I chose to order a refurbished iPhone from this company above a wealth of others based on their good customer satisfaction ratings and reviews - and that the item would arrive by the date I needed it. Their stated timescale for orders to be delivered was 2-4 days, with Royal Mail tracking info supplied within 24 hours. A tracking number wasn’t forthcoming from Royal Mail but was showing in my account. However the number wasn’t recognised by Royal Mail’s tracking app, indicating that either the number wasn’t valid or iOutlet hadn’t actually actioned the despatch. Then when I messaged them, a member of staff claimed that they were still dealing with the Black Friday backlog and that it may take longer to despatch some orders. No estimated despatch time was given for my order, so one of their customer service pledges was already dead in the water.Two days later, and with no formal advice of despatch or tracking number, I enquired again as to the status of the order. This time the new excuse was that their ‘despatch time’ was 2-4 days, rather than ‘delivery time’. It’s at this point alarm bells started to ring. Clearly they were happy to take over £600 of my money after making promises that they either couldn’t - or never intended to - keep. It’s because of these kind of disingenuous companies that Apple can continue to sell their products at considerably higher prices - because they are reliable and fulfill the promises made to the customer.Truly you do get what you pay for - and if you value BS-free customer service then I’d advise sucking up the extra cost to your pocket and opt for Apple for your iPhone (new or refurbished) because that’s better than the cost to your time and stress levels dealing with timewasters like this who are built around lip service and little else.UPDATE 11 DEC:Unfortunately once the phone finally arrived and was set up, two issues became apparent. Firstly - and despite ensuring nothing was adversely draining it - the battery charge kept dropping alarmingly. A 2-minute phone call saw 19% disappear, for example. Then without warning the phone froze on two separate occasions and couldn’t be turned off, even using the side buttons to force a shutdown. I’ve been buying iPhones since the 6th generation and never, ever experienced this kind of behaviour. Even with my old iPhone 12 that has just about 80% battery health, it lasted all day and that’s with constant personal and work use. So clearly there was something very wrong with this particular product. Whilst I have no doubt that there are many satisfied iOutlet customers out there, the experiences I’ve had since ordering just over a week ago to yesterday when I had to return the iPhone 15, are far from what I was expecting, based on the reputation generated by the reviews. I’ve previously only ever ordered from Apple, despite the higher prices. In less than another 24 hours Apple have delivered the same model (also refurbished) but with a new battery and casing and I’ve got it all set up and working with no glitches. Yes it’s cost me an extra £180 but this was a lesson in “you get what you pay for” and in future I’m sticking with quality and reliability. As for the returns experience, the iOutlet processed the refund swiftly, and promised to refund the return postage costs too. I can’t of course recommend this company under the circumstances but I genuinely hope that future customers are satisfied and perhaps as a business the iOutlet needs to raise the standards of testing and refurbishing before they sell used phones on.
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