Samsung India has announced the launch of its new ‘Stay New’ ownership plan on Monday, which will allow consumers to buy select Galaxy-series smartphones on 18-month EMIs and even upgrade to newer models via an Easy Buy back option.
Samsung is known for its sales promotions in India and while some of previous promotions had slight value for consumers, there is practically nothing enticing about this Samsung promotion.
Here are the raw details of the promotion:
Under the Stay New platform, consumers will able to buy Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy Note 2, Samsung S4, Samsung S4 Mini, Samsung S3, Galaxy Tab 3 and Galaxy Tab 10.1 devices through participating banks’ credit card and avail the Samsung’s easy 18- month EMI scheme, at applicable interest rates. Under this program, one can get the popular Galaxy S4 for as less as INR 2,466/- per month or an S4 Mini for less than INR 1500/- per month.
Participating banks: HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Citibank and Standard Chartered
We will come to the buyback option a little later but first let’s talk about these EMIs. Upto 12 months EMIs are already available via all e-retailers and large multi-brand outlets and some shopping sites even offer 18-month EMIs. So, if one consumers as to pay via EMI (that too with interest) only why not choose an e-retailer or outlet with best price and then pay using credit card EMI option rather than choosing Samsung’s offer and paying the Samsung-fixed price, which will most likely be on the upside like all promotions.
Now coming to buyback offer:
Easy Buy Back service is powered by Ingram Micro. Under this service, the user can sell back the current Samsung device, by simply calling up Ingram Micro’s toll free number within six to twelve months of purchasing the product. Post evaluation of the product, a buyback price will be informed to the customer. On accepting the instant offer of the best price, the device will be collected from the location of customer’s choice and the agreed upon amount will be transferred directly into the customer’s account. Hence, the customer can upgrade to the latest Galaxy smartphone by easily selling off their used Galaxy device.
So, first one can only sell-back their smartphone within the first 6-12 months of the purchase. So, if you want to use a phone more than 12 months, like 18 months and then switch to newer device, this buyback option is no good.
Also, as Ingram Micro decides the value of your device as per their valuation, there is no guarantee that you will get a great deal. Why not just try and sell your phone by yourself and even several multi-brand outlets buy-back devices on the spot.
As you can see, this is just one clever promotion from Samsung with not a single enticing value preposition.
I called Samsung Customer Care to find out more details about this plan – It’s an absolute eye wash to get you into buying an expensive phone with reduced emi’s – There’s no grantee what-so-ever that “ingram” will give a competitive price, or a price that’s equivalent to the remaining EMI’s at the time of “sale” !! Effectively, once you buy the phone .. you are stuck with the 18 EMI’s irrespective if you want to sell the phone at the end of 6 months or not !
Thats strange. 18 EMIS … whats the cost of the phone? deasl15
they have a website for this “scheme” now .. http://www.samsung.com/in/staynew/
they are nuts
Their idea of ‘carrying the latest’ is that YOU have to BUY/Exchange
for the latest model of their phones. Why cant they keep their phones
updated with the LATEST firmware especially KitKat as it can handle h/w
with 512 MB RAM. See what Micromax has promised to do for their Canvas series
i respect you for giving valuable insight into this whole matter and not being like other sites blindly promoting samsung…good work..thumbs up!
Its another marketing gimmick. In between 6 -1 2 months if one is planning to sell this to Ingram buy back offer price will be always less than remaining EMI balance. So be ready to shed some more from your pocket + also loosing phone which is supposed to be your’s 🙂 Inother words we are paying monthly rent to samsung/Ingram for using their phone with greater liability/risk passed it back to consumers.