Refurbished OnePlus One Smartphones Not Being Sold as New, Says Company

OnePlus last week refuted several user reports that were on the company's forum. Some users had claimed that the company sold what appeared to be refurbished or used One smartphones as new.

Some users even questioned if the handset used Gorilla Glass 3 protection on its display, as the OnePlus One has still not been listed on the Corning Gorilla Glass' list of devices on its website.

The company replied on its blog post by listing the seven noticeable incidents mentioned by a user (forum post now removed) that led them to believe that the OnePlus One units they received were already used. The seven claims included already open retail boxes, scratches on the unit, photos reportedly taken from the unit's rear camera, already setup operating system, and an extra screen protector with the unit which a user thought was put by the previous owner of the handset.

The company talked about all the seven cases giving an explanation as to why it happened. However, in some of the cases, OnePlus is still looking in to the matter. It said, "We have of course never sold a used or refurbished phone labelled as new (or otherwise)."

For instance, the company executives somehow managed to locate an email on the rear camera image already present on a OnePlus One handset, and contacted the person who turned out to someone in France. On asking, it was understood that the person was not a OnePlus One user but he did click the image. However, he added that the image clicked by him was not on a OnePlus One handset and he had no idea as to how and when it reached the new One smartphone unit.

After providing an explanation for all seven cases, the firm concluded by reassuring users, "Out of 500,000+ devices sold, 7 people claimed to have used or refurbished devices. Some of the claims were more substantial than others. While we take full responsibility for any possible dust and/or scratch issues a couple of these customers experienced, all of the devices were brand new. Out of over 500,000 devices, a handful perhaps slipped by quality control and were sent out with minor imperfections, but they were in no way used or refurbished."

As for the Gorilla Glass 3 issue, OnePlus in another blog post revealed a blueprint of the handset that showed TPK as one of the collaborated firms. TPK notably sources Corning Gorilla Glass display protectors. The blog post also mentioned that not all the smartphones are listed immediately on the Gorilla Glass website. The firm takes time to list the handsets on its Gorilla Glass 3 devices page.

Last week, Cyanogen announced that global OnePlus One device users in India will receive Cyanogen OTA updates . The statement, while not clarifying if devices sold in India will be eligible, should come as a respite for potential OnePlus One smartphone buyers in India who were disappointed with the news that Cyanogen, due to its exclusive partnership with Micromax, will no longer support any other devices shipping in India with future updates.