Is Back Market a Scam? 

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...

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.

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

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.

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.

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 👊🏻

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 👌🏼

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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 ;).

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!

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)

Always love the vibes and edits in your videos!

The thing with surfaces is that if they have data wiped it correctly and then just installed windows onto it, tested that everything works, wiped it again and reinstalled it leaving it on the setup, then there will be no touch screen.

Thank god more tech videos. Austin you saved my weekend, thank you my friend

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.

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.

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

As for the surface charger most of the time the surface contacts get dirty and you can wipe them clean with a lens wipe or something.

Hi Austin just wanna say i have been watching your vids for a while especially your gaming pc tutorials i managed to build an RTX 4060ti gaming pc for $800 and when i got it i followed your video all the way through very easy to follow and very simple

Your videos are amazing!!

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

8:08 what I don’t understand is that it takes less than 1 minute to see if a touch screen is working or not and you would think it would be part of the refurbish process to see it’s working or not. In my opinion that’s really BAD!

Swappa is my favorite spot to get second hand tech. You actually get photos of what you’re getting and can get a great price. Series Xs often go for $375

5:57 This is also very common with the Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher scene. a lot of HP devices will come with skins that honestly look nice, but also serve the purpose to hide scratches.

Seeing the price of the Xbox a month ago is pretty funny when brand new units are now on sale for $350+ in December.

13:40 Ken and Matt have officially turned into Statler and Waldorf

I bought a good condition 2020 M1 Air from backmarket and the ONLY complaint I have with it is the keyboard seems to have some garbage under it that prevents keys from pushing down unless you mash them, I'm sure I can take it apart and fix it but it actually works perfectly fine.

Honestly surprised you didn't mention the lack of any sort of cushioning for that Xbox, can't believe it was sent that way!

A few years ago, my friend ordered an iPhone Xr from Back Market, and it was fine. After an unfortunate sequence of events it ended up taking a dip in a swimming pool. It wasn't underwater for that long, but still died. This makes me wonder if and how Back Market and other refurbishers test for water proofing/resistance on their refurbished devices, as well as other aspects that aren't obvious from visual inspection, like the used iPad on the channel a few years ago they bought to compare to that cheap HP All in one; the one that had half the Geekbench score it should have had because half the cores weren't working.

Great video! I haven't had any experience with Back Market but wondered how good they were. I'm a big fan when it comes to finding deals on tech. I've bought used stuff from Amazon Warehouse with mostly positive results. The laptop I'm watching this on Is a "open box" item from Best Buy that came with 8 months of remaining factory warranty and was a couple hundred dollars cheaper than new. However, it's always a good plan to be able to return the item if it doesn't meet your expectations.

you know its a good day when your tuning 17 today and austin posts today and chilling playing gmes

i got my iphone X for $100 on there, traded it in on backmarket as well and got a 12 mini for $145

I brought a ‘very good’ switch oled for £240 and it was brand new

Its kinda a hit or miss when you buy from places like this. Someone could buy X and it could be really messed up and someone else could buy the same exact thing and it look good. I looked through their site and didn't see any great deals on anything but maybe next week there might be one who knows. I'm sticking to buying new, knowing its new is worth the extra money

I've had a pretty good experience with them buying 3 different phones, but like other sites it really just depends on the competition at the time of purchasing. I got an excellent condition 256gb iPhone XS about 2 years ago with not a single scratch on the screen and was about $50 cheaper than any other site regardless of condition. I also got 2 Motorola phones for my gf's parents and they were about $100 each whereas they were at minium $160 elsewhere. Also comparing to Amazon "renewed" isn't a very good comparison, Amazon does a whole zero inspection, there's a good chance when buying a refurbished Amazon phone that you either don't even get what you ordered, or you get a shotty repair job and don't notice until it's too late. I got my grandmother's phone from Amazon and they apparently swapped the entire motherboard so a lot of the info in the settings is just broken, the finger print sensor is also completely broken but she doesn't use a passcode so we didn't notice. I could re-buy the exact same phone from backmarket for $150 and it'll almost definitely be in far better condition than hers arrived in 3+ years ago (it's a Galaxy Note 9).

personally i love backmarket just bc of there 1yr warranty and excellent customer support, and bc of this u can literally sort by cheapest of any product without worry, which does have a great value. Dont buy the fair, good, excellent claims bc its all by the seller labeled it as. And if it doesn't fall under the fair category u either return it, the seller swaps it with a better one, u get a discount if u wanna just put up with it, or return

Lol I was literally about to buy a phone from their site and decided to look up a video review before pulling the trigger! Thanks Austin!

