One must be wary of the second-hand smartphone market these days as there are several ways to make an old product look and act like the real deal.
Freedom Mobile, previously known as Wind Mobile, has never been authorised to sell Apple’s iPhone. In 2015, the carrier started to sell the 16GB iPhone 5s and 16GB iPhone 5c but deemed them as “lightly loved” devices that have been refurbished and restored. Apple quickly shut this down as it was an arrangement through Ingram Micro.
Now, two years later and under new ownership by Shaw, a story by the CBC reports that a Toronto-based Freedom Mobile dealer crossed the line and sold a customer a completely refurbished iPhone SE for $300 that was made with counterfeit and aftermarket components.
Benjamin Thomas, the Freedom customer who purchased the iPhone, stated he saw issues right out of the box as the battery quickly drained down to 20 percent, experienced poor camera quality, the casing was damaged, and that the Apple logo was not authentic.
Pat Button, Freedom Mobile’s VP of sales and distribution, stated dealers “are not in any way authorized to sell these devices. Unfortunately, our dealer at this particular location made a mistake and should not have sold this device to our customer. We sincerely regret and apologize for the inconvenience caused.”
To make the situation correct, Freedom purchased a new iPhone SE from Apple for Thomas and said the retail location is no longer selling the iPhone.
Freedom Mobile customers can purchase an unlocked iPhone and use it on their network, but make sure it’s the correct model number that hooks onto AWS bands. In addition, there are rumours that Apple will enable the next iPhone with Band 66, which will also be compatible with Freedom’s LTE network.
Source: CBC
