Refurbished iPhone 3G, Is it worth it?

One can't help but notice the amount of buzz (Boy Genius Report, PCWorld, Engadget, CNET, etc...) that has been driven in the recent price reduction of the refurbished iPhone 3Gs from AT&T. The telecom slashed the already low price of iPhone 3G refurb from $199 down to $149 (16GB) and $149 down to $99 (8GB) on their website.

Should one take advantage of this deal?

I'll answering that by saying the price, unlike the1st gen. iPhone refurb deal last year, this time, the purchase will force you to open a 2-year contract. This means you'll have to live with this refurbished iPhone 3G hopefully trouble-free for the next two years. According to the fine print, all refurb iPhone 3Gs are warranted for 90 days or more. The "more" is based on the number of days left in since activation of the original one year warranty.

That said, I will go over couple of experience I've had with the 1st gen. refurbished iPhone deal I picked up last year. As mentioned above, the 1st gen. iPhone refurb can be had for $250 shipped. My refurbed 1st gen iPhone, however, had a failed touchscreen after 6 months of use. While AT&T originally promised a 1 year warranty as it was mentioned on the refurbished box label, APPLE store did want to honor it. They kept using the original registration info off of the previous owner as the time stamp for the one year warranty period. After much perusation, they finally agreed to exchange for another refurbished iPhone for an extended 90 days warranty. The replacement iPhone never worked properly with the presistant "iPhone won't ring in deep sleep" problem as I have documented. Long story short, I finally gave up on this route and extended my contract with AT&T for a new iPhone 3G.

So if you ask me, refurbished iPhone 3G is not worth the potential issues. As matter of fact, I've never bought into refurbished anything in the past. My only time of bending that rule backfired on me. So, no thanks, I'll pass.

Best Buy to jump on Refurbished iPhone 3G Bandwagon

Is it me or is the whole refurbished iPhone 3G thing a bit overdone? I mean, the cost of a new iPhone 3G is really not that big of a deal. The whole refurbish offer was enticing in the first gen days where a new iPhone cost $399 or higher but a refurbished $250 unit can be had contract-free.

Today, new iPhone 3G starts at $199 and has a contract of 2 years. Best Buy or AT&T will toss in a refurb unit for a mere $50 savings at $149, but still has a 2-year contract tied to the deal. Call me crazy but just take the new iPhone instead. Atleast you'll know the phone has never had other people's grease face oil smothered all over.

AT&T Refurb iPhone 3G Now $99, Another $50 Drop

AT&T is either not moving as many unit as those extremely unattractive price of $149/$249 for the refurbished 8GB/16GB iPhone 3G or they want to capitalize on the residual holiday shopping mentality. Either way, they lowered the sale price by another $50 for their refurbished units. For an 8GB iPhone 3G, you can now pick it up for $99 while the 16GB version will go for $199.

This offer is still going to cost you a 2-year contract just like the normal priced iPhone 3G. What I don't understand is how is this suppose to attract people to buy? The real cost of iPhone 3G ownership is its ridiculous $30 data monthly plan w/o a text plan (that'll cost you atleast $5/mo extra). A savings of $100 for a unknown conditioned phone is merely 3 months worth of data plan cost savings. Ironically, warranty is limited to 90 days (or think of it as the same time you got your data plan for free in this deal, if you consider this a deal anyways).

$150 AT&T iPhone 3G Refurb Deal

Remember those refurbished iPhone deals AT&T used to have? Well... they are back and this time its $150 for an iPhone 3G 8GB or $250 for its 16GB big bro. Unlike the previous offer, you'll have to checkout with a lousy phone/data plan rendering today's other good news useless.

Our 2-cents: Why would anyone want to get a refurb unit for a mere $50 savings knowing AT&T and Apple is only honoring a 90-day warranty this time. Also, remember in the last round, the 1 year warranty was also in question?

My AT&T Refurbished 1st Gen. iPhone 1Yr Warranty in Question

A while ago, I reported a couple of times that AT&T was clearing out their refurbished first generation iPhone inventory online and I secured a unit at an amazing $250. This was back in May. When the phone arrived, it came with a sticker on the box saying that my refurbished iPhone has 1 year warranty and to be honored by Apple, so go through Apple store for any issues.

I remembered around that time, one of my favorite blog - TUAW also reported an article about how some of the refurbished iPhones do not have correct 1 year warranty reflected when you look up the warranty yourself.

Well, that is exactly what happened to me. That same refurbished iPhone just completely gave up on its multi-touchscreen one day (no drop, no water damage, just quits on its own). When I took it in, the Apple employee at first gave me an expression that he's never seen the refurbished warranty from AT&T, even after I showed him the label from the refurbished iPhone box I got from AT&T. Secondly, he looked up my phone's record which still shows the returned date of the original owner (last year around October) and tells me that is the starting mark of the 1 year warranty. I proceeded to explain and showed him my receipt of May 2008 is when I got the iPhone, he kept on saying it doesn't work that way.

Long story short, the guy at the Genius Bar was cool enough to swap out another unit for me at the end even though he said he was doing me a favor. I am not sure if this replacement is a new unit or another refurbished, but its in much better physical condition than the AT&T refurb unit which had minor scratches throughout (hard to see but its there) and the serial number actually comes up with zero history as opposed to my ATT refurb iPhone unit which had the original owners warranty date tied to the serial no. The Genius Bar guy also said this replacement unit now has another 90 days of warranty from today which I guess would almost make it a full year in my case (this gives me protection into Feb '09 as opposed to the real 1 year term would have been May '09).

Either way, I am happy that atleast Apple stepped up to replace the broken refurbed iPhone for me, but not very cool that AT&T and Apple didn't work out the details between the two.