Is Back Market a Scam?

Back Market claims to sell "premium refurbished" tech. Is it worth considering?

Chapter Titles:
0:00 What is Back Market?
3:35 Razer Kishi
4:55 Surface Pro 6
8:08 Customer Service
8:55 Xbox Series X
11:52 Nintendo 64
13:21 Game Boy Play It Loud
15:16 iPhone 12
17:07 AirPods 3rd Gen

[Trinket_Master]

I work at a refurbishing company, I feel bad for our customers.

While we do not give out broken devices, we do make sure they're as good as possible we refurbish them with the cheapest parts possible.

These companies are not your friends, they're buying these devices for pennies, I've seen the prices, then selling them for much higher prices with crappy parts.

Profit margins are over 80% sometimes, I've seen as high as 250% profits.

For example we sell iPhone XRs for like €400.

We buy them for €80...

[JackCh]

The main problem with back market is it isn't that cheap... for example, Pixel 7a starts on there from £349... you can buy a brand new one for for £379... I think £30 isn't big enough difference to not go for a brand new one.

[shadowreaperjb]

I've had good experience with backmarket, but the one thing I will tell people when they ask is that you need to check the ratings for sellers.

[Eternalozzie]

Refurbished just means used unless you are buying refurbished directly from the manufacturer. All these market places have let scammers run wild with no real oversight.

[staples]

I think it’s hard to trust a company when something like a nonfunctioning touch screen gets past them and sold.

[andre.seixas_PT]

Bought my 2018 (1st gen) iPad Pro for 650€ in 2022 where most if not all places sold it at the time for around 850€ mint condition with cellular and 256Gb and still rocking solid with 24 months warranty. Zero complaints from this website but then again I guess a bit of luck is expected in any refurbished website.
Keep up the good work, love your videos all the way from Portugal 👊🏻

[jonoh]

As someone who’s been a repair technician for all kinds of consumer electronics, I would say the choice to order a surface laptop was a good and bad choice. Reason being that any repairs on a surface 2 in 1 are crazy difficult because the screen is a horrible experience to remove if it isn’t already damaged(even if it is, it can still be a hellish experience). If your surface had its battery replaced but not the screen then I totally see it possible that the technician damaged the screen accidentally. Then again, it would’ve been very impressive to see that Back Market’s selection of qualified refurbishers actually able to complete a repair like that. So again, good and bad choice.

[fritz_m]

I've bought 2 phones already from BackMarket (both UK & US) and I am actually satisfied with my purchases. It's pretty much the same experience with Austin's when ordering the fair/good condition. You just have to manage expectations and sometimes you get better specs or "freebies" just like the Gamepass 👌🏼

[ThatGuySnagz]

Bought a 2018 Macbook Pro for school from backmarket in fair condition, and there were minor scuffs, definitely didn't feel like it needed to be in fair condition. The keyboard works perfectly too and hasn't failed! (knock on wood)

[fireflyslight]

At one point, I feel like Back Market was actually a great deal. I bought a used Galaxy S7 from there shortly after the S8 came out. It was essentially brand new, great condition, and for super cheap (I think around $300). I got the S10 when that came out, but when I decided to try an iPhone again about two years ago, Back Market was not competitively priced at all. I looked at both Android and iPhones, but couldn't really find anything on there even close to eBay or other secondhand market prices. Just not worthwhile anymore in my opinion, but was once a great place to look for deals.

[DriftedDreams]

Back markets 25 point inspection consists of looking at the item from 24 different angles then checking it charges.

[rollingtroll]

I don't mind refurbed, but it should still be closer to the second hand value, than to the new price. With these prices you may as well just buy two second hand ones from a random seller. Worst case scenario you only get it right on the second attempt ;).

[fivebrosstopmos]

Their retro gaming prices are INSANE for something that had to be refurbished.

[DdoneTTV]

All this makes me want to do is not ever buy a "fair" product lmfao, I couldn't get behind how bad even the cosmetic scratches were for something I'm paying hella money for tbh...

But the ones that were in better condition, if that is applied to all their products, could find some great deals it seems!

[hburnham]

I was 1000% going to leave a comment about how you can get a brand new series X for only $60 more but then the 2 years of gamepass ultimate came up and wow, that makes it worth it.

[sasukepoonsall]

The Surface did have bad pixel burn but that's super common in most Surfaces that are past a few years old :/
The non-touch issue was a driver not being installed most likely. If you fresh install Windows from a wiped SSD the drivers aren't natively installed. Turning on Wifi and checking for updates fixes this in about 10 minutes.

[corpie]

Recently brought an iPhone 12 for the girlfriend because her old one was stolen, white, 128gb in "good" condition and cost £335. I was blown away when it arrived, it looked brand spanking new, fresh off the Chinese factory floor. Obviously not every seller or item will come near perfect but it was an easy, stress-free experience. Will definitely go back when I'm due an upgrade

[robertharvey]

Thank you for doing a video on this. Can’t tell you how long I’ve been waiting for a reliable review.

[wtflolomg]

Your Xbox was a lease package. I got one of these when I leased mine in the middle of the great shortage.... the beauty of the lease was that you actually spent less for the Xbox Series X and Game Pass, with no interest payments spread out over 3 years.

[socaltrash]

I recently purchased a Galaxy Note 20 5G for $180. The phone arrived in just two days, which was quite impressive. Initially, everything worked perfectly. However, after a few days, I encountered an issue with the Bluetooth—it stopped working and wouldn’t turn back on. Despite this setback, the return process was straightforward and only took a few minutes. I received a replacement phone two days later without any issues. Overall, despite the initial hiccup, I’m satisfied with my purchase and the customer service I received.