My apologies if this is breaking any community guidelines, I am new here. I'm posting here on Frugal since i've seen a few similar posts in this subreddit.

I have been thinking of getting a new phone for quite some time. I have been using an LG V30 for the past 2-3 years. It still functions fine, but the camera quality is worse that I'd like it to be as a photographer. I would like to upgrade to something with a good camera, and something that would last me for a while. Due to a few very kind gifts, I now have enough gift money on Amazon for a decent used phone. I have been looking at the iphone 12 mini and google pixel 6a in specific. They are both in my price range, have good cameras, and would (hopefully) last me a good 4-5 years. The only issue is that these are refurbished items, and many people who have bought anything refurbished from amazon have received products in poor condition and end up getting a refund. I have read several threads where people recommend going straight through Apple's refurbished store, but I have amazon-specific credits, and their items are still wildly out of my price range. Now I'm wondering if I would be better off just saving the cash for a later date on something I know I would get good use of. Does anyone have experience with Amazon refurbished? Should I take the risk? Thanks in advance.

Anyone have good experience with purchasing from Amazon a renewed or refurb.

I rarely ever see this mentioned here, and I'm not sure if it's a lack of awareness or if it's not the best option, but I wanted to share this regardless.

I've purchased three phones from Amazon Renewed, and they've all been wonderful. I upgrade my phone once every two to three years, and give my old ones to family members or people in need.

Every time I upgrade, I buy one from Amazon Renewed for a fraction of the brand new price. However, you can buy more than just phones on there.

If you're in the market for a new phone, appliance, basically anything, try looking up (Product Name Here) Renewed. They have thousands of products that were never user, gently used, or just cosmetically damaged.

These products have the same 30 day guarantee/protection that a brand new item has. I've bought from them enough times to have complete faith in their system.

Hope this helps you guys out.

Bought this phone from Amazon Renewed Google Pixel Fold 512GB Excellent Condition. They sent me a filthy phone, with scratches along the rails, it wasn't factory reset, and it was 256GB not 512GB but they had 512 GB all over the packaging. Couldn't even order a replacement because Amazon said they couldn't do a replacement just a return and refund. So now I have to wait until they receive the phone then issue the refund and then wait until it hits my credit card before I can repurchase one. That's probably a 2 week wait. Then I got it for a sale price at the time which I'm sure I won't be able to get again. The seller was responsive but unhelpful. Wasting my time.

so long story short i got my gf a iphone for christmas and it was from amazons premium refurbished line, and the charging port actually doesnt work, amazon says theyd cover the repair cost ($499) to fix it, but she cant go w/o her phone, so i did some digging and found on amazon a "used - like new" option, instead of "refurbished - premium". so i am just gonna data transfer and return the not working one.

has anyone had experience with this specific option when it came to buying a iphone. is it literally new, open box, turned on used once, like what is it considered? says it comes in the original box so, curious what im getting into

Hey guys, i am looking to buy an iphone 13 pro but I am not sure which company will be more reliable when it comes to refurbished phones. Both phones will cost around the same price at $560USD and i will trade in my 12 mini so i can get it for slightly cheaper. I just need advice because some people get it in pristine condition and some people get it with poor battery health and noticeable scratches. Which would be a better bet? Amazon or backmarket? Please share your experiences if you have any :)

Just wanted to see how others felt about buying refurb. I picked up a refurbished samsung s23 on amazon from a company called wireless source, a little over a year ago. I was super nervous, I’ve heard so many nightmare stories but I really wanted a good camera and don’t have the money for something brand new.

However I was pleasantly surprised, the phone arrived looking pretty new! (and thank god wasn’t a knock off) — the screen had virtually no scratches, and the battery health seems to be holding up strong???

A year later, the phone’s still running smooth and I'm planning on buying one for my husband too now that his old a series is starting to crap out on him.

I was definitely a little skeptical about buying refurb at the time, but how do y'all feel, does anyone have a refurb phone too?

(Saw someone asking about the company, after some digging, I believe wireless source is magnakom? They both bring up the same listings)

I’ve tried to make my phones last by buying them new and taking care of them, but after a few years they basically just stop working well. Apps get slow or stop updating and even if the phone still looks fine, it starts to feel unusable.

So now I’m looking at refurbished phones as a middle ground, better than dropping a lot of money on a new one, but not as sketchy as buying used from a random person. Has anyone here bought from BackMarket, Reboxed, or Mozillion? Are they legit?

And how much should I actually care about the condition ratings?

Past 2 years I've been using a Samsung S5 that I bought refurbished from Amazon, ran me about $200 total after screen protector/Otterbox case. My phone is becoming infuriatingly slow and I think it's time to upgrade. Are Amazon refurbishes the best route to go, or is there a better vendor out there? I definitely have no interest in buying a current model phone, and certainly no interest in buying at-cost, just looking for other alternatives.

I am thinking to get a I15ProMax Refurbished. I don't know if Amazon would be the best or perhaps Best Buy open box option. Please share your experiences in anything similar.

There is some people that recommend to get the deals and have luck getting a nice phone refurbished but in general what would you do?

I heard also of backmarket but I think amazon and best buy sounds considerably better.

Has anyone had good experiences with buying refurbished phones off of Amazon?

I want to buy my elderly mum an iPhone 8 refurbished but I’m wondering if it’s worth getting it from Amazon or going to a shop in person that sells refurbished phones?

Hi all, just one question and ima hop out of here. I need a phone that can access Wi-Fi, download apps such as instagram, Spotify, etc. But I don’t necessarily HAVE to be able to make calls or texts.

If I were to buy an unlocked refurbished phone from Amazon, would I be able to accomplish this?(without getting a cell phone carrier involved)

Thank y’all in advance!!!

