There are some fantastic smartphones available now, as I’m sure you’ll agree.
My stopgap Motorola suddenly developed a battery charging fault so it was time to look for my favourite phone of the moment – the Samsung S7.
Yes, you read that correctly. I don’t like the iPhone 7 enough to pay the huge price, and although I do like the iPhone 6S, particularly the 128Gb model, it hasn’t fallen enough in price yet to turn me away from the Samsung, which ticks all the boxes for me.
I also don’t want to buy a new phone, when there are so many great refurbished deals around at the moment.
As a long as you find a good refurb, and buy it from a reputable supplier, you pay far less and let someone else suffer the initial depreciation. Sounds good to me!
Also the Samsung S7 is the current model. I am sure that it will be superceded by an S8 early next year, but I am paying a low cost of entry for the latest flagship phone, that even the new iPhone 7 can’t better.
Cue musicMagpie with their refurbished smart phones
Not only do musicMagpie buy your clutter, they also sell a wide range of items including a large number of refurbished mobile phones.
They had two refurbished Samsung S7’s available, in B grade condition.
Although the website indicated they were in good, almost unmarked, condition, I decided to phone musicMagpie to check.
I was put straight through to someone in customer services who assured me that a B grade phone should have an unmarked screen, but may exhibit a few light signs of use. Overall, I could expect the phone to be in very good condition.
It was also covered by a 12 month exchange or refund warranty, as long as there was no physical damage caused by misuse such as a cracked screen, or fluid damage (the Samsung S7 does have IP68 water protection, so that will be interesting).
What about the price, though?
Giff Gaff were the cheapest for a new Samsung S7, charging £499 outright or £23.51 per month over 24 months (£564.24 in total).
Unshackled.com were charging £519 outright, or £22.90 per month over two years (£549.60).
In contrast, the major networks were charging around £570!.
musicMagpie were charging £409.99 for the refurbished Samsung Galaxy S7. Not bad, but they were also offering a 10% discount which dropped the price by a further £41.
Given the warranty and reassurance over the condition of the phone, and this discounted price of £370.48, it was a no brainer.
Out came the credit card and the phone was purchased there and then
Delivery tracking could be a lot better
I was pleased that the music Magpie team had managed to despatch my phone so late in the day. I ordered it at about 3.45pm and thought that it wouldn’t be packed until the next day.
To my surprise, I received an email at about 5.30pm saying that it had been despatched and included a tracking code and a link to the Royal Mail website. I was impressed by their fast turnaround.
However, the Royal Mail website initially said that the tracking wouldn’t be available until the next day, but the next morning, it then delighted in telling me that the reference number wasn’t recognised.
I had no idea when the delivery was going to arrive, or where it was in the country. Oops!
My Royal Mail tracking code was not recognised by Royal Mail!
Being a proactive kind of guy, I phoned musicMagpie customer services to explain that their tracking reference wasn’t working.
They told me that actually the order would not be received until Wednesday, and that the tracking wouldn’t go live until that Tuesday evening (even though the email from musicMagpie had stated that the tracking would work the next day (Tuesday).
As I had paid an additional £1.49 for next working day delivery (which seemed good value), I had assumed that as the item was despatched on Monday evening, it would arrive on Tuesday, which is the next business day, of course.
I had arranged to stay in on Tuesday to receive the package, so it was lucky that I had phoned their customer services around noon, to get clarification.
There is room for improvement in customer communication over delivery timescales. musicMagpie had charged a small, and reasonable, premium for next day delivery. It was only by phoning for clarification that I was pointed to their FAQ, which is also not very clear.
The Samsung Smartphone finally arrived
From about 6pm on Tuesday, the Royal Mail tracking started working and reliably informed me about the delivery on Wednesday.
So this was the order delivery timescale:
| Monday 3.45pm | Ordered phone via the musicMagpie website |
| Monday 5.30pm | Informed by email of despatch for next day delivery |
| Tuesday | Expected next day delivery but did not arrive |
| Wednesday Morning | Phone arrived! |
Pretty good, though it was a shame about the confusion with the next day delivery expectations!
The phone was well packed, as you can see in this photo, but only came with the charging lead and nothing else, as you can see.
Click for larger image
Not having the pin to open the sim card holder was a slight inconvenience, but I could carefully open the sim card holder with a safety pin, so this was fine.
I don’t know what accessories and leads come with a new Samsung Galaxy S7, but you really don’t need anything else.
The Samsung S7 is in BRILLIANT condition
I was shocked (in a nice way) about the condition of the phone. It is in a brilliant condition!
I have carefully inspected it and there is not even a tiny scratch or hint that it has been used before. I am not exaggerating when I say that it is as good as new.
Mine is a category B condition smartphone. It makes me wonder what a category A phone would be like!
Also I would be tempted to consider a category C, which woud be cheaper, but I imagine that it would look second hand.
The phone had about 50% battery left so it worked perfectly well when I turned it on and began the configuration and installation process.
The latest version of Android needed to be installed, but that went smoothly and the phone is now running smoothly.
I am very impressed with this purchase from musicMagpie
To say that I am impressed with this refurbished Samsung S7 from musicMagpie is an understatement.
I have long suspected that when you buy a refurbed phone from a reputable seller like musicMagpie, you will receive a phone that looks, and acts, as good as new.
