ASUS apologizes (again) to India consumers for ZenFone Max Pro shortages

The saga surrounding the ZenFone Max Pro in India continues. People vent on ASUS India social media about the availability being bogus and that it’s a flash sale which wasn’t supposed to be the case. ASUS showed a slide at their recent investors conference which stated they had sold 30K ZenFone Max Pro units in the first two minutes of being available. We saw with our own eyes, the almost immediate “sold out” listing on Flipkart. ASUS remains deadfast that this is NOT a flash sale situation and that it’s a question of the units selling out incredibly quickly. There have been two dates set and within seconds of the time/date opening on Flipkart, all units are gone and there is a mounting frustration from people who want the ZenFone Max Pro. The only real question is how many people are giving up and moving on.

So ASUS took to video this time, pleading with the India consumers to having better understanding of the situation. Here’s the tweet:

You’ve had a lot of questions about the availability of the Zenfone Max Pro. Here’s Dinesh Sharma, Director Mobile Product Center, Asus India, with all the answers. pic.twitter.com/91hIhsin7m

— ASUS India (@ASUSIndia) May 18, 2018

If you are one of the people who has been trying on the previous two dates on Flipkart to buy a ZenFone Max Pro, we have potential good news. May 24 at 12 noon is the next availability date on Flipkart. Demand is likely to be as fierce so go into this with an open mind. It may almost be like winning the lottery if the previous two dates are any indicator. You likely have one shot at this. Based on what we saw, the black model is what you’re going to have the best luck in buying. It’s hard to say how many gray models were available but we barely saw the “out of stock” label disappear which means within one or two seconds those were gone. That was in the previous two sales, so for this third sale, who knows. Maybe the gray model will be more available. The safest bet in our opinion is going for the black. In addition to that, make sure you have as much payment information in Flipkart prior to the sale. The fastest you go when it’s added to cart, you increase your chances. People have had the phone in their cart but by the time they get to payment, it’s has been sold out. So you have been warned!

If you want to know about the 6GB variant, ASUS has no official details yet. Considering the challenges with parts shortages for the ZenFone Max Pro so far, expecting another variant to be ready on time seems unlikely at this point.

We’ve started an in-depth FAQ about the ZenFone Max Pro here and will be adding more questions and answers in the coming weeks.