'Factory Refurbished' electronic products?

[Boomyal]

Just bought a Nikon 5600 digital camera for my son. It was 'refurbished'. I have purchased a number of 'refurbished' products before and have always had good luck with them. They always come in the original packaging with all of the original accessories, manuals and CD's when applicable. In fact, you cannot tell the products from new.<br /><br />When ever I have run across 'refurbished' products, they always seem to be available from a large number of vendors. It would seem unlikely that there would be so many returns of a product, for whatever reason, that a manufacturer would have enough of them to supply so many vendors.<br /><br />Here is my theory. When a product model has run it's course, manufacturers may have signifigant inventories that they want to dump. To just lower the price might hurt retail dealers who are still asking retail prices for the product. So the Manufacturer puts the product out into the market place as a 'refurb', at a lower price with a shorter warranty so they can clear the shelves and make room for the next generation model.<br /><br />What say all ye wise men?

 

[BoatBuoy]

Re: 'Factory Refurbished' electronic products?

I, too, have wondered about the availability of "refurbished". What you suppose sounds very reasonable, but I don't know if that's the case. They could also be units sold and returned, but those are usually disposed of by the retailer.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: 'Factory Refurbished' electronic products?

I agree. It is a way to clear stock. The "refurbished" could also mean that when the original package was filled that one item in the box was not available then addded later. In relating this to the camera .... maybe a cord was not available and the noxes were filled at a later date which caused the camera to be released late.<br /><br />The Nikon is my digital camera of choice. Mine is a 4300 and I have even been looking at another one for my wife.

 

[cart7]

Re: 'Factory Refurbished' electronic products?

The refurb biz, especially in electronics is big business. Most of the stuff that's sold as refurbed is returned stuff that's repaired, if there's actually something wrong with it, and then repackaged.

 

[craze1cars]

Re: 'Factory Refurbished' electronic products?

I have bought many "refurbished" electronics over the years, including my current computer. They have all worked great and I have never regretted the decision to save a few bucks.

 

[roscoe]

Re: 'Factory Refurbished' electronic products?

My refurb camera was a new model.<br />Only on the market for a couple months.<br />There were litterally hundreds available on line, all at once.<br />And only the camera packages that included the docking base/battery charger were available as refurbs.<br /><br />Turns out the docking base and the power supply didn't work together. They apparently opened the boxes, replaced or repaired the dock, applied "refurb" sticker to the dock, resealed the box. There is no sticker on the camera itself.<br /><br />There is no way that all of these could have been customer returns, in perfect condition, and all available just after the camera had been released on the market.<br /><br />Saved 40% off the going price.

 

[deputydawg]

Re: 'Factory Refurbished' electronic products?

Know a man who works refurbishing power tools. He is employed by a private company that has sub contracted to the major tool companies, Ryobi, Milwauke, DeWalt etc.<br /><br />Some of the things they do is if for some reason the factory has a screw up in the department that puts stickers on items. They may make hundreds before they catch it. For quality control and appearance they remove it from stock. It cost too much for them to fix, and is not to their standards to sell, so they have this company fix it and sell it for profit to all. Others have had something go wrong with them like paint during manufacture coating the brushes of a motor causing it not to start. They clean it off and it works. Cheaper to sell as refurbished. And then some are just burned out either by misuse, or just something wrong with it otherwise making it not work. It is cheaper to replace under warranty than try to fix and return to customer. With 1 to 5 year and even lifetime warranties there are a lot of things getting broke in a year. <br /><br />He also said some of the stuff returned is in perfect condition, but the customer wanted something else or wanted money back so they lied and returned it. But most are very easy simple fixes, bad batteries, loose power cords or ground wires, bad switches, stuff like that.

 

[Boomyal]

Re: 'Factory Refurbished' electronic products?

DD, in essence you are talking about 'blems'. I forgot to include them in my original post. But undoubtedly they make up as good part of the 'refurb' inventory.

 

[LubeDude]

Re: 'Factory Refurbished' electronic products?

Many of these Items are products that dont make the cut when they are tested on the assembly line and are sent back for repair. I bought my HP printer that way and saved about half.

 

[mrbscott19]

Re: 'Factory Refurbished' electronic products?

All I can say is I got a $700 dvd recorder for under $300, and it's been flawless for the year I've had it. Bought it as a refurbished item from overstock.com.<br /><br />Almost forgot.....there is also a pretty good website for refurbished products that I found a while back. I've never ordered anything from them, but the prices and selection are pretty good.<br /><br /> Refurb Depot

 

[Boomyal]

Re: 'Factory Refurbished' electronic products?

Thanks for the link mrbscott. I'll tuck it away for future reference.

 

[Scaaty]

Re: 'Factory Refurbished' electronic products?

