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What does "Refurbished" mean?

T

Talal Itani

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hello,

Some stores, including Fry's, sell Refurbished items. In general, what does
refurbished mean? Does it mean that the item was repaired? Does it mean a
customer returned it to the store? Thanks.

T.I.
 
Y

Yes Baby

Jan 1, 1970
0
Talal Itani said:
Hello,

Some stores, including Fry's, sell Refurbished items. In general, what
does refurbished mean? Does it mean that the item was repaired? Does it
mean a customer returned it to the store? Thanks.

T.I.

Refurbished.........returned to as new condition. Sometimes with the full 12
months warranty sometimes less. Could be customer return via store or direct
either way it will get the same overhaul.
 
R

Radiosrfun

Jan 1, 1970
0
Yes Baby said:
Refurbished.........returned to as new condition. Sometimes with the full
12 months warranty sometimes less. Could be customer return via store or
direct either way it will get the same overhaul.

In some cases - it "might" still be a good idea - in many - I doubt it - due
to cost of labor and parts - as oppsed to buying "new". Years ago - it made
"more" sense.

Just my 2 cents!
 
B

Bob Day

Jan 1, 1970
0
Talal Itani said:
Hello,

Some stores, including Fry's, sell Refurbished items. In general, what does
refurbished mean? Does it mean that the item was repaired? Does it mean a
customer returned it to the store? Thanks.

It means whatever the seller says it means, and it doesn't
have to mean much of anything. Ask the seller to put his
definition of 'refurbished' in writing.

-- Bob Day
http://bobday.vze.com
 
S

sparky

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hello,

Some stores, including Fry's, sell Refurbished items. In general, what does
refurbished mean? Does it mean that the item was repaired? Does it mean a
customer returned it to the store? Thanks.

T.I.



If you purchased the item as NEW and discovered it is refurbished then
you got scammed very badly. Many ebay sellers are scamming buyers by
selling refurbished items as new.
 
B

Bob Masta

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hello,

Some stores, including Fry's, sell Refurbished items. In general, what does
refurbished mean? Does it mean that the item was repaired? Does it mean a
customer returned it to the store? Thanks.

The item could have been returned by an individual customer, or
(commonly for computer stuff) by a big corporation that had a contract
for many units that are replaced on a schedule. The item could even
be unused surplus (but don't get your hopes up). I suspect the
"refurbished" part means that it passed some standardized checkout
protocol. One problem with this is that many times thngs get returned
for intermittent problems that are missed by such tests, so make sure
you have a warranty.

Best regards,


Bob Masta

D A Q A R T A
Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis
www.daqarta.com
Scope, Spectrum, Spectrogram, Signal Generator
Science with your sound card!
 
J

John Larkin

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hello,

Some stores, including Fry's, sell Refurbished items. In general, what does
refurbished mean? Does it mean that the item was repaired? Does it mean a
customer returned it to the store? Thanks.

T.I.

At Fry's, it means that one or more people bought it and returned it,
and they resealed the box, hoping that eventually somebody will buy it
and fly off to Singapore, where it will be impossible for them to
return it yet again.

John
 
L

Lord Garth

Jan 1, 1970
0
John Larkin said:
At Fry's, it means that one or more people bought it and returned it,
and they resealed the box, hoping that eventually somebody will buy it
and fly off to Singapore, where it will be impossible for them to
return it yet again.

The classic description of a 'field fix' from Fry's perspective.

I bought an Antec case an power supply from them but after building
the system, the power supply was not always able to start up. I
returned it only to be presented with their $7.00 power supply tester
that called me a liar. The tester indicated the supply was good and
their light duty test motherboard operated well. I got a swap from
another case and this one has worked well for just over a year now.
 
J

John Larkin

Jan 1, 1970
0
The classic description of a 'field fix' from Fry's perspective.

I bought an Antec case an power supply from them but after building
the system, the power supply was not always able to start up. I
returned it only to be presented with their $7.00 power supply tester
that called me a liar. The tester indicated the supply was good and
their light duty test motherboard operated well. I got a swap from
another case and this one has worked well for just over a year now.

In one visit to Fry's in Mountain View, I bought an HP inkjet printer
and a box of floppies. The ink cartrige was installed in the printer
and there was ink splattered all over everything. The floppies had
Windows for Workgroups on them, all neatly labeled. On inspection,
both had been opened and resealed.

