Pixel 2 Trade-In Nightmare - Buyers Beware!!!

[cbreze]

I've had good luck with Craigslist for selling purposes. Swappa for buying a good used device. I really dislike Ebay for selling, more scammers there than real potential buyers. YMMV as always, but use what works for ya. I did do a trade in once Thru Verizon and it worked well, but it was all done in store which was nice as I could have turned and walked out if need be.
Thanks OP for the heads up tho. I'm waiting on a pixel and may not go thru a Google trade in when the times come down the road to upgrade as yours is not the first with trade in issues with google.

 

[pappy35]

I hate selling on eBay for that reason. Swappa is the way to go, no doubt.

OMG. Don't get me started...

Ages ago (2009-ish) I tried to sell an SLR camera on EBay. Nigerian scammers kept buying it (you know, after the 'sale' I get the e-mail: "I'm on safari in Africa and broke my camera, can you please ship to Nairobi?" etc.). I canceled those sales and finally gave up and sold it privately. EBay though charged me commissions for every one of those fake sales. After weeks of trying to get them to refund the money, they ultimately never did. I was out something like $125. I haven't used EBay ever since and never will.

 

[cbreze]

That safari story is pretty accurate, LOL. It's unbelievable what they make up and hope you will believe. I got led to a fake paypal site that I fell for the first time I tried to sell a phone on ebay. I was uninitiated in scammer routines as it was my first try and was a samsung dumb (flip)phone back in 2000. I learned a good lesson and the Post Office actually paid me off for my loss after about 6 months later. Talk about buyer beware, with Ebay it's more seller beware. People are falling for these or they wouldn't do it.

 

[anon(10271520)]

eBay customer support is awful as well. I too have had to deal with scammers and it was a major run around to get anything refunded back to me. I can be incredibly persistent (or annoying, depending on who you ask), and eventually got a full refund back. But ever since then, I have quit using eBay entirely. I don't even like to buy there anymore, unless I have to for a gift or something that I can't find elsewhere.

 

[gmermel]

re Scammers: I engaged once. , they told me where to send the money. Traded about half dozen emails over the course of a week. I told them I didn't like Western Union or whatever. Eventually sent them a user name/password to an imaginary account that would allow them to request their money. Don't recall the user name I chose, but my password spelled out F--- you in code (used numbers for some of the letters, etc).....

Went on for better part of a week. Shared with my work colleagues in real time. It was a lot of fun.....

 

[firebirder]

I'm really curious if you get the original Pixel back. Never looked at the fine print for this one because I didn't try to trade in a phone, however, I'd assume it's like most others. As this goes for any trade-in offer. Make sure to read the fine print. Most say that the upfront price is based on you accurately describing your phone and is not final. They get your phone, re-evaluate, and give you the number. Usually that's final. There is no way to have it looked at again. And, perhaps most importantly, once they receive the phone, it's theirs. No return if unsatisfied. It seems they could give you $1 and there would be no recourse for the consumer outside of a civil lawsuit. Hope this is different.

 

[FoneFreak]

eBay customer support is awful as well. I too have had to deal with scammers and it was a major run around to get anything refunded back to me. I can be incredibly persistent (or annoying, depending on who you ask), and eventually got a full refund back. But ever since then, I have quit using eBay entirely. I don't even like to buy there anymore, unless I have to for a gift or something that I can't find elsewhere.

I'm with you. I've been on Ebay for 15+ years and it's more annoying than ever as the Buyer has all the rights and the Seller's have to deal with the dead-beat bidders without recourse. This was the whole reason the Google trade-in was so appealing in the first case. I appreciate the recommendation from others on this thread to use Swappa and will definitely consider it once this mess is resolved.

 

[FoneFreak]

I'm really curious if you get the original Pixel back. Never looked at the fine print for this one because I didn't try to trade in a phone, however, I'd assume it's like most others. As this goes for any trade-in offer. Make sure to read the fine print. Most say that the upfront price is based on you accurately describing your phone and is not final. They get your phone, re-evaluate, and give you the number. Usually that's final. There is no way to have it looked at again. And, perhaps most importantly, once they receive the phone, it's theirs. No return if unsatisfied. It seems they could give you $1 and there would be no recourse for the consumer outside of a civil lawsuit. Hope this is different.

