Ever bought an "Amazon Renewed" phone?

[korrelate]

What was your experience?

[korrelate]

I did just give this a shot very recently and here's how it went:

Before anyone starts trolling: I'm not complaining, I knew I was rolling the dice when I started down this path. I'm simply sharing my experience.

1. Did some searching around in Amazon and when you go looking for a refurbished iPhone on Amazon you have the following choices:
-Renewed
-Renewed Premium
both of these are available through various sellers (including Amazon).
I thought it prudent to go with a Renewed Premium (shipped from + sold by Amazon).

2. Did some googling around for reviews of Amazon "Renewed Premium" iphones and all of the videos made it seem indistinguishable from Apple Certified Refurbished. In the videos I watched, the reviewer has a damn-near mint looking phone and is very well pleased with the deal. Note: these phones come in a box marked Amazon Renewed (to their credit amazon makes this explicitly clear). Unboxing is nowhere near as impressive as with Apple. And even though I was buying this as a gift... I was okay with that.... I have boxes for old iPhones and was going to use one of those.
NOTE: amazon also offers free returns for a full year after purchase (assuming returned in same condition).
NOTE: both sides were 100% in tact: absolutely no broken glass. It's simply the chassis that was in poor condition. Also, I turned it on once and it booted into the "welcome" or "hello" screen or whatever just fine and the screen had no obvious problems. That's as far as I took the inspection, though, because the phone had already failed my inspection.

3. Pulled the plug and bought bought a recent model. I got it out of the box and for a phone that was being marketed as Renewed Premium is was just too obviously damaged.

4. I immediately requested a refund. When you do so, the return gets a time line that lists all of the significant events: when amazon picked it up (via UPS), when they received it, when they issue the refund and when the refund is credited to your account. The original timeline is exceedingly long: it CAN take up to 30 days for this whole process to play out (maybe longer, I can't remember what the timeline first said when I checked it). Mine did not: mine only took 8 days start to finish.

5. Most events in the return process went much faster than the original timeline would lead you to believe. Everything happens very quickly up through the point where they tell you the refund was "Issued". A day or two between steps at this point. As you can probably guess, though, there were FIVE days between the time where the refund was "Issued" and when the refund was "Credited". And weirdly enough, when it actually hit my bank account (which I was watching daily) the refund was BACK DATED to the date the refund was issued. Weird.  Again, not complaining, just sharing.

My conclusion: I would certainly not ever consider anything amazon renewed (premium or otherwise) as a gift unless the recipient is absolutely cool with this (has specifically requested an iPhone of any particular condition). Also, I'm put off by Amazon's Refurb process. If the phone I got was indeed a Renewed Premium, I shudder to think what condition a "regular" Renewed phone must be in.
I think amazon needs to provides picture samples that relate the actual condition of their phones to their "grading" method (which they do try to explain on their website). I might try again for a phone for myself because I kinda don't care if it has scratches, etc.

Final Note: Youtube reviews of Amazon Renewed created an expectation that my actual experience of an Amazon Renewed Phone did not match. Also, the savings are considerable but don't go thinking you're getting a great deal: this phone was not a new phone, it certainly was nowhere near Apple Certified Refurb quality and considering the actual quality of the phone I received, I think the price is still a bit on the high side.

[tp4tissue]

You probably have to go through a couple to get a "good" one. It's not unlike ebay phones.

[Rhienfo]

refurbished products in general from mainstream retailers are pretty bad, it's just shoddy work because the person refurbishing it either doesn't have the experience or isn't paid enough to care that much about the product.

[Leslieann]

refurbished products in general from mainstream retailers are pretty bad, it's just shoddy work because the person refurbishing it either doesn't have the experience or isn't paid enough to care that much about the product.

Never blame the workers for that which can be attributed to profit.
Sellers will push the limits in order to get the most profit, especially when they know Amazon won't punish them for lying or having lots of returns.

[Rhienfo]

refurbished products in general from mainstream retailers are pretty bad, it's just shoddy work because the person refurbishing it either doesn't have the experience or isn't paid enough to care that much about the product.

Never blame the workers for that which can be attributed to profit.
Sellers will push the limits in order to get the most profit, especially when they know Amazon won't punish them for lying or having lots of returns.

oh I'm not trying to blame the employee there (looking back that isn't very clear)

It's not the employee's fault that they are underpaid and forced to do a shoddy job by having to rush, or they aren't trained properly, that's on the employer.

That's why I said mainstream retailers. Smaller repair and refurbish shops are pretty good because they are trained and paid better. And the product will probably be better too.

[korrelate]

rhienfo: your post didn’t read as critical of the worker to me anyway. and even if it could have been interpreted that way your follow up totally straightened it out... in either case... good on ya!


leslieanne... it’s a pleasure to have you around.

[Sniping]

I've tried buying a renewed phone before and ended up returning. at the end of the day they're stocking used phones in various conditions and they're going to just try to pass off phones that aren't in amazing condition as excellent condition. it's hard to repair any of the scratches, chips, etc on the glass and chassis of the phone. the best bet is to buy a used one from Swappa, or just get a new one, unless the deal is amazing. marketplace/craigslist is filled with shady iphone sellers and swappa is one of the few sites that basically guarantees that your phone will not have anything shady or wrong with it, and sellers are required to post good pics of the actual phone you're getting, so you know exactly what you're buying. obviously for a higher price than the refurb amazon/ebay phones, but those are really a crapshoot and at the end of the day, usually a waste of your time. I just succumbed to buying a new phone every few years and then just offloading my current phone to offset the cost. so I'm spending like $1000 and getting back maybe $500 every few years. whatever. i use my phone so much so it's not the worst thing in the world.