Used Apple technology is in great demand in Russia. It hardly loses value and remains relevant for a long time. Naturally, such a profitable topic attracts scammers who profit from the inexperience of buyers. Every year their tricks become more sophisticated and brazen.

Together with experts from the classifieds website, we have identified 5 popular methods of fraud when buying an iPhone. We hope this material will help you avoid trouble.

1. Selling an old iPhone under the guise of a new model

(2015) is difficult to distinguish from (2013), which is what scammers successfully use. They pass off an old iPhone SE as a brand new one and sell it for 2 times the price.

It's done like this. First in the firmware old iPhone 5s change the device information so that when checked it appears to be an iPhone SE. Then the components of the iPhone 5S are transferred to the case from the iPhone SE. Such a device works fine, and it is sold not for 10-15 thousand rubles, like the iPhone 5s, but for 20-25 thousand rubles.

Recognizing deception is quite difficult. To do this, you need to reset all system settings on the spot and carefully check the IMEI, serial number and model name. An ignorant person will most likely fall for the hook by limiting himself to an external examination and checking a couple standard features.

2. Selling an iPhone locked to an operator

Fraudsters buy in America and sell here at twice the price. They often trade remotely, sending phones by mail to any region of Russia.

The catch is that the smartphone is locked to a foreign operator, which means you won’t be able to use it normally. So that the buyer does not suspect anything, the box is printed, a sticker with the data of another iPhone, for example, from Germany, is pasted on the back, and then sealed back in film.

Many people try to unlock their iPhone and come across other scammers - numerous services that, for a modest $30, will “untie” the smartphone from the operator. As you can imagine, many of them do not produce results.

3. Selling an iPhone with Find My iPhone enabled

The scam looks like this: you buy a used iPhone second-hand, and the next day you receive a message: “This phone has been stolen. I know your location. Return the iPhone by calling ***, or I will file a police report." Then the smartphone is blocked.

The Find My iPhone app is installed on all Apple smartphones. If you don’t turn it off before the sale, you can follow the new owner and even send him messages. Therefore, attackers can actually monitor your location and lock your phone remotely. They may also have real documents for the phone, which they will use to blackmail you as the illegal owner of the device.

Alas, in most cases, the unlucky owner of a “stolen” iPhone has to comply and return the phone, so as not to have to deal with the police and the prospect of a criminal case. Sometimes you can get away with a “ransom” by putting money on the card.

4. Replacing the original iPhone with a copy or mock-up

Fraudster shows original iPhone and, when you are about to pay, exchanges it for a fake. Sleight of hand and planned actions will leave you in the dark all the way home.

5. Selling stolen iPhones, often with password-protected iCloud

Criminals may try to sell you a stolen iPhone. Usually these are very cheap, without a box, kit or receipt. The iPhone is locked and requires an account password. The scammer explains this by saying that he “forgot his account password” or the smartphone was hacked. In fact iPhone case was stolen, and now they are trying to get rid of it and sell it for at least some money.

Naturally, there is no need to buy such a smartphone, because it is impossible to unlock it without the real owner.

Which iPhones can you buy second-hand for sure (without cheating)

Five good options With low prices and adequate sellers:

• Make sure your iPhone is unlinked from iCloud and account Apple.
• Check the contents: the box should contain original charger, cable and headphones.

Remember this and don't be fooled!

Let's put it bluntly: buy official iPhone from hand - The best way buy an iPhone. By at least, if value for money is important to you.

You can buy an iPhone one and a half to two times cheaper than in a store. At the same time, you can maintain the warranty and receive the device in excellent condition for many years. Those who know how to buy second-hand delight me. However, when purchasing, there is a high risk of running into scammers. Here are some ways to protect yourself.
What kind of phone do you need ideally? Fraudsters are cunning, but you can avoid falling for their tricks if you know the subtleties. In an ideal situation, a used iPhone should be sold like this:

Check pedigree

In an ideal situation, the iPhone should be officially purchased, created for Russia and brought to Russia legally. To check this, go to “Settings” - “General” - “About this device”.
Here we are interested in the model and serial number of the device. You will also need IMEI for the future. Write them down in a notepad:

