Do unlocked Note 4 (C or F) phones come in unsealed boxes from a Amazon, B&H...?

[jarco1]

Sorry if it's not the right place to ask but I've done a lot of searching to little avail. I'm wondering if it's a normal practice for unlocked international phones to come in unsealed boxes from sellers. I purchased Note 4 N910C from Amazon and returned it cause it came unsealed and tampered with. Then purchased Note 4 N910F, similar story, perhaps less tampered. Checked B&H, at least they're honest about it (in replies to customer questions) and say that those phones come in unsealed boxes because the distributor opens them to, I guess, remove the regional SIM-lock? Amazon policy does not allow such practice. Is this normal? Or am I getting refurbs sold as new? At $900 for the F model, I kind of wanna be sure. Why nobody seems to talk about it? If I'm wrong, links to discussions would be welcome.

 

[B. Diddy]

re: Do unlocked Note 4 (C or F) phones come in unsealed boxes from a Amazon, B&H...?

Welcome to Android Central! Where do you see that Amazon doesn't allow phone packages to be unsealed in order for them to be unlocked? Doing a quick Google search for "Amazon unlocked phone unsealed," there are quite a few links to Amazon (primarily to reviews) where people talk about how an unlocked phone they purchased through Amazon came in an unsealed box. I've certainly seen this mentioned for other sellers as well--they need to unseal the box in order to unlock the device.

 

[jarco1]

re: Do unlocked Note 4 (C or F) phones come in unsealed boxes from a Amazon, B&H...?

Thanks for the response. I've also seen people mention that, some have kept the phones, some have returned it... Amazon rules for "Selling Unlocked Cell Phones and Accessories" state in "Unlocked Cell Phones" section number 2: "Internationally sourced, manufacturer-unlocked cell phone (such as Samsung, LG, and HTC): Must be supplied with U.S. charger. Best practice is to place both the product, in its original factory sealed box, and the U.S. adapter into a larger shipping box. If the default language is not English, provide step-by-step instructions on how to change language settings rather than breaking the factory seal and manually changing the language prior to shipping the product."

Before I asked the question here, I had done my google homework, thinking that it's common practice but it's rarely explicitly talked about, probably because it's in a gray area of good seller-customer experience. I contacted the seller to ask about mine, no response at all. Most people might not bother to check the seal when the phone arrives and some of those that do, are not bothered by it. The remaining small portion of people bring it up but the responses are mixed. Some say breaking the seal should never happen, some say Customs opened it (guess not) but B&H was the only one that admitted that their distributor opens them to unlock them.

(and there was a typo in the title, it should read "F" instead of "T")

 

[B. Diddy]

I guess rules were made to be broken. I assume you got the phone through the Amazon Marketplace, and not directly through Amazon (i.e., the actual seller wasn't Amazon, Inc.). There must be some way to give feedback to Amazon that the seller wasn't following their guidelines for unlocked phones.

 

[jarco1]

You're right, it was Amazon Marketplace but at least fulfilled by Amazon. The sellers are obviously very sneaky about it, they either use a razor blade to cut the seal or peel it off so in a rush of excitement, people can easily overlook the broken seal. That's how I imagine you only have a handful of complains, no big deal for sellers or Amazon. However, it might be the only way to sell fully unlocked phones and I honestly wouldn't have too much of a problem with it if at least it was acknowledged, if not by Amazon or the sellers, then at least widely on forums. Don't have that feeling though. Mine had a missing seal, one partially peeled (looking suspicious) and one on the back peeled and replaced with something that didn't even care to spell out the entire model name.