When you buy a refurbished phone in Mexico, the Ley Federal de Protección al Consumidor (LFPC, the federal consumer protection law) protects you. Any warranty offered must last at least 90 days from delivery. On a distance purchase you have five business days to cancel without giving a reason. If the device fails within the warranty, you choose between a replacement and your money back. The warranty is always the shop's, and before you pay you can look up that shop's record of concluded complaints at PROFECO (Procuraduría Federal del Consumidor, the consumer protection agency).
Article 39 of the LFPC says that when products are sold "with some defect, used or rebuilt", the seller "must warn the consumer of those circumstances precisely and clearly" and record them "on the goods themselves, their packaging, delivery notes or invoices". A listing that sells a refurbished device without saying so, or an invoice that presents it as new, breaches that article. The standard NOM-024-SCFI-2013 also requires the labelling of refurbished goods to carry the seller's name, address and phone number.
Article 77 sets the floor. It says "the warranty may not be less than ninety days counted from delivery of the good". No shop or platform can offer less, whatever its page says. Mercado Libre (the marketplace) requires its refurbished sellers to give 90 days or more, exactly the legal minimum. Several specialist shops offer more. Which kind of shop each one is can be found in what refurbished means.
For distance sales, online or by phone, article 56 says the contract "is perfected five business days after delivery of the good or the signing of the contract, whichever happens last". During that window you can "revoke your consent without any liability" and the provider must refund the price you paid. The cost of return shipping and insurance can be charged to the consumer. This right is independent of each platform's policy and adds to it, for example to Mercado Libre's Compra Protegida (its buyer protection).
The practical consequence is simple. Work through the list in what to check when it arrives within those five business days, with the box, packaging and photos at hand.
Article 92 lets you choose between replacement of the product and your money back, among other cases, when the product does not match the quality, brand or specifications advertised or an applicable NOM (Norma Oficial Mexicana, an official standard), and when "the repaired product is not fit for the uses it was intended for, within the warranty period". That last case is exactly a refurbished device that fails again after a warranty repair. The refund must be made through the same payment method you used, unless you accept another. Article 92 TER sets, for cases where a credit applies instead of replacement or refund, a discount of no less than 20% of the price paid.
PROFECO's Buró Comercial (its public register of complaints) lets you search a company by legal name or trade name, without accents or abbreviations. It shows only concluded cases, because complaints in progress are confidential. For each company you see how many complaints it had, the reasons, what percentage was settled by conciliation, and the fines imposed. When we consulted it on 25 September 2026, the tool covered 1 January 2019 to 31 August 2026. A shop with no results may be new, or may sell under a different name from the one you searched, so ask for the legal name (razón social) before searching.
The order that serves you best is to exhaust the shop's process first, then the platform's (Compra Protegida on Mercado Libre), and only then go to PROFECO. There are two routes.
Before paying, ask in the chat or by email, and save the answer:
The LFPC articles are cited from reproductions of the official text that agree with each other; the original PDF at diputados.gob.mx and profeco.gob.mx could not be read directly when this guide was prepared.