By last letters model, we will determine for which country the phone is made
By serial number - is it covered by warranty?
By IMEI - is the phone listed in the stolen database?
All information about this iPhone is in the “Settings” - “General” - “About this device” section.
There will be two letters at the end of the model number. They show which country your iPhone was made for. Our iPhone has the letters LL - which means the phone is made for the USA. A Russian iPhone will have the letters RS or RU here. Using the serial number, you can check whether this iPhone is covered by Apple's warranty.
Go to checkcoverage.apple.com and enter the serial number of the device:

The serial number you are checking

If the phone was purchased officially, then the date of purchase will be confirmed, as here
If the phone was originally purchased in another country, then it may not be repaired in Russia
Using the serial number, Apple will tell you everything about your phone: whether it was purchased legally, whether it has a warranty, and whether it can be serviced in Russia.
If you are offered an iPhone not for Russia, this does not mean that the iPhone is bad. Here are your risks:
You will not be able to repair this iPhone in the official service center"Epla." But you can repair it in any other workshop if their craftsmen have direct hands.
It may not have high-speed Internet using the LTE standard if you buy some exotic version of the fifth iPhone. There will be no problems with the sixth and further. The fourth iPhone does not have LTE at all.
You will overpay. Foreign iPhones, as a rule, will cost less than Russian ones. And a used one from abroad is even cheaper. If you are offered American iPhone at a price 20% lower than in the store - you can bargain for at least another 20%.
Check background
Everyone has it mobile phone There is a special serial number - IMEI. Using this number you can check whether the phone is on the list of stolen ones. You wrote down the IMEI along with the serial number.
Go to any IMEI checking site. For example, sndeep.info/ru. You can open several sites at once and check them in parallel.
Enter the IMEI and see what is written about it in the database.
If a phone with this IMEI was reported as stolen, you will see it.

This iPhone is not listed as stolen
Unfortunately, a phone with a good IMEI reputation may turn out to be stolen, just as the “Stolen” status may turn out to be false. But if they offer you an iPhone without a box, a receipt, charger and wires, and from IMEI checks you found out that it was stolen - most likely, the device was really stolen. I don’t recommend buying one - they might come for it.

Unbind

Fraudsters have a trick: they quickly sell you an iPhone for a symbolic 7-10 thousand rubles. At the same time, you don’t notice that the iPhone is not disconnected from their Apple records ID. When the scammers have the money and you have the phone, the scammers remotely turn on “Lost Mode”, as if you bought a stolen phone. After this, the supposed owners of the phone start calling you and demanding that you return it.
Pressure and threats begin, and some buyers return the phone, because they bought it very cheap. You may even be offered a conditional “ransom” - from your own money. This is how the phone is returned to the scammers. And again: the phone is sold again, blocked and taken away. One such phone can be sold several times.
To avoid this fate, make the seller take the following steps in front of you. They are described on the Apple website, here is a verbatim quote:
How to prepare a device for sale, from the Apple website
Go to Settings > iCloud. Scroll down and click Sign Out. iOS 7 or later early version Click the "Delete Account" button. Click "Sign Out" again, select "Delete from iPhone" and enter your passcode. Return to the Settings screen and click "General" > "Reset" > "Erase Content and Settings." If Find My iPhone is turned on, you may need to enter your Apple ID and password. If you are prompted to enter your device passcode or restrictions passcode, enter it. Then click “Erase iPhone”. When the iPhone is erased, when loading you will see White screen with greetings to different languages. If you see something different when loading, the iPhone was not erased, and it is still tied to someone else's Apple ID. An erased iPhone should look like this:

A clean iPhone greets you with a white screen and initial setup language and network. If you see the usual application icons when loading, this iPhone is not clean.

Personal safety

If you come across an ordinary honest person who really wants to sell you a normal iPhone, there is nothing to worry about. But this is difficult to understand if you met via the Internet. Therefore, always assume that you are going to meet a scammer.
Go with friends. Ask a friend or two to go with you to meet the seller. Even the mere presence of other people can deter a scammer. If you agree to pay in cash, give the money to your friends in installments in case the seller decides to hit one of you in the head with a hard, blunt object.
Choose a crowded place. It’s quite strange to buy an iPhone in a dark alley or in a half-flooded basement in an abandoned industrial area. Choose a place for the transaction where you can sit at a table, connect to the Internet, calmly examine the device and check its serial numbers and IMEI.
If in doubt, refuse. If you are invited to pick up an iPhone to a strange place, you don’t like the salesman’s voice or he pushes you too persistently - just refuse. Every day someone decides to sell their normal iPhone, and it’s better to wait a couple of days than to get involved in a dubious deal.

