iPhone from eBay

llyamah

I am thinking of buying iPhone from eBay but have a few concerns and am looking for some insight from the forum.

I am thinking of buying one that is an unwanted upgrade. However, what happens if the seller telephones the network in six months time and says that the phone has been stolen? Can this happen?

It seems to be against common sense to sell an unwanted upgrade on ebay - why get the upgrade in the first place - but I know this in itself shouldn't be a cause of concern.

My main worry is as above - that I buy one and then in six months time the network blocks it.

Any advice from the board?

Jon_01

People take the upgrade, sell it and then use the funds to cover the cost of the contact. Getting it for free in effect.

There's nothing to stop anyone selling a phone and then reporting it lost/stolen later, the networks have no way of transferring ownership. All you can do is to buy from someone that has lots of good feedback and you should be safe. . .

llyamah

Thanks. One other thing that puts me off is that this seller is selling two iPhones at once. He has also sold some other phones - not iPhones - in the past, although his feedback stretches to 2007. Perfect feedback score.

CazuaLL

I would avoid ebay full stop for iPhones, people cant be trusted.

Spend the extra and buy one from your local phone shop/apple atleast you then garuntee a safe working phone with a genuine warranty.

2sides2everystory

Yes it is a big gamble to take ... I held in my hand some very clever fakes when I was in Asia recently. They even had a degree of functionality that might fool the uninitiated for a day or two - they weren't toys - some were a concerted effort to market something that on the face of it looked and felt like an iPhone 4 and was a functioning phone in a £100 to £450 priceband depending on the gullibility of the prospective buyer.

llyamah

2sides2everystory wrote: »

Yes it is a big gamble to take ... I held in my hand some very clever fakes when I was in Asia recently. They even had a degree of functionality that might fool the uninitiated for a day or two - they weren't toys - some were a concerted effort to market something that on the face of it looked and felt like an iPhone 4 and was a functioning phone in a £100 to £450 priceband depending on the gullibility of the prospective buyer.

Interesting stuff. So how could you spot that they are fake? I wasn't too worried about this, but perhaps I should be.

redmalc

Be very careful,my son recently purchased an i phone of ebay which did not work !!!

spaceman5

as a general rule, if you have to buy of ebay, make sure the account of the person you are going to buy from has been running at least a couple of years, and that they have 100% feedback, and sell items pretty regularly, as these are the ones that will take pride in their feedback score, and will hardly want to jeopardise it by selling you a dodgy phone, the items they are selling will generally be a little more expensive than the dodgy sellers, but that is for a reason, they have the genuine item to sell, so the extra will be worth it for peach of mind, the seller you describe in your post seems to be alright, as if they had done anything dodgy you can be sure that somebody would have left feedback accordingly

spaceman5

spaceman5 wrote: »

as a general rule, if you have to buy of ebay, make sure the account of the person you are going to buy from has been running at least a couple of years, and that they have 100% feedback, and sell items pretty regularly, as these are the ones that will take pride in their feedback score, and will hardly want to jeopardise it by selling you a dodgy phone, the items they are selling will generally be a little more expensive than the dodgy sellers, but that is for a reason, they have the genuine item to sell, so the extra will be worth it for peach of mind, the seller you describe in your post seems to be alright, as if they had done anything dodgy you can be sure that somebody would have left feedback accordingly

I have followed this rule with every purchase on ebay, from games to watches to phones to cookers and even a car, and i have never had a problem on there.

EDIT: actually there was 1 time when i never followed the rule and i did get stung, but in the end i managed to get a refund from the seller and keep the product i brought, which was a pair of ps3 controllers from japan, so you could say i asked for them to be dodgy, but it worked out in the end:D

llyamah

Agreed, I tend to follow that approach anyway, unless it is something that I am willing to take a risk on. Have not had many problems on there. In fact, the only ones that spring to mind are selling items on there - non payers etc.

MarkBargain

I wouldn't risk buying an iPhone on Ebay, what happens if it goes wrong after a couple of months?! Much better to buy new from a reputable supplier with a one year guarantee, and if you can't afford that look at some of the far cheaper Android handsets out there made by the likes of HTC. The Desire S is £321 SIM-free on Amazon.