After 17 years as a Mac user, my experience with Phobio motivated me to join macrumors instead of just reading posts.
I had (well, still technically "have") a 13" MacBook Pro which works fine. However, I was running out of space on my hard drive and wanted more memory, so I started thinking about upgrading. The Air Pods promo in June got my attention, and the trade-in offer of $440 for my 2017 MBP sealed the deal.
I sent in my old MBP after wiping the HD and reinstalling the OS. On July 23, a little more than a week later, I received an email that my trade-in refund had changed to $160. The reason was "Physical Damage." I cancelled the trade in. I decided to see if my experience was common, and that's when I found this forum. I started a chat with Apple support to express my displeasure with the experience. The trade-in quote was part of the reason I decided to buy the computer, and this experience--which seems to be a bait and switch--is uncharacteristic of my experiences with Apple. The person on the other end of the chat said there was nothing they could do because I had cancelled the trade in. They suggested I contact them again after I received my computer.
I received my computer a couple of days ago, and there is no damage. There are a couple of smudges and very minor scratches which is how I represented the condition, but there is no "physical damage" in any sense of the words. The computer works just fine. I suspected that maybe the issue was the keyboard, which was a documented problem for the 2017 MBP. I don't see how they could have determined that in their inspection, though. Just to play it safe, I am getting the keyboard fixed under Apple's Keyboard Service Program before selling it elsewhere. (Sellyourmac.com's offer is $492, and I will look at others.)
Calling Phobio's practices "shady" would be generous. Based on some of the good experiences I have read here, I suspect the company fulfills enough of their trade ins to make themselves seem legit, but then they attempt to scam a portion of the customers who send in trade ins. For each one of us who posts here and rejects the revised offer, there are probably a couple of dozen others who accept the revised offer. They've probably decided the additional costs they incur returning computers to us is a small price to pay in exchange for the amount they get from cheating others out of a fair trade in.
I wish I had done some research about Apple's Trade-In Program before I used it. Hopefully, others will do that and find this forum. They need to know that it might go well and they get the promised amount, but, then again, it might not. It's up to them if they decide to take that chance. I won't do it again.