Hi all, thought of buying a second hand s20 fe 5g from marketplace. Just wondering any common scam out there I should watch out for? I'm a bit worried the seller will report the imei as lost, and claim insurance?
What guarantee I have to secure the phone once transaction completed. If I have his invoice, would that sufficient to proof anything?
P/S the seller might be ok, but the fact that he's willing to go fair bit lower than original listing price easily got me thinking a bit.
^ Telstra day was a week ago with prices for a new S20 FE 5G at $699.
Also seller could be trying to sell his phone before the new iphone 13 comes out.
Listed for $650, I hesitated a bit, now he dropped to $500..almost unheard of in market place 😂 did send me all the pictures etc with receipt etc.. Seller had the phones for 9 months now
The Oppo Find X2 Pro was $594.15 at cheapest too (https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/643515)
Sounds like he's in a rush to get rid of it as it's definitely devalued…
I personally never thought of risks buying used phones unless it was obviously stolen. I didnt look at all details but It has been selling for around $500 every now and then on eBay.
You can get it new for 650 regularly, it often drops to 700 mark for various employee portals and then the $50 off voucher , so 500 for 2nd hand is not that out there
I’ll be honest with you I wouldn’t. I don’t buy second hand phones anymore. You can claim part of it through taxes if you buy new, for some companies even let you salary sacrifice.
I just buy new from now on (probably last 4 years only purchasing new iPhones, maybe bought second hand 3 -4 times in my life and most of them were for the kids).
The Samsung devalues second pretty quick (unlike Apple - mostly due to the poor Samsung warranty experience). May have to watch out for counterfeits so bring along a test Google account to sign into the phone and check that Google Play works.
…but the fact that he's willing to go fair bit lower than original listing price easily got me thinking a bit.
It's very hard to tell based on that - some people would jack up the advertised price expecting people to bargain hard so they have room to negotiate. Also, it's a common phone so buyers have many other options (of sellers) if the price isn't right so sellers might be more willing to drop the price.
1 - Request the IMEI from the seller first
2 - Do an IMEI check to see if it is stolen or locked https://amta.org.au/check-the-status-of-your-handset/
3 - Request to see seller in person.At their place and not a car park or shopping center.
4 - Insert your SIM card to see if it works, by calling
5 - Test ring tones, sound, vibration, face ID recognition, camera etc. Some phones have hardware diagnostics.. Run that
6 - If any of these fail then opt out of the deal
A person that has a genuine receipt purchased locally will be better grounds to pursue if phone is under local warranty.
Beware of Grey imports.
They're are genuine people that like upgrading and selling their existing phone. It's a matter of filtering the right seller, which is not easy.
Checked the imei, it wasnt blocked.
Can you see the buyer in person?
Yea, I can.
Dont… just dont do it.
If it smells scammy, it probably is. But the scent of the savings could be masking it…
How much is the difference you maybe saving?