I'm really curious too. If they don't or won't return it I'll get my $100 worth of their time from my persistent calls to them trying to escalate it further. I'm sure they pay those customer service reps from other countries $2 an hour, so after 50 hours of calls I'll feel satisfied

 

[worldspy99]

Dang it. I was about to turn my Pixel 128GB in pristine condition for trade in. I think I will just buy the new device cash and list mine on Swappa. I have two sold devices on eBay and no payment. Automatic no pay cases are open. I really don't like eBay.

I am sorry you had to go through this bad experience.

 

[N4Newbie]

I agree. I'll continue to sell my mint phones on Ebay after this. Not worth the aggravation and time spent on the calls, emails and tracking of it. Stupid me figuring the first time doing it would be smooth.

I was a little concerned about trying this, but I skipped eBay this time and sold my mint Pixel XL on swappa.com for $100 more than Google's $410 offer.

Whereas eBay is now charging 10% of the final sale value for the listing fee, swappa does not charge the seller *at all* - the buyer pays a small premium over the seller's asking price.

Overall, my experience with swappa was very good (and the buyer of my XL very pleased).

 

[anon(10271520)]

I was a little concerned about trying this, but I skipped eBay this time and sold my mint Pixel XL on swappa.com for $100 more than Google's $410 offer.

Whereas eBay is now charging 10% of the final sale value for the listing fee, swappa does not charge the seller *at all* - the buyer pays a small premium over the seller's asking price.

Overall, my experience with swappa was very good (and the buyer of my XL very pleased).

Same here. Sold my first gen pixel for almost $600 on Swappa with a bunch of accessories I had and buyer was very pleased. I knew it was in mint condition so they got a pretty good deal I guess, if you like saving what you can.

Thankfully my best friend is buying my international S7 once my new Pixel 2 comes in, so I can avoid it all this time around.

 

[N4Newbie]

Dang it. I was about to turn my Pixel 128GB in pristine condition for trade in. I think I will just buy the new device cash and list mine on Swappa. I have two sold devices on eBay and no payment. Automatic no pay cases are open. I really don't like eBay.

I am sorry you had to go through this bad experience.

I had an extra Pixel 2 XL (long story) that I listed on eBay with starting bid $1150. Got that bid plus three more bringing it up to $1275. Two days before auction end, the two high bidders both retracted their bids because they "were placed in error" - according to eBay's rules, that excuse is supposed to be reserved for people who do things like bid $1,000 when they meant $10 or $100, and the bidder is expected to immediately enter their "correct" bid after the retraction. Yeah, right.

So, my first bidder won the auction at $1150 and then never paid. eBay's rules required that I wait 5 days before opening a non-payment case and then another 3 days before they would cancel the sale, return my fee, and release me from any requirement that I ship the phone.

Too much time lost and now P2XL's are selling at a loss on eBay and swappa. Thankfully, I was able to process a return to the Google store with no restocking fee and free return shipping. Hopefully they won't claim it arrives damaged or anything like that...

 

[Cherenkov]

I had a similar issue with Amazon, which again was using some third party for their trade-in processing. Ended up just having them ship the phone back (which like the OP was in perfect mint condition) and traded it through Best Buy instead, that way I could do the valuation in person.

 

[john_v]

One more plus for Swappa...absolutely love it. It's my go-to for buying and selling now.

 

[victoryrules8]

I sent my black pixel 2 128gb in on October. 14tg and have heard nothing. it shows that it was delivered on the 17th. I've called and they said it's in hand but still pending.. I have no idea what's going on. I'm gonna have to call again tomorkw to find out

 

[Almeuit]

I am shocked people still use eBay. Feels so old to me. Swappa is my go to.

 

[e30ernest]

I'm sorry to hear about your bad experience OP. I went with the trade-in too since I probably couldn't sell my Nexus 6P with a bad battery for a decent price. I also did not have the to wait for a proper sale (I was flying out of the USA).

That said, my trade-in with Google went smoothly and I got the estimated price paid for. I'm pretty happy with how that went.

 

[svenEDGE]

I've had good success on swappa, sold any phone I listed in just a few minutes, can always adjust your price to comp for the fee

If you're selling them in just a few minutes, you're probably shorting yourself.

 

[ric0chet70]

Craigslist has been my go to for selling used phones, haven’t used Swappa yet. I stay away from trade in sites after a bad experience with an iPad and T-Mobile losing my Note 4 some years back.

 

[D13H4RD2L1V3]

If there's one thing I've learned, never sell your stuff on eBay.

I've already had friends experience customers demanding refunds for the silliest of reasons.