Why is it that refurbs are always terrible?

[Detonation]

"Why is it that refurbs are always terrible?"

Well, mainly because they're not.

I purchase quite a bit of refurbished stuff because you can save a LOT of money (I just received my new refurb Logitech Mouse for $23 yesterday including shipping - List price: $69).

I like the concept behind refurbished items: Usually, you get the exact same warranty as a new item, and you have the added bonus that every refurb item has actually been tested to ensure it works properly. You might be surprised, but most small-item consumer electronics these days aren't tested at all prior to shipment. The companies set up their manufacturing facilities to have less than a XYZ% (say, 5%) failure rate during production, and then they randomly test a small percentage of the products before they go out the door. If their small random sampling starts showing a significantly higher failure rate than XYZ%, they may stop production to address the problem and find out what has gone wrong.

Me? I've never had a refurb item go bad on me. In fact, a few refurb items were being used while I entered this posting, and some are over 5 years old now.

Cheers!

AzJazz

I will agree that refurbished items are usually a good deal. However its quite clear that Verizon is not testing everything to ensure proper functionality. Their replacements are more like "reused" phones rather than "refurbished" phones.

[VideoGameMatt]

"Why is it that refurbs are always terrible?"

Well, mainly because they're not.

I purchase quite a bit of refurbished stuff because you can save a LOT of money (I just received my new refurb Logitech Mouse for $23 yesterday including shipping - List price: $79.99).

I like the concept behind refurbished items: Usually, you get the exact same warranty as a new item, and you have the added bonus that every refurb item has actually been tested to ensure it works properly.

You might be surprised, but most small-item consumer electronics these days aren't tested at all prior to shipment - not even powered on. The companies set up their manufacturing facilities to have less than a XYZ% (say, 5%) failure rate during production, and then they randomly test a small percentage of the products before they go out the door. If their small random sampling starts showing a significantly higher failure rate than XYZ%, they may stop production to address the problem and find out what has gone wrong.

Me? I've never had a refurb item go bad on me. In fact, a few refurb items were being used while I entered this posting, and some are over 5 years old now.

Cheers!

AzJazz

clearly you've never had a refurbished phone through verizon. Refurbished usually means "returned item that has been tested, given a new casing and being sold at a lower price", that is what a real refurbished item is. Verizon's definition is..... "If it powers on send it out". Heck most refurbished items are actually new items that people have returned so the store sends it back to the manufacturer who then does a battery of tests and replaces whats needed and makes it like new again. But all verizon cares about is "Honoring" the warranty and it doesn't matter to them if the item is truly fixed. Trust me i've had enough refurbished cell phones of different kinds to know that when it comes to being refurbished for a phone it doesn't mean its fixed.

[haythem1992]

Referbs go through more tests than a brand new phone does, anything that is scratched or not in brand new condition is replaced. But just like some brand new phones aren't perfect, its the same with referbs. They might have missed something in inspection, its not like they did it on purpose.

And bill is exactly right, there are thousands of referbs given out every day and 99% are in perfect condition, only the very few that are unlucky come here and complain. If you have a problem with the referb you have a warranty from the insurance company and you can always get a new one.

Not always because I got a refurb droid a couple months ago and the bezel and around the usb slot had gouges, from where it was dropped, that were painted over, and there was a sticker over the old esn and stuff with the new esn. There was even dust in the cracks. I am pretty sure they painted it, slapped a sticker on it, and shipped it off. I was to lazy to complain though so I kept it, and its still kicking, suprisingly.

[xmguy]

Referbs go through more tests than a brand new phone does, anything that is scratched or not in brand new condition is replaced. But just like some brand new phones aren't perfect, its the same with referbs. They might have missed something in inspection, its not like they did it on purpose.

And bill is exactly right, there are thousands of referbs given out every day and 99% are in perfect condition, only the very few that are unlucky come here and complain. If you have a problem with the referb you have a warranty from the insurance company and you can always get a new one.

Not always because I got a refurb droid a couple months ago and the bezel and around the usb slot had gouges, from where it was dropped, that were painted over, and there was a sticker over the old esn and stuff with the new esn. There was even dust in the cracks. I am pretty sure they painted it, slapped a sticker on it, and shipped it off. I was to lazy to complain though so I kept it, and its still kicking, suprisingly.

Even though this is going back. One of my FRU LG Voyagers a few years back had LOADS of dust under the screen. 2 of the Voyagers didn't work right. Screen damaged. keyboard backlight dead. Tested yea right.

[ricks]

Just got my second certified like crap replacement and this one has bad hinges. It grinds when you open and close it and it sticks. They are sending me another one tomorrow. They offered me a Droid 2 and I declined it. I dont think I like the color.

[bendystrawboy]

my refurb droid is perfect..i was going to rush and get a fascinate but i think i may wait a bit for any rumored new phones in the pipeline.

[bacalao]

I got a refurb and it turned out to be better than my first droid. On my old droid I couldn't set the cpu past 1.2 GHz and also wasn't able to run a ultra low voltage kernels. Not a problem after getting replacement. Lucky I guess.

[hookbill]

I got a refurb and it turned out to be better than my first droid. On my old droid I couldn't set the cpu past 1.2 GHz and also wasn't able to run a ultra low voltage kernels. Not a problem after getting replacement. Lucky I guess.

For most people this is true actually. It's just that they don't come in here and start a thread, or should I say hundreds of threads like the ones that do because they got a bad refurb.