What have people against ebay for buying phones?

towel401

Over the years I bought loads of phones on there and managed to sell them on for a reasonable price when i got sick of them. no *real* bad experiences to speak of. they all arrived / worked. one was a bit more tatty than they let on and another one was locked but could unlock it myself for free.

but it seems like people in here avoid it like the plague and would rather walk into a shop over here and buy some overpriced / locked / branded thing here or buy it through the network. I don't get it tbh. a factory unlocked phone new or almost new from England costs the same as some locked thing you buy in the shops over here

so what has ebay done to get its bad rep? any bad stories to tell?

Rsaeire

I have bought 4 handsets from eBay over the last four years with only one small issue. The last handset I bought was used, even after the seller advised it was brand new with the box only opened to make sure the handset worked. The reason I knew it was used was because the seller's phone numbers were still on the handset, but other than that, I wouldn't have known. As I said, a small issue, but it was deceitful nonetheless.

I haven't heard many horror stories regarding handsets bought from eBay and I recommend Boards.ie users to buy from there whenever possible. The main points people should remember is that they should buy from a seller with a high feedback rating and percentage, they should check back over the seller's feedback and the item's page should show actual pictures of the item and not press shots taken from a manufacturer's website.

towel401

if it's a nokia theres always good ol *#92702689#

theres usually a few hours / minutes on the supposedly "new" phones you get in auctions. i think people buy them, decide they dont like and then sell on

i got a E61 on there before it has 15 mins of use and a pic of some girl's pierced squishmitten on it nothing else

long_b

No bad eBay stories here either.

I've bought 3 handsets (N82). Had a small problem with one of them but the seller was very decent and gave a full refund.

There's a lot of fake N95 8GB (Chinese with a much lower spec) floating around though, wouldn't trust one off eBay.

Having said all that, I prefer to deal on adverts.ie when I can.

Tom Dunne

No bad stories here either.

Then again - look at those who replied to this thread. I would say all fairly aware of phones and what they can/can't do, plus I would wager quite able to spot an e-bay scam at a 1,000 feet.

It's those that are not as familiar with mobile phone technology/e-bay that seem to get stung.

Random

like all things you buy on ebay if you know the product you're buying, the industry and also have some cop on in relation to the internet eta then ebay is great.

Otherwise the chances are you getting scammed with electronics is very high in my opinion.

You'll find a lot of ebay threads here relate to specific sales and a lot of the time they're scams or not as advertised.

godskitchen

While I have never had a problem with ebay, in terms of phones, I could never reccomend it to anyone who is not all that clued up (I am thinking mothers here) for the simple reason that there are too many scams/"WOW IPHONE £200 BNIB (lookalike)" type crap