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Does anyone have any experience buying phones from these independent phone sellers?

Does anyone have experience buying phones from the following websites, and other than obtaining a business registration number, how can one be certain that the busines is legitimate?
http://www.shoppalstores.com/phonetrader/index.cfm/fa/pages.main/pageID/2
http://www.classifieds-shop.co.uk/product_desc.php?id=237&PHPSESSID=efb62b235a9c8d3f1e48dece7e0502b1
http://www.inkiti.co.uk/a,11493,iPHONE-16GB-(UNLOCKED)..........$300,--NOKIA-N96-(UNLOCKED).............$430.htm
Also, if a business refuses to use an escrow service to secure payment, then is it likely they are a scammer?

Those are not "independent phone sellers" they are scammers, I would bet money on it.
The first one has the more slick website but wants payment via Western Union or Moneygrams - guess which two services are the choice of scammers the world over...
The second is a scam and I can tell that from a 30 second look at the page.
If you send your money to either of those sites, you will never see it again and you will never take delivery of a phone.
AVOID.

Thanks for the prompt response!
Yes, I've had my suspicions as Western Union and Money Gram are the only means they will accept payment. They won't even consider an Escrow service to secure payment.
It's a shame however as I'd rather pay the cheapest I can for a sim unlocked phone.
I will heed your advice and respond. However, may I ask if you know of any legitimate companies that sell phones cheaper than the going price?...

My White Nose Hair

Now that I got your attention with my headlines.
Has anyone here ever bought phone from this SMG-GSM -Selling Mobile They have same phones, but lowest price of the four that I found.
Now cheaper aren't always better. So if you bought a phone here. Would you mind sharing your personal experience.
Thanks

Why not stick to the topic in your title? Please tell us more...

I can say that it is accredited by the BBB , Better Business Bureau . And that doesn't come easily or without certain standards having to be met.
My Business is also BBB approved and I had to meet with the local BBB people, they investigated my business for disatisfied customers and made sure that my business was financially solid before they let me advertise as BBB approved.
On that alone I would take a chance.

Warning about SlideME

I recently purchased Quadrant Advanced from the SlideME store since that's the only place it is available. Unfortunately, SlideME has implemented a policy where they will charge your credit card for a random amount less than $1 when you add a credit card to your account. In my case, this was $0.61. They try to justify this as a "security" measure to verify that the card is really yours; however, they let me continue and buy the application without first verifying the charge.
Even though the amount of money is small, I find this type of business practice despicable. I will not purchase any applications from SlideME and will e-mail any developer whose application I am considering purchasing that they have lost a sale until they move their app to a respectable store.

Wanted to follow up on this post to mention that we are indeed aware of the problem that is causing and maybe even loss of sales for apps sold via SlideME.
We did not assume that such a nominal fee (for end users) per card setup considered a registration fee, will become such a big issue.
The reason we took this approach from our early days in 2008, was that we wanted developers via our Marketplace to earn 'the lot'. This means if our payment processing costs are only 5% + $0.05 (as per Amazon Payments fees), the remaining balance will be paid out to developer.
As we have additional payment methods such as our 'direct card' payment option, we need to confirm the real owner of the card, much like PayPal and Amazon Payments require to verify the cardholder.
With the issues related to combating fraud e.g. users using stolen cards, there are processing fees for setting up a card and such fees are not directly related to the transaction of the sale of an application, therefore could not be applied to the developers account. This fee that our direct card processor charges has to be covered from somewhere, and this amount is funded from the < $1.00 fee that we charge per card setup. You only need to setup your card once, and customer is never asked to submit any sensitive card information from their phone ever.
Without such a verification process which consists of two states, 'pending verification' and 'confirmed' to place users account in 'good standing', there is a high risk there could be a large number of chargebacks and related fees, which will be charged to developers account. Not something we will be too happy about nor will developer.
A customer like you, has the option to choose other Payment Methods via SlideME that do not require any such verification, such as Amazon Payments & PayPal (due this coming week), since they provide their own verification process.
So your complain and from many other users, has been taken into consideration and it seems that we will have to charge some additional fees to developers to cover such processing costs via our Direct Pay option. I expect overall this will not mean less income for developers but could reflect to actually more sales via SlideME.
We took the initiative to create a discussion topic at http://bit.ly/aADcvo
Look forward to getting some feedback on what developers think about this issue.

The idea that charging a fee that a user must verify to prevent fraud might have some validity if the user must verify before being allowed to purchase any apps. However, I was able to purchase an app immediately after registering as a new user and adding my credit card. If I were a credit card/ID thief instead of a legitimate buyer, the victim would now have two fraudulent charges: the app purchase AND the verification charge.
In reality, this is just a way of passing on a processing fee to the end user and trying to disguise it as a fraud prevention method. It may not be fair that the merchant takes all of the risk of ID theft and fraud but that is the way the system works.
If you want to charge a registration fee, you should be up front about it when the user signs up with a full checkout page so that there is no ambiguity that money is about to change hands. When I purchased the app, I went through a full checkout page that clearly showed what I was buying and how much I was paying. This was not the case with the "verification" fee.
If you're not going to prevent users from buying apps until they verify, quite calling it a fraud/verification fee. If you're going to charge a registration fee, be upfront with it and have a full checkout page so that the user will clearly understand what they are buying. Better yet, just take credit cards like 99.999% of online stores and charge the developers an amout that covers your costs.