Signs that someone is trying to deceive you

Rush. The scammer will prevent you from checking serial numbers and IMEI, ask you to make up your mind quickly, push you and put pressure on you. Don't give in. If you find yourself in such a situation, turn around and leave.
The phone is dead. If the phone does not turn on or shows a low battery, most likely you are dealing with a scammer. After turning on the iPhone, it may turn out to be locked or not an iPhone at all.
The phone is slow. Chinese iPhone clones are sometimes indistinguishable from the original appearance, but inside they slow down quite noticeably. If the iPhone scrolls through apps slowly, slows down when scrolling, and generally gives the impression of being slow, it’s probably a fake.
Strange screen. Another property of Chinese iPhone clones is a cheap screen. You've probably seen that iPhone screens are always bright, clear, with good viewing angles and expressive colors. Pixels are not visible on real iPhones. Cheap clones have cheap screens, pixels are visible on them, and colors are distorted at angles.

Isn't it easier to buy an iPhone in a store?

After all this, it may seem easier to go to official store Apple and buy an iPhone there. And this is fair if you don’t want to go into details and waste time.
But on the other hand, at any moment on Avito hundreds and thousands of people sell their iPhones for 10, 20 and even 30 thousand cheaper than in the store. Sometimes guys buy iPhones for girls, and the next day they decide to part with them; sometimes people urgently need money; Sometimes an iPhone is simply not needed on the farm, so they sell it. These are normal working iPhones that will serve you for many years.
If you spend three hours selecting and checking such an iPhone, and save 30 thousand, then your hour will cost 10 thousand rubles. Few people know how to sell their time so dearly.

conclusions

The official Russian iPhone will have the letters RS or RU in its model
Check the serial number to see if your iPhone is covered by warranty.
There is a rush - no deal
Battery low - no deal
It’s better to wait a couple of days than to get involved in a dubious deal

IN Lately Cases of fraud have become more frequent in which users who have lost their favorite gadget suffer.

Unfortunately, such a scheme works not only with smartphones; people who have lost their passport, documents, driver’s license or keys fall for it.

In winter, this topic becomes very relevant, because the number of things falling out of pockets and ending up in the snow is growing.

How it all begins

A person who has lost an iPhone (or other valuables) counts on the honesty and decency of other people and does not leave a chance to return the loss.

In order to somehow notify others about what happened, announcements are posted. The most advanced ones do not just paste pieces of paper on poles in the suspected location of the loss, but also post messages online.

Free message boards and classifieds sites are full of such messages.

The owner of the smartphone asks to return the item for a good reward. Of course, scammers could not ignore such a “fishing place”, and are trying to profit from the authors of such advertisements.

All sites are regularly reviewed for similar messages, and new advertisements are immediately put into action.

What does the victim see?

Just a few hours after posting the ad on specified phone number a call comes in. A pleasant male/female voice reports that, by pure chance, a kind person discovered the missing device and is ready to return it immediately.

At first they refuse the reward, and then they themselves casually remind them of the need to somehow thank the savior.

They immediately make an appointment in a crowded place convenient for the victim, so as not to arouse any suspicion. Usually they arrange a meeting at a supermarket, cafe, or store.

When the victim is already happily running for the treasured gadget, the call comes again, the savior apologizes and says that he cannot personally drive up and give the smartphone. He says that he will send his friend/secretary/wife to the meeting.

Then the scammer says that at the meeting his assistant won't be able to take the money.

The reasons can be given completely different. Some may not want to walk around with a large sum, others will be afraid of surveillance or accusations of illegal trade in smartphones, others will simply be in a hurry and will not be able to personally return the money to the person who found the smartphone.

The scammer himself will suggest a way out of the situation. He will ask you to transfer money to his card or top up his phone.

This is how the victims take their money

When the victim of the scam is already holding the reward in his hands and wants to see his smartphone again, the scammer calls again. He suggests not to waste time and start depositing money into his card/account.

To ensure that the victim does not change his mind, he only offers to indicate the account number, deposit the amount into the terminal, and when his assistant returns the smartphone, all that remains is to press a button to confirm the payment.

