OnePlus certainly have made good this year on their promise to bring to market a ‘flagship killer’ device. Well, that is if you allow for a device that is not actually readily available to buy, to be considered ‘brought to market’. However, bringing a high spec device to market at a low cost is only one side of the equation. A successful company is usually defined not only by the product and cost, but also by the cost of dealing with the company. This is where OnePlus seem to be failing constantly. Depending on who you ask, you will hear two completely contrasting viewpoints of OnePlus (as a company). The first side will say they love OnePlus, love their style and love their products. Then there is the other side of the coin. The second group will tell you they can’t stand OnePlus, the way they go about business and most notably, their customer service.
That said, very few people have ever noted a problem with the device. Any beef they might have is typically with the company and not the device. Well, the news today seems to be suggesting some users are now experiencing problems with the OnePlus One albeit because of the practices of the company. Typically speaking, OnePlus One’s have been extremely hard to get hold of due to the notorious invite system. Well, users who purchased OnePlus One’s more recently are claiming they received refurbished units sold (from OnePlus) as new. Now, it does need to be made clear that these are unsubstantiated reports at the moment. That said, users are reporting Ones turning up and looking ‘used’ (marks and dings expected from normal use). The most notable report claiming that upon loading a recovery, there were other people’s photos still stored on the device. To try and avoid further conflict, OnePlus have responded on the OnePlus forum page (source link below) strenuously denying they ever send out refurbished units. In fact, according to the OnePlus response, they do not actually refurbish units at all, let alone sell refurbished units. One interesting facet to the quoted response is that OnePlus have said “We are checking with our warehouse now to find out if they have sent out any returned units by mistake“. To add to this, users on reddit are now also starting to chime in with their experience of the poor customer after-sales service.
This just seems to be the latest from OnePlus in terms of unfortunate headlines. It was only yesterday that OnePlus had to apologise to Indian customers for the launch of the OnePlus One in India. Due to the news that Indian One owners, will not be able to receive OTA updates for some time. This was because of a pre-arranged exclusivity agreement between CyanogenOS (the software that comes running on OnePlus One’s) and Micromaxx (an Indian OEM). The current claims of refurbished units will not go down well with future and potential customers and as such adds to an unfortunate week for the Chinese startup. Have you bought a One Plus One recently? Did you receive a refurbished units? Let us know.