By Star Chang, posted Mar 3, 2012 at 12:43 AM, 2,048 views,

Selling Used Smartphones As New Ones Is Getting Common in China

Sales of smartphones have exploded in China, but some may be paying brand-new prices for refurbished devices. Used smartphones are being resold as new to unsuspecting consumers in China. Small retailers will buy dozens of used smartphones each week from Taobao, the Chinese e-commerce platform similar to ebay. These shops repair, clean, refurbish and polish used mobile phones before reselling them. Some of these products even end up in leading electronics shopping malls, which sell them as new item at full price …

The Chinese local press has made some news report on smartphones refurbished business. They quoted a study by Priceonomics, which gives price estimates for used products, as saying that iPhones resold within one year of purchase usually sell for roughly 63 percent of their original price in U.S., while Android phones sell for about 46 percent of their retail price. These resale prices fell to 53 percent and 42 percent of the original prices 18 months after purchase, respectively. In China, however, the resale prices for the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S were 57 percent and 90.2 percent, respectively, of the prices set by Apple.

Last year, Apple stores in Beijing were allegedly selling used iPhones as new ones, as six Beijing consumers raised complaints and two filed lawsuits against Apple with the help of a well-known counterfeit goods crusader. It’s cheating to sell refurbished products as new ones. In China, a consumer can seek compensation at twice the price originally paid if he finds the seller is cheating, according to the Law on the Protection of Consumers’ Rights and Interests. Unfortunately, some Chinese consumers are just too ignorant to distinguish their purchase item is a brand new one or refurbished. It just end up to create the environment for retailer to conduct such a practice.

SOURCE: National Business Daily (Chinese translated)