When Apple announced buyback offers for the new iPhone 5c and the iPhone 4S, the kind of discounts being offered seemed too good to be true. So we ventured out for ourselves to see what the deal really was.
Apple India launched a very lucrative offer for the consumer some time ago, an exchange scheme which would bring down the cost of owning the iPhone 5C and iPhone 4S considerably through a buyback offer.
The BuyBack offer from Apple reads that in exchange for an iPhone 4 (8 and 16GB variants) Apple would offer a minimum discount of Rs. 13,000. The offer continues to state that the discount offered could be higher depending on the condition of the phone. Through this exchange offer, the iPhone 5c would come down to at least Rs. 28,900 from its original price of Rs. 41,900 and the iPhone 4S would cost Rs. 18,500 instead of Rs. 31,500. The buyback scheme also includes other newer smartphones and will fetch you a higher discount, depending on the condition of the phone, however, one this is very clear; the MINIMUM discount is Rs. 13,000. So what happens when you actually go to a store to avail this incredible offer? We found out the hard way.
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We were looking to upgrade from an existing iPhone 4 (16GB, Black), which happens to be in excellent condition, to an iPhone 5c. We first walked into a Jumbo Electronics store to see what sort of deals they were willing to offer. Upon disclosing to the salesman that the phone was 2 years old, he informed us that the best they could offer was Rs. 10,000, as the phone was old. When we contested the discount, saying that the offer reads a MINIMUM discount of Rs. 13,000, the salesman said that that only applied to a new iPhone 4.
The next store we ventured into was Reliance Digital, another partner of Apple that officially honours the buyback scheme, but the same attitude persisted there as well. The salesman took a look at the phone and said the maximum he was willing to give was Rs. 11,000. Definitely better than what Jumbo Electronics was offering, but still an undercutting of the buyback offer.
Next we visited two Apple authorized retailers, one of whom flat out denied that any buyback scheme was being offered while the other said that since the “street price” of a new iPhone 4 (16GB) was Rs. 20,000 he wouldn’t give more than Rs.10,000 for the phone.
There are only two possibilities here, one that either Apple is blatantly promoting false advertising, saying that the iPhone 4 will fetch you a minimum discount of Rs. 13000 (when it clearly doesn’t) or that Apple is actually offering the discount, but their partner stores are trying to act smart and improve their profit margins. What adds insult to injury is that Apple gives their partners Rs. 2,000 extra for every handset brought in through this scheme.
It would seem that even though the marketing material reads MINIMUM discount of Rs. 13,000, Apple’s retail partners are treating it as the “maximum” discount to be offered. The practice is rather typical of Indian retailers, who are known to jack up prices right before offering goods on discounts. This behavior also explains why Apple has had a hard time taming the Indian market, where the problems is posed mostly by a fragmented distributor network.
If you are eager to capitalize on this offer, we recommend that you be headstrong about the minimum discount being offered, as you can forget about being offered even a rupee more than Rs.13,000 for your old iPhone 4, even if you bought it just yesterday. It is sad to see a great deal be ruined by the shady business practices that are rampant amongst Indian retailers.