After launching the program in the United States in February this year, Research in Motion (RIM) has today announced that their trade-up program will be available in Australia immediately.
Blackberry Trade-Up program kicks off in Australia (Credit: RIM)
The program allows owners of many popular RIM smartphone devices including most of the BlackBerry line-up available in Australia such as the BlackBerry Pearl, Curve, Bold, Storm, Tour, 8700 or 8800 Series smartphones to receive credit towards the purchase of a new BlackBerry device.
Users then visit the trade-up website, where a quote can be generated showing them how much money they’ll get towards to their new Blackberry device based on criteria such as the state of the trade-in device (damage, screen condition and functionality) and are then asked to print off labels and send the phones off to RIM.
A “legible IMEI, ESN or MEID number (serial number)” must be included with the phone when sent to RIM, as well as the battery and charger. The phone’s user lock must also be removed for the company to accept the device.
Australians can then receive up to $120 in credit towards a new BlackBerry through participating carriers, although at this stage the choices on phones that the cash can be put towards are limited to just two devices – the BlackBerry BlackBerry Torch 9800 and BlackBerry Bold 9780.
The program at this stage is best designed for those hoping to trade in less than 5 RIM devices, but businesses can contact RIM to send in more than 5 devices – RIM will send out a quote, shipping labels and arrange next-day pickup.
What happens to all the old devices being sent in? RIM says that their partner for the program, Clover Technologies, tests and inspects the phones and removes any “personal data and corporate IT policies”.
The cleansed devices are then either resold to retailers, wholesalers or consumers if in good condition. Otherwise, recycling partners smelt the phones down into “precious metals” for re-use.
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