Gazelle Reviews

First, let me make it clear that I've purchased phones from Gazelle in the past. While their customer service has suffered in the last year (I attributed it to COVID and cut them some slack), my latest experience will guarantee I never do business with them again.

The following summarizes my most recent experience with Gazelle:
After several conversations with Gazelle, followed by two visits to Verizon, Gazelle finally acknowledged that they knowingly send out phones without checking whether the phones are still locked to a previous carrier. According to their customer service agent, Jerimiah, roughly 1 out of every 100 phones cannot be used.

Gazelle insisted that they were not to blame since they had "checked" the phone on using Verizon's BYOD (bring your own device) service. BYOD, however, only checks whether Verizon can activate a phone AFTER it has been unlocked. As the Verizon representative explained, the only way to determine whether a phone can be used on the network would require Gazelle to Do Their Job; had Gazelle taken the time to insert a Verizon SIM card before selling the phone, they would have known the phone was unlocked. Since the phone in question was an iPhone SE, and Verizon no longer locks their phones, it was grossly apparent that this was not a Verizon phone.

Gazelle offered no apology, no work around, and their customer service team made it clear that they were doing a favor by offering to take this phone back.

This experience has shown that Gazelle has no interest in serving their customers. I strongly advise against purchasing from them.

Quick and easy experience, quick pay as well

Gazelle sold me someone's company phone that still had their companies mandatory IT administration apps on it. I couldn't use the phone without getting "permission" from the company, making it worthless. Gazelle sold me a phone and hadn't even checked it to make sure it would work.
Customer support offered a refund (which they offer anyway) and refused to cover activation costs from my carrier. They did offer free expedited shipping on another phone but I won't buy from them again.
Update 2 weeks later: I had to call to remind them to give me a full refund. They did not do it automatically upon receiving the returned phone. Pay attention with this company or they won't do their job.

We've had two great experiences with Gazelle. So easy and money for a phone that wouldn't even turn on!

I sent an excellent Samsung phone in. They said they would give me 44.00, not much, but I said okay. Weeks later they say they will give me 14.00. I said send it back. I sent in the cord and brick which were perfect and they didn't return those items with my phone. Hard to resell without original equipment. They are sending me generic cheap ones to replace the higher speed units that come with phones. Cheap ones take forever to charge phones. Not happy with this bait and switch company. Don't bother, sell it yourself.

Easy instructions which I followed to the letter, quick examination and approval - a higher offer than the new carrier offered. Very satisfied.

I received my box and shipped it out the same day with my old iPhone XR. A week after shipping I checked Live Chat with an agent and they told me that tracking showed it was delivering to their warehouse that night.
Two days later, I reached out to Live Chat to confirm delivery and was told that it was "In Transit/Running Late". I asked if there was any way to confirm that maybe it had already been received. I've experienced more than a few cases of receiving that same notice from USPS and the item showing up within 24 hours or less. The agent stated that they had no way of verifying whether or not a shipped phone had been received in their warehouse outside of USPS. So there apparently is no inventory control within the organization. Back Market is going to be my go-to next time. Gazelle has lost my business moving forward.

Expect slow shipping for the holidays!!!
It’s not all Gazelle fault. The post office does not do a good job of scanning packages they receive or pickup. Gazelle blames USPS and USPS blames Gazelle.
I ordered phone on November 30, 3-5 day shipping. It’s now December 11 and until today the tracking number from USPS read “not yet received”. I called Gazelle & then the post office after a week, none of them were willing to do anything until more time passed. Today the phone finally showed under the tracking number at a facility in New York. There was no initial scan ever done, the package just shows up. So this is an issues with the post office not scanning until the package arrives.
Unfortunately with Covid and Christmas, if you need right away I would pay the extra $$ for express shipping.

The worst customer service ever. Can only speak to a person during business hours and then they won't help you. Spoke to 2 reps today. The worst being Ryan. Rude, not helpful, not trained to resolve an issue. They do not have the technology to take payment on the phone. The first rep was not understandable. Maybe she wasn't speaking English. Said she was at home. They had no solutions and eventually the products I wanted were sold out. If you have hours of time to waste, want to decipher a strange language, talk to an angry rude employee and visit an archaic website that does not have the technology to tell you why your card declined so you can fix it... then this is the place for you.

Like so many other reviews I've read, I never received what I was charged for; I ordered a phone 3 weeks ago. My card was charged immediately, but never received any updates. I started to email again and again, at least 6 times, have yet to receive a reply. Tried calling numerous times, stayed on hold w/recording for a total of almost 2 hours between all the different calls. They never answered the phone. Finally had to file a claim with Paypal, had to cancel the order and finally got a refund(thank u to paypal; if it wasn't for them, I think I would have never got a refund). Wasted so many weeks of my time. This company should pay me an extra $500 for my wasted time and aggravation. Spare yourself and buy elsewhere.

I've sold a number of phones to Gazelle over the years. But in the last year or two their customer service has gone downhill and their operations have become shady. We sent in a phone in good condition and once they received it they claimed it was "heavily damaged". We rejected the offer and asked for our phone back. It has been over 3 weeks since then and we still haven't received it. We've contacted them multiple times and got different excuses. The latest is that USPS picked up the package but decided to stop scanning any of them so no one knows where the phone is. We are just supposed to wait and hope it comes back.

I even had one customer service agent that wouldn't even look up my case. Just said we'd have to wait longer because they are busy. Today, Dec 3,2020, USPS shows the package was picked up (Gazelle said Nov 25). I've already sold the phone to Apple for more than Gazelle ever offered. Stay far away from this company. They have shady business practices and poor customer service/experience.

I've sold a number of phones over the years. I've never had a problem with them until this year. And apparently I'm not alone. They quote an acceptable number and then they get the phone and try and offer less hoping that you'll take it because they already have your phone. We declined their offer and they said they would ship it back. It has been over 3 weeks since we declined their offer and we still haven't received our phone back.
They have been blaming USPS for a week. They claim that USPS is overwhelmed and not scanning anything. I contacted USPS and they said that wasn't the case. Today (Dec 3, 2020), after they say it was picked up on Nov 25th, USPS shows it was picked up and I have a delivery estimate date of 12/07. I will never sell to Gazelle again. Did I mention that Apple has offered me more than Gazelle ever did. Yeah, I'll send it to Apple next time.