It's a problem on some MBPs too, you very quickly get a slight print from the keys. ISTM that an extra mm or so (maybe even less) would make all the difference.
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Apple's Trade-In Partner Phobio Has Reportedly Faced an 'Alarming Uptick' in Complaints
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My suggestion: stay away from mail trade-ins. Do it in person at an Apple Store. Last month I had my iPhone shipped back as part of my upgrade program. Only to disappear in transit courtesy of Fedex. Apple says the box arrived empty. They were gracious to honor the trade-in, but I have learned my lesson. I am not using mail ever again for trade-ins.
I had a positive experience with them and then two negative experiences. One issue was that they never sent the mail-in box (still shows up as pending 5 months later). I called them and said I never got the box, they said they would extend the trade-in date and remove the penalty for sending the items in late. Well, they docked 50% off the estimate because they got it after the date they set. The other bad experience was an iPhones 6s Plus (great condition, there were a few blemishes on the screen--barely visible, but I wouldn't say excellent condition). Their estimate was $85. I got a response that "the serial number didn't match [what I promised to send]/different model, had dead pixels/and received late". $5.00 was their offer. I declined and got it back, covered in tape residue and a greasy substance, I suspect was food-related. Took a long time to clean everything off. It was my phone, I double-checked all the numbers and went over the screen with a magnifier and saw no dead pixels. I was so p***ed off by the lack of care, and I definitely made a complaint. I would never recommend them to anybody.
This exact thing happened with my wife’s iPhone 8. They quoted it at like $200 and then when they got it said there was a white mark on the screen and offered $50. They sent it back and we sold it. They took my old iPhone 7 with no problems, except that it took months for them to send me the shipping box for it. I sent a request to their customer support about the delay last October, and they responded last week asking if I still needed help. They’re pretty bad to deal with.
It's not that simple though. Apple has very confusing rules about what you can trade in at the store, and they seem to change all the time. Some places are still in lockdown and some Apple Stores are still closed, and some people either don't have an Apple Store nearby or don't have transportation.
Not necessarily. I believe they do a factory reset for you while you're there, alongside their simple checklist. I personally always did my own factory reset before bringing the device in just because it gives me more peace of mind.
I've only traded in an iPhone and an iPad, so the process was very quick (~10-15 minutes each time). Not sure if the checklist would be longer with a laptop though.
Getting $350 for a 2017 MacBook already sounds like a bad deal. I could get more on Craigslist. I could get so much more on CL that I could STILL make more even after buying a coffee at the Starbucks. 
Seriously, though, see them all over for $500-$700. Doesn't seem like a lowball from Phobio is warranted.
Seriously, though, see them all over for $500-$700. Doesn't seem like a lowball from Phobio is warranted.
This happened to me. iPhone sent in as a trade in. First time they said it didn’t work. They sat on it for two weeks despite my rejecting the tradein offer of zero dollars. I had to call Apple to get it returned.
got it back and it worked fine. Asked Apple to reinitiate the tradein. They rejected it again but this time when I got it back, it wasn’t working at all. I have video proof of it working when the device was sent. So now I’m out the tradein that was part of the decision to. It a phone, I have a broken phone. And I’ve waited five hours on the phone with Apple about this. Apple support gave me so many different answers.
I’ll never use mail in tradein again. Awful experience that cost me money. Apple won’t do anything about it anymore.
got it back and it worked fine. Asked Apple to reinitiate the tradein. They rejected it again but this time when I got it back, it wasn’t working at all. I have video proof of it working when the device was sent. So now I’m out the tradein that was part of the decision to. It a phone, I have a broken phone. And I’ve waited five hours on the phone with Apple about this. Apple support gave me so many different answers.
I’ll never use mail in tradein again. Awful experience that cost me money. Apple won’t do anything about it anymore.
All in all, it's hard to quantify an "alarming uptick" in online complaints against Phobio, since many customers with positive experiences do not speak up. ...
It's obvious they are ripping people off. There's no reason to think white spots appear then disappear and to give the guy less than half of the quoted price is laughable.
I'm glad I have an Apple Retail store in my area.
Additionally, the bold statement above may have been the case a decade or more ago, but I'm finding more and more that people with positive things to say about companies DO speak up. Before the rampant explosion of social media it was difficult to heap praise on a brand, but now all a company had to do is ask or post something on social media and the reviews and comments will come rolling in.
Experienced that myself. Had a good experience last summer trading in a MacBook, but last Autumn with an iPad Air 2, they sent a photo showing the perfect screen complaining about white spots in the display. I had it sent back, there were still no display issues, so I sold it on eBay. No complaints from my buyer about a bad screen because the screen was fine.
Probably fired by Apple since they were more honest but less profitable for Apple. I did a few trade-ins through Brightstar without issue.
Your chances are better that they're under the spotlight. Better yet, include a copy of the article with your trade-in and mention that you hope this won't happen. And, as always take photos of trade-in device including working status.
You don't have to ship the box back. You would do better selling it on Swappa or the MacRumors Marketplace (if you had 250 posts). What did they offer?
I have about 6 bad experiences with Phobio recently. At least in my case, they all ended fine but required significant time investment from me - which was exactly why i didn’t sell them myself, I wanted an easy process. Did not get it.
Quite literally: I will never use them again.
Quite literally: I will never use them again.
I did a trade on an expensive item as well - they revised their offer to $1500 less when they got it. The damage they sent me photos of did not exist when I sent it and I took extensive pics while shipping (fortunately).Wow what timing. Got a revised quote on my Macbook Pro for and quoted for completely random damage that doesn't exist. I'm praying that when I get it back it's actually the one I sent, and not a random one with the damage they described.
They did actually come to terms with me fairly, but again, after MY time for something I had literally nothing to do with in terms of the damage.
For comparison, I was expecting maybe half of the $400 trade-in or less on my cracked front, back and camera cover glass Galaxy S10+ which otherwise works fine per their terms but Samsung approved the full $400 amount while Apple only offered $250 trade-in before Phobio shenanigans.
Their PR people will probably pay MR to shut the hell up. If we don’t hear about this anymore in the future, we will know what happened in the end.
I sent them my iPad Pro to be traded in. Once they received it, they said it was too new of a model to be traded in for value. I was kinda surprised they weren't able to tell me that after I typed in my serial number. Anywho, I tell them to just send my device back to me. Once I get it, I'm greeted with a lovely cracked display. I call them and Apple and basically had to prove to them that my iPad wasn't broken till they shipped it back to me. I noted how they didn't list any damages to my iPad in their inspection.. so that was enough proof for them to offer me a gift card for Apple Store credit for the amount originally quoted. It's been almost 2 weeks since that happened and I'm still waiting for the gift card. I learned a few lessons like take tons of photos of my device before shipping it to them and two, just trade it in at the store vs shipping it. Oh, and the cherry on top was that they announced that they offer $50 more trade in value for my model now. I tried to see if they'd honor the extra $50 but they didn't budge.