Refurbished products?

[D'z Nutz]

Have any of you ever, or would in the future, purchase refurbished electronics?? Reason why I ask is that I'm contemplating purchasing a refurbished laptop at a very good price (I'm probably saving ~$500 from brand new). I've never purchased anything refurbished before, so I'm not sure what to expect. Generally, are these products just ones that are purchased new then returned to be resold, or are they defected ones that were returned to the manufacturers to be fixed and resold again (or even both)? I'd hate to end up with a laptop that had some weird defect that would keep popping up occassionally.

Opinions/suggestions?

[Weapon_R]

If you buy it from a reputable company and a good store, there is usually nothing wrong with buying refurbished material. I've never really had a problem.

[roopi]

Originally posted by D'z Nutz
Generally, are these products just ones that are purchased new then returned to be resold

This would be sold as an 'open box' in a store.


Originally posted by D'z Nutz

or are they defected ones that were returned to the manufacturers to be fixed and resold again

this would be refurbished.


i think you still get a warranty with refurbished don't you? if so it should be ok. personally i'd never do it though.

[GTS Jeff]

refurbished doesnt really mean returned and resold, those are referred to as "open-box" or "returned" items.

refurbs are shipped to the store from the manufacturer as "refurbished". the term is applied to 2 scenarios:

1. when during the manufacturing process, the product doesnt pass the inspection at the end, so they have to fix something before its ready for sale.
2. there was a defect found by the customer and it was fixed by the manufacturer.

usually, its scenario 1, so they are usually ok. all the refurb products that ive seen look just like the new stuff, except for 1 or 2 which had some signs of wear (scratches etc). i think that the best thing u can do is to inspect whatever it is that you are buying before u do. if it sucks, ask for another box. another thing to check is warranty. sometimes the refurbs only carry 90 days warranty or something shitty like that. it might be worth considering extended warranty if thats the case.

[Shaolin]

I bought an old Dell Latitude 1200 from some store next to some Gym (Before the holiday inn going north bound on Macleod) and I had nothing but problems.. bought it for 400 bucks, the 2nd week the CD stopped working and had to get it replaced, for some reason the battery wouldn't charge..

Then after a couple of years I just gave the laptop away to Stine on here. It was a total write off.. I wouldn't buy another used laptop again.

[D'z Nutz]

Thanks for the reply guys, it's greatly appreciated.

Unfortunately the product in question would be purchased online, which poses a couple problems: I don't actually get to see the product until it arrives and shipping it back to the company for servicing can be a pain in the ass (looks like it's only gonna be warrantied by the manufacturer).

Here is the laptop in question, in case anyone gave a damn:
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=602797&Sku=E400-M5305%20P

Perhaps I may skip on this to save myself from possible future headaches later on...

[Shaolin]

I personally wouldn't buy that machine just because of the pain in the ass to fix the dam thing.. It's not like a desktop where you can replace parts within a couple of hours.. but the system looks sweet.. I'm pretty sure there's a site where you can check on histories of stores, I used it in the pass a long long time ago, if I dig it up again i'll let you know.

[Weapon_R]

I agree - Check IBM's website for that crazy pentium 4 laptop for under $1000. I think a member here was going to buy one, and at least you can take it somewhere for warranty service