An interesting story turns out … We all thought for a long time that if you buy an iPhone in another country, then there will be no problems with the guarantee in which case there will be no problems. As it turned out, this is not entirely true, especially if you buy an iPhone in another country not on your own, but through a reseller. Simply put, if you buy a gray phone in a Russian store. Like any product purchased in the country, it must have a warranty period and be repaired if it breaks by itself. But with a high degree of probability, you will have to repair the phone for your money, and in what cases this can happen, we will now consider.
Is it possible to buy an iPhone cheap
Buying an iPhone from resellers really often seems much more attractive than in the official Apple store or from one of the premium resellers.
It should be noted right away that by buying such a phone with a significantly lower price, you risk not only losing the warranty for a good device in the future, but also buying frank trash right away. It can be a refurbished iPhone or even an assembled one from spare parts. But if Apple passes its refurbished devices through a huge number of checks, then the scammers will not do this. This means that the phone can break at any time.
Gray iPhone
Such a device will even be packaged like a real one. On sites like Avito, you can find iPhone boxes that sell for 500 rubles, and this is done for a reason. Unscrupulous sellers stick new marking stickers on them and sell them in such a way that no one would guess that something is wrong with the phone. They can even put a new original charging cable in the kit to make everything look even more natural. It’s still more profitable than just reselling official handsets. By the way, even in the early days of sales, forging new seals for the packaging of the iPhone 13 series was not a problem.
We figured it out and realized that it’s better not to buy too cheap iPhones, because it can turn out to be a pig in a poke, even if you don’t find fault with it outwardly. These guys told us more than once how they encountered such gadgets.
Where is the cheapest iphone
A more interesting situation is when the phone is completely factory-made, but bought in another country and brought to Russia. Usually such phones come from Asia or the USA, where they are sold much cheaper. It is not very profitable to bring phones from Europe. For example, the iPhone 13 Pro Max with 128 GB memory in Russia officially costs 109,990 rubles. In the US, such a phone, if bought in a tax-free state, costs $1,099 (about 83,000 rubles at the exchange rate). In Germany, the same phone costs 1,249 euros (about 108,000 rubles).
We must add shipping costs here, which means that buying in the USA is really more profitable. When importing from the EU, you can get Tach Free, but this is true for retail buyers who take the phone for themselves. On an industrial scale, the process becomes more complex and risky.
Got it! It will be easier to buy a phone of American or Asian origin than any other. But this is where the fun begins. If it breaks, then with a high degree of probability it will have to be repaired in service centers like this.
Is there a warranty for gray iPhones in Russia?
The risk of this is due to the fact that Apple itself used to be more loyal to its products and its repair in other countries. Now she even states the following on her website:
There are also other notes. For instance:
And the last point regarding devices from Asia is put by this explanation:
That is, some phones and tablets are really produced exclusively for a certain territory. Perhaps Apple just doesn’t want to keep huge stocks of spare parts for all occasions or move them in small batches for the sake of a few buyers.
They say that if you come to an authorized service center with a check for a phone bought in another country, then you will not be denied repair. If you buy a gray device in Russia and only have a local check from the seller, you will most likely have to contact him. Of course, if he does not change the legal entity or close the store. Even if not, you still run the risk that they will endlessly drive you through examinations and find a way to refuse repairs.
Is iPhone repair expensive?
For understanding, replacing the screen on the iPhone 11 (original) costs 13,990 rubles in a good third-party service center. In the official replacement will be 2-2.5 times more expensive. Replacing the iPhone battery will cost about 4000-5000 rubles, which is also significantly cheaper than in the official service. Agree, such work is easier to do under warranty.
The main thing, remember that it is better to buy more expensive, but in the official store. A list of them can be found on the Apple website. Otherwise, you run the risk of being forced to go to a service center (in this case, it’s better to choose a trusted one, for example, contact our friends at Apple Pro) or even be left without a phone.
