Is it worth buying a refurbished iPhone? Refurbished phones: what are they and is it worth buying them? What is it
And so we continue to understand Referbish, this time I’m writing a blog from a hotel in the city of Shenzhen, which is located in China and borders the Hong Kong special economic zone.
I was brought here because my friends are opening their own repair service center. cell phones, mainly Apple and Samsung. It has long been no secret to anyone that normal high-quality equipment at a reasonable price can be bought in China. And also fill your warehouse with high-quality spare parts and components. There were no objections to my presence, so I decided to take a trip to the Middle Kingdom, and at the same time, if there was an opportunity, to figure it out and dig deeper about restored mobile phones...
Since my last article (almost the first), I have had enough time to understand in more detail the quality of referrals.
I also managed to find several sites, including discount-mobile.ru, that sell refurbished phones.
First, about the quality of the products. Yes yes! there are several categories: a+, a, b, c, d,
Category A+
The product is refurbished in the same factories where it was actually produced.
For example: You bought a phone from an Apple authorized Store iPhone, a week later it broke for you. They will replace you with a new device for free, and the broken one will be sent to the manufacturer (Foxconn).
Then you can purchase a refurbished phone, for example, on the website of the American mobile operator AT&T. On the site there are expensive Refurbished phones and there are some for free. It depends on how many years you sign a contract to use this connection.
The second way to get such a phone: let’s say your iPhone 4s does not turn on 8 months after purchase. And by pure chance, you ended up, for example, in the Hong Kong Apple Store, you give your phone and pay an additional 130 USD, in return they give you the same, officially restored iPhone 4s, which will have a “original” 1-year warranty. Unfortunately in Russia the warranty only applies to PCT iPhones. All other equipment (ipad, macbook, ipod) is serviced without problems. At least a few months ago there were no problems.
Category A
So serious mobile operators like T-mobile, at&t, Verizon, as well as large retail chains (for example, bestbuy.com are always ready to offer a person new phone in exchange for the old one with an additional payment, such as trade-in. Next, very serious companies buy up the accumulated stock from the above companies and sell it to small offices, which in turn put the goods up at auctions (for example this one) in the form of a lot! These lots are won by large, serious "ref" factories. They restore phones in factory conditions from original new spare parts and components. I apparently purchased such a product at discount-mobile.ru, which I already talked about and showed in the previous one. The phone was packed in the original factory films and box, the original accessories also worked for a long time, I was even lucky with the warranty, the website apple.com showed that there were 4 months left before the expiration of the warranty period. In general, the phone is satisfied with the normal flight!!! I'm thinking of changing to the fifth one.
Category B
This category refers to goods purchased at the same auctions in small resellers.
Phones are no longer restored in equipped workshops and without professional equipment.
Spare parts and components for such phones are bought at the cheapest, the frame, touchscreen and back cover are bought new, but unfortunately, spare parts such as microphone, speakers, cables, sensors, batteries, vibration motors, are left as old ones so that the box and accessories are also copies. This method is resorted to due to low turnover and lack of funds in order to compete with large companies
Quality is 50/50 accordingly
Category C
Items purchased through advertisements, ebay, stolen, avito, etc., etc.
Such phones can be re-soldered several times, recessed or repaired.
Such goods are restored very quickly, cheaply and cheerfully. If something is broken, then they solder it again, they don’t change the frame but repair it, the wheel is replaced with the cheapest one, back panel Also, the boxes don't look like boxes at all. Such goods are sold mainly at the Savelovsky market in Moscow.
I personally went and saw how almost every second person sells referrals in this category. When I picked up one of these phones, what immediately caught my eye was the scratched headphone jack and the dirty, scratched charging socket. The phone was also locked. And with the first update he would have turned into a Brick.
Let's summarize:
Category A+: a little expensive, although it comes with an official guarantee, it still does not apply to Russia.
You can buy it here: AT&T
Category A: The difference with a new phone in Moscow is from 7,000 to 12,000 rubles, I use this reference myself, I’m completely satisfied, they give their own guarantee, only for free repairs. Accordingly, there is no exchange because, according to the legislation of the Russian Federation, such a phone is equivalent to a used one, and the law and consumer rights do not apply to used equipment.
You can buy it here.
Since the winter of 2015-2016, a number of Russian Apple retailers (Svyaznoy, MTS, M.Video, etc.) for the first time launched sales of refurbished (refurbished, “like new”, CPO) iPhones. Let’s look at how attractive this offer is in the material below.
