How Are Phones Refurbished? Between Trade-In and Shelf
9 min read
How are phones refurbished? The honest answer starts by pointing out that the question contains a mistake. It assumes there's a pipeline. A chain of stations with a device on a shelf at the end of it. There isn't one. What happens to a returned smartphone depends first on the seller's business model, and only after that on the device.
And since we at Refurbito refurbish nothing ourselves and have never stood inside any of these buildings, this piece isn't a report from the floor. It's an assembly of what each seller publicly claims about itself, plus two independent, dated sources that check those claims. Every number below comes with its source and its date. Where nobody says anything, that's written down too.
Marketplace or direct refurbisher: the split that decides everything else
Refurbed runs no workshops of its own and doesn't refurbish anything itself. Independent trading partners from across Europe list, sell and ship the devices, while the platform sets the minimum standards (refurbed.de, as of 13 August 2026).
Same picture at Back Market. According to research by Utopia, the devices there are "not refurbished by Back Market itself, but by certified partners from Germany and Europe", and Back Market says it regularly buys undercover from those merchants to check quality (utopia.de, as of 13 August 2026).
Rebuy and asgoodasnew work differently. Both refurbish in their own facilities, with their own staff. So does Apple, except Apple barely talks about it.
Why does that matter? Because a marketplace listing never tells you who actually handled your particular device. Two offers, same platform, same condition grade, two completely different workshops behind them. We pulled the other differences between the three big names apart in our Back Market vs Refurbed vs Rebuy comparison. If the term itself still feels blurry, start with what refurbished actually means instead.
What the sellers say about their own refurbishing process
The marketplaces
Refurbed states that devices are checked "in up to 40 steps" before being listed, condensed into four phases: data cleaning, component replacement, cosmetic reconditioning, listing (refurbed.de, as of 13 August 2026). Which 40 steps those are isn't written anywhere on that page.
Back Market advertises that renewed smartphones go through "an inspection with up to 100 checkpoints", and guarantees "at least 85% of original capacity" on the battery (backmarket.de, as of 13 August 2026). A list of those 100 checkpoints doesn't exist either.
The direct refurbishers
Rebuy describes its trade-in inspection like this: "We check all functions, register every scratch and check your accessories for completeness", carried out by "specially trained colleagues in Berlin and Poznan (Poland), who examine your device by hand and with high-tech robots" (rebuy.de, as of 13 August 2026). On batteries, Rebuy names "at least 80% battery capacity", plus a 36-month warranty (rebuy.de/warranty, as of 13 August 2026).
asgoodasnew is the only seller in this group that names the software behind its refurbished data erasure: "Using certified software (Blancco) we delete every trace of data from all devices" (asgoodasnew.de, as of 13 August 2026). Alongside that, component swaps, polished displays, cleaned ports. The battery is supposed to hold at least 80% remaining capacity, whatever the cosmetic grade.
And Apple?
Apple describes its refurbished process on the German site only in general terms, as a "full functional test" with a one-year warranty. Concrete figures on battery health or inspection steps aren't given there (apple.com, as of 13 August 2026). That's noticeably thinner than any of the four above. Not worse, mind you. Just less checkable.
A quick word on the battery figures, because people read them wrong so often: 85% at Back Market against 80% at Rebuy and asgoodasnew is not a measurement. It's the floor below which a seller won't list a device at all, taken from its own marketing copy. Refurbed publishes no figure whatsoever on its quality page. What sits behind percentages like these is covered in more depth in our piece on battery quality in refurbished devices.
The one look from outside: Berlin-Falkensee, 2022
There's exactly one source in this research that didn't come out of a marketing department. nextpit reporter Antoine Engels visited the Rebuy reconditioning facility in Berlin-Falkensee in 2022, roughly 4,500 m², and described what he saw: robot arms placing smartphones into test machines, "artificial fingers" checking touchscreen response, cables going into ports, photo and audio tests, a battery benchmark. Each device gets photographed 22 times, an in-house algorithm hunts the images for cosmetic flaws, and a technician reviews the result at the end and adjusts it (nextpit.de, 6 July 2022, as of 13 August 2026).
