Bad Phobio trade-in experience. [Merged]

[Phobio Support]

Not just the long list of consumer complaints are worrying:

1. The 21 day return cutoff puts the onus for ***-poor Fedex ground delivery entirely on the customer. The criteria should be a "sent by" date which is clearly verifiable by both parties - if Fedex goofs with its delivery taking 3 weeks to deliver something that should take 5 business days it's not the customer's fault.

2. The packing instructions nowhere suggest taking photos or video because the last thing Phobio wants is a contested offer when something arrives damaged from your ***-poor packing boxes or is damaged in-house at phobio.

3. Everything I'm reading about Phobio's business practises is crying out for a multi-state case investigation, let alone losing the Apple trade-in franchise

We totally understand your concerns, indieshack.

If there is an incident in which FedEx takes longer than expected to deliver a trade, we never penalize a customer for that. It's a great idea to use a ship by date instead, thank you for sharing that!

I know it's worrisome to ship a trade to us, of course if you don't feel as though the shipping materials are sufficient, we understand not wanting to proceed with your trade. We have designed our shipping materials to withstand the rigors of shipping and if there is evidence of transit damage, that is something we take care of for our customers. We appreciate hearing from our customers if and when this happens, because we'd never want you to be penalized for something like transit damage when you packed and shipped using our materials.

I'm sure you can imagine we have many trades and the vast majority of them go through the process without issue. When there is any kind of concern (shipping, transit, inspection, etc) we always appreciate hearing from our customer so we have the opportunity to resolve any concerns that might arise during the trade in process.

Arthur with Phobio Support

 

[Phobio Support]

I had a terrible experince. Mainly due to Apple. They never sent the trade in box for a MacBook pro after I ordered the M1 Air. I asked four times for the box and kept getting told it was on the way. Eventually got charged $750 for not sending it back... when they never sent me the box to start with.

It took HOURS (I would guess around 10-20 hours) of chatting and phone calls. I finally got a box and was told I would get CC refund when I sent it in. Never did. More calls and chats and hours. I opened a dispute with my CC (an Apple Card) and got the transaction deducted and under review.

Long story short, the whole process was about 4 months of teeth pulling headache. The icing on the cake is that I used to work at Apple (a store), felt like they'd at least care when I called in, and the whole thing from start to finish was an absolute disaster. Out of four months after buying the M1, the majority of it was either asking for a box to send the old computer back, getting charged for not sending it back, finally sending in the old mac, and still not getting the charged refunded until the end.

Hi tonywalker23,

It sounds like your trade-in experience had plenty of room for improvement. It sounds like your trade is still not complete, can I help you with this (I can at least assist with a payment verification to see what might have happened with your payment). My email is ArthurA@phobio.com -- I'd love to help you with this.

Arthur with Phobio Support

 

[joeblough]

Anytime - I'm happy to help in anyway I can, even if it's just with serial number verification. I understand your concerns and I'm here to help with anything you need. If you decide you want me to do a review, let me know. (DaisyQ@phobio.com)

the machine is back. i have verified it is the same machine from old DHCP logs. the screen had a "keyboard" pattern on it when i opened it, but it was just oil and was removed easily with a microfiber cloth. there is the tiniest, and i mean the tiniest little mark left in one place, and there's a chance it too is just oil or some residue. i can't compare it with the image that was sent by the phobio tech since the status page no longer shows the image. so i can't even say that the mark i see (which is VERY hard to see) is the same one that the tech pointed out.

anyway hard to see how, even if this mark is real, it represents a reason to cut the trade-in value by 60%.

edit: OK, if i look at this screen with a nitecore super-bright LED flashlight, i can see all kinds of damage to the screen. essentially the whole image of the keyboard is imprinted on the screen. where the trackpad meets the screen it is 100% fine. so i guess i would have to say this is down to apple's manufacturing tolerances - the keyboard and palm rests crash into the screen when the lid is closed. i have a hard time believing this kind of damage to a macbook air screen is unique to this particular computer as it was never abused and used pretty gently overall.

 

[Phobio Support]

the machine is back. i have verified it is the same machine from old DHCP logs. the screen had a "keyboard" pattern on it when i opened it, but it was just oil and was removed easily with a microfiber cloth. there is the tiniest, and i mean the tiniest little mark left in one place, and there's a chance it too is just oil or some residue. i can't compare it with the image that was sent by the phobio tech since the status page no longer shows the image. so i can't even say that the mark i see (which is VERY hard to see) is the same one that the tech pointed out.

anyway hard to see how, even if this mark is real, it represents a reason to cut the trade-in value by 60%.

I'm glad you were able to verify your trade is the same computer you shipped. I understand your trade has been returned to you, I'd still love to review this for you, if we made an inspection error, we'd love to offer a resolution for you, because you're right, if the display issue is minor/not present it doesn't justify that value drop. If you decide you're okay with me reviewing your trade, please let me know. (DaisyQ@phobio.com)

-Daisy

 

[indieshack]

Huh... In the end I declined to send my pristine iMac Pro in the ***-awful packing box Phobio sent. This whole setup is asking for trouble.

The box for another exchange I set up on a purchase of a new M1 Macbook Air last week has arrived and it's predictably also not good, this time to send out a 2017 Macbook Pro. Unlike for the iMac Pro, I still have Apple's original packing for my Macbook Pro from when Apple sent it from China, it looks a 100x better than Phobio's box.

Does anyone know if Phobio is OK with using the original Apple shipping packaging instead of their box for sending the device? (i.e. is it still insured by fedex for damage during transit)

 

[joeblough]

dunno but what's weird is my outbound box contained an air-bubble envelope for the computer, but the return box had one of those "saran wrap stretched over the device" contraptions like apple uses for iphones, but macbook-sized. so they have multiple styles of packaging.

 

[Phobio Support]

Hello @indieshack

Thank you for inquiring about the information in regards to shipping your device in without our shipping kit.

The way we ensure the safety and delivery of all devices is by providing you with our shipping kits which are designed to keep the device safe. Taking your device in anything that is not our kit does forfeit Phobio from any responsibility if something was to happen to it in transit. If you have further questions, I'd love to assist you. Please email me at DianaP@Phobio.com.

I look forward to hearing from you if you have questions.