[Defeat]

In my early days of SE I used to order all kind of crap and return them and get my money back. Then I took  tons of photos of the stuff including the s/n. Then I called customer service and told them their stuff was broken. I gave them my photos with all the info they wanted.  It worked on about four out of five times. SEd tvs, consoles, clothes, and even a canoe.

Nowadays I use more complex methods.

Does the old trick still work or does the manufactures contact the resellers to check of the product is back in the system and is ready for reselling?

It depends on how saturated the company is. Sadly, chances are the companies you were able to get away with are no longer allowing such clams without receiving their broken units back. Those were the good days though lol