Buying from eBay..

There's aways a risk of buying a phone with an activation lock or black listed. Use the sellers feedback to vet out the ones that don't look kosher.

personally, I'd use swappa.com over ebay. I think its safer.

Anyways if you have a problem, you'll work through paypal not ebay. Document everything including any correspondences with the seller. The more info you provide paypal in a dispute the better your chances.

eBay is extremely safe for buyers. Buyers can file a complaint for just about anything and the seller is forced to accept a return of the item and refund the buyer. It's probably the only place I'd feel somewhat safe with buying a used phone from these days with all of the blacklisting going on.

They do have time cutoffs though. You have 45 days to file a complain through eBay and I believe it's 60 days for Paypal. If something happens to your device after that point then you're on your own.

What I like to do is buy on eBay with my Amex. That way if something happens then I have 180 days to file a chargeback and get my money back. Just some added protection. I've never had to do that yet though.

maflynn said:

There's aways a risk of buying a phone with an activation lock or black listed. Use the sellers feedback to vet out the ones that don't look kosher.

personally, I'd use swappa.com over ebay. I think its safer.

Anyways if you have a problem, you'll work through paypal not ebay. Document everything including any correspondences with the seller. The more info you provide paypal in a dispute the better your chances.

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Are you kidding me? Do you know anything about ebay's money back guarantee? I bet not, because if you did, you would realize that if a buyer receives an item that was not in the described condition (or some details weren't mentioned in the description) then the buyer has every right to open a dispute through Paypal.

Really, just buy from someone with good feedback and you're safe.

Downsides of ebay: the dispute process can be lengthy, for example once you open a dispute the seller is given 10 days to respond, and from then Paypal will decide the outcome (which takes 2 days or so). Also, another major downside is the fact that it's not often that you end up getting a good deal - I don't know what it is, be it ebay's popularity which means there are many idiots or maybe its something else, but in most items you will end up:

1) not saving anything over retail price
2) saving can be so little, and on top of that there is shipping

So these other bidders often overvalue an item and the winner ends up getting a not so good deal.

maflynn said:

There's aways a risk of buying a phone with an activation lock or black listed. Use the sellers feedback to vet out the ones that don't look kosher.

personally, I'd use swappa.com over ebay. I think its safer.

Anyways if you have a problem, you'll work through paypal not ebay. Document everything including any correspondences with the seller. The more info you provide paypal in a dispute the better your chances.

Click to expand...

I've never used swappa.com but I've heard that is a good place to look. However, I have used eBay many times for buying a few older iPhones for the kids and I bought a new one for myself before. Always went with the seller who had the highest percentage of satisfied buyers and one who had sold iPhones before. Never had a problem so far, luckily.

plix said:

Are you kidding me? Do you know anything about ebay's money back guarantee?

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Right, and there's enough threads around here and else where about buyers getting a locked phone. Sure, you can get your money back, but why go through that hassle when there's other places where you can buy a phone that is less risky.

maflynn said:

Right, and there's enough threads around here and else where about buyers getting a locked phone. Sure, you can get your money back, but why go through that hassle when there's other places where you can buy a phone that is less risky.

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What makes swappa better? If you get a bad phone does swappa refund you like ebay?

As a buyer it's critical that you buy from someone with good ratings.

Most of them are maybe SIM-LOCKED.

If you have spare time you should ask any seller as many queries as possible..then go for purchase on their word..if the product violates any detail(any) make a complaint to ebay and mail them the convo as a proof and you get your money back. since you need to ship it back to seller, this process would take some time.

If its an urgent buy, go for the seller with at least 95% positive rating.

617aircav said:

What makes swappa better? If you get a bad phone does swappa refund you like ebay?

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When you list the phone for sale they ask for the ESN/IMEI and check if it's clear before you're allowed to list.

Swappa will refund you like eBay, and if you're worried pay with a credit card.

BaBaBanana said:

When you list the phone for sale they ask for the ESN/IMEI and check if it's clear before you're allowed to list.

Swappa will refund you like eBay, and if you're worried pay with a credit card.

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The problem with checking the IMEI at the point of sale is that it may check out good at first but later get black listed after it has already been activated successfully on the buyers account due to the seller stopping payments on either the phone if financed or on their account.

hakuna-matata said:

If you have spare time you should ask any seller as many queries as possible..then go for purchase on their word..if the product violates any detail(any) make a complaint to ebay and mail them the convo as a proof and you get your money back. since you need to ship it back to seller, this process would take some time.

If its an urgent buy, go for the seller with at least 95% positive rating.

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As someone who has a business selling used surplus items on eBay, I made our policy simple. If a customer inquires about something before purchasing, we immediately ban them from any purchases from us. I spent way too many hours running stats from our previous sales and the people who ask questions are about 9 times more likely to issue a return.

That doesn't say we don't support customers after they buy something, we allow returns (we pay shipping both ways) for any reason. But statically a customer who asks a question before purchasing is far more likely to use the return process.

617aircav said:

What makes swappa better? If you get a bad phone does swappa refund you like ebay?

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From my limited experience it seems to have less scammers at the moment. Perhaps they do more vetting perhaps the scammers haven't fully arrived, I'm not sure.

Of course my bias is showing a little, as I've seen a lot of negativity towards ebay so that's colored by perception rightly or wrongly.

BaBaBanana said:

As someone who has a business selling used surplus items on eBay, I made our policy simple. If a customer inquires about something before purchasing, we immediately ban them from any purchases from us. I spent way too many hours running stats from our previous sales and the people who ask questions are about 9 times more likely to issue a return.

That doesn't say we don't support customers after they buy something, we allow returns (we pay shipping both ways) for any reason. But statically a customer who asks a question before purchasing is far more likely to use the return process.

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What was your store name again? I want to make sure to never buy from you. It is good to ask questions.......always. If you have a question about an item and ask it from the seller there should be no penalties. In fact eBay instructs people to ask questions about an item BEFORE bidding.