It's clearly stated that the <$1.00 is considered a card registration fee and we have it in several places on our site. It seems you are the only one that missed it if your name starts with a K. We have had users complain about it, but not one be surprised of such a charge that they did not know it was coming.
Yes we do open up and permit account holders to purchase without verification when we have eyes on the system to prevent complaints from customers that want to buy now!
We send many warnings to customers that have a high fraud score and such require to verify their card to proceed.
We will do what it takes to satisfy developers and users alike.
I guess now we will have to restrict only to all verified users, which will just make it more difficult for that ones that don't seem suspicious to purchase.

You can't make everyone happy.
There will always be people that complain.
If you make them wait, they will complain they can't get their product
fast enough.
If you don't make them wait, they will complain that you didn't verify
their identity...
My experience and 2 cents:
Do what makes your largest user base happy and focus on them.
You won't make everyone happy but at least you'll have market share
and happy customers to reaffirm you've made the right decision.
Some people want their cake and wish to eat it too.

Apple reseller's law suit threatens internet freedom in Greece

http://teacherdudebbq.blogspot.com/2010/12/apple-resellers-law-suit-threatens.html
"As I write this Greek users of Twitter are flooding the micro - blogging service with comments and complaints about the Apple reseller in Greece, Systemgraph. According to the newspaper Protothema, a Greek internet user is being sued for 200,000 euros by the company following complaints he made online about how his attempts to get his imac repaired went awry.
In his post blogger Arkoudos wrote that Dimitris Papadimitriadis, a 35 year old doctor problems began when he saw that there were shadows on the screen and returned it (under guarantee) to the authorised service provider, Systemgraph who identified and claimed to have repaired the issue. However, when Papadimitriadis realised that the problem had not been fixed and returned his machine once more to the company his troubles began in earnest.
On the other hand Systemgraph stated in their defence that the customer had been "rude and aggresive" and that the company had offered to repair the screen once more and was under no legal obligation to replace the machine (that being the responsibility of the store that had sold the computer). According to their statement on the AV Club forum the law suit was in response to an "organised attempt to slander and insult" the company via social media sites, blogs and forums.
This case in disturbing on two levels. Most importantly is the idea that any unwanted or disagreeble comment made on the internet can be punished with massive fines or the threat of legal action. As Papadimitriadis puts it on Twitter, "If the blogger/consumer loses (the case), then all we will be able to write in our own name will be recipes". Already freedom of expression and freedom of the press in Greece is in deep crisis with the country's Press Freedom Index ranking dropping over 30 places this year alone making it the lowest placed in the EU.
Also what the case highlights is just how weak consumer protection is in Greece and that buying any big ticket item involves a risk which most other European consumers do not have to factor in. Even when the guarantee is valid some companies are loathed to accept the costs involved with repairing or replacing faulty goods. Of course, the consumer can insist on their rights as Papadimitriadis said he did when he took his case to the consumer ombudsman but this can be a long and often futile affair and even if the courts find in favour of the customer businesses can just chose to ignore the decision.
Whatever the rights or wrongs of the case are the uproar which is currently being generated on the internet via Twitter and blogs shows that consumers do have the power retailers think carefully about how they are preceived online and remind them of the power of negative word of mouth".

That's just a ****ty deal! I don't see how they aren't obligated to fix it if they,
1.Didn't fix it in the first place,
2.It's still under a guarantee.
If they took it in to fix it, but didn't, and I took if I had to take it back again to get it fixed, I would be mad too! Even more when Macs aren't exactly the lowest priced item on the block. If I'm buying a product and a service from you, then actually do your job.
People are taking the Internet too seriously. The company I used to work for let go of me because of a facebook post, just saying that "work ****ing sucked today".

Too bad he couldn't use that first amendment right...
And.. always need to be careful what you post on the intarwebs it seems nowadays - especially if you use facebook and don't set your privacy settings correctly.
Might be dumb but this is the turn of the times. I hope the Doctor wins as he was sharing his experience with support for just the one machine. Apple is getting ridiculous after "Attenagate".

avgjoegeek said:
And.. always need to be careful what you post on the intarwebs it seems nowadays - especially if you use facebook and don't set your privacy settings correctly.
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Click to collapse
that idea is just wrong , why the users ? why is it the people who "should" hold their mouths always ? isnt the consumer internet made for the people ?
whys it always the honest tax payer who has to back off , when unlawfulness , and tyranny appears ?
there should be an uprising and boycotts against scum corporations and companies and governments that see people as nothing but cockroaches
too bad ppl have "better" things to do , like watch football on tv , with their mouth shut

eglobal - a warning!

