why all manufacturers do not provide alert of used phones

[jraju]

Hi,

I had the bitter experience of buying a already used, sim activated, phone sold to me at a new phone price from a reputed online site.
Due to this, my warranty date has been advanced to 9 months, from the actual one year. that is up to march 22 for the device I purchased on 11th month 2021.
Manufacturers somehow know the exact date of sim activation on a phone, but this is not known to users of the phone.
Why cannot all manufacturers of mobile phone, give alert to whoever purchase these kind of used phones an alert, that a sim has already been activated, so that users could immediately return the phone.
Now a phone do not need any sim for activation, but only a wifi. The phone facilities are only provided with sim providers for their function.
So called imei com sites give only manufactured date , which could be seen outside box of the content.
When manufacturer could know the information, why this is not provided to users on first boot of the use.
Normally we make the first boot of OS, by attaching sim and memory card.

 

[Hadron]

How would the manufacturer know that the phone has been resold? All the phone sees is that a different SIM has been put in it. Anyway I'd expect the warranty period to start when I buy the phone, not when I first use it (same as any other goods). But even if the manufacturer puts some code in to start the warranty the first time a SIM is used in the phone or the first time an account is entered on it they cannot know that placing a different SIM in it means it has been resold, so I don't think your proposal works.

Anyway you are complaining about the wrong thing here: your problem is with the allegedly-reputable site that sold you the phone, not the phone manufacturer. If the actual listing said it was a new phone and it wasn't then you have a case against them under whatever consumer laws apply in your country. Where I am that would be flat out illegal, so they would be fools not to give you a full refund. If on the other hand it was described as "open box", "refurbished" or "renewed" then they have actually told you before purchase that was not a new, unused device and you would have no grounds for complaint - though you may be able to return it for a refund under distance selling laws, again depending on what country you are in and how long you used the phone for before requesting a return.

(Of course is the "reputable" site is somewhere like Wish or Alibaba then good luck! You take your own chances when buying from places like that.)

 

[jraju]

Hi, Hadron, thanks for your answer.
But let me put it this way. When I raised the issue with the manufacturer, the lower officials just ask me to approach the online seller. But escalating this matter further, the higher official said that they will not change the warranty and gave me a reply to the effect that a sim was already used on the device , but that information is confidential and would not reveal it to me.
This means, there is a way to know, that your device was used with other sim before repacked and sold it to you. Is it not
In this context, I am asking a special alert feature , so that if that device is already used, you would know them from the alert

 

[Hadron]

But that would mean that they'd have to alert you every time you changed SIM, whether the phone was resold or not (because they can't know why the SIM was changed).

Anyway your complaint is with the online seller. You can use information the manufacturer gave you to back up the complaint, but it is them who sold you a used phone while claiming it was new. Unfortunately the manufacturer has no reason to extend your warranty because it wasn't them who mis-sold the phone to you.

 

[jraju]

No, sir,
My point is not getting the refund. I mean the manufacturer has a way of knowing that the imei in the device was activated prior to your use.
Why then they add a alert in all the mobiles , so that any misuse may be avoided. It is for security purpose also. The official asked all our mobile numbers of the family and confirmed that the service provider of the sim is different from the one service provider that we use.
Or do you mean to say, that there is no possibililty of knowing this information at all. Then each phone could be sold like

 

[Hadron]

I mean the manufacturer cannot know why a SIM is changed, and I do not expect that most people would want to receive a message from the manufacturer warning them each time they change SIM (especially one that was phrased as a warning that the phone had been used before, as 99.5% of people will know that and just find it annoying. But if you don't spell it out it won't be clear to the people who need to know). And while you can suggest this to the manufacturers, or to your Government, I don't think the manufacturers will want to do it: it would cost them money to do and it would remind people how much information these devices share with how many companies (which nobody in the industry likes to do), so I can't see them co-operating willingly. So good idea or not, I don't see how you can make it happen.

