I think #1 is a signal of a failure in the online retail space. As a customer other than reading the (often gamed) reviews on amazon and watching youtube reviewers how do you know what to buy? Buying a bunch of options and returning them starts to look like a legitimate strategy. For some products (for me it tends to be laptops) you really do not know if you like it until you have your hands on the physical product.

I agree. I myself have noticed how bad all reviews have gotten. For example, I bought an S20 FE last year, and it had a horrible touch screen. Almost EVERYONE who bought one said the same thing and complained. I can think of zero 'reviewers' who even mentioned it. I would be supremely angry if it were a $1200 device with no return policy.

I don't really know what the solution is. I think a phone rental business could spring up. Charge $10/day or something to rent a high end phone to folks to see how they like it.

Back in the day, this is what electronics shops were used for... go to Circuit City/Best Buy/Your Telephone Company's store and check out the phones.

Most phone shops have only had dummy phones for as long as I can remember.

Bestbuy still has mostly functional phones. I recently went by my local one to play with a Pixel 4A before buying it there unlocked. When I worked at Radioshack (2010-2013) we had mostly dummy phones except for the companies that were desperate enough to have "dumb" demo phones that felt like a real phone but just played a looped video on the screen.

My guess is that Bestbuy has more money so they can afford the rare demo phone getting stolen somehow. Funnily enough when I worked at Radioshack we often had people steal the fake phones that just played a video loop. Someone even tried to return a fake phone once saying that we sold them a broken device.

Most of the tech review channels are focused on getting views, sponsors and free product samples. Unsurprisingly the videos increasingly resemble infomercials, focused more on lifestyle and aesthetics than whether or not the product is actually worth buying.

10-20€ refund fees?

I considered it, but I think an open box item is worth considerably less.

Think of it - if you are spending $1200 on an item, would you want to save $20 on it to get one that who knows who had for who knows how long? I sure wouldn't. You'd probably need to go at least $100 lower before it becomes somewhat appealing.

Bestbuy just charges a 15% restocking fee on all phones returns now if you opened the box. As someone who often has buyers remorse or didn't get an adequate experience in store first I'm completely fine with that.

No average Indian asking for return doesn't have YouTube review channel.