

- #HOW MUCH CAN YOU TRADE IN A MACBOOK AIR FULL#
- #HOW MUCH CAN YOU TRADE IN A MACBOOK AIR PRO#
- #HOW MUCH CAN YOU TRADE IN A MACBOOK AIR SOFTWARE#
- #HOW MUCH CAN YOU TRADE IN A MACBOOK AIR TORRENT#
“I imagine it would be a tougher choice for someone who was counting on realizing the full value of the trade-in, who may not be able to afford a new computer otherwise.” Just the notification of the change in value and essentially the take-it-or-leave-it message which came by way of Apple,” he says. Pero says he was never given any photographic proof of the white spots when his trade-in was adjusted. “Maybe they have some diagnostic tool? But from a consumer perspective, no way I see a problem before I sent it or after receiving it back.”
#HOW MUCH CAN YOU TRADE IN A MACBOOK AIR PRO#
Upon inspection, Pero could not detect any issues with his computer, and he showed us a video of his MacBook Pro booting up to verify there were no “white spots” present. Pero also asked for his laptop back, and Phobio returned it. “Having used it for three years, I can tell you I never noticed a problem,” Carlos Pero, another Apple customer who had their laptop trade-in quote reduced by Phobio from $640 to $210, tells The Verge.
#HOW MUCH CAN YOU TRADE IN A MACBOOK AIR TORRENT#
And that’s just a tiny sample of an online torrent of complaints against Phobio and its practices across multiple types of gadgets and with an alarming uptick in the last few months.Īnother Apple customer, Carlos Pero, had their laptop marked down from $640 to $210 over display white spots Phobio claims it detected. Two other people who spoke with The Verge and provided documentation of their Phobio trade-in processes also experienced a similar situation, in which “white spots” or other supposed defects, only detected after the device was shipped to a Phobio facility, resulted in reduced trade-in quotes. But his experience is indicative of a common belief that’s emerged about Phobio online - that the company stiffs owners of Apple products out of hundreds of dollars in trade-in value - and the supposed “3 or more white spots” defect seems unlikely enough that it bears investigation. It’s not clear why McGloin’s estimate was halved. The laptop booted up and operates like new, and it has since passed numerous online diagnostic tests. We could detect no such white spots or any discernible damage whatsoever. The Verge inspected McGloin’s MacBook in person after he rejected the trade-in offer and Phobio returned the computer to him. “It’s here I realized that number one, the trade-in program is not run by Apple, number two, there are lots of people observing the same behavior, and number three, this seems to be a new development in the last few months,” McGloin says. “Display has 3 or more white spots,” was the reason, though The Verge found no such issue when it inspected the computer in person. Daniel McGloin sent in his 2017 MacBook after receiving a quote of $350, only to have his quote marked down to $140. McGloin also found Phobio had a pretty questionable online reputation when it came to Apple products. Founded in 2010, Phobio is an enterprise service provider that specializes in offering white label trade-in services other companies can pass off as their own. The company he had been dealing with was not actually Apple, but an Atlanta-based contractor named Phobio.

So McGloin decided to search around online, where he discovered a lesser-known fact about Apple’s trade-in program. In McGloin’s estimation, however, the laptop was in “excellent” condition, he tells The Verge, and he didn’t see any white spots when he packed it up. It’s a defect McGloin doesn’t remember ever seeing, and one that he should have noticed: typically, white spots on an LCD display are evidence of serious damage or burn-in and are clearly visible. The mysterious culprit: “display has 3 or more white spots,” the Apple Store app told him. Suddenly, McGloin was told his MacBook was worth just $140, less than half what Apple originally quoted. The situation soon changed after his laptop arrived for inspection. So McGloin packed up the device and shipped it in, expecting to receive his money in the coming weeks, which would help offset his purchase of a MacBook Air carrying Apple’s new M1 chip. He felt it was in pretty good condition, with no apparent damage to the case and a fully functioning display and keyboard.
#HOW MUCH CAN YOU TRADE IN A MACBOOK AIR SOFTWARE#
The software engineer and San Diego native initiated the trade-in with Apple through the Apple Store mobile app, where he was quoted $350 for his used laptop. When Daniel McGloin decided to trade in his mid-2017 Apple MacBook in February of this year, he thought he was getting a pretty good deal.
