Buying refurbished Phone is trending recent years but many merchants and bloggers around the world are arguing the difference between refurbished phones and used Phone. In this article, we are going to shed some light on the refurbished phone, pre-owned phones or used phones.
To understand exactly what those phones are. Firstly, you should understand this second-hand phone source. Individual, small private dealer, top-tier carriers and second-hand phone wholesaler.
Individual
An individual tends to be chasing the latest technology and phone model so they would trade their existing phone, either with the carrier or classified site. Most likely, their phone comes with original parts. However, trading directly with them may not be 100% safe.
What if their phone has dropped into the water before or broke the glasses and replace with a non-original piece. You don’t know the healthiness because normally, individuals won’t use any diagnose software to check the device before they buy. Moreover, what if these smartphones are stolen from somewhere else? Do you have knowledge of how to check the IMEI?
Small Private Dealer
Small private dealers may buy old devices from individuals through the trade-in program. They usually would check the IMEI and make sure the trade-in phone is clean. Meanwhile, these trade-in phones may be 100% in perfect condition and small private dealers will repair and replace the parts in order to resell it with a better margin. Usually, since they are an incorporated business, they would make sure the source is legitimate in order not to get any trouble.
Top-Tier Carriers
Carriers got a lot of second-hand smartphones from individuals because they offer a lot of plans to lure customers to upgrade the phone. Usually, they buy phones from customers, no matter the condition is. They won’t care about whether the parts, e.g., LCD screen or housing is original or not, whether it is repaired before or not. Thousands of these phones from carriers would go into the auction and flow into the reverse logistics industry every week.
Second-Hand Phone Wholesaler
Second-hand phone wholesaler sources used phones in bulk, either from carriers, or Apple partners and then graded these bulk lots into different conditions. Some of the phone wholesalers may repair those phones if they find out any malfunction devices or they may change the LCD or housing in order to resell for better margin.
So, now we know the major sources of these second-hand devices from. What exactly is the meaning of a refurbished phone? Refurbished is a term which covers a lot of scenarios. It has been returned, repaired the problem after inspection. The manufacturer or dealer must fully test the products, repaired, cleaned, reset the software, and repackage it. Customer can also expect it to work every bit as well, and last as long as a brand new product.
Okay, we understood this term has a very board meaning, however, we know that a refurbished device must be fully inspected, repaired and reset to original condition. When you browse through the marketplace or B2C phone retailers, no matter what keyword they use, refurbished, or certified pre-owned, the most important thing the customer should know are:
- Where are these phones coming from? Are they stolen? Is the phone locked?
- Does the supplier, or the dealer fully inspected the phone? By human or professional phone diagnosis software?
- Are the phones 100% functional?
- Any guarantee or warranty?
Web retailers tend to use the keywords which is popular searching and that is why putting a proper keyword on the title, doesn’t exactly means what you are going to get. To conclude, no matter the seller use the wording, “Refurbished”, “Certified Pre Owned”, or “Used”, there is no problem at all. The most important thing you should check whether the seller is an experienced second-hand phone trade like cellpohoneage.com. Cellphoneage is an experienced second hand or refurbished phone sellers for many years. All their phones come from legitimate sources and their phones are 100% inspected by Phone diagnosis software and human together.