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Hey all,

Just wanted to relay an experience we had with a company who does hardware buyback, hopefully to help others possibly avoid what we went through.

We tend to sell back groups of old Macs/iPads once we refresh our fleet and in the past have had pretty good success.  When we contacted the company we normally have worked with, they said that due to the engraving on our devices, unfortunately they would not be able to purchase our units this time around.

With that in mind we reached out to other companies and spoke with Diamond Assets about a buyback and we were very clear that we had engraving on the devices.  We specifically asked how much of a mark down they would receive in an email to their rep. The rep stated it would just be a $10 fee per device that are engraved which seemed reasonable.  They quoted us a great price (for all A ratings) based on the number of units we had.

Once we locked in the pricing and signed the contract they finally asked to see the engraving they then told us it would now be a fee of $90 a device.  After some back and forth (due to them putting in writing it would only be $10 previously) I got them down to $30 per device, triple what was originally stated.

The company came out and collected the units and then we received the updated quote which was about 1/3 of the original quote they gave.  We have sold back old equipment many times before with other companies and the quotes always are higher than the actual pricing we receive, but our past experience it would be maybe 5/8s of their high quote or in some cases maybe half.  It felt like a bait and switch and because of their miscommunication about the engraving, and felt like they were low balling us to make up the difference. Almost all of these units were in perfect working order and were being used right up until they picked them up.  They listed the majority of the units as a C rating and later told me it was due to the engraving (which we had already settled on a price for).  This is a double charge for their own mistake.   They then proceeded to tell us it would be even less because they counted less power adapters and cables than we actually gave them.  We did end up finding a box or two in the back that didnt get taken when they were here which i brought up to the rep and offered to send them, but we have received no response.

I worked for Apple for almost 10 years, and can say without a doubt that these units should have been graded as A's and B's with a minor amount of C's and D's per their rating guidelines.  

I reached out again to the company about the discrepancy, and asked to speak with the CEO.  No response and they just mailed the low ball check with no further communication.

I would highly recommend staying far away from this company and hopefully our experience can help others avoid a similar experience.

Thank you so much for sharing this information and experience. A recommendation to all, is when you receive a device quote for life cycling they typically give the quote at the highest level which is A rating. There are typically 4 ratings for devices, A, B, C, and D. An “A” rating is a device that was never used and basically in the original packaging. Most devices are “D” which is normal wear and tear, minor scratches etc. When getting a quote I recommend getting all “D” ratings for devices, and if they go up that’s great. Getting all “A” ratings for devices sets up the quote for failure and drastic reductions and unrealistic. I am going to request next quote that everything gets graded as “D” and if it goes up that’s great, but our expectations will be realistic.  

In my experience we usually had a good mix of Bs and Cs.  In this case they pretty much put it all as Cs and D's.  Since no one will ever get A's its seems to be quite a deceptive practice, and the bait and switch regarding the engraving fee, was 100% on them.  They should have asked to see it ahead of time and they didn't. I was very clear that we only were looking at their company due to our normal one not wanting to deal with our engraving. They literally quoted me based on their assumption as to what our engraving was.

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