Just last week I purchased a phone from Kenny305K whose real name is Kenneth Talavera from Miami. In the original post on buying the phone he said he could expedite the phone for me so I paid right away. In the private messages section after the sale, sellers are required to send tracking number 2 days after the sale. No tracking numbers and here is a copy of the conversation:

Comments 11
Comments on this page are private, visible only to buyer, seller and Swappa staff.

Frank R.
Frank R. Buyer
May 03,2020 - 11:14 AM
KENNY305k,

What can I do to expedite the shipment and sent to arrive quickly? Someone stole my phone on Thursday and I need your phone to work from home. I can't miss a week for a phone to use for work, so could you please help me out. Please advise.
Thanks
Frank

KENNY305K
KENNY305K Seller
May 03,2020 - 11:34 AM
Ok. Thanks

Frank R.
Frank R. Buyer
May 05,2020 - 12:56 PM
I asked if you could expedite shipping and you said OK Thanks and I didn't get the phone or tracking numbers. Please advise!

Frank R.
Frank R. Buyer
May 05,2020 - 02:22 PM
I asked if you could expedite the shipment to arrive quickly and you said OK, thanks. I haven't received the phone and I didn't get any tracking numbers. Have you shipped the phone? Please advise!

KENNY305K
KENNY305K Seller
May 05,2020 - 02:28 PM
ON FRIDAY YOU WILL HAVE IT IN YOUR HANDS.

Frank R.
Frank R. Buyer
May 05,2020 - 03:27 PM
Tracking numbers please...

Frank R.
Frank R. Buyer
May 05,2020 - 03:28 PM
Please provide tracking numbers as required by Swappa

Rob D.
Rob D. Staff
May 05,2020 - 03:30 PM
KENNY305K, please communicate and provide a tracking number on this page to keep the sale moving in the right direction.

Please be sure to review our shipping time frame requirements here: https://swappa.com/faq/sell/shipping_time_frame

Thank you.

Frank R.
Frank R. Buyer
May 06,2020 - 02:24 PM
Where are the tracking numbers?

Joshua G.
Joshua G. Staff
May 06,2020 - 02:25 PM
Frank R., unfortunately at this time, I recommend you file a PayPal dispute to begin the forced refund process:

Login to PayPal, locate and click on the payment sent to the seller, and then click on the "Report a problem" link. From there, you can file a dispute.

Here's more information from PayPal on the Dispute Resolution process:
https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/security/buyer-protection-resolution

Frank R.
Frank R. Buyer
May 08,2020 - 09:37 AM
No phone today! Both Post office and UPS send me an email with all mail/packages I will be getting as soon as they hit their system. Only letters coming today from Post Office. Other stuff coming, just not the phone. So ITS NOT COMING! Ripped off, but Paypal will get me my money back... eventually. Could take up to 60 days. Bad seller and leaves me with a bad opinion of Swappa as my first experience was looking forward to a battle to get my money back. No help from Swappa. They don't even have a way to compensate or throw you a deal or anything to make up a major inconvenience. Nothing! They just tossed it to Paypal! Major inconvenience.

I never received a phone, nor did the seller respond to requests to provide a tracking number and Swappa can't do anything to help you get you money back other than to tell you to report it to Paypal, which is their preferred method for paying. Now I have to wait up to 60 days for some resolution to this issue. In the meantime Kenneth Talavera has my $600 and I still need a phone to use for working from home. My first and last experience with Swappa.

I've been an active eBay buyer since 2003. In that time I have engaged in almost 100 sales transactions, a few of which needed support and help to work out. Every one of them was worked out because of the involvement of their Resolution Center system and check and balance of mutual seller-buyer ratings. This does not happen at Swappa. Only the buyer can rate the seller. Sellers are left hanging, even after they request involvement with support to intervene in a seller-buyer issue. All they do is send links to their policies and PayPal's policy. All of the correspondence seems like it is coming from a 20-something with no real understanding of business or of issues that can - and usually occur.
The seller pays shipping. The seller has no ability to rate or review unethical buyers. The seller must take back the product if the buyer chooses to send it. There is no way to verify anything the buyer says - so they can say whatever they want to avoid return shipping costs - and Swappa doesn't get substantively involved even when they are asked.
About a month ago I sold an iPhone 6 - very clean - and had the carrier put it through two simulated activations with the IMEI and told me on both occasions it was clean and ready to be activated on their service. The buyer claimed the phone was locked and could not be activated. I spent four days very politely helping her - and offering several times that she could return the phone (she never followed through) culminating in me arranging a conference call with the carrier support rep to look at the IMEI and her account. It turns out it was her account that was locked from an unpaid obligation (She knew that - but was trying to blame me and the phone). You see, if the lock was my fault instead of hers, I would have to pay return shipping. Otherwise, she would have to pay for return shipping. I even provided the last four digits of the phone number that was locked - to Swappa - and got no assistance or defense with this bad buyer. Even then, I offered to take the phone back but heard nothing for three days. I sent a note again asking for the tracking number of her return shipment to which she replied she would be keeping the phone. As a result of five days of helping this buyer, I received a one-star rating and a nasty review to which I tried to return the favor of a review so nobody else would deal with this liar only to be told by Swappa that sellers do not have the ability to rate buyers. I was swindled by a terrible secondary seller site of Swappa and a non-bill paying little liar - verified by the carrier. None of that was good enough to get an ounce of help from the support reps who only seem to send pre-scripted links for you to read. There are many good buyers and sellers out there and I am sure some of them engage with Swappa. The point here is that Swappa has HUGE GAPS in its system that places unfair burdens on the sellers - almost assuming they are guilty until proven innocent. There are many other excellent secondary (C2C) markets for selling used equipment on the internet. Swappa isn't one of them. Find another marketplace - don't use Swappa.

