Festive season is on in India and Microsoft has extended its Smart Buyback offer to include Lumia 540 as well. The buyback offer allows perspective buyers to purchase a brand new Microsoft Lumia 540 for a reduced price of ₹7,199 when they trade in (exchange) one of their old smartphones. The phone originally costs ₹11,499 and that makes the reduced price of ₹7,199 look very attractive.
However, sometimes what we see is not entirely true. Microsoft’s official online sales partner – Snapdeal is selling a brand new Lumia 540 for ₹ 7,499 without any sort of buybacks, exchanges or special offers. Similarly, Amazon India is selling the same phone for ₹7,498. I’m not aware about the pricing at Microsoft’s Brick and Mortar stores, but if there is a significant difference, that is already unethical.
Now because Microsoft is already able to sell the Lumia 540 for as low as ₹7,500 via online channels, the buyback/exchange offer is only fetching a value of ₹300 (7500-7200) to the new buyers. Looking at the list of eligible devices for the exchange, I believe any of them can easily fetch the user more than ₹300 when selling them in at a local shop. Even if it doesn’t it is better to retain that device instead of trading it for such a low value. A customer ready to shed out ₹7200 won’t be so bothered paying extra ₹300.
That said, the Lumia 540 is a good device for the price point that it targets and additional goodies such as the ₹3000 cashback via Mobikwik over 12 months make the deal even sweeter.
Purchase Lumia 540 Online