SwappaReviews 3,177

I got sold a bad iPhone 8 Plus the battery is messed up and the sound I'm very upset. I paid 300 dollars for this phone now the phone is messed up before I brought it I'm upset.

All exchanges between seller and interested buyers are public.

Seller has limited control of sale. Swappa does not disclose all of their fees up front.

I appreciate that they do a lot of the work for me. Their sellers are reputable and I've never had an issue go unresolved. I'm very happy with this site and I'll continue to purchase my future electronics through it.

This is my 5th purchase of a phone on Swappa. Remarkably, I have been satisfied with all of my purchases. I feel Swappa does an excellent job of monitoring its listings and ensuring that Sellers adhere to the terms of their marketplace. That's why I have, and will likely continue to, purchase phones on Swappa's marketplace. Plus, I believe that I have saved hundreds of dollars over traditional retail outlets and auction sites. I consider myself to be a very satisfied customer.

Was searching for new Samsung galaxy phone. Swappa not only provides seller buyer information. But they provide education materials price trends for buyers to make informed decision. Also had very good inventory of sellers. Sellers extremely responsive. Have bookmarked this site for future returns.

I posted a phone to sell. It was bought. I sent it to the buyer. The following day, Swappa let me know that the buyer was likely fraudulent. I had to then put a stop on the package and have it sent back to me. That cost me almost $40USD in total. Swappa told me to sort it with paypal. It's not paypal's issue. Now I have been sending emails to them to try to resolve and they aren't responding to me at all. I would say that this is the worst site and service ever. They screwed up and I have to pay for it. Terrible.

Highly recommend it!
Tried o****p, e**y, and others, but nothing compares to Swappa!
The best for phones, hands down!

Swappa is a joke, we were an active seller on their marketplace. Here's the reality, Swappa ALWAYS sides with the customer no matter how unreasonable. I'm going to point out 2 specific scenarios among dozens.

1. We got a buyer who bought a Android device Pixel, and when received tried to root the device unsuccessfully - it was bricked. When we got it back the device was permanently damaged. We are a phone shop that has worked on over 10,000 phones yet Swappa will demand we refund them or they close our account. No matter how we reason with the customer we just lost the entire device.

2. We send the device to the customer with photos and everything, no blemishes or scratches. The customer them claims there's a scratch. We show them a picture that there isn't one. After all is said and done Swappa demands we refund them or they will take "negative action against us". We comply and absorb $10 shipping $10 insurance $10 return shipping + $15 fees for Paypal (Paypal no longer refunds fees even on refunds) and the cost of a damaged screen done by the customer. We lost 25% of the value of the device in just one transaction. Swappa offers only ONE method of payment and it's Paypal, so any sellers out there are stuck with there flawed policies. (For instance square doesn't keep fees in the case of refunds as do many others)

After all the slippage we lose money selling on Swappa. Needless to say we're no longer selling here.

The problem with Swappa is this, their buyer market caters towards those who are EXTREMELY price conscious, with a good % of those being other phone shops, hackers and phone flippers. They will buy a device take them apart and exchange the parts and return devices with broken parts back to the merchant and make a claim that it was broken. Not saying all of them do it but that small % of them that do - eats into all of your profits and more. If you want to make money on Swappa you have to be willing to sell your devices at far below reasonable market price. Look for other venues, even Facebook Marketplace is better, their payments are better. Take the word of a seller that has hundreds of sales on Swappa, it's a losing proposition

I've been using Swappa for several years now. I only had a positive experience. It's very easy to sell your used phone, laptop or other electronics. I bought several phones here as well as macbook and play console. Unlike other sites like ebay you can buy with confidence on Swappa that phone is in working condition as described, not stolen or bad IMEI number. Also commissions are low.

The process of getting my item was a bit tedious. There's lots of info that they wanted you to include, and any photos you attach HAVE to include your listing number. So I was trying to sell my phone in a few other places as well, but had to retake all my photos in order to include this.

My first attempt of listing was also a pain. I was listing my phone in "mint" condition - which it was. The only "flaw" was that the removeable tempered glass screen protector was slightly cracked, but I left it on to add extra protection for shipping. I very clearly stated that it was the protector that was broken, but my first attempt at listing was denied. I was, however, able to contact Swappa and have them approve the listing - I simply had to remove the protector, the photos showing the crack, and the description of the crack from my listing. I was even able to communicate this to the buyer and leave it on for shipping, and he received it happily.

I have seen others post that the site isn't seller friendly though - some buyers have had fraudulently claimed that their item's condition was different than listed, and even though the sellers had proof otherwise, they could not get refunds. Additionally, PayPal handles all transactions, and I guess they typically favor buyers over sellers.

Ultimately, my experience was fine, and despite listing my item in multiple places, THIS is where it sold. However, just be careful I guess.

I had an iPhone to sell in mint condition. The site wasn't friendly at all in getting that listed. First, it kept asking for a different set of photos to send, and later after everything was done, they would not let me put mint condition because of the reflection of the photo. I was able to sell that somewhere else in a day and the buyer was really happy. I asked him to verify everything and his comments was: "It looks like brand new, did you not use at all?" SWAPPA was worried about that reflection so it was willing to screw me. (NOTE: I only wanted to sell into local so that the buyer gets to see product before they buy hence they can be happy and confident.

I've been selling on Swappa for 2 years. I have 48 reviews, all positive. However, I hate that Swappa leaves their refunds and disputes up to PayPal. We all know PayPal never sides with the seller. And that is such a lazy way of conducting business on Swappa's part. I sold a brand new, still sealed MacBook and buyer claimed he received a different MacBook. He even made a fake YouTube video of him "opening" the box to find a used MacBook inside and posted pictures of it all scratched up. He won the case, even though it was obvious he was trying to scam me. PayPal didn't even ask me for my evidence. They just said that the best option was to refund the buyer. I was out $2100 and never received my new MacBook back. The buyer was supposed to AT LEAST send me back the fake MacBook that was seen in his YouTube video, per PayPal's return policy. Instead, he sent me back a Lenovo. I brought this up to Swappa and they can't or won't do anything about it. PayPal wants me to file a police report, because my affidavit and all the pictures, videos, and plenty of other evidence weren't enough. I have another buyer who bought a brand new OnePlus from me. He then decides he's going to sell it to one of his customers. They use it for 3 months and they decide they don't like. So my buyer asks me for a refund. If he opens a PayPal dispute right now, I'm 100% positive that he is going to win, even though it is not my fault. That's how little confidence I have in dealing with refunds regarding Swappa sales. That means I will be losing money and receiving my phone back in a different condition than how I sold it. In what world is that fair? At this point, I wouldn't even sell my electronics on eBay. Don't sell electronics on sites that are backed by PayPal, especially Swappa. Swappa staff will not do anything to help. They just sit there and listen to the buyer and seller bicker back and forth. It's awful. The least they could do is close the sale out weeks after it's been marked as delivered. But no. Instead, they allow the buyer to chose when to close the sale. This is so unfair to the seller. Swappa sellers are usually those who run small businesses or those who just want to sell their personal items. Does Swappa not realize how horrible PayPal is to small businesses? PayPal doesn't care about the seller and neither does Swappa. Swappa says they want to remain neutral on these types of matters, but if you think about it, PayPal is never mutual. All Swappa really does is pass the job along to PayPal, who always sides with the buyer over the seller. I no longer want to sell on this site and I do not recommend if for other honest sellers.