Gionee has advised Indian consumers to refrain from buying Gionee products from online stores. Gionee will be selling their products from their official online store and also via retail stores (offline). Gionee has issued advisory cautioning users to check the warranty claims before making the transaction.
Lenovo had issued such a message in Feb 2014 advising consumers to avoid buying from online stores that are not authorized resellers. Lenovo even named Snapdeal, Flipkart and Amazon.in as unauthorized sellers.
Amazon.in, Flipkart and Snapdeal are the major online stores in India. In most cases these stores do not sell the products directly, but via authorized sellers. An authorized Gionee Gionee seller can register with these stores and then sell the item.
Gionee has mentioned that in the light of recent instances they have advised users to not purchase Gionee Products from online retailers, and customers are request to check the service / warranty details carefully before making the transaction.
I don’t see any issue with online stores like Flipkart, Amazon.in and Snapdeal. I have made a lot of purchases from these stores, they delivery fast, provide better after sales support / replacement for few days of purchase and do sell genuine sealed products.
Interestingly there are brands that are exclusively making their products available online like the Motorola and Alcatel to name a few, the products are only available online from a particular portal.