New phone arrived unsealed. Should I return?

banie01 wrote: »

It very much depends on the phone, the origin and the price.

Grey market dealers for example will provide Chinese sourced handsets directly from China at discount for resale.
However for the handset to be compatible with the vast majority of users technical knowledge.
The phone will usually be flashed with a new ROM, that includes google play services and play store as those are banned in China market handsets.

Similar story with grey market Samsung handsets from Asia.
They have a region lock that requires a SIM from the original market area to be active in the phone for 5 or 10 minutes before the handset is actually region free.
Grey sellers power up and insert the sim to allow the buyer have the sim free device.

Now if you bought an EU/Irish handset via a direct channel, at least raise a query.
If you bought a Chinese or grey market handset?
That's how these things work.

I bought it from Rea Communications but I'm not sure if they bought it from a Grey seller and sold it on.

banie01 wrote: »

Is it a Chinese handset?
Did it come with play store already installed?

If so, likelihood is that the seller or their supplier flashed it with a global ROM prior to ship.
That's normal for this channel, but ideally the seller would let you know before purchase.

As I said earlier, flag it with the seller and get their input in it.
But if it's a Chinese handset, it's par for the course unless you have the means of unlocking the bootloader and flashing the unit yourself.

It's a Ulefone but I don't know if Play Store is installed because I haven't used it. If it has been flashed the seller didn't let me know that it would be.

When I ordered on the website it said the phone was in stock and was a global edition.

I've sent Rea an email and am awaiting reply.

drunkmonkey wrote: »

If it's a euro handset could have just put in a 3 pin plug, wouldn't worry about it if the plastic on the screen hasn't been removed. Your warranty starts from the invoice date.

An adapter was Included separately. It was not added to the box that the Phonr came in.

Salvatore Breezy Log wrote: »

Give Eoin a ring and ask him first.

I wanted to see what the normal procedure is when a phone arrives unsealed before I contacted him. I've sent him an email and am awaiting reply.

banie01 wrote: »

It very much depends on the phone, the origin and the price.

Grey market dealers for example will provide Chinese sourced handsets directly from China at discount for resale.
However for the handset to be compatible with the vast majority of users technical knowledge.
The phone will usually be flashed with a new ROM, that includes google play services and play store as those are banned in China market handsets.

Similar story with grey market Samsung handsets from Asia.
They have a region lock that requires a SIM from the original market area to be active in the phone for 5 or 10 minutes before the handset is actually region free.
Grey sellers power up and insert the sim to allow the buyer have the sim free device.

Now if you bought an EU/Irish handset via a direct channel, at least raise a query.
If you bought a Chinese or grey market handset?
That's how these things work.

I received emails back from Rea Communications.
In Summary they said

"All our stock comes from European Wholesalers..
we did not open the unit on arrival here, as we ordered it in directly from wholesaler and then shipped it to you, Its not stock we would have had on display.

I wouldn't be in a position to tell you our suppliers names as that is confidential between me and who I buy from.. All you would need to know is that its one of the biggest wholesalers in Europe for Mobile Phones.

If you are speaking about Plastics on outside of phones for instance? Most phones nowadays don't come with any Cellophane wrap on outside..

The Ulefone phones never come in to us with Cellophane wrap on them.. We don't buy from outside the EU.
Phones are brand new and would not be opened by anyone to put custom rom on them.
I've never heard of it being done before either to be honest or ever asked about it in 15 Years trading."

Can anyone confirm if phones today are shipped unsealed?
Ive looked at Ulephone X7 Pro Unboxing videos on YouTube and they were wrapped in plastic before being opened.

Is it possible that Rea's suppliers opened this phone before selling to Rea?

I've asked Ulefone do they ship their phones unsealed and am awaiting reply.

The phone is a present for someone else so I want to be sure it's ok before giving it to them.

Can anyone advise on whether I should return it?
Thanks

I received a reply from Ulefone. They said

"Hi,

The Ulefone phones sold in official channels will come with plastic packaging (sealed box).

I am sorry that we here can not check the phone is brand new or not."

I presume that somebody opened the phone at some stage.

Does anyyone know if I have a right to know from Rea Communications where they sourced the phone?