Last week Huawei announced a rather unbelievable National Day promotion, offering a massive 73% discount on their Y6 Pro 2019 smartphone to anyone above the age of 50.
The promotion worked a little too well, however, and Huawei stores across the country descended into chaos almost immediately due to a lack of stock — angry crowds formed, at least one person fainted, and even the police had to step in to de-escalate the situation.
Now, the president of the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) has slammed the Chinese tech giant for misleading and causing inconvenience to consumers.
“To me, the Huawei advertisement is a breach of the Consumer Protection Fair Trading Act (CPFTA),” Lim Biow Chuan said in a Facebook post last night.
“Huawei should not have advertised to so many consumers about their sale of the phones at a huge discounted price when they only have limited stock in their stores.”
Lim — who is also a MP of Mountbatten SMC — also urged the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS) to issue a public reprimand to Huawei for breaching the CPFTA.
According to the Singapore Statutes website, it is an “unfair practice” to “do or say anything, or omit to do or say anything, if as a result a consumer might reasonably be deceived or misled.”
Huawei issued an apology on the first day of the promotion, expressing their disappointment for being unable to provide the “vast majority” with the phone due to “overwhelming demand.”
We’re not sure if they’re going to do anything to win back the trust of their customers, but there’s still a few days to National Day, just saying.