New shipments of Micromax Canvas HD delayed further due to ‘procedural issues’

The Micromax A116 Canvas HD is a very popular handset despite all the delays in its launch and problems in its availability in the market. The company claimed to have shipped 9000 units on the first day of sale in February. However, since then things have gone downhill for the company and its flagship. For one, besides those initial shipments, there hasn’t been any sign of the handset in the market. Those who ordered their phones after the first batch was sold out are still waiting for their Canvas HD to be shipped.

The company has now said that there will be further delay in the shipping of the handsets ordered after the first stock. According to Snapdeal, 5000 units have to be shipped to cover the backlog of pending orders. Snapdeal, which had an exclusive deal with Micromax to sell the Canvas HD, released a statement on Facebook stating that the handset’s availability will be delayed further due to procedural issues.

No sign of it

The retailer's statement said, "We know that some of you have been facing issue with regard to the Order placed for Micromax Canvas HD. We understand your concern and it is unfortunate that Micromax had to delay the orders due to procedural issues. Our team has vehemently dispatched the first lot of the orders despite the demand for it being at its peak. We along with Micromax have communicated by an e-mail to each and every customer about the reason for the delay and the next course of action.”

Snapdeal has revealed that it is expecting the fresh lot on March 15, after which the phone will be shipped to consumers.

The pre-booking offer, which began on the midnight of February 14, had the phone priced at Rs 13,990. However, Micromax has released a letter to its customers saying that the increase in excise duty on phones priced more than Rs 2,000 has affected the price of the Canvas HD as well. “The proposed Finance Bill announced by the honorable Finance Minister of India on 28th Feb 2013 has made certain changes in the customs duty structure on all Mobile Phones with MRP greater than Rs. 2000/-. Because of this and other procedural issues, the shipment of your Canvas HD has been delayed by 10 working days. Along with the delay, the price of Canvas HD has also been revised to Rs. 14,499.”

However, the company is waiving off the hike in price for those who had booked the phone after the first batch. Micromax is also going to throw in a carry case for the Canvas HD worth Rs 700 as a sign of its gratitude. Moreover, the company has promised a refund for those customers who have booked the phone, but are not willing to wait till it is available.

The smartphone is powered by a MediaTek MT6589 1.2GHz quad-core processor. The phone also has a PowerVR Series5XT GPU and 1GB of RAM.