Originally posted by cart7:<br /> Most of the stuff that's sold as refurbed is returned stuff that's repaired,

A MAJOR portion of returned stuff is not refurbished. Its junked. Do you really think they will spend all that money for someone to sit there for a couple hours and trouble shoot something that was made in china for $6, sold here for $60. Get real. Referb/Reman is Blems.....stuff that for some reason that can't be sold as new, NOS, obsolete, copyright infrigement maybe, some defect that has zero to do with the product, box missing something, whatever, but due to the a##holes that just roam the aisles looking for a lawsuit with their scumbag lawyers, they gotta sell as basically what ya see is what ya get...no lawsuit then. A Box of camaras could get wet on the outside in shipping from china, but they still work, so why take a chance. Get my drift. I have zero prob with re-anything

 

[Boomyal]

Re: 'Factory Refurbished' electronic products?

Just got the camera today. Unlike other refurbs that I bought it came in a plain jane box. It's inards were definitely custom made to accomodate the camera and accessories but the box had no graphics on it.<br /><br />The camera looks like new with all of it's little peel off decals on it.<br /><br />Robby, you gave a very plausible reason for 'refurbs'. I think they could be offered for several reasons, but as you said, I don't think repair is one of them. Cheaper to toss it.

 

[dogsdad]

Re: 'Factory Refurbished' electronic products?

When a customer returns an item for a refund, the item can only be sold as "refurbished." It is up to the manufacturer to set the cosmetic standards for the item, and usually the standard is pretty high and the item looks like it is brand new. Sometimes the item actually did fail electronically, but a good repair department can track the problem down and make the item as good as new, literally. Many times the item has no defects whatsoever, electronic or cosmetic, but it must be sold as a "refurb."<br /><br />Some items, such as cell phones, are refurbished to carrier (such as Verizon) specs. These are often quite beat up, physically, before processing, but look and function like new after they are processed. I am in this business, and can attest to the effectiveness of the refurbishment process. I would not hesitate to take advantage of the savings offered for buying a refurbed product if it was made by a reputable manufacturer in the first place.

 

[Realgun]

Re: 'Factory Refurbished' electronic products?

I bought my HP printer that way and saved about half.

But you got reamed on the ink. HP's and Epson inks are the most expensive.<br /><br />Cost them 2 dollars a gallon to make but they sell it at 1000 a gallon.

 

[Boomyal]

Re: 'Factory Refurbished' electronic products?

Originally posted by Realgun:<br />

I bought my HP printer that way and saved about half.

But you got reamed on the ink. HP's and Epson inks are the most expensive.<br /><br />Cost them 2 dollars a gallon to make but they sell it at 1000 a gallon.

What printers do you like Realgun?? I thought they were all that way.

 

[cart7]

Re: 'Factory Refurbished' electronic products?

originally posted by Robby6950 <br />

A MAJOR portion of returned stuff is not refurbished. Its junked. Do you really think they will spend all that money for someone to sit there for a couple hours and trouble shoot something that was made in china for $6, sold here for $60. Get real. Referb/Reman is Blems.....stuff that for some reason that can't be sold as new, NOS, obsolete, copyright infrigement maybe, some defect that has zero to do with the product, box missing something, whatever, but due to the a##holes that just roam the aisles looking for a lawsuit with their scumbag lawyers, they gotta sell as basically what ya see is what ya get...no lawsuit then. A Box of camaras could get wet on the outside in shipping from china, but they still work, so why take a chance. Get my drift. I have zero prob with re-anything

Sorry to burst your bubble but I've worked in the consumer electronics repair business for 30 years and that's exactly what happens. In fact, a local shop here in the St.Louis area used to do refurbing of Thomson's RCA and GE equipment for years. Basically, the unit is tested and if there's a problem, they try and fix it with new parts or they scavenge parts from other units of the same model. Rebox the thing with new packing, manuals etc and then send it back to the manufacturer. There is actually a company out there that handles refurbing. Assembly lines with a supply of junked out units to scavenge parts from in order to make one good unit from 2. Many returns don't even have a problem at all and the return was a customer service courtesy due to pilot error by the customer.<br /><br />Yep, some stuff is cheap enough to toss in the dumpster but a lot of items, $50 or more get refurbed. There's a market for it so that's why they do it.

 

[Realgun]

Re: 'Factory Refurbished' electronic products?

Sorry to respond so late Boom. I like the Cannon printers. Very good prints comperable or better than Epson or HP. Ink costs about 1/3rd less.<br /><br />On the older Epsons, i don't know about the new ones, you had to toss the printer if the head were to clog up on the cannon the head is replaceable.<br /><br />I was a tech for an HP cheapie* printer. They sold for 30-80 dollars but used the HP inks. One of the things we did was ask the Customer to purchase a new cartridge. When that falied we sent them another printer! HP made more on the cartridges than the printer itself.<br /><br />*those printers are no longer sold.

 

[Boomyal]

Re: 'Factory Refurbished' electronic products?

Sheeesh Realgun, thanks. I guess better late than never?