Smartphone.online is a scam.

Hey guys.

Today’s big update is that these scammers have now changed their name to Smartphone.online (http://www.ebay.com.au/usr/smartphone.online)

This is exactly the same eBay store with a name change so anyone looking for a review of smartphone.online, the eBay store should read the reviews regarding Pdaphoneonline.

Smartphone.online are the same frauds and will not think twice about taking your money and your phone.

If you are considering a purchase from Smartphone.online, don’t ! The phones appear to be damaged and repaired then sold as new. If there is an issue outside of the PayPal dispute times you will have no warranty and if you send the phone back to smartphoneonline you will be ignored once they receive your phone.

Don’t buy from this dodgy eBay store.

smartphone.online still the same scammers as pdaphoneonine (Note the old logo)

smartphone.online still the same scammers as pdaphoneonine

34 thoughts on “Smartphone.online is a scam.

  1. Pingback: Smartphone.online, the eBay store Scam | PdaPhoneOnline Is a Scam

  2. I purchased an I phone for my daughter for Xmas! After 2 weeks of use the phone started having problems !!! Need to return but not game !,,, may never see again! These scammers should pay!

    • Hi Joanne

      Check if you can still open an item not as described PayPal dispute. Also leave negative feedback if you can.

      Otherwise you would be best advised to have the phone repaired locally.

  3. I bought a samsung galaxy s4 in december 13 it developed a camera fault after 5 weeks so i contacted pdaphoneonline they told me to return the phone to them and they would send me a replacement so i sent the phone to them registered post with a tracking number on 05.02.14 That arrived to them on the 25.02.14 I have tryed to contact pdaconline several times To see what is happening and when will i receive my phone I did get a reply on 15.04.14 saying sorry they dony have my phone on hand can i give the shipping details so i provided the details and now they will not reply to my messages some thing needs to be done i think ebay should susspend there account untill we all get our replacement phones or full refunds or is ebay in it with them ??????

    • Hi Paul

      Sorry to hear of your issues with pdaphoneonline / smartphone.online.

      Your story sounds very similar to all the others. I would suggest following the list of authorities to submit to.

      I also think it is appauling that ebay still allow these guys to trade. if only there was a way to hold them responsible as they know people are being scammed but continue to allow it.

  4. I too was scammed by the smartphone.online scammer. EBay did not help. PayPal did not help and this company is still listed as a “Preferred Seller”on EBay. I suggest that NOONE purchase a IPhone from this site or any site listed as from Hong Kong or China!
    Here should be banned from EBay Australia.

    • Hi Sue

      Sorry to hear it. Have you contacted the other relevant authorities listed on this site?

      Hopefully if enough people report them we will see some action.

  5. Bought a Note 3 N9005 from these scammers at the end of april 2015 and it arrived late a month later after their typical no batteries allowed bullsh*t causing delays. Seller ignored my emails. I opened an ebay dispute about item not received. It then finally arrived and wouldnt turn on so I mentioned that in my dispute on ebay, ebay then ruled in favour of the seller since item had been delivered. I then left negative feedback about issues with the phone and ebay removed it for the seller since it was invalid since they had delivered the item. I then scanned the IMEI only to find out it wasnt a note 3 N9005 but an AT&T note 3 N900A which had obviously been refurbished, opened the back and inside connectors were covered with red markings saying VOID. Now Smartphone.online wants the phone returned to hong kong for a refund saying they will pay for it but i am worried i will never see it again. I just want my money back but dont know how without losing both money and phone. I feel very let down by Ebay :(

  6. Hi guys.

    I have just been researching trying to find their phone number and came accross this blog. I have the exact same problem. Ordered a phone in december and returned it about 3 months ago. I have not recieved any money back. 300 pound. I don’t know what to do because ebay won’t protect me anymore.

  7. I got scammed by these thieves too. Bought s4 for it developed fault couple of weeks later and once i contacted them they asked me to send the phone for a replacement….its been about 5 months they ignoring my emails and reply as if they dont exist….dont buy from these guys

  8. This is a scam and ebay wont help me. Smartphone online sent some plastic through the post rather than a phone which went somewhere in Dartford 40 miles away from me and ebay are happy to except this as proof of post even though that when you put the tracking number in DHL website it comes up as posted to Dartford. If this happens ignore ebay and try going through Paypal.

  9. I purchased a iphone 5s in July15 from this Ebay on-line store. The phone was advertised as a brand new phone. After 6 month the screen on the device turned blue. I took the phone to the Apple store and they told me that the phone didn’t have a genuine Apple screen and that they could’t do anything about the problem. I mailed the phone back to Hong Kong costing $127.00AUD and smartphone mailed me the same faulty phone.
    If only I read the reviews on-line about this scam I wouldn’t be out of pocket.

