I was wondering if flash sales are fake

[Ya_Mi]

So shopee Indonesia announced that they will sell iPhone 11 for 1.000 Rupiah, which is 0.069 USD and the flash sale will begin at midnight which is around 7 minutes ago when i wrote this post.

But the thing is the product went out of stock in a mere second, like 2 second at best which is absurd and is impossible because to buy a product you have to tap on the product then tap buy and then begin the transaction and those stuff requires time.

 

Flipkart does the same thing afaik and people think that is fake as well, that its just a marketing strategy to create urgency or just popularity with 0.069 iPhone 11 in this case.

 

But, i've used Shopee for a long time, and i do compared the prices when i am about to buy a product that are on flash sale. And yes, most of them are not really a DEAL at all cause what they did is jack up the price and slap a discount on it. But rarely, i do came across a product which are indeed a DEAL.

 

But my question is not about the latter but the former, what do you think? i mean, its just not possible for an item to ran out of stock in 2 second in a Marketplace app like that. Even if you just add it to the cart, it still needs time right? So if its fake, how come its legal?

[RAS_3885]

People create bots to buy based on SKU/product model faster than a human can. Been happening for a while with GPUs where new stock drops are already sold out within seconds.

 

As far as the "deal"... if it seems too good to be true then it usually is. An iPhone for 0.069 USD screams scam.

[Roswell]

52 minutes ago, Ya_Mi said:

So if its fake, how come its legal?

 

Almost definitely not fake considering that Shopee is a multinational e-commerce company that pushes billions upon billions of dollars in product. It was likely a poorly orchestrated promo to drive a bunch of traffic to the site. Your country probably doesn't have the same consumer bait and switch protections that we have in NA which enables this type of foolery.

 

12 minutes ago, RAS_3885 said:

As far as the "deal"... if it seems too good to be true then it usually is. An iPhone for 0.069 USD screams scam.

Highly unlikely that it's a scam, see my above reply. 

[Freakwise]

10 hours ago, Ya_Mi said:

like 2 second at best which is absurd and is impossible because to buy a product you have to tap on the product then tap buy and then begin the transaction and those stuff requires time.

It's literally already happening as far back as 2019 and as early as 4 months ago

 

 

9 hours ago, Roswell said:

Your country probably doesn't have the same consumer bait and switch protections that we have in NA which enables this type of foolery.

I don't think we have any kind of protection regarding this tbh

Edited August 25, 2021 by Freakwise

[Kronoton]

31 minutes ago, Roswell said:

Almost definitely not fake considering that Shopee is a multinational e-commerce company that pushes billions upon billions of dollars in product.

 

Big companies will be dodgy when (or where) they think they can get away with being dodgy.

 

I'd guess they sold 1 iPhone at that price before "running out of stock" to keep up some legal fasade. 

[thrasher_565]

.69 usd

do i need to say more? it happens all the time like black Friday thow now its a week of black Friday and the deals are not really deals any more. so i dont bother. xmis deals are normal better.

 

online is the wiled west. anything gos. you can change the price every mint. amazon gos up and down cents every day.  pc parts go ona sale for a minit to mess up sites like pc builder .com that you can have it set for a price and will message you when it drops but by the time you get to it there no listing of it at the price.... newegg has this too but has never messaged me of a price drop....

 

i just watch the scamming of video games sales and making then inflate in price. this tacit is not just for video games....

 

 

Edited August 25, 2021 by thrasher_565

[LogicalDrm]

Flash sale tactic by itself is fine. It relies on combination of deep price reduction and short window of availability. Which will bring customers to site and they might buy something just because its "limited time offer". That's classic advertising strategy.

 

Here, it's either not real or they are circumventing some law for raffles. Or bit of both by having fine print where product price is non-existent, but shipping and handling fees are very high in comparison.

[Ya_Mi]

10 hours ago, Freakwise said:

It's literally already happening as far back as 2019 and as early as 4 months ago

 

 

I don't think we have any kind of protection regarding this tbh

So they're using bot, that explained it.

 

Thanks kang

[thrasher_565]

ya over the years of buying from amazon and ebay there lots of tactics used. having a higher price then offing a discount or coupon, only listing one item at a time to make you think its the last of fear of missing out. its posably they may reduce the price and charge more fees in shipping and tax well other times have all fees built it. we no trying to look for the cheap price dose not work because they can make the shipping w/e amount and there's no option to find lows price + shipping. amazon used listing is a bit messed up it can show there are cheaper but when you click on it that its no longer there. on ebay quiet often i get emails of things im looking for and list like 5 different "listing" all using the same pic but all different prices. could ebay list an item higher then what the seller is listing and pocket the money?  or whey scam email you of nothing your looking for at all...

there are items the are prime and still pay shipping did i get a reduced rate because im prime i dont no because it dose not show you....