But I don't really see how it helps with security. I presume you mean selling stolen phones (I can't think of anything else it would be relevant to), but (a) there are much stronger anti-theft tools in place already and (b) nobody sells stolen phones as new, so even if this were done the message wouldn't alert the buyer that anything was wrong.

I am curious about how you worked it out though? Because when I buy a phone I don't contact the manufacturer to confirm the warranty status: if I need to make a claim I have the sales receipt to prove when I bought it. So why did you check in the first place: did you have a claim to make, or did something else make you suspicious?

 

[mikedt]

Hi,

I had the bitter experience of buying a already used, sim activated, phone sold to me at a new phone price from a reputed online site.

Amazon? Ebay? AliExpress? Wish?

Was this "reputed onine site" an authorised dealer for the brand of phone?

 

[jraju]

I do not want to say which online site it is
Hi, hadron,
Your quote:
I am curious about how you worked it out though? Because when I buy a phone I don't contact the manufacturer to confirm the warranty status: if I need to make a claim I have the sales receipt to prove when I bought it. So why did you check in the first place: did you have a claim to make, or did something else make you suspicious?
Regarding all the other things you posted, I would only say, whether manufacturer may not want it user to know, It is for the users of the phones to decide.
I bought the phone and started using it. The charge time was more than 3 and 1/2 years for a phone released in 2020. I asked the customer executive and he had use diagnosis tool with Remote and found the battery is having lower performance. I went to the nearest service center to replace the battery. There I found that the phone was said to have been bought in 3 rd month and my warranty period advanced by 9 months. I produced the bill at the service centre, but they say that they would replace the battery but would not change the warranty period and asked me to approach the manufacturer.
When I contacted the higher level official, I was informed about the imei having been activated prior to the invoice period. Here, they say, that I would have to approach the online site.
After a battle, I had got my refund back, after I sent them the job sheet, which shows the purchase date as prior to the invoice.
I think that something had happened in manufacturer or the seller side.
So my suggestion of the feature . The security angle is a sim was used but not known to me. If I had not taken the device to the service center, this would not have been known to me, the user and the warranty date . Hence, the suggested feature.
I thought of finding the first use using google trick, but since I reset the phone for diagnosis of the battery, this trick did not work as the google date of registration shows the last reset date

 

[Hadron]

Thanks for explaining that - so there were other indications that something was amiss.

Yeah, batteries do age even if the phone has never been used. It's one reason I prefer to buy models that are still in production, and would not buy one that had been out of production for more than a year because even if it were "new" as in "unused" it will have sat in a warehouse for at least a year and I'd prefer not to take the chance (though of course you do get them at a reduced price by that point).

To be honest I am in favour of complete transparency about data collected, and indeed if given 10 minutes to write the laws I would make it illegal to collect any data without explicit consent (with penalties applied to company bosses personally, not just the company) and that the user should be able to refuse collection of any or all pieces of data with no loss of service (except obviously where the data collection is technically necessary for that service, e.g. if you refuse collection of location data you can't expect to be able to check your location history later). This would mean that some services would have to offer the option of paid or "free" (spyware) versions, but so what, it would mean people would have a choice which under the current model they don't. However that isn't the world we live in: what you feel should be done is irrelevant unless you have a way of forcing the companies to do it. And we're all just phone users, nobody here has any power or influence with these companies. It's not that I disagree with your suggestion, it's that I don't see any way of making it happen.

Anyway I'm glad you got your refund. I do believe from what you said that the fault was entirely with the seller, but it's your perogative not to name them if you don't want to.

 

[jraju]

I am happy that you see reason for every thing. I had the battery replaced at the service centre but not happy with the phone was repacked and delivered as new one. I also know that the returns has some charges for the sellers for every item users returned and he will mend himself correct.
May be somebody under him would have done this kind of repack.
My feature request comes from the experience I had thro online purchase and use it. I approached my sim provider also. They say, that they could say, when my sim was activated which would be available with them, but not at the new device. Here also user will not know, if the imei was used by some by other sim providers.