Cell Phones

Anyone buy a phone from toronto.cellular on ebay?

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Member
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Oct 12, 2003
439 posts
20 upvotes
Saskatoon

toronto.cellular opinions!!

Hello.I am looking at buying a used cell phone,i have been checking on the b\s thread for cells daily,on ebay i came across toronto.cellular.
Does anyone here have experience dealing with them,in particular if they had any issues about returns etc.
They do have good feedback on ebay,but really looking for some 1st hand opinions.
Thanks
153 replies
Deal Addict
Jul 14, 2006
2731 posts
3962 upvotes
Did you end up dealing with them?
Deal Fanatic
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Mar 5, 2013
6084 posts
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Manila, Philippines
Try visiting wind store they have a sale of refurbished phone, but as of now most of their stock are out they said may be Friday they will have some.
FreedomMobile 35% Friends & Family
Deal Addict
Dec 12, 2003
2881 posts
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thanks but I'm looking for information specifically on these guys
Deal Expert
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May 8, 2009
15560 posts
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Going to the Moon
I've not yet bought a cellphone on eBay. The advantage in this case given the seller's location is that it ships within Canada, so you wouldn't get stung on duty (just sales tax when you buy on eBay). If you don't get the phone, you get your money back. If you receive it, but it's not up to snuff (defects, etc.) you can open a case with eBay, they'll oblige the seller to cover the return shipping for the return, if that fails, eBay will get your money back for you.

Basically, eBay is real safe. Just that if you deal with dodgy sellers, it's just one extra step to follow up and open a case with eBay. I've been refunded on countless eBay purchases, a lot of them I still received or got to keep the merchandise.
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Newbie
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Nov 21, 2005
6 posts
42 upvotes
Victoria
I just bought a cellphone from toronto.cellular on eBay and I'm having quite a bad experience with both the seller and eBay.

Be aware that eBay actually prevents a buyer from providing feedback on a seller when you open a dispute/case. I find this a little disturbing since I relied on the high ratings from other buyers before the purchase... now I'm finding out that the 100% rating for toronto.cellular may not mean a whole lot. There could be many unsatisfactory disputes for sellers with 100% ratings.

My phone was advertised as "10/10 perfect condition", "100% satisfaction guaranteed" and "returns accepted -- 30 days -- money back". The eBay ad also had the "eBay money back guarantee" on it, so I felt pretty safe, but it seems I was wrong.

Long story short... the phone has trouble charging to 100% capacity. Stops at 75%. I could use it, but I paid for 10/10 condition and 30 day warranty :)...

So, after trying to troubleshoot (using different chargers and cables), I contacted toronto.cellular and eBay to request a return hoping for a replacement. Within a few minutes of detailing my troubleshooting in a message to the seller, I receive a message from eBay claiming that my return was denied and ruled in the seller's favour. Toronto.cellular claims that I *may* have damaged the phone by using a non-phone-brand charger and is refusing the return (no charger was provided with the phone). They say I can try to send it back and they will see what they can do, but no promises type of thing.

Not exactly the "100% satisfaction guarantee" that is promised on the eBay ad.
Deal Fanatic
Aug 3, 2014
6089 posts
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dandufeu wrote: So, after trying to troubleshoot (using different chargers and cables), I contacted toronto.cellular and eBay to request a return hoping for a replacement. Within a few minutes of detailing my troubleshooting in a message to the seller, I receive a message from eBay claiming that my return was denied and ruled in the seller's favour. Toronto.cellular claims that I *may* have damaged the phone by using a non-phone-brand charger and is refusing the return (no charger was provided with the phone). They say I can try to send it back and they will see what they can do, but no promises type of thing.

Not exactly the "100% satisfaction guarantee" that is promised on the eBay ad.
File a dispute with your credit card issuer. PayPal shoves a $20 chargeback fee to the seller.
Deal Addict
Jan 4, 2014
1401 posts
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Kitchener, ON
I saw them recently too and was wondering. Any and all feedback is great!
Newbie
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Nov 21, 2005
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Victoria
Don't trust eBay's seller ratings. Having filed an eBay case, I'm now prevented from giving any feedback to other buyers. I can see now that eBay tries to protect the heavy sellers (more than infrequent buyers).

Toronto.cellular has a 100% rating on eBay and I was shocked at how poor the response was to my issue (and how quickly eBay shut my protections down).

The phone arrived with a dead battery and when I charged it, it didn't charge all the way. The owner/representative of toronto.cellular accused me of damaging the phone with my charger. In a follow-up, I was called "a bully", "ridiculous" and "absurd" for using eBay's system to try and process the return instead of contacting toronto.cellular directly.