What is a refurbished iPhone
First you need to define the concepts. A restored (or “refurbished”) iPhone is not always a used smartphone that is completely free of existing defects. It could be new smartphone, which, due to some reason (for example, a defect in the production process) was subject to intervention by the manufacturer’s technical service.
Damaged iPhones are sent from service centers around the world to an Apple partner factory where they are manufactured. complete replacement (not repair) of all problematic modules, mandatory replacement of the housing screen, reinstallation software and removing the device from the database of used (activated) gadgets.
At the same time, the iPhone gets “like new” new serial number, manufacturer's warranty (same as a new one - 1 year), documentation, charger, headphones (i.e. the entire new set) and is sent to the Apple Store shelf or reseller store.
Naturally, the final price of such a device is lower, but the difference is not as significant as we would like.
How to distinguish a refurbished (CPO, ref) iPhone from a used one
Extremely undesirable buy new iPhone in ordinary small online stores and from sellers at flea markets (naturally, we are not talking about large official retailers such as Svyaznoy, MTS, M.Video, etc.). Most of these phones will be packaged second-hand phones with a non-original kit. In this case, it is best to buy an official iPhone refurbished by Apple specialists.
It is quite easy to distinguish a smartphone that has been truly refurbished by the manufacturer.
First of all, this is what the box says - she's noticeably different from packaging new iPhone(photo below), and also has a corresponding inscription at the bottom of the front side - “ Apple Certified Pre-Owned"(CPO).
On the right in the photo below is the box new iPhone X, on the left is the box of the original refurbished (ref, CPO, “like new”) Apple iPhone X:
In addition, the refurbished model iPhone starts with F and sometimes contains an abbreviation RFB(refurbished). .
Label of the new iPhone:
Refurbished iPhone Label:
As mentioned above, the buyer of a refurbished iPhone is entitled to a year of free warranty service, which can be easily verified using these instructions:
And yes, the official CPO (“like new” ref) is always sold unactivated, just like a regular new Apple smartphone. This can be easily checked.
We wish you good luck in purchasing your iPhone!
Officially refurbished iPhone 5s with 32 GB of internal memory, which has already sold out in a matter of days. In this regard, Apple plans to continue supplying “like new” iPhone smartphones to Russian retailers.
After Apple, due to the collapse of the ruble, twice raised the price of its products, refurbished Apple communicators appeared in Russia.
What are refurbished iPhones?
What is the difference between new devices and refurbished ones? Imagine that a defect was discovered in your smartphone and an official Apple service center offered you to exchange it for a new one for free. After the exchange, a separate “file” is opened for the broken device, which indicates how long it was used, what problems experts found in it, etc. After this, the smartphone is sent along with a questionnaire to the factory to replace the defective parts.
A gadget equipped with new parts has its case and display changed to give it a marketable appearance, and the serial number changed. New accessories are then added to the device and packaged up. Refurbished iPhone is sold UNACTIVATED!
After all these manipulations, the smartphone is sent to the store, where it is put up for sale with the mark “ Refurbished" You can distinguish “refs” from new devices by markings - on the packaging of refurbished gadgets the type number FF (digital model identifier) RU/A is indicated, for example: FF353RU/A.
When purchasing a “like new” iPhone, the user is given a one-year warranty - during this time, in the event of problems that are not the fault of the owner, he can return the smartphone for free repair.
However, a distinction should be made between used gadgets and refurbished devices.
In the first case, if parts are replaced in them, this is done in a makeshift manner; in the second case, the gadget’s “filling” (display, case, battery) is changed at the factory, after which it is checked for defects.
In Russia, refurbished iPhones can be bought in the retail chains Svyaznoy, Tekhnosila, Yulmart, M.Video, Eldorado and others.
Please note that the box is official refurbished iPhone 5s looks like this:
Whereas on the box from new iPhone 5s There is an image of the smartphone itself:
The price for “refs” is significantly lower than the price for new devices. Thus, a refurbished iPhone 5s with 32 GB on board had a price tag of 26,000 to 29,000 rubles, depending on the retailer, while new devices are available at a price of 37,000 to 41,000 rubles per copy, depending on the configuration.
Apple has developed products that people are very willing to buy. Even if they don’t have money, it’s not a fact that they don’t have new apple iphone 6s or ipad pro. The company's marketers competently created, are creating and will continue to create excitement around their creations. But what should entrepreneurs who also want to make money from the popularity and success of apple do? China opens up great opportunities for us, giving us the chance to work directly with suppliers, get the best prices, affordable quality, and most importantly, high profits.