In case anyone is considering buying their phone (or any items) from this criminal company, I just want to emphasise the dangers of buying from them. I've been through 7 months of hell in an attempt to get my Samsung S7 Edge back from them. It seems they are never going to send it back to me. £500 down the drain and lots of anger and distress.
This is the story:
https://uk.trustpilot.com/reviews/58ab865ff434950bc4fe0860
And a previous thread looking for advice on XDA: https://forum.xda-developers.com/s7-edge/help/received-phone-screen-fix-looks-t3506196
As they are priced very competitively, it may be attractive and tempting to bite the bullet and buy from China. That's why I bought the S7. I felt confident in a Samsung product. If the item works flawlessly and never fails, you are going to be happy. But if anything fails you will lose out big time as they ARE NOT willing to help in case of faulty equipment. Instead, their strategy is to exhaust you with non-answers until you simply give up. I am not rolling over though.
Stay far far away from this company.

I can imagine your troubles and exactly imagine how exhausting this may be. However one overall valid rule in buying from China is that the tempting cheap price in the beginning may be very expensive afterwards. This is just a risk you need to be willing to take. Your experience is not limited to eglobal or anyone else but applies to this part of business in General. Also, it is a bit harsh to call them "criminals" though I can fully follow your point of view and conclusion.
I was living in China for some time and it is just common in their understanding that you buy things as they are. There's generally no such thing as warranty. Once the business is concluded everyone goes its own way. There's even no service line built up that a distributor has anyone in contract for repairs. This is just the practice over there and it meets our high level service expectations on the other end of the world. I don't think they want to cheat you but they just don't know how to deal with that all along with their boss requiring that no business should be done with loss (which limits the budget for such handling).
All those shops coming up recent days they are just trying to get a small piece of the cake. They even don't get their products from the manufacturer but through third party shops whom they cannot turn to out of the reasons mentioned in case of any problem. And to be clear: I am absolutely against those businesses and aside of some known sellers for Chinese phones I would never buy anything of value from such websites / ebay / Amazon.
So you ship your phone to your Warehouse and it goes with the next batch to China (most probably someone takes it flying there to avoid the paper work for import) and over there they are trying to find a small shop who may be able to do this or not. After that it goes the way back it came. Seriously, don't expect too much. They're already doing more than maybe most of such shops would be doing.
However, if I'm not mistaken eGlobal is despite many other sites with a UK company behind. The people are pretty much the same but you would be able to take legal action as UK law and - most important - Court applies. In the end you would be able to seize their Warehouse if a judge finds your claims are true. Unfortunately especially in UK such Limited companies are easily shut down and re-opened under a different name.
To sum it up: Buying from such Chinese sources goes always without any liability and warranty from seller and you should be prepared for total loss in worst case.

andiling said:
I can imagine your troubles and exactly imagine how exhausting this may be. However one overall valid rule in buying from China is that the tempting cheap price in the beginning may be very expensive afterwards. This is just a risk you need to be willing to take. Your experience is not limited to eglobal or anyone else but applies to this part of business in General. Also, it is a bit harsh to call them "criminals" though I can fully follow your point of view and conclusion.
I was living in China for some time and it is just common in their understanding that you buy things as they are. There's generally no such thing as warranty. Once the business is concluded everyone goes its own way. There's even no service line built up that a distributor has anyone in contract for repairs. This is just the practice over there and it meets our high level service expectations on the other end of the world. I don't think they want to cheat you but they just don't know how to deal with that all along with their boss requiring that no business should be done with loss (which limits the budget for such handling).
All those shops coming up recent days they are just trying to get a small piece of the cake. They even don't get their products from the manufacturer but through third party shops whom they cannot turn to out of the reasons mentioned in case of any problem. And to be clear: I am absolutely against those businesses and aside of some known sellers for Chinese phones I would never buy anything of value from such websites / ebay / Amazon.
So you ship your phone to your Warehouse and it goes with the next batch to China (most probably someone takes it flying there to avoid the paper work for import) and over there they are trying to find a small shop who may be able to do this or not. After that it goes the way back it came. Seriously, don't expect too much. They're already doing more than maybe most of such shops would be doing.
However, if I'm not mistaken eGlobal is despite many other sites with a UK company behind. The people are pretty much the same but you would be able to take legal action as UK law and - most important - Court applies. In the end you would be able to seize their Warehouse if a judge finds your claims are true. Unfortunately especially in UK such Limited companies are easily shut down and re-opened under a different name.
To sum it up: Buying from such Chinese sources goes always without any liability and warranty from seller and you should be prepared for total loss in worst case.
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply.
I will definitely look into taking legal action. I have friends who are willing to help me out.
I'm now at a point where they pretended to agree on sending me a replacement phone which was "fully functional", but now that I accepted, they claim it needs to be tested and refuse to give me a timeframe.
They are just trying to wear me out mentally. It has been going on for almost 6 months now, but I just become increasingly determined to take them down.
Disgusting people.

R u referring to the "eglobaldogitalcameras(.)com(.)au site? I "almost" ordered from them because they were so cheap...i ended up just renewing contract via another carrier...as i was also concerned about horror stories i heard buying from ebay and other China sites that send flagship samsung and htc smartphones from china or hk to rest of world..