This will make it faster and easier for all participants in the operation.

When everything is done according to the instructions, the fraudster makes a “control to the head.” He says that an assistant with an iPhone is standing at the entrance to the store/cafe, but they are in a hurry. You need to quickly grab the receipt and run for your device.

Of course, no one is waiting for anyone.

Even if the victim does not want to confirm the payment and becomes suspicious, it will most likely be impossible to cancel the transaction. Payment terminals do not issue money back, and the vast majority do not even allow you to cancel the current card/account replenishment operation.

It is for this purpose that we are asked to carefully check the entered data, and after entering the banknotes there is no going back.

How to avoid getting caught

To avoid becoming victims of such fraud, you need to take basic precautions. There is no point in bringing the matter to the point of entering money into the terminal; you can immediately cut off such scammers and not waste time communicating with them.

1. If you post a missing person's ad, intentionally make a small mistake.

For example, if your iPhone has a large scratch on the bottom, write that it is on the top. If a wallet with three cards was lost, indicate that there were four of them. Well, in that spirit.

This way, already at the first communication, it will be possible to ask for details and identify the fraudster.

2. Do not indicate absolutely all the features of the lost device.

If we are talking about a phone, there is no need to describe it installed picture on the lock screen or say that the smartphone’s Home key is stuck. If we're talking about about a lost passport, do not indicate in the ad last place registration or date of marriage.

It will be enough to ask Security Question and immediately understand whether your value is in the hands of a well-wisher.

3. Listen carefully to the person who responded to the ad.

Fraudsters often, when making the first call based on such advertisements, ask if their brother/son/assistant, etc. called on their behalf. This is how they try to make sure that they are the first to reach the victim.

If something like this has already happened to a person, he will definitely somehow mention it in a conversation, and the scammer will understand that it is not worth wasting time on a second divorce and will simply “merge.”

Don't be too trusting, but not too fanatical, so as not to miss a real offer of help.

We wish you not to lose your gadgets and not find yourself in a similar situation.

06.07.16 222 374 0

How to buy an iPhone from someone else

And don't fall for scammers

Let's face it: buying an official iPhone secondhand is the best way to buy an iPhone. At least if value for money is important to you.

Ilya Anonymous

Tinkoff Bank employee

You can buy an iPhone one and a half to two times cheaper than in a store. At the same time, you can maintain the warranty and receive the device in excellent condition for many years. Those who know how to buy second-hand delight me.

However, when purchasing, there is a high risk of running into scammers. Here are some ways to protect yourself.

What kind of phone do you need ideally?

Fraudsters are cunning, but you can avoid falling for their tricks if you know the subtleties. In an ideal situation, a used iPhone should be sold like this:

Check pedigree

In an ideal situation, the iPhone should be officially purchased, created for Russia and brought to Russia legally. To check this, go to “Settings” - “General” - “About this device”.

Here we are interested in the model and serial number of the device. You will also need IMEI for the future. Write them down in a notepad:

Using the last letters of the model, we will determine for which country the phone is made

By serial number - is it covered by warranty?

By IMEI - is the phone listed in the stolen database?

There will be two letters at the end of the model number. They show which country your iPhone was made for. Our iPhone has the letters LL - which means the phone is made for the USA. A Russian iPhone will have the letters RS or RU here. Here's what the other letters mean:

	America		Europe, Scandinavia		Asia, Africa, Oceania
LL	USA	B	UK, Ireland	CH	China
B BR BZ	Brazil	D DN	Germany, Austria, Netherlands	HN	India
C C.L. V.C.	Canada	E.E.	Estonia	HB	Israel
E	Mexico	GR	Greece	J	Japan
L.A.	Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Peru	IP T T.Y.	Italy	KH	Korea
L.E.	Argentina	KS	Finland, Sweden	PP	Philippines
LZ	Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay	FD	Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland	SO	South Africa
		KN	Norway	T.A.	Taiwan
		P.L.	Poland	T.U.	Türkiye
		P.O.	Portugal	X	Australia
		R.S. RU	Russia	ZA	Singapore
		SL	Slovakia	ZP	Hong Kong
		Y	Spain

America

Brazil

Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Peru

Argentina

Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay

Europe, Scandinavia

UK, Ireland

Germany, Austria, Netherlands

Finland, Sweden

Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland

Norway

Portugal

Asia, Africa, Oceania

Philippines

Australia

Singapore

Using the serial number, you can check whether this iPhone is covered by Apple's warranty.