I've held back my emotions and only sent toronto.cellular calm messages asking for a return (as promised), trying to explain that the most likely case is that the phone had this issue before it was shipped. Even high quality manufacturers have occasional defects in brand new products. I would have accepted an exchange or repair (not any more), but I wanted it done in a way giving me "protections", not just some back-door messaging.

I'm not an eBay expert, so maybe I expedited the process, but also... it seems like maybe it is a thing to delay the process with endless messaging between seller and buyer until eBay protections end. See this post here:
https://forums.redflagdeals.com/buying- ... #p26616227

I'm still waiting for eBay to have a ruling, then I will go to paypal I guess...
Newbie
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Nov 21, 2005
6 posts
42 upvotes
Victoria
Update:

Phone is now working ok. Nothing wrong with the charger after all. The phone needed a battery calibration, which apparently is required when the battery of a phone is swapped out. Simple fix. Phone probably had refurbished battery installed, and they didn't do this step right.

Since I have a working phone, I ended up pulling the plug on my PayPal dispute ... but not happy with eBay's policy at all and would never recommend toronto.cellular.
- eBay left me hung out to dry by cancelling my ability to rate the sale.
- After that happened, Toronto.cellular dropped all semblance of customer service.

Full transcript if you care:
https://goo.gl/L3LrQP
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May 8, 2009
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Going to the Moon
Thank you for sharing the story :D I had a similar experience for returning a phone on Amazon, fortunately we were able to do a return for full refund.
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May 8, 2009
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Going to the Moon
Gee wrote: @dandufeu

What phone did you buy?
That's what I'd like to know. That seller carries Samsung, LG & Apple.
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Member
Nov 17, 2016
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dandufeu - Thanks for sharing this. Previously I bought phones just from US sellers, but my last experience with "Global Shippment Program" was not "happy", so I now wanted to buy from local sellers. I followed "toronto.cellular" for some time and was ready to buy iPhone, but changed my mind after reading full info about your experience. This looks very much like setup - sell phone without original charger and then blame all issues on using charger with different brand. I did not know that eBay would not help with issues like that, I was assuming that they would, but I never had any problems so far myself. But after reading your experience I am not willing to risk.
Newbie
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Nov 21, 2005
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Victoria
Gee wrote: @dandufeu

What phone did you buy?
Samsung Galaxy S7. When I received it, I found out it was likely a Verizon refurb. That part didn't bother me.
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May 8, 2009
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Going to the Moon
dandufeu wrote: Samsung Galaxy S7. When I received it, I found out it was likely a Verizon refurb. That part didn't bother me.
Being a Verizon phone could make LTE connectivity in Canada less awesome. As long as the needed LTE bands are there, then it's all good.
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Newbie
Sep 11, 2017
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Bought a Lg G5 from these guys. Absolutely a horrible experience. Arrived quickly but turned out to be a Verizon phone so no LTE on Rogers. When I contacted them about it they said the model number was shown in the Ebay listing. I thought ok, my mistake, like the phone so I can live without LTE. I just rechecked the listing and found the model number is not listed at all. So they lied to me. I noticed in the first week that the main 16Mb camera was taking blurry photos. Thought it was something I had wrong in the settings. Didn't have time to read through the manual. Came back from Holidays taking photos with the wide angle camera only. During the Holiday I dropped the phone about 6 inches onto a table. there were no marks on the phone from the drop. After reading the manual and doing some research, I found that there was a fault in the focus mechanism for the main camera. Seems lots of people have had this problem, only fix is to replace the camera module. I contacted the seller and they wanted me to tell them when I first noticed the problem and if I ever dropped the phone. As soon as they found out I had dropped the phone they claimed there was no warranty. It didn't matter that the phone was dropped after I discovered the problem. There were many messages back and forth where they accused me of lying about the sequence of events. Finally I tried to explain to them about the horrible Customer Service they were providing and how they could still fix the problem by perhaps offering to fix the phone or even split the cost with me. The camera module is only $18 from AliExpress. The last message from them was that they would "pay the $18 if I would quit complaining". I have been on EBay for 14 years and have 100% feedback on almost 100 transactions so the problem isnt me.
Newbie
Feb 28, 2005
77 posts
25 upvotes
I wish I had seen this thread earlier. I bought a refurbished Samsung S7 that has a faint yellow burn image on all screens (ie. burned out). I have requested a return.

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