Are they legit? How do they do it?

[JCHEN60]

Hi,

I'm looking to purchase an iPhone 3GS (I live in Canada BTW, $$$ for service) without a contract, especially since I already have a contract with one provider (TELUS). I am also looking for a phone that is locked to TELUS and new in box... I have noticed many sellers asking 549.99$ for a BNIB iPhone, either for TELUS, Bell or Rogers. However, brand new iPhones w/o contract cost $699.99+tax at retail. Those sellers look legit (they usually post on craigslist and the like) will agree to meet you in a store to check warranty, their phones are indeed real, not clones (some of them even have small cellphone or electronic shops in malls); I am just wondering how they get ahold of phones at that price. Do they have a dealer license enabling them to purchase from Apple or a carrier directly? (seems improbable to me) Do they have a business account from a carrier that enables them to purchase phones at a discount and cancel lines/contracts? Do they buy from a wholesaler/broker? They mention that they have "contacts" which they obviously won't give you for business reasons I guess? I'm just trying to find the "loophole" that allows them to get phones at this price and want to know if this is legit or if I might end up with a blacklisted iPhone. Thanks if you can help me or have any clues!

Jenny

 

[acfusion29]

Hardware upgrades, then resell for more.

They do a HUP for about $199/299/399/499 and make nice profit while keeping their existing phone.

When doing a HUP, if you've had a long run with the company, you can negotiate so much and sometimes even get it for cheaper than $199. But it's very, very rare.

 

[JCHEN60]

But then they'd have to sign a new 36 month contract to get a HUP, and that would be costly in the long run, unless you can cancel but ETF's are like 700$+... doesn't quite make sense. Or maybe there's something I'm not getting here.

Thanks
Jenny

 

[acfusion29]

well.. not everyone wants the iPhone. there are some users out there that wouldn't mind signing a 36 month contract and making some money off of it while keeping their old phones (it's usually the blackberry users from my experience).

 

[JCHEN60]

well.. not everyone wants the iPhone. there are some users out there that wouldn't mind signing a 36 month contract and making some money off of it while keeping their old phones (it's usually the blackberry users from my experience).

Ok... But they seem to be doing it on a large scale. And a lot of different merchants are doing it. So are they trying to pick up other peoples contracts to get early upgrades? Or just find people to keep their existing contracts, renew, pay 199$, than sell it to them w markup? I mean you'd have to find a lot of people to do this... I don't want to this myself, seems rather complicated, just want to make sure that it's not "too good to be true".

Thanks

 

[acfusion29]

Ok... But they seem to be doing it on a large scale. And a lot of different merchants are doing it. So are they trying to pick up other peoples contracts to get early upgrades? Or just find people to keep their existing contracts, renew, pay 199$, than sell it to them w markup? I mean you'd have to find a lot of people to do this... I don't want to this myself, seems rather complicated, just want to make sure that it's not "too good to be true".

Thanks

i honestly don't know then..lol

they probably have hookups... it's gotta be something special cause if everyone knew about it, then the prices wouldn't be that high.

 

[Applejuiced]

Maybe they're stolen

 

[JCHEN60]

Maybe they're stolen

You think? Then why would they agree to meet and double-check with the carrier AND Apple before buying? Unless they would find a way to clone and replicate the serial of one legit iPhone 3GS on a bunch of other stolen phones??? But now that would seem a little bit far-fetched, don't you agree? They'd have to alter the serial number on the box, on the back of the phone AND in the settings menu, which seems quite impossible to me.

Thanks anyway for your opinion

 

[Applejuiced]

You really think any craigslist seller would go into an Apple store or carrier store with you before you purchase the iphone from them to have it checked?
I dont know if in Canada they blacklist stolen phones IMEI numbers so they cant be used on any nationwide networks. Here in the US they dont do that so stolen phones are sold left and right without any probs.
But it was just a guess.

 

[JCHEN60]

You really think any craigslist seller would go into an Apple store or carrier store with you before you purchase the iphone from them to have it checked?
I dont know if in Canada they blacklist stolen phones IMEI numbers so they cant be used on any nationwide networks. Here in the US they dont do that so stolen phones are sold left and right without any probs.
But it was just a guess.

You don't HAVE to go in an actual store right? Right? You can just check on Apple Repair&Service by entering the serial# and then call customer service from your carrier to double-check... Or am I totally wrong here?

