So there is a new genie in town - phonebecho! Well, literally speaking it is not a Genie, but what it does is no less useful or magical. See, we love to keep ourselves technologically updated, which means, we keep buying all new kinds of computers, laptops, mobile phones and the like. Before we know it, there seems to be a mountain of old electronics, inching our living abode closer to an actual e-waste hazard site than a normal abode for human beings. How do we dispose off these? phonebecho brings a cool, comfortable solution where we can get our old,used electronics priced within 60 seconds, clarify a pick up time wherein they will pick it up from our doorstep and pay us on the spot too! Heaven for absolute lazy lizards like me :D Now this is called read #CleanUpCashOut moment.
Oh but where was this genie when I was in dire need of just this kind of help, an online place to deal with genuine buyers, getting cash on my doorstep, partners like amazon and croma on the roster, a seamless transaction without any headache.. 10 years ago I had no such help when I needed to sell my old Siemens mobile. It was the first mobile phone my dad had bought way back in the year 2000, when mobile phones were a luxury and we were charged even for incoming calls! Yes children, there really was an age like that too, you may even call me a dinosaur based on this piece of information :P My blue sturdy Siemens took me through high school and half my college life too before it started sputtering, giving me problems such as lost connections, random shutdowns and garbled screen. It was a sad moment when I decided to part ways with it and moved on to my brand new Nokia 1100 (which was the cream of the crop back then!) But the big question was-what to do with my Siemens? Whom to sell and in how much? My dad had bought it in Rs. 9000 and I had used it fruitfully for almost 5 years and it was still going to work quite well after getting it serviced just once. My parents had no idea about anything remotely related to technology and they thought it is the domain of us 'young savvy ones'. I started asking around my college friends' circle if anyone needed an old sturdy Siemens and got a couple of inquiries but they were not seriously interested. After about 6 months, a friend of mine said that a friend of his wanted a basic old phone to be used by his grandfather, all he needed was some kind of dabba to make and receive calls and maybe couple of sms a day,nothing more. I was elated because my Siemens was absolutely up to the task and asked my friend to get me in touch with his friend. I called his friend-let's call him S- and explained the condition of my phone. Thankfully, he seemed very interested. When it came to money, I honestly told him that I had completely used it and would be happy even with a token amount. He himself said that his budget is Rs. 1000, which was more than what I had expected and so I said sure let us meet up and complete the transaction.
Oh better said than done, right? After that verbal confirmation, it took me 5 more rounds of trying to fix up a time and place to actually meet to complete the transaction. After about a month of dilly-dallying on S's end, I thought he was not really interested in buying my Siemens. I conveyed this to my friend and started looking for more buyers. By stroke of luck, a college colleague of mine wanted a basic phone to give to his sister and he was ready to buy my phone in Rs. 800. I fixed up a meeting with him the next day, but guess what, that night itself, S called me back and said that he was just very busy in his work and was really interested in buying my phone the very next day. Well, since I had fixed up things with S first, I thought it was only fair that I close the sale with him, so I said so to my college colleague and went to our designated time and place to meet S. He came on time, checked my phone, everything was in good condition as discussed and then the bombshell- he was ready to pay Only Rs. 600! This was downright cheating- he had promised Rs. 1000, then he made me wait a month, then I had already fixed up another buyer at Rs. 800 and then I had, in good faith, come back to sell it to him and now he said he will pay only Rs. 600. It took me over 15 minutes of yelling and trying to drill some sense into his head before he agreed to pay Rs. 800. By now I was too much tired and just decided to take my money and go away from this two faced treacherous man. Honestly,it was not about money for me, but this whole process, the haggling, the constant phone calls trying to fix up a meeting, everything was just very tiring and saddening and I wish never to go through all this ever again.
Well, what is done is done. But from now on, phonebecho is where I am going to sell all my old ,used electronics, and I hope you do too!