You save a serious amount of money and it seems to be a fantastic way of owning a top of the range smartphone without spending a fortune on buying it new from one of the networks (or paying over the odds for it on a 24 month contract).
It will be interesting to see if the phone develops any issues over the next few months. I will keep this post updated to show what happens and if any issues arise, report on how musicMagpie manage the situation within the warranty period.
At this point, all I can say is that I am absolutely delighted with the superb condition of the phone and the service and support from musicMagpie.
Time will tell if the Galaxy S7 is reliable and trouble free, but from my experience so far, I would highly recommend buying a refurbished smartphone from musicMagpie.
We do not have any commercial relationship with musicMagpie at all.
Update 30th November 2017
There have been a few comments asking how good the Music Magpie post sales support is, and whether they live up to their warranty promises.
My Samsung S7 is still going strong but we recently bought an iPhone 6S from them which had a faulty battery. There were no problems at all in getting a full refund for the iPhone so from my experience, Music Magpie seem to be a great company to deal with.
Hi Chris, I’m looking to purchase a refurbished samsung from musicmagpie. I’ve noticed they have for sale the same model of an old handset I owned however, I know that model S3 no longer can get software updates. How do I know if I buy a newer model, I am able to still update the software?
Regards, Sheila
I ordered an iPhone 6s Plus from here and I’m really confused and worried now as I’ve just read these comments and it seems like all iPhones have problems. I haven’t had an email about tracking yet but It says my phones been dispatched on the website. In have no idea what’s going on and now I’m worried. Have I made a bad choice?
Hi Kaylee. Thank you for sharing your concerns. If you still have not received your iPhone then I would call musicMagpie’s customer service. You can find their number on their website.
I have had a very good experience with musicMagpie. I had to return a phone within their 14 day return period about a month ago and they accepted it without any quibbles at all. I also bought another phone from them recently and paid for the next day delivery, but when it arrived late again, I phoned customer services and they refunded my delivery charge, again without a quibble.
Overall, I personally cannot fault them, although some of the comments here show that others have had issues. Generally phoning, rather than emailing, customer services has worked very well for me.
Hi
Im considering buying a iPhone 7 from them but a lot of Insurance companies wont insure refurb mobiles, did you get yours insured? if so where?
Many Thank
Jackie
You’ve mentioned an important point, Jackie. I haven’t insured the phone I bought from MusicMagpie, mainly because it seems very difficult to find a gadget insurance policy that covers used phones. I decided to be very careful with the phone, however it fell out of my pocket a few weeks ago and I now have a small crack on the screen! Oops!
I think there are a few policies available that do cover used phones, so I suggest you search for them. I think we should write an article about this to help people find suitable used gadget insurance.
As follow up to my earlier comment. I ended up making contact via their web chat function on their website. As I had no response to my email. He found my earlier email immediately (whilst on the online chat after I gave my order number) and sent me the return postage stamp. Phone was returned within 4 days and the battery problem had been fixed. So after a bit of chasing a very satisfactory service
That’s great to hear, Ben. Thanks for letting us know.
Good Evening I’ve just had the battery on my refurbished iPhone SE fail. Luckily I bought it in January 2017 so just with their warranty! (Usually products fail the day after warranty expires!) No response to my email reporting the fault yet (as per their website instructions)…. will phone them tomorrow as per your advice.
Hi Ben. Thank you for your comment. I think its always best to phone customer services rather than rely on the contact forms or email.
At least you know that your message has been received when you phone.
It will be interesting to see how musicMagpie respond to your warranty request as it is so near the end of the warranty period.
I had no problems at all in getting a refund when we bought what turned out to be a faulty iPhone from musicMagpie recently.
Could you please update us with how your refund request goes?
Has anyone had any success in getting music magpie to actually honour the warranty
I have had a phone for 6 months which has suddenly stopped working and now i can’t get any contact out of them
Hi John. Have you tried phoning Music Magpie? I spoke to someone there before buying my Samsung S7 to make sure the were legit. They were really helpful then, but I’ve not needed to claim against the warranty. Here are their contact details http://www.musicmagpie.co.uk/contact-us
Hi considering buying an S7 from this company, so very concerned, because of all the scams out there. They sound very reliable. Would you still recommend few ,I The after your purchase. Also will I be able to keep my phone number and stay with my mobile provider ..????
Thanks
Hi Monica. Thank you for your comment. I have been very happy with my Galaxy S7 bought from Music Magpie. It’s been great and I am still happy with it.
Nothing has gone wrong with it so I haven’t needed any support after buying it. I would phone Music Magpie and ask about their 12 month warranty to put your mind at rest.
You should be able to keep your number and mobile provider simply by putting your sim card into your new phone as long as it fits, and you buy an unlocked phone. However, I would check this with Music Magpie first, just to make sure.
Hi Tony
Sorry about the delay in replying to your comment. I must have missed it somehow.
To answer your question, it is now nearly the end of April 2017 so I have had this Samsung S7 from Music Magpie for about seven months. It works perfectly. I’ve never had any issues with it at all, so it was a brilliant buy.
Is it still trouble free? I’m considering doing the same. Don’t suppose you have had any need to call apon the warranty?