REFURBISHED: your experience?

[CHINAdeals]

Wondering how youre experience was with refurb items..plz list:

1. Name of store where you purchased it.

2. What the item was (brand/model if possible)

3. Money you saved (roughly)

4. Did it break/still working?

thanks

[sfu_lifer]

Dell Laptop L400
Bought in sometime around Feb 2000 for $1150US from Dell.com
Saved a ton off the going retail price at the time (laptop with the stuff I got it with was around $2500US) plus I got a spare 8-cell battery PLUS 4 year dell business warranty; the thing looked brand new.
Never had any problems, sold it to somebody in 2004 and it's still going strong.

I had other purchases too of refurb electronics. I saved on the average around 40% off the retail. I've been quite lucky, only had a problem with a cheap phone but otherwise they've all worked.

[Paolo]

I personally have refurbished electronics in the past for work. I have bought a refurbished TV set, a Refurbished 17" monitor, refurbished Nortel Vista telephone, Refurbished V500 cellphone, refurbished computer/wireless keyboard/mouse as well as a refurbished router and have never had any problems. The only problem I've had was one of my Nortel Vista phones the screen crapped out but it IS covered by a limited warranty which is my fault cus I lost the receipt so I have to pay to fix it.

[UrbanPoet]

so far no problems w/ my refurb goods.

[Codegen]

Dad: e330 PDA

30day warranty.

Died on day 31

[fireguy9]

Purchased a refurb desktop in 2001 from Future shop 1.2ghz 256 ram, 40 gig hard drive, came with new printer and refurb 19" monitor, got it for half new cost and not a single problem in almost 5yrs now.

Refurb hunter ceiling fans, 2yrs old, no problems, and a refurb Karcher power washer purchased directly from manufacture, 4yrs ago, no problems.

Poulon gas leaf blower/vac purchased from xscargo 4yrs ago,, also perfect

[FearSonic]

How would I go about buying refurbished goods from FS? Just ask for em?

[mattpiloto]

I've bought a few refurbished things but I don't remember what as it was awhile ago. Most of them are ok. As long as you make sure there's a decent warranty you should be fine (like, for example, never buy refurbished stuff from XS Cargo)

[Bordello]

1. Name of store where you purchased it.
FutureShop


2. What the item was (brand/model if possible)
HP Pavilion 752n PC. I bought it for $999.99 on boxing day in 2002.


3. Money you saved (roughly)
The non-refurbished ones were selling for $1199.99


4. Did it break/still working?
Nope, motherboard melted last month. Luckily, I bought the PSP, so since they couldn't find a replacement motherboard, they exchanged it for a brand new system for me.

[CHINAdeals]

thns for all your input..i've read on sites sellingrefurb stuff describing that refurbished items are actually checked for quality more than brand new ones (cuz they have to make sure its working to send itout again)....but i guess the downside is that if its broken once, ppl assume higher chance of getting broken again..

guess iwill definately stay away from xscargo..

but since comp's seem okay..phones/pdas i should stay away from?

[Paolo]

there ARE some commonly refurbished items that will always have quality problems, its not the fault of the product, but the company who is doing the refurbishment work.. they usually get paid lower wages and have less parts and/or want to lower their refurbishment budjet and increase their overall turnaround profit.

[dirkpitt]

Store: Future Shop
Item: Refurbished Nintendo Gamecube (boxing day sale)
$ Saved: ~$200 (about half off, bundled with game)
Status: DEAD.

Died the next day. The exchange went great, got a brand new one to replace it.

[MaDDN3ss]

Bought from Staples
Lexmark X5150 all in one printer/scanner/fax/copier

Came with a full 1 year warranty, which was the same as buying new. I paid $99 for it and new was $349.

I still have it and it still works as good as it did on day 1.

[dvdvideo]

I have 2 uniden cordless phone refurbs....one works great, the other's battery is too weak. But still for the price I couldn't go wrong.

[ttt]

1. Name of store where you purchased it.

xcargo.


2. What the item was (brand/model if possible)

rca univeral remote.


3. Money you saved (roughly)

dunno.


4. Did it break/still working?

it broke after a week of usage. i guess i got what i paid for($4).. i'll not buy refurb stuff anymore. :lol:

[gambit_360]

The only way I would ever buy refurbished is if it had exactly the same warranty terms as a regular model. Usually, refurbs have something like 30-day warranty which is not enough.

I once bought a Compaq V2000 series laptop refurbished from ecost. Started smelling burning within hours of powering it up. The motherboard got fried. Good thing I was able to return the damn thing in time to get a full refund.