I wouldn't trust these people to sell me dog biscuits. They are promoting a NON-EXISTANT deal with Mintmobile.

Swappa staff,
If you are monitoring user reviews, could you please forward below to your management team? It could help cut down fraud selling on Swappa:

1) Require all Sellers to be 'PayPal Verified'. It would force the scammer to leave behind some paper trials, such as their saving account and financial institution.

2) Require Seller's email for Swappa to be the same as their email for PayPal.

With the above 2 requirements, I think you could cut down substantial amount of fraud selling.

I had previously bought 4 iPhones successfully on Swappa. Unfortunately, I got scammed on my 5th iPhone purchase. Below is my bad experience:

A) 12/28/18: I bought an iPhone 8 for $400 from Dante J. The Seller ID is TUJ214. The transaction ID is LRNX*******. The Sale ID is SRNY*******.

B) 12/28/18: I received a text from Paypal stating: $385 transaction with Janeel Gil was marked as suspicious. Before I had a chance to reply the text, PayPal went ahead and sent the money.

C) 12/29/18: The Seller emailed me using "*******@gmail.com" stating he had received the money and that Janeel Gil was his wife's PayPal account.

D) 12/29/18: The Seller used multiple aliases: His name is Dante J. With email *******@gmail.com for Swappa. His wife's name is Janeel Gil with email *******@gmail.com for Paypal.

E) 1/2/19: I filed a dispute with PayPal as 'Unauthorized Access'. PayPal denied it, stating it was a valid transaction.

F) 1/9/19: Swapped refunded $15 and marked the transaction as 'Sale Failed'.

G) 1/11/19: I phoned Paypal and was on-hold for 1.5 hours. The PayPal agent agreed to re-open the case as "Item Not Received". PayPal said the Seller had 10 days to respond to their email request for info.

H) 1/21/19: After 10 days, PayPal said the Seller did not response. So PayPal agreed to refund $385.

I) 1/24/19: After almost a month, I finally got $385 refund back in my credit card.

I'm not a happy Swapper user, because I had to spend a lot of time to get my money back, on a scammed purchase.

While I like Swappa, I don't feel safe to buy anymore.

By implementing the 2 requirements that I mentioned, I think Swappa could make buying a lot safer.

I had never heard of Swappa before until I was in Best Buy looking at phones. I fell in love with the Note 8 after having dropped my Note 5 of my lap when getting out of my car, but I couldn't justify spending over $800 on a brand new phone! I was explained they had payments with approved credit & I just couslnt do that bc I have vacation soon & the of a new phone would cover a hotel in Pigeon Forge close to Dollywood. So as I'm looking around, trying to convince myself of a cheaper phone, one of the reps I talked to said he had coworkers use Swappa & to check it out. I've used Ebay since 2002, still do, but I refuse to use it for buying a phone. Long story short there, is because I got burnt & the phone was reported loat/stolen an hour after I received it & I had paid $350-380 for it (this was in 2014). I did get my money back through PayPal, but it left a bad taste for future phone buying. But, what did I do? Tried it again in 2018 & instead of being sent an overstock/7 day return phone, I was sent a refurbished phone. Again, was not what I wanted. Seller was great & admitted they shipped wrong phone & refunded ne. I then started looking on Swappa. I was hesitant bc I had heard of the site before but I REALLY liked the selling criteria. So I watched for close to 2 weeks then found a phone which I purchased. My husband fell in love with my phone, so I went & looked on the site again the next day & there just so happens to be a local guy selling a Note 8. I purchased that one too and had it in my hands in 30 mins from start to finish of transaction. The other phone took 2 days to get. This site is THE BEST site for buying electronics from! I definitely will be a returning customer & will no longer be using Ebay EVER again to purchase electronics from. I am so beyond thrilled that the site was suggested to me and by a Beat Buy employee (hey, that's a great sales associate in my book bc I obviously couldn't afford a new Note8 phone there. But I can buy a case from there & other merchandise). I can't say enough positive things about this site! And don't worry, you pay through PayPal & heaven forbid something goes awry, PayPal will have you covered. It really is a win-win & the sellers do accept offers... something Ebay doesn't have a whole lot of & definitely not anything as good, easy & smooth as Swappa!

