"Just under one month ago from this writing, I purchased an iPhone 13 Pro Max from Gazelle. I have no problems buying refurbished goods, with the expectation they may not be perfect. I’ve been a faithful Apple consumer since 1992. I paid the full price ($1240.00). Phone was shipped; although there appeared to be a slight delay in shipping, it arrived a bit sooner than expected. This is where the odyssey begins:

The iPhone arrived in near perfect condition…to the eye. A minor scratch on the front glass (hardly noticeable) and in regular room light, it looked great. Functioned perfectly. I was elated. Put it in highly rated case with screen protector. Good to go. Then, about two weeks later, I took a photo and the camera seemed to focus weirdly. I looked at the phone again in better lighting conditions and my heart dropped: there was a multi-point crack on the lower camera lens.

The iPhone was covered by a limited one year warranty (not AppleCare). So I contacted Apple to see if they could repair it as a courtesy: $599. Nope. Went to a couple of phone repair shops: $399. Nope. Contacted Gazelle customer service online and before I could say I simply wanted a replacement and not a refund, they sent me a refund link. Nope.

Next I called in. Customer service rep said they don’t do replacements but if I wanted a refund, I would have to send my unit in, they would put a $1240 hold on my card until they inspected it. Then they would return my money. Nope.

With the prospect of being stick with a bum phone camera (for a $1240 phone, the camera better work), I called back. Call was escalated to a supervisor/specialist who told me they can do what is called a “direct order” which works like this: you return your phone; when Gazelle sees the phone is in transit to their facility (it doesn’t even have to arrive), they will send a replacement phone of the same make/model overnight mail. Yep.

I mailed the defective phone 2 days ago. First, called back to customer service. Gave tracking number. Gazelle confirmed the post office had it but it wasn’t in transit and they couldn’t initiate the direct order. Told to call back later. The next day.

Called back Thursday. Phone is definitely in transit. Gazelle found my claim, but was looking for a replacement and would “get back to me later.” I impressed upon them that I was borrowing phones for both business and personal use. Waited until approximately 5pm EST (they close at 6pm). Supervisor says phone is being chosen in inventory; they’ll contact me. At 7pm I receive an email asking which color I wanted (which should have been in notes). Because I had no phone, I responded at 8pm; they said Great! … but the warehouse was closed…so…Friday…?

Contacted back today (Friday) at 11am after no word. Got a response: they had my claim…which would take 3 days to review. Got another email within literal seconds saying that they had picked out my replacement and it was being “prepared for shipping” and I would be “updated.” Within a minute, I received another email saying the defective iPhone had arrived at their facility and after “processing” I would be notified. Then I received another email saying the replacement phone had shipped. There was no tracking number and the shipping method was set up for a standard 5-7 day shipping time.

Color me confused. So I called back on a borrowed phone. Supervisor says that different people were telling me different things but he confirmed the iPhone was ready for shipping and that it was set for FedEx overnight delivery. If their warehouse was open this weekend.

Finally got a FedEx tracking number. Replacement phone was shipped. Delivery estimate: Monday by 8PM.

Needless to say, even if this replacement arrives in pristine condition from top to bottom — and I did pick the “Excellent” option — never again will I purchase through Gazelle. Never again."

"Easy to setup and ship iPad back."

"Do not send them your phone or ipad. They will only give you half of their offer. scam !!"

"I had two perfectly good items that needed new homes, so I did some looking and found gazelle was offering the most favorable prices for a service of its type. I am sure I could have gotten more had I sold these items on the open market, but that also has a way of opening a person up to a whole world if unwanted crap, so now I’m writing this review.
I take pretty good care of my stuff, so I gave both of my devices; an iPhone 11 Pro Max and an iPad Air 2 the highest grade available, as they both truly did look brand new. After review, I was told that they truly did look brand new and would indeed fetch top dollar! The checks arrived shortly thereafter and all was good. I have recommended gazelle in the past and continue to do so. Do your due diligence and check all sources when making transactions of this nature, and if you find a better offer, run with it, but if gazelle does provide the favorable bid in your situation, know that the rest of the transaction is going to go pretty smoothly!"