I've bought 3 phones from there total and they've all been flawless so I'm intrigued lol

Got a Quest 2 Amazon refurbished it was very much like new, the only giveaway other than the fact it had a refurbished sticker on it is that the box and everything was Meta but one of the controllers had the Oculus logo on it.

Ive bought multiple zfold3 for under market value and had them break on me due to the fold screen itself and back-market customer service / warranty has yet to fail me.

Watching this off of my new samsung s10+ from back market, conveniently enough. Got it in excellent condition, and i'm very hapy with it !

I knew 100% the touchscreen would not work. I have the same one I bought to use as a PC and just added a keyboard and Mouse. Only thing is the listing said the Touchscreen did not work and I paid like $150. I think if you go into the devices setting it may be a driver issue if not the senser was probably removed.

The series X bundled with 2 years of Game pass ultimate was a GameStop thing. That’s how I got mine. It’s around $950 if you pay it all right away. Otherwise it was $60 a month. They had the same bundle for PS5 and ps plus premium but it was impossible to find. And my two years is up in March 😢

They sent you a junk surface with a sticker on it to hide damage. 😂🤣

I always find it interesting that they only showcase the 4 and 5 star reviews on their site.

I'm surprised you used a "horizontal split" folding phone (for lack of a better term. Traditional "flip" instead of "book") in the Razer controller thing. I'd be worried the compression from the springs would put enough pressure on the hinge that it would be in danger of folding beyond it's intended angle.

Amazing video 😄

i can guarantee you back market isn’t a scam, bought PLENTY of devices from them

Those version 1 Razer Kishis break after about six months to a year. There is a design flaw where the ribbon cable keeps getting smashed inside every time you open it. The whole left side buttons/analog stick on mine don't work except for the L1/L2 buttons. You're gonna have to replace the ribbon cable on the left side every so often. Pretty sure that's why they made the V2. Haven't got one of those to be able to see how long it lasts.

With the surface what happened to the 25-point inspection? Is it just looking at it from across the room from 25 angles?

I bought an ipad pro, the condition was listed as excellent and it arrived immaculate, not a single fault with the device or delivery. I did get my from a 3rd party that was selling it on Back Market, the price was more than reasonable for how new the device was at the time and in what condition it was. Nearly a year later, everything is still fantastic, battery lasts forever, screen, speakers camera all good.

Guess I have been lucky with Amazon Renewed? I have ordered refurb phones and several bluetooth speakers from Amazon, and all have worked/been in better shape that what I have seen from Back Market and/or DK Oldies.

I've bought my mom, sister, and myself a phone from back market,and bought new jbl ear buds and a Samsung galaxy tablet, and everything came in really great quality. I'm a big advocate for backmarket.

I used to be a T3 support supervisor for xbox. The 2 years of gamepass ultimate being on the console is most likely xbox all access. The issue with that being if the original terms were not fully paid out the console can lock on you until it is paid off.

I bought a 2020 M1 MacBook Pro from back market that was in “good” condition and it was damn near MINT! The only noticeable damage was a slight scuff on top and a tiny dent on the bottom. If I wasn’t looking for it, I probably would’ve never noticed it It also came packaged REALLY well, but it didn’t come with the original charger, but what I received seems more robust

I had that same version of surface with a chinese charger. The touchscreen worked perfectly EXCEPT when it was charging with that particular charger (other chargers worked). Did you try using the touchscreen when it was not charging ?

I'm so glad I learned electronics repair in the 90s and have a work shop. I just referbed a ps1 slim. Most of what I own as old consoles are refurbished by me. The only console american I don't own are a turbografx and sega master system. I enjoy fixing them more than playing them there more like trophies than things I play.

Thanks to your video, I do not want to order from back market. What happened to the 25 point inspection? Sounds like the only do that after you buy. Thanks for the video

How do you guys choose a website ? Do you order a small and cheap item to make sure it isn't a scam then buy a big order ?

So far Backmarket has been 5/5 for me on delivering quality products at great prices

I'm currently using my pixel 5 from back market and it is absolutely phenomenal for the price I paid

Genuine interest in this video - a more well known tech tuber covering this company/marketplace

I'm wondering for the Surface was the digitizer drivers installed for the touch screen to work

It’s actually funny because I literally bought a Space Gray Mac Mini from Back Market last week. i7, 16gb RAM, and 512gb SSD. I bought it in Excellent condition and it arrived FLAWLESS. I paid around $500 for it and I could not be happier. Definitely worth checking out what they have!