  10. PLEASE DO NOT BUY FROM THIS SELLER!
    Unfortunately I did not see this page before I purchased what I thought was a brand new unlocked Samsung S6 through Ebay.
    I placed my order in September 2015 with expected delivery 3 weeks later.
    Every few weeks the seller would apologise for customs delays and offer extended warranties.
    After 3 months I raised an item not recieved case.
    At which point the seller entered false tracking information to the purchase.
    I had the information checked with DHL who confirmed that the tracking information provided was to a complete different name and address and a complete different item.
    However Ebay accepted the tracking information and closed the case in his favour.
    I argued this for a while until I had an email reviewing the information and finally agreeing that it is false.
    I was told as it is outside of the 30 days from order, the refund to Paypal would take longer, upto 10 days.
    At this point the seller then despatched an item to my address and lodged a correct tracking number.
    An item was received 2 days later.
    Ebay therefore closed the case again as item was succesfully delivered.
    Before using the phone, I got the imei number checked, it turned out to be invalid.
    I tried to explain to Ebay that the phone may not be genuine, but they are adamant that they will no longer protect me on this purchase.
    I then decided to test the phone (as I might be stuck with it), ordered a nano SIM from my operator.
    Once arrived, I managed to get the phone up and running. It actually seemed to work well and I was quite relieved.
    I used it for 2 days (xmas day and boxing day) before the phone bricked up. It shut down and wouldn’t start up.
    I contacted T-mobile who refererred me to Samsung.
    Samsung talked me through checking the details in recovery mode.
    The information there showed that the phone had been customised (rooted/ jailbroken) and has been FRP locked.
    As its been rooted, this has voided any Samsung Warranty on it.
    Even if we were to flash it back to stock (which I did myself) it would still require the original user’s google account verification details. Which as a new phone should be mine, but it isn’t.
    The imei was invalid because there isn’t one. There isn’t one because it is a non-EU phone with a DEC number on it instead. As such it wouldn’t be covered by EU warranty anyway.
    We contacted Ebay by phone immediately who advised that they will now request a refund from the seller to occur within 8 days.
    We also reported it to the police.
    After 9 days I contacted Ebay to chase, it turns out they have no record of the phone call or for any refund requests and were again unwilling to help.
    I then went to Paypal, wit h whom I was still covered, but they have told me to return the phone back to the seller in order to get the refund.
    I was surprised, as besides the fact that this will be at my own cost, I was certain that the seller may not claim to have received the item back and that I should really be handing the phone over to the police.
    As I refused to send it back, Paypal closed my case in the sellers favour.
    My case is now with my card company with whom only a part payment was made and is about all that I can fight for now.

    I brought this phone thinking that hey even if it turns out dodgy, at least I’m protected by Ebay and Paypal, boy was I wrong!

    • oh dear i ordered the galaxy s6 on 30th of dec and it’s 26th of jan now does this mean i have been conned? If so can i request my money back immediatley?

  11. Actually i ordered the samsung s6 on 26 dec 2015 but i got it after a month, the seller just made excuses for the delay and offered me extended warranty for mobile but as i got the phone after such patience but it just literally screwed me when the phone went down shutting off on its own. I tried contacting seller regarding this problem he gave me weird reasons for it and asked me to get it replaced or refund and god damn i made worst mistake of getting replacement.Now when the seller got phone back he/she not responding i dont know what i should do now.Neither i got money nor phone just literally screwed up.any1 pls suggest something.

  12. 8 weeks ago I bought a new Samsung note 4 from them, which keeps turning off, I took it to my local repair shop who have diagnostic it with the following problem:
    Phone model on the product sticker shows as SM-N910f (international version) but the actual BOOTLOADER shows SM-N910p (US version) which means originally the device is from SPRINT network US.
    Device has been modified from the original state to look like a international version
    Current issue- phone does not accept any of the firmwares we tried to install due to the BOOTLOADER modification. )which cannot be revised.
    Time to time phone get stuck on the startup screen with the error message (kernel panicked )
    This cannot be programmed as a N910f and it will only be a N910p as the current BOOTLOADER not supported for downgrading .
    which will only work with sprint software.(most of the features will not work as a result)

    Does anyone know if Samsung care centre work on this type of problem?
    Any ideas of a solution or repairer?
    Thanks
    Paul

  13. Beware upgrade to iOS 10.2 with iPhone 5′s bought from this site.
    Apple found mine to be a US phone apparently with a ‘fix’ to make available for sale in RoW.
    The iOS upgrade wipes out the fix and the upgrade failed.
    Apple could not restore iOS to the phone rendering it useless.

  14. Yep.
    I’ve just been done as found out in the meantime that eBay doesn’t quite have a money back guarantee.
    I’m now more annoyed with eBay who clearly know this company are fraudulent but let them trade in many countries including the UK where I’m from.

    I’m going to report eBay to the national guardian paper as they have a consumer rights section and see how far this goes.

