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Refurbished Items: Trap or Treasure?

KeninDC

KeninDC

Hazy Cosmic Jive
Anyone have any experience with buying a refurbished item from one of the many online sellers or "authorized" brand dealers of refurbished items? I'm not talking high-end Macs from dudes who come recommended by AK mods, I'm talking mass-market, decent CD/DVD/SACD players.

While I know to avoid the sellers with crappy feedback, prices that are too good to be true, located in China, or have reviews that talk of human hairs in their supposedly new headphones, what kind of mine field am I stepping in?

Thanks for any and all advice,

Ken
 
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It can depend on who does the refurbishing. I purchased a Yamaha DVD/SACD/DVD-Audio changer on eBay that was refurbished by Yamaha, but was sold by someone else. I saved a lot of money, and it works beautifully and looks new. I have had it for over a year.

Now, if I had had problems, there would have been the expense of shipping it back, and if it was beyond the 90 day warranty, any repairs would have been totally at my expense. But, so far, so good.
 
Factory refurbs can be a good deal. I'm not far from a Sony outlet that sells a lot of refurbs. They come with the original warranty, and some go for less than half the price of new. I've had a couple of refurbs, and no trouble with any of them.
 
I've purchased several refurbished pieces over the past 15 years and have never had a problem including my Denon AVR 3805 in my HT. I just bought a refurbished Sony DVD/SACD player directly from Sony and was disappointed how used it looked plus it did not come with original packaging. :thumbsdn: It works fine though and I saved some coin. For Denon and others check dakmart. They are Denon's authorized reseller and extend the warranty to a full year. I had to have my remote replaced (a well known problem with the 3805) and contacted Denon and they did not question the warranty. :thmbsp:
 
i love refurbished items. i've purchased vacuum cleaners, computers, laptop computers, shelf stereo systems, dvd-players, i've never had a problem with them. they usually come with a 90 day warranty.
 
I got my Marantz SACD player as a refurb. One year later and it works fine. It is a PITA when it does the TOC reading, (known bug) sometimes reading "error" but it's not a breakdown of anything.
 
I've purchased 2 factory refurbished Onkyo HT receivers and have had no problems at all with them.
 
ExJxC said:
Most I the stuff I own is either used, refurbished or was one some massive sale.
Click to expand...
:thmbsp:

One theory on refurbished stuff is on an assembly line there will be x failures. Those failures get out to consumers and fail in their hands, get returned, and then have a human tech diagnosis and repair them. My bet is there is less failures as a percentage of refurbished electronics than new. :yes:
 
refurbs were not all broken, I think

it probably depends on original seller policy, but I bet many refurbs are mere returns. Customer wife said no, etc.

I would buy a refurb plasma TV if they came with full warranties. Pausing now because the one I want is 1500 new on sale and thats a lot of cash for boobtube (dont watch much).
 
I've been tempted to buy refurbished things that I would not purchase at full price, such as an HD DVD or Blu Ray player, I could get it cheaper and enjoy something until the kinks in the system are worked out and someone wins the format.
 
I had a refurbed Sony D-245 CD player, used it well for two years until the top-mounted controls' flat cable wore out. Found out that model (and its variants) were notorious for premature cable failure and signaled the start in the decline of the perceived idea of most owners', that of Sony being reliable.

It only had three second shock protection too. :D

I also did have a refurbished Memorex (Orion) VCR, it lasted with me for a good three years until I gave it to a friend.

Refurbished equipment isn't bad, but it depends on how reliable the equipment is as well as the competition.
 
I used to sell 100's of refurbed receivers, dvd players and speakers on ebay and rarely had any issues (that's how I started with all of this!). I was trying to upgrade a HT system in my home and found that the deals to be had were unbelievable at that time. Still good deals available but you must search a little harder.

Some came in original boxes/packing and others were repacked. If in fact there was a problem, Denon, Onkyo, Infinity, HK, etc. all covered them 100%via their factory authorized repair facilities or took them back. I could even buy extended warranties from the manufacturer.

I would not hesitate to by a refurb as long as there was a return policy and a warranty.
 
I have bought some refurbished items. Never had a problem with any of them. As a previous poster said a lot of times it was just something that was returned by the customer (thought it was broke because they didn't know how to work it, or they just changed their mind). At least the item has to be checked out by a technician and any problems fixed before it can be resold. I have saved mucho dollars by buying a refurbished item.:yes:
 
My father bought me a refurbished GE transistor radio.
That was 34 years ago.....still works fine.
I bought a pair of refurbished CSW model 6 speakers, from the CSW e-bay store.
It still came with a 10 year warranty.
It was only $90, and sounds very good!

Steve
 
I purchased an H/K 3480 2 channel receiver with phono input for 199 from harmanaudio.com two years ago and it has been problem free , had a full as new warranty . I have been very happy with the purchase and would surely go that route again if necessary.
 
I bought a "factory refurbished" Kodak digital camera. Never has worked right. Just changed batteries thinking fresh ones would help. No deal. Bummer about the camera.
OTOH, I'm pretty sure my computer was a refurb unit and it has been flawless and was a great deal for what was close to TOTL with features.
 
I love to purchase refurbs. You save money, and I have never had a problem, with one. The way I see it, a refurb unit is actually less likely to fail than is a regular factor unit, because the trouble area has already been fixed. :thmbsp:
 
I've never had a problem. . .I don't know anyone who has had a problem but. . .

I want new. . .unless its something that won't get used much. . .

No reason.. . .just me. . . .give me new. . .
 
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