If you buy from Fry's, inspect things carefully before you leave the
parking lot.

And what's with the gorilla at the door who searches your bags as you
leave? What happens if you just keep walking? Does he tackle you? Does
he shoot you?

John
 
K

kony

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hello,

Some stores, including Fry's, sell Refurbished items. In general, what does
refurbished mean? Does it mean that the item was repaired? Does it mean a
customer returned it to the store? Thanks.

T.I.

Always check to see if the store clearly defines what they
mean by refurbised, including whether warranties apply or
what the return policy is, including whether there is a
restocking fee (and in which scenarios it would apply) or if
you have the option of partial or full refund or are instead
only allowed to exchange for the same thing (less likely
with refurbished goods as many are in short enough supply it
can't be assumed a direct replacement refurbished product
would be available).

The definition is one each store has developed for their own
needs to distinguish any goods that (for whatever reason)
are not new, from factory (or supplier, more likely),
unmolested by anyone for any reason other than repacking
when this is necessary (for example OEM tray processors are
repacked in individual containers of some sort, but are
still new not refurbished for the manditory initial
prepacking pre-delivery to a customer).

It could mean something was repaired, returned due to user
inable to get it to work (for whatever reason, user
ineptitude, user didn't "like" it, user found it cheaper
elsewhere later or a different product was cheaper, or
system malfunctioning or missing parts or too many other
reasons to mention), repair, manufacturer overruns where the
manufacturer does not wish to sell "OEM" whitebox parts that
devalue their retail offerings, very small supply that is
not going to be listed as a regular retail product since
there are only a few available which is better accomdated by
the "refurbished" stock system where no new stock is
expected.

It could mean the product was taken out of a box for a
product picture, opened by an employee to show to a
customer, or really almost anything, but essentially the
purpose is to signify the item may have a higher probability
of problems and need returned if you can't accept whatever
difference there might be. If each part designated as
refurbished were individually processed with extensive
testing and checking of all parts, this cost alone would
make the refurbished parts end up more expensive than the
brand new retail offering in many cases, so it "might" be
left up to you to do some of this work.

Also consider the reputation of the seller, and seek some
comments of others who buy the goods in web forums,
particularly those forums offering "Hot Deals" types of
categories as many in these forums will have experience
trying to save a buck on refurbished goods for better or
worse, so you can get some idea of the percentage who were
satisfied, real world examples of how the seller handled the
return, and whether that gamble is worth the savings. Just
keep in mind that typically someone having a problem with a
refurbished product is a lot more likely to make a stink
about it than others who had no problems and thus, went on
about their lives without stopping to seek some remedy.
 
D

DaveW

Jan 1, 1970
0
"Refurbished" means that it was returned to the manufacturer, either because
the customer did not want it or because it was defective and needed to be
repaired, and then sold to someone else.
 
J

John Fields

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hello,

Some stores, including Fry's, sell Refurbished items. In general, what does
refurbished mean? Does it mean that the item was repaired? Does it mean a
customer returned it to the store? Thanks.
 
L

Lord Garth

Jan 1, 1970
0
If you buy from Fry's, inspect things carefully before you leave the
parking lot.

Before you get in the check out lane!
And what's with the gorilla at the door who searches your bags as you
leave? What happens if you just keep walking? Does he tackle you? Does
he shoot you?

The 'Door Nazi' is not allowed to touch you. I have bypassed them on
several occasions rather than wait in yet another line. I just ignore
them and keep walking. They are not legally able to search the bag
either.

The only door nazi that ever followed me was a rent a cop that worked
at a Computer City here in Dallas. I was in line behind a handicapped
individual that was in much the same condition as Christopher Reeves
in that he had a wheelchair with a portable iron lung. The man was signing
the check with his toes while I patiently waited some 30 minutes. The
store never opened a second lane. Finally, when he was finished and
driving his chair out, the door nazi, who was 6 feet away and watching the
whole thing, challenged him to show his receipt. The man complied.
I made my purchase, filed my receipt in my case and proceeded to the
door when the door nazi asked to see my receipt. Seeing as how he
had again been right there watching the whole transaction and it had
now taken the better part of 45 minutes to buy one VGA extension cable,
I answered him with, "What receipt? I have many in this case so be
specific."
mean while, I kept walking to my car. He followed me but never laid hands
upon me.
 

neon

Oct 21, 2006
1,325
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
1,325
Regardind FRY'S their policy that they will take back anything in its original box un-altered form. BUT you could find a missing manual screw whatever the original purchaser forgot to put in there . it is a risk. i have returned many things to them and i must admit i forgot to put everything back in the box, so what is the risk if it say as is forget it otherwise buy it and return it great savings. it just cost too much to ship back better discounted, some other items are returned to the manufacture and they refurbish as new check it out and resale it at a discount like printers and stuff. if that is the case then you are entitle to warranties as new by the manufacture. and besides whay don't you ask a salesman they do not keeps this secret.
 
