Airlink Mobile says you don’t like refurbished handsets
Airlink Mobile, a fast-growing prepaid provider, has the results of a survey it took regarding refurbished phones. And they say that customers generally don’t like non-new phones. Well, yes, that’s pretty much a given. However, given the lack of subsidies on prepaid phones, it makes plenty of sense to go refurbished. That way you can get a decent phone and not pay the full and exorbitant retail price. But let’s hear Airlink’s argument.
According to retailers’ experiences, as many as three out of ten refurbished handsets turn out to be defective, requiring the customer to return them. Retailers often don’t have the inventory to give replacement phones to customers, creating a bad experience for both the customer and convenience store, sending the customer elsewhere and creating negative publicity.
Well, here’s a novel idea: why don’t you ensure that the refurbished models actually work? Yes, that would bear a bit more corporate expense. But it would also save those three in ten refurbished customers that leave. With customer acquisition costs being so high, keeping those three in ten is very valuable. So it would be more of an investment than an incurred cost.
New cell phones create a more positive customer experience, offering new features, new functionality such as text messaging, ring-tones, games, and wallpaper, as well as increasing customer trips to the store to buy accessories, where they are also apt to purchase other things.
But see, we’re not talking about old, outdated refurbished models. We’re talking about refurbs that were originally released in the past year. In fact, if we had a decent phone recycling system in place, we could create a very wide selection of cheap, refurbished phones. There are clearly conflicts of interest, at least to the telecoms, there, but that’s an issue for another day.
We think that if companies actually worked towards a good system for redistributing phones, it could be a successful endeavor. Seriously, who wants to pay $150 for a new RAZR on a prepaid plan? Now, if they offered it at half that for a refurbished model, we’d be on board. In the land of unsubsidized phones, we’ll take any discount we can get.
What about you guys? Does the discount for refurbished phones do it for you? Or do you need a new device?
[TMCnet]
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