Is Rebelstork Safe to Buy From? What I’ve Learned
It’s not a secret that baby gear can be pricy and quickly add up. The best baby travel gear like strollers, car seats, or certain useful gadgets aren’t exactly cheap.
Not everyone feels safe buying used baby gear from people you don’t know. Thankfully, these days there are multiple options for buying cheaper baby gear that’s not necessarily used.
My Experience Buying from Rebelstork
One of these services is called Rebelstork and it’s a website that sells quality used items. It can be an open box, overstock, or items used for display at stores.
How much cheaper can it be? Most of the time the discounts aren’t huge. It can be a 10%, 20%, but the highest I’ve ever seen was 40%.
How does Rebelstork work?
Rebelstork is a middleman that keeps your money safe while the seller sends you the items. If a store or you want to sell a product, you just need to get a prepaid shipping label and send it to Rebelstork.
The issue with Rebelstork
Rebelstork frequently receives bad reviews on forums, but don’t be alarmed. Most people who had good experiences will not be posting about it online, but the problem of lack of inspection appears to be semi-frequent.
Now, the problem with Rebelstork is that they don’t allow any returns or exchanges. Their customer service is also slacking and takes forever to get back to you.
I think that people return things way too easily, but the problem arises when there’s an actual issue with the item purchased. Rebelstork allows item inspection within 24 hours of receiving the package.
I ordered a stroller that was described as a floor model from an open box. I expected a slightly dusty model. In reality, it was easy to see that the stroller has been used, at least for a week or two if not longer. It also arrived in a random box.
Don’t get me wrong, the stroller still worked thankfully, but for only 20% off the original price for a visibly used stroller I felt like it was a rip-off. It would have been cheaper to buy from Marketplace or wait for some Black Friday deal.
That said, Rebelstork is a legit company. They even partnered with a stroller brand to create their model, but it’s only worth it if you’re willing to risk it as inspection isn’t as thorough as they claim it to be.
I never dared to try again, because it seemed like too much of a risk to me. Could I get a brand new model from an actual open box or overstock? Absolutely, but I could also get another used stroller for a much higher price than if I bought one listed as ‘used’.
Alternatives to Rebelstork
Thankfully, there are various alternatives to Rebelstork. Don’t worry, it’s not Facebook Marketplace because while I still use it sometimes, I’m fully aware of the annoying “Is this available?” messages without any further response.
Option 1 (for smaller items): Mercari
For selling and buying smaller items, such as baby clothes or toys, Mercari is my go-to platform. It’s easy to navigate and you can message sellers and buyers easily when there’s a problem.
Mercari also offers purchase protection, which is huge, because while it doesn’t happen often your package might get lost or damaged in transit, sent in horrible condition or simply being the wrong item.
I had a situation where a package I sent to a buyer got lost in transit. Thankfully, a few hours later I got a reply that Mercari refunded both me and the buyer, as it wasn’t our fault. In fact, every time I had to contact customer service it was quick and efficient.
Option 2 (for bigger items): Albee Baby
Albee Baby is a lesser-known website that works similarly to Rebelstork, but with one exception: all products are actually open boxes and not pretend ones.
I wrote a full review explaining pros and cons of buying from Albee Baby right here.
Option 3: Amazon Warehouse
It’s no secret that when it comes to best purchase protection, there’s no one like Amazon. Especially with Prime, if something is wrong with your order their customer service will quickly handle it.
What people often don’t know is that Amazon also sells open boxes. You can sometimes see the option “buy used” for less, but you don’t need to type every single item to find it.
There’s a section called Amazon Warehouse and you can just quickly see what’s available in the baby department from open box items.