J

johns

Jan 1, 1970
0
It means "DON'T BUY IT!" Nobody out there actually
repairs PC parts. All they do is put it in a box and
see if it works at all. They don't test it. They don't
care. AND ... !!!!!! .... they will rebox it and put it right
back out the door as new. The way these creeps
cover themselves, is twofold: 1) they make you
purchase a warranty after 15 days. And they don't
give an "in house" warranty. 2) they let you believe
that the manufacturers warranty is good, and you
will have to "call the manufacturer" for an RMA.
Then, you will discover that you are dealing with
a non-warranty item from the original designer
..... like ATI, or nVidia ... that was custom built
for an OFFSHORE RETAILER. The worst products
for this are made by ASUS. And if you want a
guaranteed refurb, buy a video card from XFX.
There are a few resellers who are reputable ( so
far ), and will try to help you with claims if you
get a bad product. Mwave is very good. NewEgg
is OK. TigerDirect will scam you any way it
can. Dell can be hard to work with or contact
but they are fair eventually. HP acts like they
are insulted if you try to do business with them
at all.

johns
 
K

kony

Jan 1, 1970
0
It means "DON'T BUY IT!"

Really? If I need a higher degree of certainty the part I
ordered is right and ready to deploy immediately, I avoid
refurbs, but on several occasions I've ordered refurbed
parts (hard to peg an exact number, but a few dozens of time
is a rough guess) and have had a roughly 80% success rate.
Occasionally there were missing parts, like when a
motherboard comes in an big kit with lots of fancy extras,
some of those were missing, or sometimes just the
motherboard I/O plate, or the mounting screws for an Alpha
Pal heatsink. Sometimes there's damage but it didn't really
matter (part still worked) like a video card with one of the
surface mount ceramic decoupling caps knocked off. Other
times it might be a card with a capacitor bent at an angle
which I thought prudent to remove and replace with another
cap. Sometimes refurbs are just the result of a
manufacturer making more of the main component (like a video
capture card) but not all the misc cables that go with it,
so if you just needed the vidcap card with it's tuner and
S-Video input, you didn't need the cables.

Nobody out there actually
repairs PC parts.

Actually, yes some video cards and motherboards are either
returned to the manufactuer or subcontracted out to someone
in the same region for repair. Certainly not all things
are, but remember that a large % of parts returned by
customers aren't even damaged, the customer simply didn't
have the ability to get the part working for any number of
reasons. Other times the return is for a more shady reason,
like a kid buying a CPU or video card then finding out it
didn't overclock as high as they'd hoped, and unfortunately
these kinds of customers end up changing policies and
causing more and more sellers to implement restocking fees.

All they do is put it in a box and
see if it works at all. They don't test it. They don't
care. AND ... !!!!!! .... they will rebox it and put it right
back out the door as new.

Some may test it, some might not even do that much, but
remember these parts do usually cost less. You save money
by taking on a potential problem and only through putting in
an amount of time it wouldn't be cost effective for the
seller to put forth, will you determine if you saved money
or have a product that must be returned. I suspect many
sellers do keep a record of whether an item was refurbished,
so it doesn't just keep getting set back out again and again
to different customers if it has been rejected more than
once.

The way these creeps
cover themselves, is twofold: 1) they make you
purchase a warranty after 15 days.

?? You must be taking about some specific sellers as this
is not typically the case at all at an *average* seller of
refurb'd goods.
And they don't
give an "in house" warranty.

A warranty is good for high priced items, but frankly I've
pretty much ignored warranties over the years and seldom did
it matter, if the refurb'd part arrived intact, working as
demonstrated by some functionality or stress tests, it
continued working. One exception might be hard drives, but
they are such a lottery anyway that a random sample can't be
presumed as bulletproof even if brand new/un-refurb'd.

