What do I do with this unwanted 3rd-Gen Amazon Echo Dot?

May 28, 2021 2:02 PM

I bought it from Best Buy for my parents at the height of the pandemic from Best Buy. They didn't decide they didn't want it until the 15-day return period was up. I have no use for it. Short of reselling it on eBay or Craigslist, or begging the local Best Buy to give me store credit, do I have any options? Are there other retailers I could try a receipt-less return with?
posted by Borborygmus to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

(oh but I usually only get store credit, but I buy enough at Target that that may as well be cash)
posted by General Malaise at 2:13 PM on May 28, 2021

Please don't attempt to return it to a different retailer, because that's fraud.
posted by ZaphodB at 2:23 PM on May 28, 2021 [28 favorites]

You can trade it in at Amazon for a credit. They'll even cover shipping. The credit will be a fraction of the $40 MSRP, but you might consider it given the glut of Echos on Craigslist/eBay (fetching $15-20 max) + the hassle of receiving payment + shipping costs to a buyer.
posted by prinado at 3:14 PM on May 28, 2021 [3 favorites]

I don't see an alternative to selling it yourself: if it really is New In Box, someone might pay (after a slight discount) for a one-generation-old item, either to add it to an existing item to make a stereo pair, or to avoid shipping time.

I would happily buy it off of you if you were local. *shrug* I'm in Rhode Island.
posted by wenestvedt at 4:45 PM on May 28, 2021

local autism family services group would love it
i am sure.
posted by wowenthusiast at 9:36 PM on May 28, 2021 [4 favorites]

Why not just... use it yourself?

I actually bought an Echo Show (the 1st gen, really old stuff) for myself more than a year ago. It's just as capable now except for the superfancy features like user tracking/pivoting. The newer echo dots aren't any more capable than the old ones. You may find surprising uses for it in the kitchen, where it can play the news, podcasts, and much more, and even do conversions for cooking, as well as recipe searches, for example.
posted by kschang at 5:17 AM on May 29, 2021 [2 favorites]

In the kitchen, it's super-useful just for timers. "Alexa, set a timer for 18 minutes." You can even have multiple named timers run simultaneously "Set a pizza timer for 12 minutes, set a breadstick timer for 8 minutes.... " produces " Your breadstick timer is done" and then later " your pizza timer is done". I also use it to ask for the weather. Those two features alone are enough to justify the electricity to me.
posted by Wild_Eep at 8:30 AM on May 29, 2021 [2 favorites]

Could you say more about why you don't want to resell on eBay or Craigslist? If it's something you specifically dislike about those two websites, there may be other marketplaces you could resell on.

I'm frequently surprised at how much people will pay for older-generation electronics on eBay. I recently sold a used two-generations-old Amazon Fire Stick with an auction-style listing, and it was bid up to more than Amazon is selling the current-generation Fire Stick for! I felt almost guilty selling it for that price because I felt like I was ripping the buyer off, but my listing couldn't have been clearer about the product's generation, age, and condition.

If you just don't want the hassle of dealing with an individual buyer, the trade-in link prinado posted upthread is probably your best shot, but it seems to offer only US$5 for the 3rd-generation Echo Dot.
posted by Syllepsis at 8:45 AM on May 29, 2021