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Vodafone launches outlet store for refurbished smartphones

Vodafone debuts Vodafone Outlet, an online store offering deep discounts on returned smartphones

Alex Scroxton
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Published: 14 Apr 2015 12:50

Vodafone has launched an online store called Vodafone Outlet, offering discounts on barely used second-hand smartphones.

Vodafone already offers a 14-day cooling-off period for users to test their new devices, during which they are able to return it free of charge if they decide it does not suit their needs.

Until now, however, the telco has been unable to put returned devices, many of which have barely been used, back into circulation.

The outlet retail concept allows the operator to resell returned smartphones at a hefty discount, rather than as brand new units, even if they haven’t even been unboxed, said Vodafone e-commerce specialist Ben Carr in a blog post.

“They go through a strict series of checks and tests at our warehouse, and those that are in good enough condition are repackaged and head on to Vodafone Outlet,” explained Carr.

Peripherals, such as headphones, charging cables and manuals, are all included, he added.

End of the line

Vodafone will also be selling discontinued and end-of-line smartphones at the outlet store, with the same discounting mechanism applied.

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“When we decide to stop selling a device, there will always be a few left in the warehouse. All of these end-of-line devices are now going to be reserved for Vodafone Outlet too, so we’re going to be able to bring these to the customer at a cheaper price as well,” said Carr.

The discounted products will only be available online, so customers will not be able to take advantage of the discounts in any of Vodafone’s retail stores.

“Because of the nature of how this works, the device range will change quite often. Some of the offers will be very limited, to the point where sometimes we’ll only have 40 or 50 devices. Just because something was there yesterday, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll be there today,” said Carr.

The Vodafone Outlet website has already gone live and at the time of writing was stocking a number of devices, including the Samsung Galaxy S5, the HTC One M8 and the iPhone 6.

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