    So far in lucky in that the company refunded me almost in full minus the return postage fees so currently I’m only 20 pounds out of pocket but I want to take it further to try and stop this happening again in the UK if not wherever this company trades

  15. P.s

    You might be interested in their response when I mentioned your website:

    “We have received a concern from you and I would like to inform you that you might see some fake reports/blog produced by “Occupational negative feedback makers”. Those workers(ONFM) produced non-offical websites and their URL are similar to the company names of ebay sellers/ebay account names. However, those websites or feedback are not belongs to involved ebay sellers or companies. We already reported the case to UK Police as Internet Fraud because those workers(ONFM) tried to post negative feedback(Feedback abuse) or produced some forums on Internet in order to ask for monetary value from ebay sellers.

    I highly recommend you NOT to click on the hyper links you found on the worker(ONFM)’s website since they may have virus on them. Please consider about this: ebay protect buyer for 60 days upon arrival and paypal for 180 days. Moreover, most of the buyer used paypal to send payment and 99% of them used credit cards transferred funds to paypal accounts. Paypal offer 6 months buyer protection and credit card companies offer up to 1 year buyer protection for account holder whom purchase item on ebay.. If a buyer have any problem but ebay or paypal cannot help, the buyer can also request credit card company to chargeback the payment. Its’ very safe to purchase on ebay now, please don’t worry about this.”

    • As I have always said, they are welcome to reply publicly here… I would welcome any comments from them. I have been through this, and eBay and PayPal will not help if your phone develops a fault and has to be returned, never to be seen again after the charge back period. I still don’t know how eBay allows these guys to continue ripping unsuspecting people off.

  16. EBay are allowing smartphone.online to continue to trade knowing they are fraudulent, I purchased a phone from smartphone online on eBay listed as Brand New with 1yr Samsung HK manufacturers warranty, within 12 months it failed, seller refused to honour warranty, I discovered why, the phone was a US model not HK, warranties are only carried out in the country of phone origin, Samsung US confirmed my phone was over 12mths old so I purchased a used phone with no warranty listed as Brand New with 12mth Manufacturers warranty. EBay continues to allow the fraudulent seller(smartphone.online) to sell in their marketplace knowing that they are fraudulent. My only option now is to report EBay to the ACCC, I am still left with a $500 faulty phone which has had 3mths use.

  17. Just got done. Wish I had read this first, but trusted the reviews on eBay.

    When the phone started playing up they offered me a refund if I returned it. They appeared legit in the com’s, so sent the phone back and then all went quite.

    EBay say they are looking into it, but I think we all know what that means.

    I can not believe that eBay let them continue to trade.

    Dodgy. STAY clear.

  18. I too bought a smartphone from smartphone.online through eBay. Before the warranty ran out I realised it was not a new phone but had been rooted and it wouldn’t accept or send MMS picture messages either.
    I contacted them and they said to send it back and they would repair it or exchange it under the warranty. So I sent it back…… BIG MISTAKE!!
    Months went by and I didn’t hear from them or get my phone back. I contacted them many times but they didn’t reply. I also contacted eBay but they were less than useless and wouldn’t do anything to help. I contacted smartphone.online again and told them I was contacting the Hong Kong authorities. Surprise, they answered me and told me when their technician looked at the phone they said it had water damage and they couldn’t repair it under the warranty. I told them that was not true as I had even answered their message via eBay on the phone before I sent it back and I told them they should have sent it back to me if they couldn’t repair it as keeping my money and my phone was stealing. They replied that they could send the phone back, not repaired and I told them to but I haven’t heard anything from them since and have not got my phone back. I then sent them a message telling them I am informing the authorities of their dodgy business practices. No surprise here but I haven’t heard anything back.
    Has anyone got their Hong Kong address please? I need it to send the complaint in to the authorities but can’t get it anywhere.

  19. Yep, I too got duped by PDAphoneonline/Smartphone.online through their EBay scam. They certainly know exactly how to avoid refunds by getting you to return the goods to a different address (not their verified address), so, Paypal refuse to help, Smartphone don’t even reply to PayPal either during raised disputes, yet PayPal are still happy to side with this fraudulent seller. My credit card company are currently helping with a chargeback. Hopefully it ends in my favour.

  20. I got scammed by this company in February. My phone never arrived at all. I ordered they only had 1 bad review, now they have 65!

    I requested a dispute with Paypal but doubful. £250 gone! and I had to go buy another phone for £90. Im done with ebay!

  21. I have just been screwed by ebay and paypal. My galaxy note 5 that I bought on ebay from smartphoneonline no longer works after 6 months of use. I complained via paypal and received a response saying that they cannot find in our favour at this time. That is despite evidence that this seller is a scam. So much for my 1 yr warranty. It means nothing if the seller is suspended and unable to be contacted. Thanks smartphoneonline. Thanks for nothing ebay and paypal.

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