Refurbished Goods

[IggyWH]

I'm a baller on a budget and looking for a TV. I've been browsing CL but I don't really trust people there. I came across this site today :

http://www.refurbdepot.com/index.cfm

The prices on some of the stuff are insane. Anyone have experience with refurbished goods in the past? Anyone care to talk me in to or talk me out of buying something from there?

[Rhett]

I would be very cautious buying a refurbished TV online due to the huge hassle it will be to get it serviced and repaird if you need to return it.

I believe that a huge number of refurbished sellers just take returned goods, check if it basically works, and then try to sell it again. In many cases, people wind up getting like-new products cheap, but you also might wind up getting a broken TV that no one fixed. The hassle is not worth it.

Also, I am shopping for TV's, and in my opinion, older models are selling for a lot less because they are far inferior quality. If pixelation, stairstepping, rainbow, and screen door effects don't bother you, buy something used or refurbished without seeing it.

If you really want to see quality movies though, I haven't seen anything worthwhile for under $2k. If you find something, let me know.

[IggyWH]

This is just going to be a TV for my bedroom. I have a crt but don't really have the room for it, which is why I was looking for a cheap LCD. I probably won't even have a cable box so I won't get HD channels either so I don't care much for quality.

[emon87]

[ QUOTE ]
This is just going to be a TV for my bedroom. I have a crt but don't really have the room for it, which is why I was looking for a cheap LCD. I probably won't even have a cable box so I won't get HD channels either so I don't care much for quality.

[/ QUOTE ]


Get a refurb. You'll probly be fine.


Also, re: the other poster - saying that there is nothing that you watch quality movies on under 2k is plain stupid.

[Rhett]

Circuit City has a 10% off coupon online:
http://www.pulverizer72.com/scans/cc...on_5-31-07.pdf

Plus, you can usually buy their gift cards on ebay for 90% value.

I would say that if you aren't a complete nit about quality for your mindblowing home theater, then refurbished is ok. You might be able to get a better deal though if you browse the fatwallet.com or slickdeals.net forums.

[RunDownHouse]

Iggy,

Just fyi, there was a deal on refurbed TVs from buy.com posted on slickdeals a week or two ago. Something like $800 for a 42" Plasma shipped.

People started getting them not too long later... in banged up boxes. With giant cracks across the screen. With tons of dead pixels. With markings indicating they were "Class C" or something, which was defined as fit for bench tests only.

Generally refurb products are supposed to be perfectly functional, with only minor cosmetic defects or something, but it definitely pays to do a bit of research on the manufacturer, their refurb standards, and ditto on the retailer. In the few cases I'd read about, I hadn't heard of any real problems with refurbed products, but those TVs through buy.com sounded like a complete nightmare.

[x2ski]

[ QUOTE ]
it definitely pays to do a bit of research on the manufacturer, their refurb standards, and ditto on the retailer.

[/ QUOTE ]

Word.

I've been purchasing refurbed electronics for over 8 years now through the following companies/retailers:

Dell
uBid
eBay
Azatek

The only problem I have had so far was with Azatek, who sent me a 21" crt with a huge scratch on the screen... I notified them and it was replaced within a week. All other experiences have been fantastic, but I picked retailers I could trust and eBay auction sellers with 98%+ feedback with thousands of transactions.

Before I started buying refurbed stuff, I read something somewhere that convinced me that it was the right way to go, and it went a little something like this:

Almost all electronics manufacturers test their products before shipping them to retailers; however, some products still make it out with defects. Of those that are returned, they are sent back to the manufacturer to be repaired and tested thoroughly again, so they are conceivably more reliable than the original.

Sometimes refurbished items had absolutely nothing wrong with them. They were simply returned by the original buyer, but since the product was opened and possibly installed/un-installed, it can't be resold as new.

Refurbs have been a good buy for me so far. My last 3 Dells were refurbs (check out the Dell "Outlet") among pretty much every other electronic device I currently own (save a Ninntendo Wii, XBox 360, and Sony digital camera I bought at Best Buy for a vacation [the dig before that was a uBid refurb that was awesome, but became obsolete over time]).