I purchased a Gopro Hero 5 Black, in used but like new condition for only $175.00 from Swappa and was not disappointed. It came with few to no scratches and very clean. Other than not haven't the retail box, it was like new.
The video quality was superior to any action camera I have purchased so far and i have a Dragon Touch 4K action camera that I purchased new from Amazon Shopping for comparison.
This camera allows for the addition of an exterior microphone, so vloging is possible with this device, if that's your camera needs. This camera also has a touch screen and voice controlled, which make it very used friendly and easy to setup and use. The features on this camera were way better than the Dragon Touch too, so the old saying "you get what you pay for" is true.
I recommend shooting the GoPro Hero 5 Black in1080p 60fs for vloging as the image stabilization works best here. The 4k 30fs works great and looks nice too for all your action video. And the Hero also shots slow motion in 1080p at 120fs for clear but slow footage. If you want your video every shower, then drop down to 720p at 240fs and really slow down your action shots.
This camera also let's change just about every camera setting for professional looking videos, like ISO and shutter speed, along with white balance and color. It has several settings for audio input too, for adjusting both the on board (4 mics) or controlled over your external mic.
The only dings that I can give this camera is that the external microphone adapter, that is required to attach and use an external microphone (which I highly recommend over the on board microphones), costs $50.00 for their proprietary adapters from GoPro. You can't use any off brand USB C to 3.5mm head phone adapters, as they just simply do not work. The adapter, from GoPro is also very bulky and awkward, which takes away from it's compactness.
I highly recommended to install the Gopro app from the Google play store or the IOS app store as the quality of the app is also better than any other action camera app out. This app will give to you full control over the camera and let you see what your recording.
Bottom line is, if you can find a used GoPro, in like new condition, for cheap, get it.

I learned of this site from another, while curious I looked it over, read reviews, studied their transparent straightforward rules and fees. I have sold and bought many phones, tablets over severals years. Never had a rude moderator, every email was answered in 3 hrs. Or less. Any questions or help I needed answered were explained in detail. I read many reviews, most are due to not reading the purpose and FAQS of the website. At the top of home page states: people powered. It is not a sellers store platform, only individuals or small business. It states "buyer pays 5 dollar fee, included in total price. SHIPPING IS ALWAYS FREE. Phones are all put through IMEI, ESN phone id check to see if clean to sell. Photos showing all details especially glass up close with a unique number of sale IF APPROVED. ALL Items have to be in good working order, no cracks, no damage, no payment binding contracts, no stolen property. The staff are trained to look over images with assigned number, shows proof of actual phone being sold on their platform (store). The sellers and buyers set prices, Swappa only charges the 5 fee, MOST IMPORTANT, both parties are required to have a PAYPAL ACCOUNT with address that matches where to be shipped with tracking and insurance on item being shipping which seller pays for out of their pocket. Nowhere else can anyone make as much money back on used phones, tablets, computers or smart watches. If everyone who writes all those horrible bashing reviews took 5 minutes to actually read rules and prices before criticizing, maybe they would feel stupid as one lady who said they charged her 20 fee. Or the people who said Swappa don't stand behind their product, they are only providing the oversight to maintain fair and equitable trade between public. Swappa does not sell smart phones, people do. Swappa does not approve junk nonworking items, only the seller who did not disclose the truth about their product being sold. WHY THEY INSIST ON PAYPAL ACCOUNT FOR BOTH PARTIES! READ PEOPLE READ BEFORE YOU FEEL SO IMPORTANT next time you slam a successful business that exist which is not out for profit or like Facebook, who sells your lifes intimate details to the highest bidder. Oh lastly, how many websites even have real people there to help you 24/7 these days or can you even tell the difference?

First transaction went well and all smiles here!

Swappa made the transaction easy to complete.

GOOD WEB SITE FOR PURCHASE AND SALE OF CELLULARS