Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max

Updated: since writing the below review, I have received my second 15 pro max renewed premium, set it up, and handled the refund from the first one. Amazon customer support also offered me a generous discount on the new phone for all the hassle (which I somewhat needed to initiate asking for, I doubt they would have offered that to begin with). If I had to do it all over again – I would have still gone this route since apple refurbished hasn’t released this model yet, but moving forward- I will probably order straight from apple refurbished next time or just get a new iPhone. When factoring the discount I got on this one that’s one year old, I paid about 2/3 the cost for this compared to the latest model, so I can’t complain. All that said, in general I am one who much more values my time and ease over saving a quick bucks. Especially if that quick buck saved costs me HOURS of my life in hassle. If you’re like me in that sense – proceed with caution. I trust Amazon will help make it right if you don’t get a great phone as expected, but even if that’s the case, you’re probably in for quite the hoops to jump through in order to make that happen.

Here’s my original, unedited review:

I ordered the iPhone 15 Pro Max refurbished and it arrived last night. After spending a good 3+ hours setting it up, I realized the lens for the main camera was broken. From the outside, you can’t see any issue. It wasn’t until I opened up the camera app that I actually saw it didn’t work.

“Renewed Premium” carries a certain standard with it, and this certainly does not meet that in the slightest. On top of that, upon calling customer support, I was told that I would not be able to do anything unless I deactivated the phone and remove my Apple ID from it. Wouldn’t have been the end of the world if I needed to go back to my other phone for a bit, however, in order to set up this phone with the eSIM, deactivated my previous SIM card. Upon explaining all of that to customer support, I was told there was nothing they could do unless I deactivated this phone (leaving me without a phone until they received this and shipped me a new one)

I was then told to call Apple to see what they can do, when honestly, this is their mistake. Either way, I called apple and it was going to be another set of hoops to jump through with scheduling appointments and all that. Plus since I didn’t have apple care, if they needed to repair the camera, I would still be without a phone. So even if Apple was able to help fix this, the issue of me not having a phone would still be there. Had I broken this camera myself – I would certainly except those terms given there’s not much else I could do. However, this was given to me in this condition and for Amazon to leave me with the responsibility of fixing their mistake due to carelessness in inspection and quality control is absurd.

So whether I like it or not, I am now STUCK with the responsibility of cleaning this up since my account is connected to this phone now. What at one point could have been a great gift to myself has turned into the biggest hassle I’ve experienced buying/returning anything, probably ever.

I’m going to give this one more shot as I’ve now ordered another iPhone from them to be delivered shortly, however, it’s also required me to spend another ~$1000 in having that iPhone sent prior to me getting my refund. This is absolutely ridiculous and unacceptable. Even if this next phone is perfect, I’m likely never going to order from the Amazon refurbished store again. I’ll either go straight to Apple refurbished, or brand new, for any of my future phone/laptop/device purchases.

On top of all this hassle, I’ll certainly have to spend another few hours setting up my replacement phone once it arrives.

All the time I’ve invested into this so far has NOT been even close worth the “nice discount” on a premium refurbished phone that should have arrived without issue to begin with.

Amazon – take note. Change your policies. Making this the customer’s mess to clean up is not acceptable.

Potential buyers – BEWARE of the risks.

I’ll plan to update this review if anything changes. But like I said, even if the next phone I ordered is perfect, I still give this a 1-star review for all the hassle and lack of responsibility the company took to resolve this.

P.s. i’ll also add that I am a quite understanding and peaceful person. The person I spoke with from customer support was doing his absolute best to help me, but this was clearly a bigger issue than he had the power to solve. I requested to have this escalated to upper management and was told the same thing. Whoever is the one making decisions about what can and can’t be done needs to hear about this.

For being a refurb iPhone 15 pro max, I received a good unit, very little scratches almost can see them. But as always when getting a refurbished item one takes a chance. So if you buy one don’t expect a brand new one everytime.

I will say that I am writing as a person that had to return a defective phone. The screen, at low light was very grainy, and the phone indicated an “unknown screen”.

Now, it’s four stars because their customer service was incredible. I’m confident they didn’t skimp on the screen, but it just wasn’t right on the phone. They immediately accepted my return, and kept in touch with updates consistently. I felt that if I messaged them, they messaged back within the day.

While I would have liked to have kept my phone, I’m at least confident you’ll have a trustworthy experience with them.

Phone came late but thats okay and the phone looks brand new 100% battery everything works great only thing is the screen is not original but it still works 100% with face id and everything els so far im happy Note its an original iphone 15 pro max just the screen ain’t so don’t expect everything original

Hasta ahora a salido muy bueno