Go to checkcoverage.apple.com and enter the serial number of the device:

The serial number you are checking

If the phone was originally purchased in another country, then it may not be repaired in Russia

If you are offered an iPhone not for Russia, this does not mean that the iPhone is bad. Here are your risks:

1. You will not be able to repair this iPhone at an official Apple service center. But you can repair it in any other workshop if their craftsmen have direct hands.
2. If you buy some exotic version of the fifth iPhone, it may not have high-speed Internet using the LTE standard. There will be no problems with the sixth and further. The fourth iPhone does not have LTE at all.
3. You will overpay. Foreign iPhones, as a rule, will cost less than Russian ones. And a used one from abroad is even cheaper. If you are offered an American iPhone at a price 20% lower than in the store, you can bargain for at least another 20%.

Check background

Every mobile phone has a special serial number - IMEI. Using this number you can check whether the phone is on the list of stolen ones. You wrote down the IMEI along with the serial number.

1. Go to any IMEI checking site. For example sndeep.info/ru. You can open several sites at once and check them in parallel.
2. Enter the IMEI and see what is written about it in the database.
3. If a phone with this IMEI was reported as stolen, you will see it.

Unfortunately, a phone with a good IMEI reputation may turn out to be stolen, just as the “Stolen” status may turn out to be false. But if you are offered an iPhone without a box, receipt, charger and cable, and from checking the IMEI you find out that it is stolen, most likely the device is indeed stolen. I don’t recommend buying one - they might come for it.

Unbind

Fraudsters have a trick: they quickly sell you an iPhone for a symbolic 7-10 thousand rubles. At the same time, you don’t notice that the iPhone is not disconnected from their Apple ID record. When the scammers have the money and you have the phone, the scammers remotely turn on “Lost Mode”, as if you bought a stolen phone. After this, the supposed owners of the phone start calling you and demanding that you return it.

Pressure and threats begin, and some buyers return the phone, because they bought it very cheap. You may even be offered a conditional “ransom” - from your own money. This is how the phone is returned to the scammers. And again: the phone is sold again, blocked and taken away. One such phone can be sold several times.

To avoid this fate, make the seller take the following steps in front of you. They are described on the Apple website, here is a verbatim quote:

1. Go to Settings > iCloud. Scroll down and click Sign Out. On iOS 7 or earlier, click the Remove Account button.
2. Click Sign Out again, select Remove from iPhone, and enter your passcode.
3. Return to the Settings screen and tap General > Reset > Erase Content and Settings. If Find My iPhone is turned on, you may need to enter your Apple ID and password.
4. If you are prompted to enter a device password or restriction password, enter it. Then click Erase iPhone.

When the iPhone is erased, when it boots you see a white screen with greeting words in different languages. If you see something different when loading, the iPhone has not been erased and it is still tied to someone else’s Apple ID. An erased iPhone should look like this:

Personal safety

If you come across an ordinary honest person who really wants to sell you a normal iPhone, there is nothing to worry about. But this is difficult to understand if you met via the Internet. Therefore, always assume that you are going to meet a scammer.

Go with friends. Ask a friend or two to go with you to meet the seller. Even the mere presence of other people can deter a scammer. If you agree to pay in cash, give the money to your friends in installments in case the seller decides to hit one of you in the head with a hard, blunt object.

Choose a crowded place. It’s quite strange to buy an iPhone in a dark alley or in a half-flooded basement in an abandoned industrial area. Choose a place for the transaction where you can sit at a table, connect to the Internet, calmly examine the device and check its serial number and IMEI.

If in doubt, refuse. If you are invited to pick up an iPhone to a strange place, you don’t like the salesman’s voice or he pushes you too persistently - just refuse. Every day someone decides to sell their normal iPhone, and it’s better to wait a couple of days than to get involved in a dubious deal.

Signs that someone is trying to deceive you

Rush. The scammer will prevent you from checking serial numbers and IMEI, ask you to make a decision as soon as possible, push you and put pressure on you. Don't give in. If you find yourself in such a situation, turn around and leave.

The phone is slow. Chinese iPhone clones are sometimes indistinguishable from the original in appearance, but inside they are quite noticeably slow. If the iPhone scrolls through apps slowly, slows down when scrolling, and generally gives the impression of being slow, it’s probably a fake.