2) they let you believe
that the manufacturers warranty is good, and you
will have to "call the manufacturer" for an RMA.
Then, you will discover that you are dealing with
a non-warranty item from the original designer
.... like ATI, or nVidia ... that was custom built
for an OFFSHORE RETAILER.

It depends on what you're buying. Also if you buy something
listed as a refurb'd retail, name brand part, it's not some
custom built offshore retailer (whatever you're trying to
imply). Normally there's no point in trying to refurb
something that isn't in demand, it has such a lot value it
ends up diverted to some surplus seller. The quality of the
seller, their reputation means a lot, especially how they
handle problems. Check out seller ratings at
http://www.resellerratings.com , but ignore the positive
reviews as any seller gets things right once in a while.
Instead focus on the negative reviews, whether they seem
credible and what (if any) hoops the seller made the
customer jump through and whether the customer's problem was
ever resolved.


The worst products
for this are made by ASUS.

I've bought several refurb'd Asus motherboards over the
years, and one of them acts flaky with a certain CPU
installed (which it wasn't meant to originally support) but
otherwise all were fine, except a couple didn't come with
the proprietary configuration, rear I/O shield. Annoyingly
at the time I contacted Asus to see about getting a matching
shield, they said they'd send it and took down my address
for shipping it but it never showed up. This was a free
part they offered though, nothing lost but I now look at the
rear ports and through a stack of I/O shields I have here
just to see if I have something suitable or adaptable if the
need arises. IIRC, they do sell the IO shields still, thing
it's about $5 for one, or around $25 for a whole motherboard
kit- but this was back when kits didn't have all the crazy
extras that some do today, the fanciest board kits might
cost more.

And if you want a
guaranteed refurb, buy a video card from XFX.
There are a few resellers who are reputable ( so
far ), and will try to help you with claims if you
get a bad product. Mwave is very good. NewEgg
is OK. TigerDirect will scam you any way it
can. Dell can be hard to work with or contact
but they are fair eventually. HP acts like they
are insulted if you try to do business with them
at all.

I agree with your assessment of the above companies, though
I've never had a problem with HP except they have a little
less friendly CSR policies IMO.
 
Talal said:
Some stores, including Fry's, sell Refurbished items. In general, what does
refurbished mean? Does it mean that the item was repaired? Does it mean a
customer returned it to the store? Thanks.

"Refurbished" means anything:

1. Brand new, possibly returned from dealer overstock.

2. Returned, either used or unused, and either not inspected, lightly
inspected, or thoroughly inspected.

3. Repaired, barely, possibly not to full original functionality.

4. Repaired, thoroughly

5. Repaired, thoroughly, and refurbished, meaning not only are obvious
defects fixed but also known high-failure parts are replaced
(typically capacitors or power electronics that are driven hard), even
if still in good operating condition, and any upgrades installed.

Not all refurbishiment is performed by the manufacturer or its
authorized service company. There are also companies that buy
salvaged products and take them to repair sweat shops that perform
bare minimum repairs, at best.
 
John said:
At Fry's, it means that one or more people bought it and returned it,
and they resealed the box, hoping that eventually somebody will buy it
and fly off to Singapore, where it will be impossible for them to
return it yet again.

Every refurbished item I've seen at Fry's had been refurbished by the
manufacturer or its approved service company, while returned items
were always clearly marked as having been returned, except for CPUs
and memory modules..
 
R

Rich Grise

Jan 1, 1970
0
At Fry's, it means that one or more people bought it and returned it,
and they resealed the box, hoping that eventually somebody will buy it
and fly off to Singapore, where it will be impossible for them to
return it yet again.

Actually, I had a very pleasant experience at Fry's, when one of the
motherboards I'd bought there didn't work. I went in and asked, "What
do I do"? and they sent some tech over, who let me tag along to her bench
(which was right out there where everybody can see, along with about 4
others) and she showed me what was wrong and how to fix it.

Turned out I had to buy a new power supply. I'm using that MB and PS
right now, as a matter of fact. ;-)

FWIW, it's this one:
http://shop3.outpost.com/isp/cityofindustry.html

Cheers!
Rich
 
L

Linux Geek

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hello,

Some stores, including Fry's, sell Refurbished items. In general, what does
refurbished mean? Does it mean that the item was repaired? Does it mean a
customer returned it to the store? Thanks.

T.I.

It means 'Junk that didn't work properly the first time around' and hasn't
improved with age.





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