United states

Just got a my second galaxy S21+ off Amazon after the first one couldn't connect to computers and now this one disconnects often from my mobile data. Woo! So now I'm looking at other options.

I don't care about the camera. I just want a solid reliable phone with good storage and at least 6gb ram.

There's the S10 and the note 10. Are these too old of phones? Need help!

So...a couple of days ago I bought a renewed phone with "Excellent" condition. It took me a couple of days to actually test the phone but someone else picked it up, confirmed it was legit, turned it on and everything seemed fine.

Until I actually tested the phone and noticed the screen wasn't right, it didn't cover the edges, investigating a bit I found out that it was replaced with an INCELL screen. Right now I'm talking with the seller and got a 20$ offer, which in my opinion is more of an insult.

I can't return the phone as I had to travel abroad due to my job and it may take me at least 3 months to return to USA. Besides, I already setted up my phone and my company is a bit exaggerated about security and having to set up new keys with my phone will be a hasle.

So...I'm demanding a partial refund, what are your experiences buying renewed with Amazon? What should be the minimun I'm asking for?

Up till now, all the phones that I buy are midranged phones from Xiaomi, Realme, etc. Now that I learned that refurbished phones are kinda safe to buy on the internet, I'm now leaning on buying one as my first refurbished and flagship phone. However, I'm still debating if the product I'm getting on amazon is recommended since it's the only site that can deliver to my country.

Also, if I hold off on buying this year and buy in 2024 will the price drop?

So just ordered an iPhone 12 from Amazon as renewed in excellent condition (I know it's not actually sold by Amazon, but it should've followed their terms in grading a phone as excellent/good/acceptable). This is what I received for an "excellent condition" phone. As stated by Amazon, excellent condition should not have any scratches on the screen, and any damages to side panels and such should not be visible more than 12inches away. All I can say is that none of these boxes are checked. Screen clearly has multiple scratches on it which can be seen when the screen is on, unless the background is literally white or a super bright color. Originally I thought it was some fluff or something on the screen, but wiping them doesnt make them dissapear and you can kinda feel the grooves of them. Secondly the denting in the corner can legit be seen more than 12inches away. Say you could see them even beyond 2ft away. Makes me somewhat anxious if there may be other problems about the phone that I don't know about because they may not be cosmetic damages. So I'm just curious if any of you guys have had experience with buying anything renewed on Amazon, and if this would be "excellent" or if I'm just too nitpicky. The phone did cost $330 for excellent condition, whereas good is usually only about $270, and acceptable is near $250 which is the condition in which scratches on screen would be present.

A couple of months ago, I decided to buy a refurbished "excellent quality" Iphone 12 from Amazon renewed with their "guarantee" that the phone would be in perfect order. This is my personal horrible experience with buying refurbished Apple phones from Amazon.

Even before I had opened the package, I was greeted with my first red flag of the entire Amazon renewed experience. The box looked shady, was beat up, and was shipped from a very far away warehouse. It was not well packed and contained the phone and several accessories. At first glance, the phone looked great and seemed to have no defects. This is where the first in a long string of issues came in. As I went to power on the phone, all the buttons were mushy and unresponsive, as if someone had coated them in honey. Upon further inspection, they were filled with dirt and sand and looked as if they had been stuffed full of mud. I spent over an hour cleaning and recleaning the phone's buttons with rubbing alcohol and a swab and managed to get the buttons unstuck enough so that I could use the phone. I sent a very angry message to the seller and posted a 1-star review. A few days later I received a reply from them essentially "buying me off", telling me to delete the review and that I would receive 20$. As the phone seemed in good condition otherwise, and I really just wanted the whole ordeal out of the way, I accepted. They proceeded to send me message after message reminding me to delete the review and pestering me day and night (they were sending me these messages on my personal Whatsapp). After deleting the review I figured I was done with the ordeal and vowed to not buy another renewed phone as long as I lived (After deleting a seller review you cannot post another one FYI). Now we get to another big red flag. The first day I unlocked the phone the battery health stood at a great 95%. I was ecstatic at receiving such great battery health. I would continue to check the battery health every few days to satisfy my OCD and did not like what I saw. The battery health dropped several percent in a single week. I read up on Apple's blogs that it was meant to lose a few percent per year, and here I was losing 4% in just 3 weeks. Again, I sent a message to the seller, questioning about the battery health and they assured me that it was "simply readjusting to the proper reading" and to "not worry about it". I nearly returned the phone right then and there but decided against it because "hey, 91% battery health is almost as good as 95% right?". Now comes the final issue and the reason I am making this post. As I was sitting in bed on my phone, I noticed that the screen kept changing brightness and tone. I hoped that it was a software bug and restarted my phone. I was greeted with the "green screen of death" and immediately knew the phone was toast. Try as I would with changing the brightness, restarting the phone, etc. The screen would not go back to functioning. I immediately contacted the seller and requested a refund and here we are. Needed to vent some repressed frustration so I decided to make this post. Will update based on what they say.

TL;DRBought a renewed phone from Amazon that had many red flags and issues and ultimately broke after only a few months. The Seller was shady and "bought me off" essentially paying me to remove my negative review before the phone stopped working.

This may not be accurate to or represent everyone's experience with it (hopefully not). I only wanted to vent and give a word of warning to potential Amazon renewed buyers.

Edit:
YES I know this was all my fault. If you're wondering what the seller said after I contacted them, apperantly the damage is "my fault" because of "damage to the retina display". Total BS. I never dropped the phone or damaged it in the slightest. They are trying to bullshit me into thinking the phone magically broke from my own doing.

Has anyone bought any samsung phones from Amazon renewed, specifically the s20 fe. I am wondering if it would be a good idea for me to do.