responsibility for this fulfilment experience.” The negative reviews mention various issues, such as broken seals, missing in-box items, used items and more. This suggests that the seller could have been selling used items as new on Amazon previously as well.

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