Buying Used or Refurbished: A Quest to Upgrade My Mom's iPhone on a Budget
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Buying Used or Refurbished: A Quest to Upgrade My Mom's iPhone on a Budget
Later this month, I will be traveling to La Réunion island, the place where I grew up and where my parents still live. This will be the first time in six years that I’ll get to see them. To mark the occasion, I wanted to get my mother out of a tough spot. Her old iPhone 8 Plus has a broken screen, and the front-facing speaker is barely audible. Not only that, but the phone is also no longer able to run the latest versions of iOS. She is well due for a replacement.
Unfortunately, despite being a French overseas department, the island is remote enough that finding a good deal on an iPhone is pretty tough there. Because of staggering import fees, buying any tech online can end up costing a fortune. You’re basically stuck with two options: buying new in-store from a reseller or seeking out a used iPhone on the local secondhand market. So if I wanted to help my mother replace her phone, I would need to purchase it here in continental France and hand it to her when I fly there.