What refurbished means in Chile (and what it does not)

In Chile, refurbished is a label each shop defines. The shop is the one calling it that, not an authority, and Chilean law does not define the word. Ask what was checked, what was repaired and what warranty is offered. Your legal rights may depend on how the device was disclosed and sold. We did not find an official Apple refurbished store in Chile. On Mercado Libre the "Reacondicionado" condition has written rules, including a warranty declared on every listing and a battery above 80% of its capacity.

What does refurbished mean?

Ley 19.496 does not use the word "reacondicionado". Its article 14 speaks of "usados o refaccionados" products (used or repaired) and requires that this be stated expressly before you buy. The rest, what was cleaned, what was replaced and what grade the device has, is decided by each shop and each platform. Your rights when buying refurbished covers what happens to the legal warranty when a product is sold as used.

So it helps to know who is behind each listing. In Chile you find these things under similar names.

The five kinds you will find

1. Refurbished by the brand

This is when the manufacturer itself repairs and resells. For Apple, the refurbished pages for Chile (apple.com/cl/shop/refurbished) returned a 404 error on 30 September 2026, while the rest of Apple's Chilean store loaded normally. If a listing says "refurbished by Apple", ask who stands behind the warranty, because we did not find an Apple program for Chile.

2. Specialist shop

These are the shops that live on this, and each defines its own scale and its own warranty. What their sites stated on 30 September 2026:

Reuse Chile. Refurbished and open box with 13 months of warranty and a 30-day trial.
BackOnline. Apple only. Grado A and Open Box with 12 months, Grado B with 6 months.
Digitek. Sells new and used, with 6 months on phones and 3 months on other products.
DLphone. 12 months on phones and 30 days to try it.
Elephone. Five categories with different warranties, explained below.
AppleShop Chile. 6 months on seminuevo and refurbished.
SmartDeal. Notebooks and Macs, with 1 year of warranty on new, open box and factory refurbished alike.

The shop that sells to you is the one that answers. Before paying, ask for its legal name and RUT (tax ID), which several publish in their terms and conditions.

3. Mobile carriers

Entel and Movistar sell devices they call "seminuevos". Entel states 12 months of voluntary warranty on its help page. Movistar states 3 months. In both cases the carrier that sells to you is the one that answers.

4. Mercado Libre and other marketplaces

On Mercado Libre Chile, "Reacondicionado" is a condition with rules. The seller must load the product's warranty, and to enter the refurbished catalogue it must report a grade, with these definitions from Mercado Libre:

Excelente. Subtle signs of use and a screen without blemishes or imperfections.
Bueno. Small signs of use and a screen without blemishes or imperfections.
Aceptable. Noticeable signs of use and a screen with scratches or scrapes.

All three grades require more than 80% battery capacity. We could not read the minimum number of warranty months the platform requires, so look at what each listing declares. The seller is the one who has to meet all of this, not Mercado Libre.

There is one more thing to look at. Many listings carry an "Internacional" tag, which marks devices that come from abroad. In a sample of 450 refurbished iPhone and Samsung listings we reviewed on 25 September 2026, 265 had it. Those devices may need registration to work with a Chilean SIM, as explained in how to check an IMEI.

On Falabella the warranty is set by each seller. A refurbished iPhone 16 from Reuse that we looked at on that platform said "garantía de 13 meses" (13 months of warranty).

5. Seminuevo, open box and outlet

"Seminuevo" is a label each shop uses in its own way, and several use it as a synonym for refurbished. Digitek, for example, separates "Seminuevo", "Open Box" and "Outlet". Since there is no legal definition, ask what the shop means by the word it uses.

The difference can be large. Elephone publishes a different warranty for each label. Open Box and Seminuevo get 6 months, Reacondicionado gets 4 months, and, according to Elephone, Outlet has no voluntary shop warranty. Ask which legal rights apply to that item before paying.

Grades are the shop's words

"Grado A", "Grado B", "Excelente" or "Con detalles" mean whatever each shop says they mean. BackOnline uses Grado A and B, with 12 and 6 months of warranty. Reuse calls its Grado B "Con detalles". Mercado Libre defines its three grades. The only thing you can compare from one shop to another is what the shop writes in its own definition, so ask for it in writing before you buy.

How Reacondi uses it

Reacondi compares refurbished, seminuevo and used electronics from verified shops in Chile. It does not sell, touch or open devices. Each offer shows the condition the shop declares and its published warranty. If you are about to buy, continue with what to check when it arrives.

Sources

Each shop's warranty comes from its own pages, read on 30 September 2026, and may change. The law is quoted from the consolidated text on BCN LeyChile.