Certifiable Cities

Throughout the years with being involved in the wholesale industry I have realized trends in cities where there are companies that consistently prey upon other vendors by stealing handsets through the use of counterfeit cashiers checks or through canceled company checks. Brooklyn, Houston, Detroit (and surrounding cities), and Harlem are a few examples of areas that are occupied by crooked individuals. Houston and Detroit being the most disappointing since they are two of the fastest growing areas yet are laden with corrupt individuals which deter my interest in selling to new customers altogether. But the real question is why this continues to be an issue in these areas of the country. Are criminal charges for using fraudulent checks within the states of Michigan, Texas, New York so light that they can get away with it or is it due to the robust size of these metropolitan areas where law enforcement has other obligations to attend to besides felony theft?

Factory Refurbished or Level 4. You be the judge.

Remember the old days where factory refurbished really meant the manufacturer handled the refurbishment? They even had a warranty to go along with the handsets as well? The product was amazing and at that time, continued to extend brand loyalty further out in the developing world long after a model had been discontinued in the U.S. Russia is a prime example of an emerging cellular market that is very loyal towards one brand, Nokia.

Now, others in the wholesale industry have embraced this product condition as a term in which they can attempt validate their own sourced or refurbished product that it is OEM quality and is above all other refurbished goods in the market. But to make matters worse, barely any manufacturers handle their own refurbishment (all is outsourced) and they don’t stand behind their product anymore either.

I don’t mind that manufacturers have honed in their business to a point where parts are no longer in abundance and are forced to use them up on out of warranty/ BER handsets. What are hard to accept though are manufacturers not offering out warranties on their refurbished goods. Selling handsets that have been cosmetically reconditioned to a new condition and still are being sold as is makes it difficult to buy these products with confidence anymore.

Greener Gadgets Confrence

Last week, the Greener Gadgets Confrence in New York, revealed some new greener technologies that could show up sooner than you'd think. With cell phones quickly becoming a hot topic in the e-waste discussion the new green technologies manufacturers are experimenting with could quickly make it to market.

Photo courtsey of Cnet.com

Nokia showcased a phone with the outer casing made from Bioplastic. This form of plastic utilizes renewable raw materials and is more friendly to recycling. Nokia plans to bring their first bioplastic phone to the Euro market late in Q1.

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How does Cell Phone Recycling work?

Inform, a non-profit environmental research company, has recently produced a short video explaining how cell phone recycling works, and what isn't working about it. Inform is responsible for researching most of the statistics used by anyone who ends up writing an article about cell phone recycling, not to mention how often it can be found on cell phone recycler's websites.

The only inaccuracy about this film is that many cell phone recyclers don't remove the information from your phone. The information from you phone will most likely get erased during the refurbishing process, however, this is not a responsibility cell phone recyclers typically take on due to the time intensive nature of the process.

Nonetheless the rest of the video answers many of the frequently asked questions from my experience, and was well put together. Check it out below.

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