Refurbished mobile phone

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stevedg

15 posts

Geek

# 205501 16-Nov-2016 10:37

I have just brought a iPhone 5s online from a long standing NZ store being sold as 'mint condition' and refurbished. Sure enough it appears that the front and back are pristine with only some scratches around the beveled front edge. However I ran some diagnostics on the battery ('Battery Life' app and 'iBackUpBot for iTunes') and the battery has come back as Bad - imminent failure, and listed as 900 left out off 1570mAh. I have sent the store an email yesterday for their opinion and advice but haven't received a reply yet.

My question is due to the description for the phone being refurbished and in mint condition should I have expected a battery with more life (as I did)? Luckily it has a 6 month warrantee on the battery but I needed a reliable phone to replay my iPhone 4S.

I would be interested in your thoughts ...

Steve

esawers

324 posts

Ultimate Geek

# 1671793 16-Nov-2016 10:42

One person supports this post

I believe stores such as 1 day deal sites sell refurbished iphones, but rather than being refurbished by Apple they have their own people doing it.

scuwp

3208 posts

Uber Geek

# 1671807 16-Nov-2016 10:56

1-day by any chance? You brought a second hand phone so should not expect it to operate as new. That said I would suggest having a careful review of the listing/advert and any conditions to see what they 'claimed' the phone to be and what kind of warranty or assurances they may have made. If it is 1-day I have found they are not too bad to deal with warranty issues but do take a few days to respond.

Always be yourself, unless you can be Batman, then always be the Batman

stevedg

15 posts

Geek

# 1671866 16-Nov-2016 11:28

No, is wasn't One Day.

The actual add details for the product below:

Apple iPhone 5s 32GB Gold Mint Condition Refurbished

Manufacturer

Apple

Model

iPhone 5S 32GB

Condition

Refurbished

Comes with:
iPhone 5s
Aftermarket Headphones
Aftermarket Connector to USB Cable
USB Power Adapter

Parallel Imported.

Warranty : 1 Year.

Delivery within 1-3 business days.

Am I being unreasonable expecting a refurbished phone to have a new to near new battery (at least 80% full capacity)?

tchart

1534 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

# 1671883 16-Nov-2016 11:44

Following with interest. My wife also recently got a refurb phone (off 1-day). The battery life is crap.

stevedg

15 posts

Geek

# 1673774 18-Nov-2016 18:59

Friday update:

I sent the company another email today as I had not had a reply to my email that I had sent Tuesday. Then at 6pm I received a phone call - an apology that they had been really busy and where just getting around to their emails (very polite and reassuring).

Their definition of a refurbished phone is one that had been sent in for repair of a fault, so if there were no other issues then nothing else would be done. Thus a worn battery is not replaced unless it is considered faulty (unlike Apple Refurb which returns the device like new with new battery and case). Thus you still get a second hand device but at least it has a warrantee.

In this case they acknowledged that the battery is faulty, and said they would be happy to replace the phone or put a new battery in if I send it back. Feeling much happier about the company now.

Ill post again once the device is back and hopefully give the business a big thumbs up.