Is it safe to buy an unlocked iPhone off Ebay?

[groove-agent]

I live in Canada and having a heck of a time trying to get an iPhone. I even went to AT&T Bellingham to try and buy an iPhone in the US and they carded me, and denied me from buying one outright.

Now my only recourse is to buy one off Ebay from someone who is willing to ship to Canada. Can anyone make some suggestions of what to look out for before bidding? Should I be buying with Turbosim or some other particular brand? Are there a lot of scams?

Thanks.

 

[veeco3110]

if youre capable of going to the states, goto an apple store and buy one. bring it home, and unlock it your self.save yiourself the 50+ dollars for unlocking and buy a case for your new unlocked phone...

 

[groove-agent]

if youre capable of going to the states, goto an apple store and buy one. bring it home, and unlock it your self.save yiourself the 50+ dollars for unlocking and buy a case for your new unlocked phone...

Sounds easy, but i don't think it is.

I heard a rumour that they wont accept Canadian credit cards nor cash. Also, don't i need to buy a special sim card to adapt the iphone to my current carrier?

What i might do is rent a mailbox from mailbox international and try and order the iPhone through the US apple store although I have a feeling that Apple will refuse their mailbox or see that I'm using a CDN mastercard.

 

[SheriffParker]

I heard a rumour that they wont accept Canadian credit cards nor cash.

I don't know about that. Katie bought one with cash on opening day:

https://www.macrumors.com/iphone/2007/06/29/iphone-night-katies-experience/

 

[teleromeo]

That was in june 2007. Apple changed things as more and more people were buying without a telecom contract. I live at 15 kilometers of the French border but as a Belgian civilian it's not easy and mucho expensive to jump over the border and to buy one.

 

[rammy]

It's cc only purchases for all iPhones, has been for some time unfortunately.

I tried to buy an unlocked iPhone on ebay, unfortunately I was sent a dodgy clone! Thankfully the seller realised his mistake(!) and took the phone back - after a lot of hassle (including, ebay, paypal and my cc company). If you do decide to buy from ebay be sure you buy through a power seller and make sure you read the small print on the paypal insurance (the main selling page doesn't always give you all of the info' - note "upto").

Also, I heard that some phones have had dead pixels so be sure you're buying from a trusted seller.

Good luck!

 

[Jphillippe]

use a prepaid credit card

 

[SFStateStudent]

Just be careful...

since you are staring directly into the "Abyss" of iPhone "jailbreak" & "unlock" and you are also looking for 1.1.1 or 1.1.2 iPhone firmware. There are some great threads on MacRumors.com to take care of those issues, but the bottom line is this: you don't want to buy something that's not gonna' work for you! Do you know someone in the US that can buy an iPhone for you? You mentioned Bellingham, WA, what about searching craigslist.org in Washington or Canada? I've seen them for about $500. Anyway, just be careful!