There are no original new factory iPhones in China!
This truth must be understood, remembered and accepted. In China, there are only refurbished iPhones, and no matter what the supplier tells you, remember this. We are talking about goods for business, as the original apple store, of course, has original phones and tablets, but favorable prices there is simply no availability for these positions in the b2b segment. Let's talk in more detail.
What is a reference phone and what is the difference between it and the original new factory phone.
Refurbished (aka “ref”) is the same phone that was once bought by someone in the apple store, it was already turned on and was in use. Unfortunately, no seller will have the data how much it was used; this information can be viewed on the official website when you look at the activation date using the IMEI number. The used phone is being dismantled.
It turns out he is there for various reasons:
- its owner loses it and is found by an enterprising Chinese who sells it for disassembly
- they steal it, after which the same enterprising Chinese sells it for disassembly
- it is broken, drowned, etc., after which it is handed over for disassembly for a small fee
Next, during disassembly, the seller of ref phones breathes second life into a dead, killed, stolen, or lost phone. He disassembles it, repairs it, replaces some of the original expensive spare parts with cheap Chinese ones (most often the screen module, camera, battery, original button, speakers, back cover, connector for charging and headphones), after which it is assembled and put up for sale. We all know about the quality of Chinese goods:
- class A quality
- class B quality
Each class is divided into at least 3-4 subclasses: BBB and AAA, where BBB is the worst quality of a product that you can pick up, and it will crumble without giving you a chance to look at it.
iPhone ref set
But what about the fact that the iPhone comes in a factory box, with an IMEI number sticker, in full? This is an original, not a ref. Any refurbished iPhone can be packed in a box and supplemented with a charger, cable, needle, headphones and instructions, after which everything is packed in mica.
The seller can even supply original components, can equip it with quality A, or, at the client’s request, can also shove in a terrible BBB copy. In China it's just a matter of cost. Also, if desired, an entrepreneur can purchase a refrigerated iPhone or iPad in a regular zipper bag, so as not to overpay for packaging, but, of course, we don’t think that this will have a positive effect on your sales of these devices.
How reliable are refs and can you trust them?
Among apple refurbished equipment, at least from our supplier, the defect rate is 10-15%. Unfortunately, in this group of products this percentage of defects is the minimum that can happen. While studying suppliers and developing this position for our clients, we came across 40-60% defective batches. The defect in this position is the performance of the devices: screen flickering, battery overheating, camera not working, sticking Home buttons, one-day operation of speakers. No one can say for sure whether this iPhone will work for a year or two, or whether in a week it will begin to please its owner with glitches.
An ordinary buyer will never be able to understand that he is using a referral iPhone, unless, of course, he checks on the Internet about the date of its activation. Iphon will work quickly, nimblely, on the same IOS system, since it is still the same used one original apple, but modified with some Chinese components.
Yes, your iPhone will be original, it will be new, without any scuffs and scuffs, it will work quickly, it will probably take good pictures, it will have iOS... but it will still be a ref, as new factory original apple products for business not in China.
Or consider refurbished models. In English they are called refurbished, CPO (Certified Pre-owned), other options are “like new”, “ref”.
What is it?
These are used devices that have been repaired (if necessary), placed in new cases (look like new), in new packaging with a new set of accessories. With a guarantee!
It seems that buying this option is safer than buying it by hand. But there are many nuances:
Photo - OLX
Who restores phones?
The manufacturer himself or unknown who (private service centers, Chinese sellers, etc.). Among major manufacturers, only Apple officially sells refurbished phones. This is not surprising: iPhones are expensive, and an “almost like new” iPhone at a reasonable price is a tasty morsel for Apple lovers. Last year Samsung decided to follow in the footsteps of Apple, but their refurbished pipes are not yet supplied to Russia.
Photo - cultofmobile
An officially restored iPhone 6S 16GB can now be bought in communication stores for 22 thousand rubles. At the same time, new ones are available in dubious online stores for at least 25 thousand, in reputable ones - for 33-34 thousand. The iPhone 7 model already costs almost 40 thousand rubles. The difference for those who want to save money is serious.
Refurbished iPhone 7s went on sale only last month and have not yet reached Russia. In the US, refurbished “sevens” are offered for $499 (32GB version), $50 cheaper than the same new ones.
