Mi India launched Redmi Note 5 and 5 Pro this month and they had 2 flash sales so far. 

For the first flash sale, Mi claimed that they sold 300,000 phones. We have no way of verifying that info. There are numerous tweets that mention that the phone went out of sale in seconds. 

Flash sales are a really bad way of selling a high moving item like mobile phones. There might be a few people who get the phone but a lot more who are dejected that they didn't. And when the phones are being made continuously, why have a sale once a week. And this system doesn't work for people who are unable to take a break from work at that exact time once a week. 

I propose a system of sale similar to how car manufacturers deal with their models with very high demand. Mi could take some token booking amount and give us a waiting list number. We should be able to tell Mi if we want to collect the phone from Mi Home or if we want it shipped by courier. There are people who are willing to wait if there is an assured way of them getting a phone instead of having to deal with these flash sales.