questionswhat are your experiences with buying refurbished…


I've bought a few and never had any problems.
Mac, in particular, seems to do a really good job of refurbishing their products. If you can find what you want, it's definitely worth very serious consideration.


My experience with refurbs go like this:

Manufacturer refurbished with a full warranty - No qualms whatsoever.
Manufacturer refurbished with a 90-day warranty - Maybe, depending on the savings and manufacturer's reputation.
Third party refurbished with a 90-day warranty - Only if it's cheap enough; there's more risk than reward here.
30-day warranty or less - Feeling lucky? I'm not!

If the refurb Mac you're looking at is from Apple, buy with confidence. If it's a third party refurbished, YMMV.


I own a lot of refurbs, and have had nothing but good luck. Laptop, Desktop, TV, even my vacuum cleaner is refurbished. I've heard great things about Apple's refurbishment process, and I believe they all come with a warranty as well.


I'm using my refurbished iPad right now and it's works great. I also have a refurb Vizio tv that has been working perfectly fine.
My feeling is if you buy a refurb from a trusted source it should be ok. Plus Apple gives the same warrantee for all refurbished products that they give with new products, and you can still get Apple Care for it.


Agreeing w/the others. I've bought many refurbs, including a MacBook Pro, Zebra printer, iPod, etc, and can't remember having a problem with any of them. I think I bought my refurbed Zebra from eBay about 10 years ago and it still works perfectly.


So far so good on refurbs. (My main computer at home is one, actually.)


If there are significant savings to buying a refurb, I will usually do so. The only caveat is that lately I've seen an increasing number of items that are refurbished by a "third-party", which often ends up being of lesser quality than a refurb performed by the manufacturer.

The only major issues I've had with refurbed items have been with these "third-party" types of refurbs. As a result, I make it a point to pay attention to the details about who exactly is providing the refurb service.


Generally very good. I have had very little trouble with refurbs. Even the ones that were a problem I got my money's worth out of. For example, I bought a manufacturers refurb laptop that came to me with a non-functioning screen. I sent it back, they replaced the screen and returned it. The new screen worked for about two months of the three month warranty, and quit again. I sent it back, with a note saying I thought the problem wasn't the screen, but the connection between the screen and machine. They ignored me, replaced the screen and returned it. It worked for a couple of months again, and then started having intermittent problems which grew steadily worse for a year. ...


But if I persisted in opening and closing the lid it would "catch" and light up. Finally I took it to a local repair shop who likewise replaced the screen despite clear evidence that it was the connecting cable at fault, and it worked more or less for another year before quitting entirely. But it was still a perfectly good computer, so I hooked it up to my TV to run video files and wireless internet and used it for another three years before the HD failed. I have replaced the HD and need to find a friend who can put an OS on it and I will hook it back up to the TV. But I am very persistent.


IMO your chances of having problems with a referb are only "slightly" more than a new product, if you get at least a 30 day warranty I'd feel safe. If somethings going to fail more than likely it will be DOA or fail shortly after using it.


It really depends on who you're getting it from.

Watch out for re-certified v. refurbished v any other terms. A re-certified iPad from some company can just mean they checked it out and will give you 90-day warranty while a refurbished iPad from Apple means new case, battery, and 1 year warranty. If you get the timing right, they'll be the same price but sometimes, you'll end up paying a bit of a premium for refurbed from the manufacturer.


Just thought I'd add some info-

Monitors and TVs are generally refurbished for:
1. Burnt out lamps
2. Power inverter/ circuit board
3. Disconnected wires

These things happen to all monitors and TVs, new or old, eventually. So, buy refurb TVs and monitors with confidence.


I've had pretty good luck so far, but like other people here have suggested, just be sure to read the fine print.

I've gotten a huge "famous maker" monitor with no issues.
Also a factory return refurb pioneer receiver from moofi a couple weeks ago. No issues with that either.
Oh and my Xoom was a manufacturer refurb and I never had any issues there (unless you count them paying me $100 because they didn't properly format a batch to remove previous owner info, so I had to send it in for reformatting even though I already formatted it myself, but hey they gave me $100 for the trouble)
I'm sure I've ordered a bunch of other stuff too, but long story short, I buy refurbs and have never had such a bad experience that I've started worrying about refurbs.

Just make sure it's not refurbed by some third party that is looking to make a quick buck.


I think I'm in line with the others here; my experience with refurbs hasn't been perfect but not any worse than with 'new' items. In some cases, I think having a refurbished item is actually better since it means it's been looked at by an actual human at some point.

Where things get dicey is with 'third party' refurbs; as far as I can tell that just means 'Used, but cleaned up.'


I'm pretty much with @narfcake on this. I've had refurb TV's, monitors, and CPU's without any problems at all. As long as they're manufacturer re-furbs, I'm happy to buy them. I've avoided the third-party refurbs thus far, but I'd take a chance on something if it was cheap enough.


I've bought a few and only had one problem. Had a hard drive go out on a computer. Had some problems with the company (they were having problems with a supplier supposedly). It was worked out and they replaced my 500gb with a 750gb for my time and trouble.


Call me biased but I bought a refurb Dyson off Woot over a year ago and its still going strong as if it were brand new.


The only refurb that I can recall purchasing was an iPad from the apple store. It came with the same warranty as a new one and I've had no problems. @narfcake has the correct answer here.


It's a mixed bag, I tend to find refurbished products don't work quite right (e.g., loser connector, slightly dimmer screen). However, they still are usually worth the lower price.


I bought a refurb Macbook Pro directly from Apple last year. Have had it for a year now, and I'm still loving it. I financed it with the Barclay Card . . . if you pay it off within 12 months, there's no interest (mine was paid off well before the year was up).


Most of my Macs have been refurbs (3rd party, the same company) and a couple of years behind the latest release, but still eligible for Apple Care. Seems like a good compromise of cost to value if you don't need the latest buzziest cutting edge tech release.