Strange screen. Another property of Chinese iPhone clones is a cheap screen. You've probably seen that iPhone screens are always bright, clear, with good viewing angles and expressive colors. Pixels are not visible on real iPhones. Cheap clones have cheap screens, pixels are visible on them, and colors are distorted at angles.

Isn't it easier to buy an iPhone in a store?

After all this, it may seem easier to go to the official Apple store and buy an iPhone there. And this is fair if you don’t want to go into details and waste time.

But on the other hand, at any moment on Avito hundreds and thousands of people sell their iPhones for 10, 20 and even 30 thousand cheaper than in the store. Sometimes guys buy iPhones for girls, and the next day they decide to part with them; sometimes people urgently need money; Sometimes an iPhone is simply not needed on the farm, so they sell it. These are normal working iPhones that will serve you for many years.

If you spend three hours selecting and checking such an iPhone and save 30 thousand, then your hour will cost 10 thousand rubles. Few people know how to sell their time so dearly.

conclusions

1. The official Russian iPhone will have the letters RS or RU in its model.
2. Check the serial number to see if your iPhone is covered by warranty.
3. There is a rush - there is no deal.
4. Battery dead - no deal.
5. It’s better to wait a couple of days than to get involved in a dubious deal.

We all sometimes feel a strong desire to save money on what we need. Someone is able to cope with this temptation and make themselves pay more money for guaranteed quality, while others do not. told the story of the “divorce” of users who decided to save money on buying an iPhone.

A few years ago, Apple introduced a “like new” position, which meant a decommissioned phone/tablet/laptop that was returned to the factory and everything that was broken was replaced at the factory. Such a device costs less than a new one, and at the same time, in fact, is a new device.

But bad luck - Apple makes such devices only with the smallest amount of memory! Who needs a 16 Gb phone now? That's right, no one. Well, or there are simply few such enthusiasts.

Therefore, when we decided to exchange my wife’s iPhone 5 for 5S, I looked for at least 32 Gb. Since the solution had been brewing for some time, several display samples were found official dealers with a capacity of 32 Gb at a price of about 23,000 rubles. But bad luck - a few days before I went to buy a phone, the iPhone SE entered the market and all of them were not sold new iPhones The 5S disappeared from the officials, and only the same iPhone 5S “like new” with a memory capacity of 16 GB remained.

After surfing the Internet, I found several sites where they offered a “refurbished iPhone 5S” with up to 64 Gb for 20–21 thousand! And if we were talking about sending it by mail or only by courier, I wouldn’t even look in that direction. But no - you can come and look, point your finger, turn it on and even choose from what is available.

What seemed most attractive to me was a store with a beautiful website and an office at 29 Kutuzovsky Prospekt. The call was answered by fairly confident managers who assured that this was a fully refurbished iPhone at the same Apple factory.

Arriving at the site, I took the device, checked literally everything I could about it - and everything worked! Even Touch ID. I also noticed that the box and accessories were clearly Chinese, which I told the sellers about, but immediately received assurances from them that this was an original iPhone and everything was original.

And then I made my first mistake. If they lie to you looking you in the eyes, and they lie confidently and without even a hint of redness of the skin - send this company/store/partner and run as far away from it as possible! I myself told people about this many times, but the need to urgently resolve the issue with the gift pressed like the vault of heaven on Atlas! And I gave in and said to myself “oh well, the iPhone works, and the price is more than enough.”

A few weeks later, I decided that I was not ready to take the SE for 50 thousand (that’s how much the 64 GB version cost from the officials back then), and decided to take the 5S from the same store. Again, everything is very polite and clear, again the clearly Chinese box and accessories offend me, and again I fall for it, justifying this jamb with the price.

A week of using a smartphone and miracles have begun!

On the way to the airport I pass out GPS module. And I wasn’t just going to the airport, but to a daily parking lot a few kilometers away. Then I remembered how 10 years ago I traveled on the atlas, since the navigator turned into a smart atlas. Okay, I think I’ll come and take it for repairs. Happens to anyone, after all. But when I returned, a predictable continuation followed - the module cellular communications also died and ended up in my hands iPod touch, completely unable to communicate with the outside world.

