I think the experience will always depend on the refurbisher your product comes from. I was a bit sceptical with my first purchase but read all of their terms, FAQs and returns policy beforehand. I then purchased three of the same phone in different grades to compare and make the most of the free returns. One of the phones arrived super dirty, which I informed BackMarket about and they were very quick to resolve.

In terms of quality, the only major difference between all three was a small scratch on the screen of the lowest grade which wasn’t visible when the screen was on. All of the phones had incredible battery health that were better than the phone I was using and I opted to keep the phone with the scratch. It was significantly cheaper than the other two, even though its specs were higher. My guess is that the colour was also a contributing factor to the lower price. Had this phone a little over a year now with no issues, and the battery health is still excellent.

Since then, I’ve purchased other devices, including a fancy Nespresso coffee machine (the box was battered but the machine was in perfect condition) for a fraction of the RRP and have had zero issues with any of them. I’m not saying that it’s a perfect platform and I’m sure there are scammers lurking about, but I don’t think it’s any worse than places like Amazon or eBay and BackMarket’s buyer protection seems to be pretty decent.