I myself am on the market for a smartphone and hopefully will get one next week. This means that until I do, I am on the internet browsing and continuously comparing my favoured alternatives looking for the best choice based on my budget. On my travails, I was taken to a post on Gsmarena where they reported a news article about Amazon discontinuing the full refund on returned smartphones recently.
According to the post, Amazon.in will only set you up with a new unit of the same phone you previously ordered if and only if it qualifies and meets the new conditions for returns as per their new policy. This new policy direction was introduced by the e-commerce giant supposedly to mitigate against the habit of people buying a phone solely for the sake of using it only for a little while and taking it back for returns after enjoying it pretty much for free. A few years ago, a friend told me about something her and her girlfriends used to do in the UK where they'd order clothes online, receive them and use them out on events only to return them with thirty days and get their money back. At that time I didn't fully believe this and dismissed the thought but now, i have no choice but to. Its quite unfortunate the sheer level of disregard people display for common decency.
I have been looking at some sites that sell used/UNBOXED phones because of the strength of my budget or lack thereof. Putting two and two together, i have now found that unboxed Mobile Phones consist of phones that people like those mentioned above wastefully return, leaving the manufacturer or retailer to bear the loss on the product which has barely been used and cannot be sold even close to full price. For example the phone I am looking at, the MI4i retails for about $170 but on the unboxed mobiles website, it goes for a mere $125. I'd pick it up of course and be thankful for having close to 40% shaved off of the cost of my phone, but looking at the other angle, people need to become more humane. I hope this feature makes it to other countries soon.
