E-bay is what I consider the internet's version of a good yard sale. I don't really go to them often but when I do I usually find a pretty Neat deal. Recently I cracked the screen on my Nokia Lumia 1520 and couldn't find anywhere that made repairs to the device (its not very widely used.) I ended up deciding to buy a new one since I liked it so much. I hunted for months trying to find a decent priced phone that wasn't a scam and when all was said and done I ended up on E-bay where the phone was $100.00 less than anywhere else. I was extremely sceptical but I knew that E-Bay had a pretty straightforward return policy so I placed the order. It was a lot to pay upfront but it left me free from the chains of a service contract with my cellphone provider so I was able to reduce my monthly cell phone rates as a result. The phone arrived quickly but the screen was not working right. I was worried that I had been scammed but when I contacted the seller he assured me it was a mistake. He sent me a new one and its been working perfectly ever since. I ended up getting $100.00 off the cost of the phone and lowering my phone bill. Has anyone else had sucess or failure buying their phone at E-bay or another online marketplace?
My cellphone purchases in Ebay were failures, but I bought 2 second hand phones and the other one advertised as "brand new", but I figured that since it conked out after only 8 months of use, and the motherboard was the problem, I figured that it must have been a refurbished phone. After all, I bought an old model that's phased out already, so for sure the one that I bought was not the genuine one, but a refurbished one in new casing.
I've found that the two best place to buy cell phones with confidence are newegg.com and amazon.com. Most people know about Amazon so I won't dwell on them. If you buy a phone on Amazon, stick with sold through Amazon retailers for the best return policies. In case people haven't heard of Newegg, they specialize in tech products, but sell a lot of other things like Amazon. I recommend signing up for their shell shocker and daily sales email. You'll get both sent to you every day. They are loaded with great sales on tech and more. They usually have two or three cell phones listed. They sell all brands, plus most of them are unlocked so you can use any provider. I've purchased cell phones from both retailers listed above and never had a problem. If you purchase on Ebay, use a retailer with a good rating and an excellent return policy. I don't recommend buying cell phone used.
I've bought phones off of eBay before. As long as the seller has a good amount of positive feedback, then you're usually alright. I remember back when smartphones first became popular, I bought a Samsung touchscreen smartphone for Sprint. Compared to today's smartphones, it was really lax, but back then I was excited about it. I do think that eBay sellers could lower the prices of their used phones, though. You can get used phones free or for less than $50 if you do not have an upgrade with most service providers. It is rare to find a decent condition cell phone on eBay for less than $50 USD.
I wouldn't really trust eBay for phones? I've read too many stories about people buying a phone, only the find out the phone is dead or damaged. I know there are many trust worthy sellers, but when the eBay market is littered with sellers from China, it's hard to find the "good" ones. I've bought my current phone from Amazon, and that worked out really well. It was another of the same model I had before, because they don't make my model anymore and it's the last ever in it's series made with a psychical keyboard. (It's a Droid 3, fyi.) I'm going to have to upgrade at some point, since this one is starting to fritz (restarting itself at random times, turning off WiFi, saying NO SIGNAL when there clearly is, random apps just closing for no reason, etc) but I'm not giving it up until it does a "White Out" and dies completely. I paid over a hundred bucks for it, I'm using it until it's entirely dead and done getting my monies worth out of it! (Also, the "White Out" thing is when the phone won't show anything but a white screen when booted up. All of my previous cell phones went out that way.)
The others who've posted above are quite right when they say, that Ebay probably isn't the best place to buy a phone or any electronic. Of course you'd say can dispute the transaction if you get scammed, etc, etc but think of the time you'd lose waiting for a product to be shipped over only for you to find out that it's defective. Best to buy your phone elsewhere slightly expensive though it might be and save yourself a lot of stress.
Do you live in a small rural town? I have found most cities have phone shop that will repair most phones made within the last five years. I have only purchased phones a couple of times from Ebay and both times they were not what I wanted. The last one was an iPhone 4 and the seller neglected to tell me he had "jailbroken" the phone and after a week it stopped working and every phone shop I took it to knew it had been jailbroken within seconds and refused to fix it.
I would never buy any electronic device on ebay. Only because I want to see the device in person and talk directly to a sales person on how the device works and what are the warranties. I get my phone from Walmart and I also use the Straight talk pay as you go unlimited plan. It works amazing and I love it...no contracts!
Ebay has really deteriorated and just keeps getting worse over the years. However, there are still some good sellers there. It's really about taking a leap of faith, nothing's guaranteed. I'm glad yours was a positive experience. I remember a few years ago, my husband bought us both a pair of Samsung phones on Ebay, and they still work. But I'm not sure if I'd buy a phone on there now. If I did the seller would need to have a 100% rating, and be UK based.
When my Nokia smartphone stopped worked after a dental x-ray, I was very worried, and went to ebay to order the same model again, for a reasonable price. I'd prefer to get the phone from a different, more legitimate avenue. But I was desperate at the time, so I suppose I would purchase a cellphone from ebay. However, I don't think that it is the smartest thing to do. The wifi feature did not work on the device, and I had to send it back.
I work for a major cell phone company so I have never needed to but a phone on eBay. I have sold plenty though. I think eBay is a trustworthy place to get a mobile device. If you are sold a dud the seller didn't get paid, so it's warrantied.
Phones are chancy online. You just have no way to ensure it's going to work properly unless it's brand new. Best bet is to make your decision based in the person's seller rating.
I never buy electronics from eBay as well unless they are really cheap and I'm just looking for a disposable electronic. Things like cheap flashlights are fine. I find that the average seller on eBay tends to be quite shady and you never know whether he is really giving you the item as advertised. I'm also not sure whether to trust reviews as some of them just have such good 99%+ ratings that I find hard to believe. It's even harder to believe when you receive a defective item. However most of the time I find that eBay sellers will not mess around with the chargeback policy that eBay has. So they will try to refund you or give you a replacement item in order to avoid a dispute which could cost them even more.
I tend to buy my electronics offline because I prefer having a physical store I can visit when I have problems with my device and I also can hunt them down a lot easier if they do have a physical store and I also do think that it makes them a bit more official. However, given that ebay has a good enough buyer protection program I think I wouldn't be too against buying electronics from there either, as long as the seller also has a good enough ranking and doesn't have many red flag type negative feedback.
