Refurbished Products

[cie3]

Has anyone had good/bad experiences with buying factory reconditioned items? Any general advice?

Thanks,

E

[yoda313]

Hello,

My sony dvps360 dvd player was open boxed at Bestbuy 3 or 4 years ago. The open close button was even off kilter. It STILL works beautifully!

Just decide how much your willing to spend for "less than perfect" goods. Also, see if they have a 30 day return period on opened items in case it is a bust.

Kevin

EDIT - Sorry that wasn't exactly what you were asking for. But generally it should be in good shape if its redone by the company. Just make sure you have some kind of return policy on it.

[cie3]

Thanks. I was looking at some items that are being sold by avoutfitters.com and wondered about whether this would be a good route to buy what I end up deciding on as the prices might be better.

E

[jetfan]

I buy refurbs all the time, printers,monitors,etc... I have never had any problems. If you buy factory refurbs as I do, they make sure that they are as good as new, but legally they aren't allowed to sell them as such, so you get a good deal! Kevin stated that he bought open box merchandise, which is different mainly because that's a crap shoot- in his case a broken part - you should never encounter that with a refurb. Good luck
Joe

[Frobozz]

I've purchased both new and refurbished products. The failure rate for me is about the same. I had a refurbished stereo receiver arrive with a defective remote control. I had a new DVR that had a hard drive crash in less than a week.

What matters is that you have at least a 90 day warranty so if it doesn't work right shortly after it arrives you aren't stuck with an expensive door stop. Double check that the claimed warranty is valid. Using my Pioneer example, Pioneer's warranty is 0 days if you don't get it from an authorized Pioneer reseller. Fortunately for me, I did.

[TheFamilyMan]

I have purchased a few "factory refurbs" with mixed results. Overall I've been satisified. Just make sure that there is a decent warranty as the other posters have mentioned. Another concern are the online vendors that sell refurbs...a lot of them are NOT reliable nor reputable. Definately reseach their reputation in places like epinions.com and yahoo shops. Be watchful since you will see vendors that have both a lot of glowing feedback and a lot of extremely negative feedback; in these cases I assume that a good deal of the good reviews are fakes. Also give their customer service a call just to see if they seem legit. Good Luck.

[glockjs]

here's the way i look at it...the part thats gonna go bad just got replaced.. and, when it first goes through quality it doesnt get half the testing it does as a refurb 8)

[Offroad]

Has anyone had good/bad experiences with buying factory reconditioned items?

I bought a HK AVR-225 5.1 Receiver, got a great deal on the price and it looked and functioned like new. HK also puts a full 2yr factory warranty just like it had when it was new.

I'd be a bit more careful with a mechanical device like a DVD recorder/Player or VCR but if the price is right enough and I'm getting a decent warranty I'd probably still go for it.

[cie3]

All good advice. Thanks. Found this retailer on Amazon..avoutfitters.com. They have the JVC (DMR-10) for $238 I think.

Have to pay the property tax first so may wait...

Thanks again for all the helpful replies

[Offroad]

Found this retailer on Amazon..avoutfitters.com. They have the JVC (DMR-10) for $238 I think.

I got mine at eCost.com, they have it here with free ship for $267.99
http://www.ecost.com/ecost/ecsplash/shop/detail.asp?dpno=400096

[redwudz]

I have had general good luck with refurbished items.

It seems like when they run them to the refurbish dept., they go to extra effort to check that everything is in spec. Sometimes this 'fine tuning' makes it better than off the shelf items.

Of course, your experiences with these type of items may vary.

[steve2713]

Keep in mind that there are different grades of refurbished: Most are supposed to be refurbished to like new condition, but some are just refurbished to be functional and will have cosmetic issues. I've had great luck with refurbished items, and in many cases you will actually be better off with refurbished over new. The reason being is that they will typically put the item through a more thorough quality control vs. an item that is sometimes never even checked, just being constructed entirely by machine.

[samijubal]

As long as whatever you are buying is a good quality item then there shouldn't be any problem with buying refurbs. Beware of cheap products that have been refurbished, they can be problem prone in the future too.