Huawei Explains How They Determine The $54 Phones Quantity For The National Day Promo

Huawei has been on the headlines for the past week, and not for a good reason.

Lest you’ve been living under a rock, you’d know that Huawei Singapore hasn’t been having a good time last week.

They rolled out a $54 Huawei smartphone promotion for elderly Singaporeans across the island.

But it ended in disaster when thousands of people queued up for the promo and less than 30 sets were available at some outlet.

It didn’t help that most of the Singaporeans queueing up were elderly people, you know, they can’t really tahan standing for hours.

So the backlash was strong: A lady made a scene and was arrested. An elderly woman fainted allegedly due to the promo and the head of Singapore Watchdog condemned Huawei for their antics.

But the question remains: why is the quantity so low? Did Huawei do this as a publicity stunt and to show how much people still want their products?

Well, wonder no more because Huawei has stepped up to answer the question.

Huawei Explains

According to CNA, a Huawei spokesperson finally explained the whole debacle to concerned Singaporeans. Huawei has “clearly underestimated” the demand for their phones.

They had initially prepared 2,000 units of the Y6 (the promotional smartphone) for the National Day promotion.

As for how they came to that number? It was based on past sales at their outlets.

Retailers like Courts and Challenger would have a hundred sets while their outlets in heartland areas would have 20 to 30 sets.

Repeated Apologies

Huawei once again apologised for the entire saga that resulted in shops closed down, angry crowds and using taxpayers’ money because the police had to come down.

They apologised for giving customers a poor consumer experience and added that the campaign should have been better planned.

They are working closely with the Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore and the Consumer Association of Singapore (CASE) about this incident.

But an apology isn’t going to cut it.

“We’ll Make Things Right”

Huawei has identified almost 5,000 registered customers who were interested in getting the $54 phones.

Now, they are still not able to buy the Y6 at $54, Huawei’s giving them the next best thing: a $100 voucher.

The voucher is applicable to the selected smartphone models:

• Y6 Pro
• Nova 3i
• P30 Pro
• P30
• Mate 20 X
• P30 Lite
• Mate 20 Pro
• Mate 20

With the $100 voucher, a Y6 Pro which usually costs $148, can be purchased for $48.

The contact details of those who were still keen on its devices from the three-day promo have been collected, and Huawei will be contacting these customers within two weeks from 2 Aug.

This time, they’ll ensure that there’s “sufficient inventory”.

So if you still went to queue up on Saturday or Sunday, and managed to register with them, just sit tight and wait for their call.