According to that same report, the facility was processing around 12,000 devices a month at the time, and fewer than 25% needed any repair at all.
That was four years ago. Whether it still runs exactly like that today, nobody knows except Rebuy, and Rebuy isn't saying.
What Stiftung Warentest actually found in 2022/2023
The second independent data point is less comfortable. Between October 2022 and January 2023, German consumer body Stiftung Warentest ordered five smartphones each from nine refurbished shops, 45 devices in total, always in the lowest condition grade offered. On 9 of those 45 devices the testers found unacceptable defects. At the same time, 7 of the 45 arrived in better condition than the seller had stated (test.de, 22 February 2023, as of 13 August 2026).
A fifth off, close to a sixth better than promised. Both in the same sample. The per-shop scores sit behind a paywall, which is why we don't quote them here. More on that test lives in our breakdown of the Stiftung Warentest results.
"Like new" describes scratches, not electronics
This is probably the most practically useful thing in the whole research. Every seller that publishes a grading scale at all defines it cosmetically. Refurbed describes "Excellent", for instance, as showing no visible marks from 30 cm (refurbed.de/qualitaet, as of 13 August 2026). Back Market describes screen and casing separately, again through visible flaws. asgoodasnew even states outright that the category refers exclusively to the device's cosmetic condition.
The electronics aren't part of the refurbished quality inspection. They're a yes-or-no gate in front of it, not part of the grade. A device either gets sold or it doesn't, and the grade then tells you only how it looks. What that means for your purchase is laid out in refurbished condition grades explained.
What nobody says
And here's the part that sticks with you after reading all of it. No seller publishes what its 40 steps or its 100 checkpoints actually are. None gives a duration for reconditioning a single device. None publishes a reject rate, and the only solid figures in that direction come from a journalist and from Stiftung Warentest. Four out of five won't tell you which software makes your data disappear. And not one says whether replaced parts are original or aftermarket.
With the marketplaces there's one more layer: the workshop that did the work stays anonymous. You're buying a condition grade and a warranty promise, not a traceable workbench.
Is that a scandal? Probably not. Warranty and return rights exist precisely so you don't have to trust the process blindly. But anyone telling you they know exactly what happened to your phone either did the work themselves or is talking nonsense.
Frequently Asked Questions
How are phones refurbished?
There is no single refurbishing process. Refurbed and Back Market are marketplaces where independent partner merchants do the reconditioning, while Rebuy and asgoodasnew work in their own facilities. Four steps are common to all: erase the data, test the functions, grade the cosmetic condition, set the price. The depth of that inspection is defined by each seller and published only as a headline number.
Is the refurbishing process the same at every seller?
No. Refurbed's process page speaks of up to 40 steps, Back Market of up to 100 checkpoints, Rebuy describes a mix of manual work and robot testing in Berlin and Poznan, asgoodasnew names app-based testing and component replacement. Apple's German page describes only a full functional test. These claims are not comparable with each other.
Is my data really erased during refurbishing?
Every seller examined here states that devices are reset to factory settings and data is deleted. Only asgoodasnew names the software it uses, pointing to the certified erasure product Blancco. The others describe the step in general terms. Anyone trading in a device should still reset it and unlink their account themselves beforehand.
How long do the phone refurbishment steps take?
No seller says. Neither Refurbed nor Back Market, Rebuy, asgoodasnew or Apple publishes a processing time per device. The only publicly stated timeframe is Rebuy's payout window of 5 to 8 working days on trade-ins, and that describes seller payment handling, not how long a listed device takes to be reconditioned.
Does the condition grade tell me anything about the electronics?
Barely. Every seller that publishes a scale defines it through visible wear. Refurbed measures from 30 cm away, Back Market describes screen and casing separately, asgoodasnew states outright that the category covers cosmetic condition only. Functionality is a separate gate in front of the grade, not part of it.
How many refurbished phones actually have defects?
Between October 2022 and January 2023 Stiftung Warentest bought 45 smartphones across nine shops. Testers found unacceptable defects on 9 devices, while 7 devices were in better shape than the stated condition grade. No more recent independent sample of that size exists for the German market so far.
