Need rules for Exchange on eCommerce sites

Saurabh Singh says phone exchange offers are nice. At least they are nice as far as there inherent guiding philosophy is concerned. Exchange offers are generally meant for people who have an old ageing phone that they would want to exchange in return of a brand new one, getting some handy discount along the way. But here's the thing. Most of them are tricky. Let me explain you how.

Only recently, I decided to get myself a new phone. I decided to buy it from Amazon India. One of the promotional banners on the website caught my attention. It was about the Nokia 7 Plus, a lovely all screen and no bezel phone that runs stock Android and also comes with some noteworthy hardware. The phone, on any given day, costs Rs 25,999. I noticed that Amazon India was giving away offers of up to Rs 10,000 with the Nokia 7 Plus. Anybody, looking to buy a new phone, would be interested.

So I clicked on the banner which took me to the Nokia 7 Plus product page. The first thing I see, the Nokia 7 Plus was listed for Rs 28,028 and Amazon was offering it for Rs 25,999 which is a Rs 2,029 discount. Which in itself is a little misleading, but then, something like this happens all the time on e-commerce websites. It's the next thing that got me concerned, and sort of angry as well.

The only way to get up to Rs 10,000 off on the Nokia 7 Plus -- in one go -- was through exchange. In fact exchanging your old smartphone could get you up to Rs 10,654 discount on the Nokia 7 Plus.

Only a select smartphone could give you that Rs 10,654 discount though. The one they call the OnePlus 5. So if I had an old OnePlus 5, I could get the Nokia 7 Plus for as little as Rs 15,345, on exchange. I think that's a fair exchange offer. The OnePlus 5 is heading to become a two-generation old phone in the days to come even as OnePlus gears to launch the OnePlus 6. OnePlus doesn't even make the OnePlus 5 anymore. It's still good enough, but just not modern enough. I could think about exchanging it for a brand new Nokia 7 Plus, especially because I would be right at home thanks to more or less similar vanilla Android experience.

But what if I don't have the OnePlus 5? Well, I can't get that tempting Rs 10,654 discount. Which is fine. What I don't understand is why can't I get that discount if I have an iPhone 7 Plus. Okay, I know, no one's going to exchange their iPhone 7 Plus that starts at an upwards of Rs 50,000 for a Nokia 7 Plus, but let's just say that I want to, you know how much it's going to get me? Rs 5,250.

I am at a loss of words here. I just don't get it. What's the whole logic?

Flipkart is a step ahead on this. Not long ago, it was offering a whopping Rs 25,000 discount on exchange for the Samsung Galaxy S7. Potential buyers could avail Flipkart's exchange offer -- that is maximum discount of Rs 25,000 -- in exchange of the Apple iPhone 7 Plus alone. Exchanging the Google Pixel XL, meanwhile, landed you a discount of Rs 17,900. What was particularly baffling is that no other smartphone gave you a Rs 25,000 discount in exchange. The reason why this was baffling was because Flipkart was basically asking buyers to give away a current-generation phone for a last-generation phone in order to avail maximum discount.

I was at a loss of words here. I just didn't get it. What's the whole logic?

Now I am not saying that every exchange offer is bad. As mentioned earlier, it's the best thing to happen for people who have an old phone they would very happily give away for some discount on a new one, but, what I am trying to say is, be careful while going about it. Just the way e-commerce websites show you inflated rates of products slashing them to look like they're offering hefty discount -- but in fact they're selling them at launch prices -- there's a lot to exchange offers than what meets the eye. more