They accepted it from me without any questions and promised to solve everything in the near future. I waited a week for an answer from the “service center”, then I called the store for a week demanding to speed up the process, and after another week they told me “yes, the module is dead, we will replace your phone.” I waited another two weeks for the phone, didn’t get it, and took a replacement 5S with 32 Gb, which was in stock.

With this device, too, everything turned out to be not easy - it was constantly discharging and heating up. Constantly discharged - it sat down completely from 100% in 4 hours on a locked device. But I only noticed it clearly after 5 days, and I wasn’t sure that I didn’t burn it myself while charging in the car, for example. Therefore, I did not return it under warranty, but replaced the U2 controller at my own expense. As I realized later, it was in vain. I had to turn it in and take the money. By the way, the speaker in this device wheezed terribly the other day. This is about the issue of lack of quality.

But with my wife’s phone everything turned out sadder. After 2 months of use, her cellular communication module also died (it stopped picking up the network). It was delivered under warranty. As a result, we also spent 2 weeks trying to get a response from the “service center” (maybe it’s located in China?) and waited another two weeks for a phone number. When I arrived to pick it up and started checking it, a very interesting picture appeared:

When you punch the serial number through the official website, it shows 16 Gb, the box says 64 Gb, and the device itself says that it has 32 Gb of memory. It was fabulous! Just like the rebuke the salesman received in the office. However, the seller didn’t suffer as much as my nerves. As a result, they promised to bring us another device, already tested and with free shipping to any point in Moscow.

Having met the courier two days later, I checked my phone on the street, and there were no signs of trouble! But two days later the wife noticed that:

– the screen is not bright enough, the color gamut is off towards green, there are stripes across the screen, there is a spot on the camera.

Here I not only brought it in to be replaced under warranty, but wrote a letter of complaint addressed to the director, where I demanded that the money for the device be returned to me, describing the entire history of our relationship with the store and explaining that I no longer intended to cooperate with them as a client. To which I received an excellent answer, which apparently was intended to destroy not only my hopes for a refund, but also any adequacy “at the other end of the line.”

In the official response from the store director, a certain “IP Skvortsov E.V.”, it was explained to me that a) “the phone was tested, no defects or malfunctions were identified regarding its performance and screen quality,” b) “ This phone is refurbished (REF), as indicated on our website” (why this is not clear at all), and c) “Refunds for a phone of proper quality are not possible” with reference to the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated January 19, 1998 No. 55.

However, if it were of proper quality, I wouldn’t have any questions! But here things are different.

Further correspondence with attempts to appeal to the remnants of the mind led to even more interesting discoveries: “The brightness of the screen is normal - it may also depend on installed wallpaper(splash screen on the main screen)". That is, the hope for adequacy continues to fade.

The solution is actually simple. The website assures us that the REF prefix means the following: “ This label means the phone has left Apple's warehouses. It could be sold and immediately returned; not sold at all, but obsolete, was lying on display, etc. and so on. In this case, the company, having accepted the goods back, re-carries a series of checks, repairs, replaces, issues a new warranty, packages it, but is legally unable to send it as new. This is how the “refurbished” (that is, REF) mark and the reduced price appear.”

About this Apple program I mentioned at the beginning. BUT! This has nothing to do with the devices that are sold in this store! From real iPhone there, at best, motherboard and processor! Everything else is a lottery with minimal chances of success.

When I really arrived professional service, with a very good reputation, then even at the stage of acceptance of my device they told me that:

• there are horizontal stripes across the screen,
• there are vertical stripes across the screen,
• the screen has flare at the edges,
• there is a stain on the camera (the reason is not announced until the diagnosis),
• the body is deformed (bent).

Now we are waiting for the official conclusion and then we will resolve the issue through the relevant bodies.

To summarize, I would like to note that if you do not have the opportunity to directly take the device to the USA (a friend, relatives, or you yourself are going there), then do not try to save money on unfamiliar stores. Even the time and nerves you spend are not worth it. And there will also be financial losses. This all reminds me of Ron Hubbard's remark about unhealthy savings, when in an attempt to save $10 for the company, you can lose up to $300 in direct losses.

This appeal is especially relevant now, when it’s time to choose New Year’s gifts. Can you imagine what it will be like for you if these problems start in the person to whom you give the device? And they will start with a probability of 80%.

So save time and nerves, and the money will come in somehow!