Photo - BGR
Where do the recovery tubes come from?
They are returned by users:
Due to breakdowns: often the smartphone is replaced with a new one, and the returned one is restored and resold;
If you don’t like something: in Western countries there are no problems with returning equipment; -According to the program trade-in: for trading in your old device you get a discount on the purchase of a new one.
If the phone is in excellent condition, and the breakdown was trivial (not motherboard burnt out, and, for example, only the camera module needed to be replaced), then there is no point in sending it for recycling. Can be repaired, restored and sold.
Officially refurbished Apple phones have a one-year warranty (the same as new ones), look like new, and receive a new serial number. During the renovation, they receive new displays and batteries.
After the factory restoration procedure, the phones undergo exactly the same testing as new models. In general, Apple's recovery can be trusted 100%.
Photo - Patently Apple
How to distinguish a refurbished iPhone from a new one?
Check the model number on the package. In the refurbished version it starts with F.
Photo - itc.ua
How to avoid becoming a victim of divorce?
Buy refurbished iPhones from certified sellers. Among them are Yulmart, Svyaznoy, MediaMarkt, Citylink, Eldorado, M.Video, Svyaznoy, Megafon, MTS.
Otherwise, there is a high chance that you will be deceived. iPhones are selling out quickly, and unscrupulous people want to make money off of it. It happens that used devices are packaged in films and passed off as new. Or old phones with a bad history (broken, smashed, drowned) have their cases and screens “handicraft” changed and sold under the guise of officially refurbished ones.
Briefly about what to pay attention to:
The packaging of refurbished iPhones is different from that of new ones: it simply says the model name and “Apple Certified Pre-Owned” at the bottom;
Photo - Apple
Officially refurbished iPhones are not sold without packaging or open;
Serial number phone (“Settings” → “General” → “About device”) must match what is indicated on the box;
Punch the serial number in Apple service checkcoverage.apple.com- it will indicate what kind of phone you have and how long its warranty lasts.
Well, in conclusion, once again: do not buy a refurbished iPhone from private individuals or from unreliable online stores.
Restoration by third parties and companies
Only refurbished ones are officially available in Russia Apple smartphones. Samsung also sells refurbished models, but so far only in the US. On foreign trading platforms(eBay, Amazon, AliExpress), on classifieds sites and in various online stores you can find refurbished pipes of any brand. Including attractive flagship models of previous generations - Samsung Galaxy S7 and S8, LG G6, HTC 10, Sony Xperia XZ and XZ1. In foreign stores they usually write about them “Seller Refurbished” (restored by the seller).
For example, on AliExpress the Galaxy S7 is offered for 16-17 thousand rubles, while a new one in Russia costs 25-28 thousand.
Is it worth buying?
This is a lottery with an unpredictable ending. There are two types of companies that refurbish and sell phones:
Large sellers who specialize in this. They have a lot of experience and a lot positive feedback. They use original parts and offer a long warranty. The same may apply to serious SCs. In the USA, refurbished electronics are also found in large chains such as Best Buy. But we are not in the USA.
Individuals and small companies. If you find a website of a Russian service center that describes good quality and a professional approach - who knows how it really is? The same applies to Chinese sellers. They usually purchase large quantities of “discarded” tubes in America - severely damaged, beyond repair, and handed over under warranty. All this is disassembled piece by piece and the parts are “riveted” into new phones, which are placed in new cases, films are glued on and packed into fresh boxes.
The accessories are also new, but of course they cannot be official. If any spare parts need to be replaced, non-original components are used. The buildings are also “left-handed”.
At the same time, you don’t know who used the phone before you and for how long, why the device was returned to the store and how it got repaired. You don't know who repaired it or how well he did it. You don’t know what checks the restored device went through - or whether it went through them at all. You don’t know what condition its motherboard is in, and whether the battery is alive. You don't know how long it will work. Such sellers sometimes give a guarantee, but it rarely exceeds 2-3 months.
The Chinese workshop is in full swing. Source - YouTube
Of course, there are happy cases. After all, there are many sellers who deserve trust. You can find recommendations online, but I won’t recommend anyone in particular. And among the restored ones there are many phones that had minor damage, and they were well repaired. It is likely that they will last for more than one year, and you will save a lot. But it is also likely that you will be unlucky and the tube will fail in a couple of months. Whether the savings are worth it is up to you to decide. Overall, in my opinion, the risk is about the same as when buying used.
