When it comes to saving money on electronic products like mobile phones and laptops, used or refurbished items come into the picture to help buyers save a great deal of money. Similarly,  open-box products are useful alternatives to brand new gadgets in saving a huge amount of money simply because the box containing these items happened to be open. If you are getting an open-box mobile phone, tablet or any other electronic device, here are some things to take into consideration before making your purchase. 

What Is An 'Open-Box' Product?

Simply put, an item that is an ‘open-box’ product has been opened before it was returned to the retail store or to the manufacturer. There are several possible reasons why an item is returned, and not because it has been damaged. Based on an Accenture study, only 5% of item returns are related to existing flaws. 

Enjoy Huge Discounts When Getting A Brand New But Opened Item 

Hence it is highly likely that an open-box product could simply be something a previous buyer bought and changed his or her mind about, even if it was in excellent condition. The previous buyer might have returned an item for a minor reason, such as disliking the colour of the product. Therefore, if you get an ‘open-box’ product, you could be in for an amazing deal as you would be getting a totally brand new product for a discount. 

Issues When Buying A Product Sample/Floor Model 

Certainly, it is not always the case that an ‘open-box’ product is a brand new product that was opened and not used previously. This is because many electronic stores permit customers to return products within a couple of days or weeks. It is not surprising that many of such ‘open-box’ products display a tad of surface ‘wear-and-tear’ due to their stints in their previous buyer’s hands. Just remember that purchasing an ‘open-box’ product would mean that your item might have been used, even for a very short period of time. 

Additionally, ‘open box’ products might include floor models or product samples in stores that provide potential buyers with ideas on how a product works. When stores decide to get rid of floor models simply because they are trying to sell another product, they are unable to send the floor models back to the manufacturer nor package and sell the products as new. Therefore, many stores give discounts in varying degrees to their floor models to attract potential buyers.

 Consequently, buyers might have initially tried and tested out these display phones or other devices before deciding they did not want them (for whatever reason) and returning them to the stores. While these display products did not physically leave the store in question, the fact remains that potential buyers might have tried and tested such products during their shopping experiences. Should you be getting such a product, be prepared for potential defects and even failures due to it being used many times over. 

Whatever the reason an item has been labeled "open-box," these products usually get an inspection to make sure they're working before they're sold. This could be a thorough check of the product's functionality, or the inspection could be as basic as plugging the item in to make sure it powers on. More testing can help check for quality flaws in such display products.

A major downside to getting sample models of phones or other devices is that you as a buyer would not know what other potential buyers have done to them previously while being out for display for a considerable period of time. People might have dropped these items a couple of times, or handled them in the wrong manner. All these actions by potential buyers could affect the quality of these sample products. Therefore if you would still like to toy with the idea of getting floor model phones, ensure that the discount in price is large enough that it is worth the risk of some minor hassles in terms of product quality. Also, check if the floor model you are keen on contains a return policy and for how long. A floor model phone with a short warranty time frame might not benefit you as you might encounter quality defects some time, and not immediately, after purchase. 

Another good habit to have when getting floor model phones or other products is to ask the sellers in the store if they have conducted a complete cleanup on the device in question before selling it. For example, ask sellers if they have reset the hard drive in the computer or merely put a discounted price tag on it.  Save yourself more money by double checking with the seller if it would cost you additional money to have the floor model device returned in the form of postage or restocking fees

Note The Difference Between Open-Box And Refurbished Items

At this stage, you might be a bit confused between a refurbished and ‘open box’ item. This is because there are some sellers that might use these two terms interchangeably without taking into account the notable differences between the two types of items. One can define refurbished products as used products that have been completely inspected, cleaned and repaired before being put on sale as ‘like-new’ products. ‘Open-box’ items on the other hand are either floor models of display items or items that have been returned to the store for any reason and put back on shelves and sold with a discounted price tag, without any particular effort to clean, inspect or repair them. 

Get Your Quality Phone At Reebelo

Having explored what ‘open box’ phones are and their differences from refurbished phones, we have established that there are benefits to getting ‘open box’ phones, such as enjoying significant discounts. Nonetheless, you will run significant risks pertaining to the quality of your ‘open box’ phones , especially if they were floor models and handled by many people in the past. 

If you want to enjoy both significant cost savings and guaranteed quality, how about getting quality second hand or refurbished phones from us at Reebelo? We at Reebelo thoroughly check and repair all refurbished phones by working with the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) of the respective phones. This is to ensure that our refurbished phones are as good as, if not better than , brand new ones! You would not have to worry whether the phone you are getting has been stolen, Reebelo works closely with the Singapore Police Force to ensure that no stolen phone can be transacted on our platform. What is awesome about Reebelo is that we have a wide collection of second-hand and refurbished phone devices that are of excellent quality and at highly discounted prices! We ensure that all our products have reasonable return policies and warranty time frames starting from 1-month onwards, to protect your interests as our customer!