[ UPDATE 08/07/2022 22:20 ] Shopee has apologised for the pricing error. They are offering compensation and allowing affected customers to repurchase the Huawei FreeBuds SE for RM22.
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During yesterday’s 7.7 online sale, there were a couple of interesting offers on smartphones and various tech accessories. One of the most interesting deals we saw was the Huawei FreeBuds SE that were going for only RM22 during Shopee’s Shocking sale.
The Huawei FreeBuds SE is a pair of wireless earphones that retail for RM199. During the 7.7 sale, customers who got the pre-sale voucher were able to get it for RM153. Interestingly, the same item was offered at an incredibly low price of RM22 during the Shocking Sale at 4pm yesterday. The deal looks legit as it was offered by Huawei’s official store which was established 3 years ago and has over 180,000 followers.
Najib from SoyaCincau BM managed to place an order for three units and paid RM62.24 in total via ShopeePay. Everything seems fine until he received a notification this morning informing him that his Huawei FreeBuds SE order was cancelled.
When he reached out to Huawei’s online store on Shopee, he was told that the order was cancelled by Shopee without providing further details. Instead, he was advised to contact Shopee instead for more info.
According to a customer service representative on Shopee, the order was called because of “price compensation requirements” due to wrong pricing. This seems to be an unacceptable answer since it was officially promoted as a shocking sale promo on their own Shopee Mall platform. Shopee Mall is supposedly Shopee’s premium listing which offers customers 100% authentic products sold by authorised brand owners or dealers. On top of that, the RM22 promo even carried the “Lowest Price Guarantee” logo.
When we took a screenshot yesterday, it appears that Shopee had sold 150 units of the Huawei FreeBuds SE in 14 minutes for RM22 each. It isn’t surprising for Shopee to throw crazy deals in limited quantities during selected hours as part of a promo but the cancellation certainly leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
Even if it was a mistake, the very least Shopee or Huawei could do is to honour the deal or offer some sort of compensation. They should be held accountable for not delivering as advertised. If such practice is allowed, what’s stopping eCommerce platforms from throwing ridiculous deals and then cancelling them the next day in an attempt to sway potential customers from other platforms?
Did you get any of your Shopee Shocking Sale orders cancelled? Let us know in the comments below.
