[bapexsupreme]

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?

Never tried that method but it seems like it should work for some companies and some companies probably changed up or got more strict with refunds and replacement overtime.