 

[Applejuiced]

You don't HAVE to go in an actual store right? Right? You can just check on Apple Repair&Service by entering the serial# and then call customer service from your carrier to double-check... Or am I totally wrong here?

Im not sure how its done up North bro.
The repair & Service Applecare website will only display the warranty information and when it expires is my guess.
And from a quick google search I found out that IMEI blacklisting does not exist in Canada either.
So anything goes with stolen cellphones just like in the US.
It can be activated and used on any carriers network.

 

[JCHEN60]

Im not sure how its done up North bro.
The repair & Service Applecare website will only display the warranty information and when it expires is my guess.
And from a quick google search I found out that IMEI blacklisting does not exist in Canada either.
So anything goes with stolen cellphones just like in the US.
It can be activated and used on any carriers network.

Really? (I mean no IMEI blacklist) That's kinda dumb... Does that mean that if I have my iPhone stolen, and it is still under warranty, someone could just show up at the Apple Store, get it replaced/repaired or whatever EVEN if I notify Apple that my iPhone has been stolen???

 

[Applejuiced]

Really? (I mean no IMEI blacklist) That's kinda dumb... Does that mean that if I have my iPhone stolen, and it is still under warranty, someone could just show up at the Apple Store, get it replaced/repaired or whatever EVEN if I notify Apple that my iPhone has been stolen???

Pretty much yes.
Apple will not do anything about it. The warranty is tied up to the device and not to the owners ID. They dont check your licence or anything, they just check to see if the device is still under Applecare protection and then repair or replace it.
Same thing for wireless carriers. They will not have any problems sticking their simcard into your stolen iphone for example and using it on any account they want.

 

[fishkorp]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

AT&T most certainly does blacklist IMEIs of stolen phones. I had a phone stolen and they let me know when someone else tried to activate it.

 

[Applejuiced]

AT&T most certainly does blacklist IMEIs of stolen phones. I had a phone stolen and they let me know when someone else tried to activate it.

Yeah ok.

 

[CocoaPuffs]

They found them falling off a truck.

 

[acfusion29]

Ok... But they seem to be doing it on a large scale. And a lot of different merchants are doing it. So are they trying to pick up other peoples contracts to get early upgrades? Or just find people to keep their existing contracts, renew, pay 199$, than sell it to them w markup? I mean you'd have to find a lot of people to do this... I don't want to this myself, seems rather complicated, just want to make sure that it's not "too good to be true".

Thanks

sorry i'm gonna reply to this post once again.

you're saying large scale.. in terms of what? post the link

if it's people saying "BUY IN BULK, THE MORE YOU BUY THE CHEAPER" then it's a scam

use common sense and you'll be fine.

 

[Hamiltonian]

Are they refurbished?

 

[JCHEN60]

sorry i'm gonna reply to this post once again.

you're saying large scale.. in terms of what? post the link

if it's people saying "BUY IN BULK, THE MORE YOU BUY THE CHEAPER" then it's a scam

use common sense and you'll be fine.

No, they are not the "Me is on vacation right now, yu will send me the money by payPal, very much tthank to you" crowd... you know, the guys who say "if yu by 3 I-Phone, yu will get price of 250$ each", I totally see what you mean. In this case, they will agree to meet you, e.g. (http://toronto.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-...ITH-FULL-12-MONTH-WARRANTY-W0QQAdIdZ190096378)... So I really can't say if they are legit, they carry the stuff but their prices are much lower than retail+taxes.

Thank you
Jenny

 

[acfusion29]

No, they are not the "Me is on vacation right now, yu will send me the money by payPal, very much tthank to you" crowd... you know, the guys who say "if yu by 3 I-Phone, yu will get price of 250$ each", I totally see what you mean. In this case, they will agree to meet you, e.g. (http://toronto.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-...ITH-FULL-12-MONTH-WARRANTY-W0QQAdIdZ190096378)... So I really can't say if they are legit, they carry the stuff but their prices are much lower than retail+taxes.

Thank you
Jenny

Well.. always like that. You will find other people selling stuff for cheaper online.

Anyways, the first line of that ad answers your question.

We are a large supplier of Apple iPhones located in Toronto Downtown, North York and Mississauga.

They must have connections, but like I said .. unfortunately I don't know how (I wish I knew tbh, because they are making a good profit on these for sure).