"A little slow on the shipping but so easy and great for reselling old devices!"

"This is the 3rd transaction with Gazelle. They are very honest with their appraisals. Each time they paid above the offer price. They value good used phones. Much easier to deal with than the other online resellers that I have worked with. Thank you Gazelle!!"

"Overall, I would definitely recommend Gazelle for selling your phone. It was easy and it was the highest offer I received. A few notes - it does take a while (overall it took about four weeks from ordering the shipping box through receiving payment - will take less time if you have your own shipping box but I did not). I would have appreciated some form of follow up - like email updates/text updates as the shipment travelled to them, was received, and was being reviewed. It is a big leap of faith to send such an expensive device to an organization you've never worked with before and I think those things would have helped give me peace of mind. "

"From start to finish, this was a great experience. They sent the shipping material, and the check arrived in the mail about 10 days later. "

"The process was easy and straight forward."

"great. thank you. will use agian."

" Sent them an iPad in excellent condition after they initially offered me $122.00.
Received a counteroffer of $65.00 from them because I was told the screen had too many scratches and it wouldn’t light up correctly.
Bogus claims and I’ve seen these same reasons and counteroffer of $65.00 from others filing complaints on other websites.
Took the money and ran knowing I won’t win this dispute."

"Same as another recent reviewer. If you read nothing else of this be sure to note your phone's serial number before sending it off. I sent a pixel 4a phone to them in excellent condition. I was told it was heavily scratched (there were none); three buttons were broken on it (there are only two both protected by a case from day one) and that it was not 100% functional and was offered $50 trade-in rather than $116. (Why would they offer anything if it was in that bad of condition?) I requested they return it immediately and became concerned that they might actually send me a different junk phone they had been looking at for my quote rather than my own. I called customer service and advised that I had noted my phone's serial number and so expected to get the same one back - was reassured I would and did. All this took one month. I mailed the original phone on or about Jan 10 and got my phone back yesterday, Feb13. I'm sending it to a different reseller with v good google reviews. I failed to do my homework on Gazelle before using them. Don't you make the same mistake. From all the reviews it is apparent that about 1/3 of us who use Gazelle get the bait and switch treatment. Why chance being one of them. "

"I turned in my old iPad Mini. It was in pristine condition, even returned it in the original carton. First, it took a long time to acknowledge that the unit had been received, even though the tracking number showed that the parcel had been received. I received another email informing me that the Gazelle offer was time limited. After several more days, I received email telling me to deactivate "find my iPad." I thought that i'd done this before I returned the unit--following directions on how to do this. Several more back & forth exchanges, and several more attempts. Finally reached a live human by phone who walked me through the steps. Finally, money deposited to my Venmo!"

"Received an online quote for a Verizon iPhone 8. Sent the phone in per guidelines. Received a review stating that is was not a Verizon phone along with indication that it was damaged, therefore the online quote was reduced by 60%. I requested that this inspections be revisited as this was a Verizon phone. I even provided an email from Verizon stipulating that the MEID on the phone they received was in fact a Verizon Phone and verified the match. Received no reply. After 10 days, I sent another request to have this phone reviewed. This time I did receive a reply stating they would have it re-inspected. Of course that review returned the same viewpoint. Only thing they did perform properly, is they did return my phone. The most interesting part of this, I sent this same Verizon iPhone 8 to BuyBackWorld. This phone was evaluated by them as a Verizon iPhone 8 with a Excellent rating. I am just glad I didn't let them Bait and Switch on me. Be ware!"

"I have used Gazelle multiple times when trading in smart phones. Never had a problem. Reliable. Fast. Fair. Will continue to use!"