Yet another eBay rant with a twist - sometimes I love eBay return practices!

[fleshconsumed]

So you know how everybody bitches about ebay because it always sides with the buyer? Well, tonight, I am damn glad that it does.

This story started about a month ago. I finally got tired of my current phone - LG F6. It always complains about lack of storage and LG rom is driving me nuts. I have finally decided I've put up long enough and decided to get a new phone. I have thought about what I want from my phone and decided I need: 1. AMOLED screen, 2. Removeable battery, 3. SD card storage, 4. CyanogenMod support, and 5. Not too big. Out of all phones only two phones satisfied all the requirements - Galaxy S4 and S5. I have played with both and decided on the S4 because S5 felt too big and a gaudy. CyanogenMod support being one of the requirements, it limited me to just T-Mobile model that is the only one that supports US LTE bands and also has unlocked bootloader.

At this point S4 is 2 years old which is an eternity in a phone world, so off to eBay I go.

The first phone I get is "Manufacturer Refurbished". Everything seems good at first, but then all of a sudden the phone starts ejecting sim card. Basically at least once every day the phone decides that there is no SIM card in the slot and you can't call or text until you restart the phone. Back to the seller it goes.
Phone 1 - defective

The second phone I get is "New". I get it, and I realize that it's not new - it's seller refurbished. It has non-standard IMEI sticker, the front glass is fake, not Gorilla glass like it's supposed to be, but plain non-tempered glass with printed dots, and bad one at that, there are mutiple spots on the screen that get dirty by just being in my pants pocket. Off to the seller it goes.
Phone 2 - not new, seller refurbished with fake glass

At this point I decide, well fine, I'll just buy a phone with broken screen, get a new screen/glass assembly and fix my own phone. I get a phone, it has broken screen, but it powers on just fine, received calls, has sounds and everything, just needs new screen. So that part is fine. Next, I get a "New" LCD display/glass/frame assembly, seller describes it as genuine and brand new. I receive it and it's fake glass, printed dimples on the glass instead of 3D punched ones. Motherfucker. Off to the seller it goes.
Screen 1 - not new, fake glass

Next I start looking for a different screen/glass assembly. I find one that claims to be a) new, b) "Original T-Mobile Galaxy S4 LCD Screen Assembly in Black direct from the manufacturer", and c) explicitly states that it has "Top Front Gorilla Glass Window Lens Black". I think to myself score, this is the one and hit the buy it now button. I received the screen yesterday and guess what? It's another frigging fake! Fake glass with printed dots. Actually it's even worse than the last one because this one is missing one of the thermal pads on the back, it has gunk inside the speaker grill, and the speaker grill itself is all scratched up and dented. I just filed another return, will be shipping it back tomorrow.
Screen 2 - not new, fake glass again



All I want is to just get a new phone. So far out of 5 purchases I have either sent or will be sending back 4 of them. I'm actually a little bit afraid that eBay is going to flag me or something. I have left negative feedback for the #2 and #3 purchases, have to wait 7 days to leave a negative for #4 seller because he's a power seller and I can't leave a negative just yet. But honestly, what good is it going to do?

As I said, right now I'm really glad the eBay makes return process easy and painless. Can't imagine the pain I'd have to go through if they didn't.

I just bought another broken phone. The seller claims the phone is completely functional with working LCD which is what I need, except it can't connect to mobile network. We'll see if it's true or not. To be continued..?

 

[CZroe]

It has been clear to me for years that "OEM," "genuine," and "original" don't mean what they used to mean. These days, "OEM" simply means "not retail, no support/instructions," "genuine" means "it works," and "original" means "new/fits."

The clone manufacturers think they are the "original OEM" for their own part.

 

[drebo]

All that time, money, and energy wasted, you probably would have come out ahead just buying the phone brand new.

 

[fleshconsumed]

That's the thing, that's why I went with "New" for phone number 2. I wanted to just get a working phone. However, it looks like I can't get a new phone even if I try, they're all fakes, or at least most of them are.

 

[CZroe]

All that time, money, and energy wasted, you probably would have come out ahead just buying the phone brand new.

Even last generation's off-contract phones are ridiculously expensive when purchased new.

 

[dud]

OP,

I have the F6 and yes, it can suck. I'm tired of the battery dying after just a day or so but come on ... how much is your time worth? Go buy a new phone instead of building the 6 million dollar phone.

 

[Homerboy]

Buy phones from swappa.com

 

[DesiPower]

Thanks for using bbzzdd, excellent ATOTer, A++++++

 

[Homerboy]

Thanks for using bbzzdd, excellent ATOTer, A++++++

Holy hell... forgot about bbzzdd!~

 

[fleshconsumed]

I guess everybody missed where I tried buying a new phone and I got a seller refurbished one instead with fake non-tempered glass.

Buying new/used/refurbished isn't the issue here. It's the blatant lying by the ebay sellers. Out of 4 parts I purchased 1 was defective, which I suppose could have been an honest mistake, but the other 3 were blatant lies. Here's the link to the last part I tried to buy, this is screen #2. The listing clearly states it's a brand new original OEM part directly from SAMSUNG with top Gorilla glass. That was a blatant lie, the part I got was nothing like that. The second phone I bought and the first screen I bought were also misadvertised/fakes.

Everyone bitches about how bad ebay is for the sellers, and yes, there is some truth to that. However, there is also another side to it, and that is that a lot of the sellers are just plain shitty and push counterfeit or misleading products as evidenced by 3 fakes that I got in a span of about a month.