Thought it said black market 😭

they are the worst, i did a returrn for a blown up battery that was so swollen on an iphone and after weeks and weeks, it was lost by the return posting company and that was it, I lost my money and they didnt care

The 🐐 is back! Always love them soulful flips🔥🔥🔥

Never heard of it, never will use it, since I'm not in the US

I've bought from back market and was genuinely happy with my purchase

Wait, what TV are you using with audio video inputs for the Nintendo 64?

I just found out about them yesterday! This is good to know!

I bought a barely used S20 ultra for $360 a year ago. Works just fine. I got a 1 year warranty on an S10 that the GPS started glitching really badly. Sent it back to get the S20 ultra. Cotton swab and isopropyl to clean the contact pins of the N64 cartridge.

I have puchased two phones so far, and actually had a samsung Note 10+ break on me the first time. (From an accidental drop) The reason I returned to BM is the 13 month warranty that covers any accidental damage. I had the full amount (minus the cost of the warranty) returned by direct deposit into my bank account. It was super easy. Im waiting for my new phone to come in the mail… so hopefully it won’t be bad.

I bought my surface from there and it’s been great. They even gave me a screen protector for it

Man 2 YEARS of Game Pass ULTIMATE is insane 😂

I have had good luck with a lot of refurbished products, but normally you get a three month warranty at best. If their prices aren't a lot higher than refurbs from other sites and they offer good warranty service it would be worth it.

A couple months back I bought a Galaxy Z Flip 4 refurbished from Back Market at a pretty good price. When I got it, the phone quickly locked itself after I signed in. I learned later that the phone was actually stolen and sold to me. For sure the first and last time I ever shopped at Back Market

I tried buying a pixel 3 on back market a few years ago and my credit credit card deemed it a suspicious purchase would not let me complete the transaction

Bought my iPhone 12 in great condition with little to no cosmetic issues. I would definitely use it again when I upgrade phones. They have good deals for iPhones at least

I recently purchased an iPhone SE 2nd gen from Back Market in a good condition which came a week after the order but I'd say it was probably because of the holidays during this time. The price of the iPhone was 178 Euro because I live in Germany and it came from Italy. It does have scratches but probably who ever had it never used a case...and the battery is not an original iPhone battery and I can't check the battery health.Sooo it's ok, everything is working properly

This has just appeared in my feed. My partner bought an Iphone from them. 2 days after buying it, it slid off her couch onto the carpet and the screen fell off. Literally came apart. They would not touch it because it was 'fall damage'. Their customer service was apalling. I wouldn't go near them

I have never purchased anything refurbished because I always ask myself one question. What parts were used during this repair? If I am paying near retail, I’d like to know it’s quality parts. Considering I can’t know what parts they are, it’s a no go for me

Must of my audio tech is from Back Market and I love em all.

Wow where'd you get that watch!? Oh... I just got it out the back of a market. Apparently they got it off the back of a truck.

That Xbox console was bought from the leasing program they did through Citizens Bank, It appears someone sold it without using the Gold included with the system for a quick buck and abandoned the system and the payments on it. That wont affect the system at all, but thats why you got 2 years of GPU.

I bought a google pixel in good condition off the site and it came in covered in dog hairs and the back was permanently tainted in liquid stains. One year later the digitizer for the screen stopped working.

I actually used back market and I got my MacBook from there and i like how you can see the condition! Sometimes there’s a risk for a cheaper reward

I bought a IPhone X excellent condition and a few months later the battery expanded and the phone kept shutting down

the touchscreen not working is likely due to windows, not the device itself. windows, albeit having it built in, HATES tablet mode. my surface device struggles trying to figure out whether it's in tablet mode or not. i suggest enabling it manually in the settings and seeing if your touchscreen functionality comes back.

Austin Evan’s: “Lightnings” Apple: “that was personal”

bro just get ebay certified refurbished

my personal experience with back market is overwhelmingly positive, i have only bought off them twice, and only to buy iphones. both bought in "excellent" condition, saved around £200 the first time and around £320 this time compared to buying new, both phones came with 100% battery capacity, not a scratch on either. Cant speak for anyone else but i will most likely buy my next phone in a couple of years from them again

Recently Brought an iPhone XR RED for like 200 off them and Came in perfect condition! Came from an Iphone 6s so was a HUGE upgrade. I know I could of gotten better for an extra 100 or so but I needed something in the meantime cause I plan to get the 16

I worked in the uk for a company many years ago that would by electronics and test and repair and then resell I can tell you from the group of people I worked with we hardly tested anything or if we did it was bare minimum.

I love my LIGHTNING headphones, thanks for the recommendation Austin!

I got a refurbished iPhone 11 with a brand new battery but it has always restarted at about 65-70% twice every time, so a new battery might not be all that it is out to be