How to get a refurbished iPhone in Australia?

If you are looking for a refurbished iPhone in Australia then you need to do a bit of hard work. The reason being the refurbished iPhone is hard to find unless you have someone known selling one, or you get to import one from US or find a genuine Australian online site that sells such devices.  Apple also from time to time at their stores or online site offers a range of refurbished products to buy. Apple never actually comments on where they’ve been refurbished from, which means that they could be ex-review stock, ex-store stock, repaired items from customer exchanges or possibly just end-of-life stock. But whatever the source, the one product line that Apple has never offered previously in its refurbished store are iPhones of any type.

Before you begin to find one for yourself first understand the meaning of refurbished iPhone and the difference of a refurbished one and a used iPhone. If an iPhone was returned just after it was purchased, then re-sold, it is “refurbished.” Refurbished iPhones usually come with a factory new warranty.

If someone used the phone for a year or two and then wiped it to factory defaults it is used. Even if that iPhone is being sold by someone claiming to be an authorized dealer it is still used iPhone and not refurbished.

So buying a refurbished iPhone is a great idea rather than going for a used iPhone. Because as said above refurbished phones were either returned by the original purchaser, or, in some cases, floor models. People return iPhones for a variety of reasons, but there is usually nothing wrong with the unit. Sometimes they just want a bigger model or maybe something was defective about the unit and Apple swapped it out. In the case of the latter, Apple is going to swap out the defective part and test the unit thoroughly before reselling it. Even with the ones that weren’t defective, Apple is still going to test the unit just to make sure it is restored to factory defaults. So in many ways, you are less likely to get a defective unit when you buy a refurbished iPhone.

Importing a Refurbished iPhone from US

Apple had few months back started selling refurbished iPhone 6s and 6s Plus models through its online refurbished store in the US. In Australia it is actually run by a completely separate company and thus Apple itself might not have that much second-hand stock to sell here.

It’s no surprise, by the way, that the iPhone 6s generation or even the newest model iPhone XS might too be  available which may show that there might be a lot of refurbished stock lying around, and in any case they’re selling rapidly and there would be a poor business case to offer them cheaply

You need to first look at the US asking price for refurbished iPhone models and compare it against the price you’d pay in Australia for the same device. Also you can see the US sales tax cost which are never listed for devices, so presumably you’re buying in a sales-tax-free state. Also shipping charges, because that can vary widely, but it’s obviously a factor unless you’re planning US travel some time soon.

Also see the model of refurbished iPhone available in their US site and see the model of the phone whether it is 16 GB or more. After taking all these costs into consideration now convert US prices as per the AUD currency rate at the time you think of importing one from US.

Also remember that that Apple’s providing a one-year warranty with these phones, which is slightly less than the general protections of Australian consumer law, and you would have to live with a lower storage capacity than currently available on the same models.

Again remember one thing to check carefully is the precise model number of the phone being offered, which Apple US does list in its sales description and whether those phones are unlocked and should work fine on Australian networks.

Finally depending on your needs you can think of buying a refurbished one or a used one. We suggest to go for a refurbished one if you get a catch at local Apple store or wait then to arrange for your budget and get a new iPhone instead. With so many telcom carriers now offering cheap rates and plans on latest iPhone you can choose the model you wish to have.  Click here to buy one refurbished iPhone online at an Australian site.

Going for a used iPhone then find some useful tips in our next post before you buy one.