Buying a Graded or Refurbished Mobile Phone

By Stuart
February 6, 2019

Should you buy a graded or refurbished mobile? Our guide will help you out.

You may think that if you buy a graded or refurbished mobile that you will have no protection under consumer law. This is not really the case any UK retailer or web retailer has to sell goods that must perform to contract and match the description given. Your mobile will be covered under the consumer rights act, this means that you have the same rights as if the goods were purchased as new.

Goods must be as described

If the phone is described as graded then you can expect some wear and tear. Usually the retailer will highlight what grade the mobile phone is. This can be very subjective, is your grade A the same as someone else’s? The mobile phone must also work (unless it was described as not working). The retailer may service the warranty and not the manufacturer, in practice this really doesn’t make a huge amount of difference to you. The retailer will have to repair or replace your mobile if the mobile develops a fault. Whether it is a repair or replacement is usually up to the retailer, but in any event you can only expect a like for like replacement.

Refurbished or Graded

Refurbished mobiles are different from graded, as the name suggest a process has been applied before reselling. The mobile phone will have been tested, re-boxed and will be as good as new, however this is normally reflected in the price. Graded handsets may only have been cleaned, tested and checked to determine the grading and are therefore generally cheaper than refurbished handsets.

Refurbished or graded usually means a lower cost of purchase overall, therefore we recommend that you look at some of the deals available here sometimes they are significantly cheaper. In general most people will put a new phone in a case and maybe put a screen protector on, therefore by the time you buy a graded handset they are generally in good condition.

It’s worth noting that sometimes the price difference between a refurbished phone and new phone can be minimal, it all depends on the model and what new phone offers are currently available. Check before you buy to ensure you feel you’re getting a big enough saving in comparison to buying a new phone

Just a point to note that if you buy a graded or refurbished mobile phone from a reputable retailer they should have had all previous customer data and settings wiped and will have reset the phone back to its factory settings.There will be no evidence of previous use. If you do find any previous customer data, notify the retailer and return immediately.

If you’re looking for a refurbished phone, you can compare all UK retailers’ latest refurbished phone deals here.

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