I used to work for a wireless carrier and they used Asurion as a matter of a fact All four of them use the same company so you can’t say ATT, Verizon, Sprint now T-Mobile are being shady, but I just started a trade in process from Apple thinking they would do it in house, next thing you know I am getting an email from Phobio and was shocked, but honestly dealing with Asurion I can tell you, ANY device you use for trade in doesn’t matter how old it is must be close to damn to brand spanking out of the box new, they will nit pick hidden scratches invisible to the eye, check the ports for water damages, inspect your screens from hidden scratches, check for any scratches done to the case itself
my only advice if you have the means to do it, USE the accidental damage coverage if you have it available from apple care or send it for repairs To a third party retailer before ever sending a device for trade in doesn’t matter if it’s Phobio or any for that matter, granted if they ever find anything so much as a scratch the value automaticlly drops to 50% of the quoted amount, trust me and if they keep finding stuff, the amount keeps dropping.
This is a big deal for NEXT plans or devices used yearly for trade in, pretty much anything i have from apple I treat it like it’s not mine and use cases like crazy, but Hey accidents happens having a Third party insurance company also helps, you never know, heck just having direct tv and their insurance plan with a 50 deductible you could get ipads, macbooks, and desktops fixed, if you have homeowners insurance you might electronics already covered, but ALWAYS cover yourself, take pictures, record videos, send pictures before in box with the serial number just in case, and yes I can see here that they will claim any defects in the lcd by taking it apart and doing the famous apple test by checking the connectors that you never knew were broken unless they fixed it and running their internal diagnostics.
Apple makes their money from repairs, i learned my lesson, but what’s funny is all they do with our devices is just use them to recycle The parts to make other devices and what not, but at the moment I NEED the apple in store credit and sad to say Apple is the only company partnered with phobio that will give me the most for my device, so sad to say I have no choice ;( Checked Best Buy, Att, and other retailers recommended here, but Phobio is the only one with the most amount so crossing my fingers, just had my said device literally replaced by AppleCare using the accidental damage coverage, so i dare them to tell me something’s wrong with it haha
