I'd like to purchase a renewed/refurbished iPhone (not too old) as a second backup phone (the reasons for wanting this are not relevant). I looked on Amazon...their prices are better than going to Apple, but I've read the horror stories here about shipments, bad phones received, etc - Amazon not being helpful.

Could I mitigate some of the risk by picking it up from a locker instead of worrying about lost or stolen shipments?

Are there other recommended sources for purchasing a used iPhone versus going through Amazon or Apple?

thanks

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.

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