Why is it that refurbs are always terrible?

[DF Smod]

the rep that i spoke with was easily the most helpful person i've spoken to when i've called verizon. not because he offered me an early upgrade, but because he actually LISTENED and DID something about the problem at hand. big thumbs up to verizon this time around!

I recently had a similar experience with a Verizon Rep on the phone, very enjoyable, and it seemed he went above and beyond to help...so much better than the typical in store mad house

 

[steveninspokane]

I was rather worried about getting my phone replaced with a refurb, But I spoke to the vzw rep on the phone and they said that the screen is replaced on all refurbs among other things.

Not sure if that is true, but eh.

 

[eliassami5]

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.

 

[cromo8]

ive had replacements that work way better than the original

 

[Detonation]

I broke the screen on my old Samsung u740 flip phone and received a refurb replacement. The u740 is the one that flips both ways, and my first replacement was so loose I thought the single hinge on there would break and the screen would fall off anytime I opened it. The second one would randomly restart every couple hours after 2 months of having it. My 3rd was finally good enough to last a year until I got my Droid.

Droids are hit or miss as well. The first replacement I got had a slightly loose screen slider and loose headphone jack. Most people probably would not have cared, but i kept my original in great condition so I took both phone into the store and showed them the difference. They agreed to send me another replacement which is now on its way. My replacement was for the 2.2 update going bad - my phone itself is in near mint condition - so I will continue to ask for new replacements until the refurb is on par with my original phone.

 

[ricks]

Im waiting for my certified like new replacement, coming tomorrow or wed. If it is not in brand new condition, I will not accept it. My phone has not a blemish on it. I never use the slide-out keyboard and Im afraid the replacement keyboard will be loose. We shall see.

 

[NYC]

I got one on Thursday. It had a big dent on the back of it and the camera glass was broken. How did they miss this during the inspection? Their sending me a new one this week.

 

[joeybarclay]

I got one on Thursday. It had a big dent on the back of it and the camera glass was broken. How did they miss this during the inspection? Their sending me a new one this week.

huh idk. a lady at the Verizon store said they just look at the outside and replace the cpu. its kinda sad really what if the head phone jack is screwed up or something then the next person is stuck with it

 

[eliassami5]

I got one on Thursday. It had a big dent on the back of it and the camera glass was broken. How did they miss this during the inspection? Their sending me a new one this week.

huh idk. a lady at the Verizon store said they just look at the outside and replace the cpu. its kinda sad really what if the head phone jack is screwed up or something then the next person is stuck with it

yea...no....

 

[xmguy]

FRU's are junk for the most part. I've only had 1 Bad FRU so far. But back when had MANY MANY BAD FRU Phones.

 

[VideoGameMatt]

Id gladly take a refurb if it was truly "like new" i'm gonna be calling verizon tomorrow to try to get another one sent to me and i hope i get a good one like my friend did. He is on his second refurb but the first refurb he got ended up getting glitch-ed too much by 2.2 and now his current replacement is perfectly fine. In fact i think i would rather have a refurbished droid more than a new droid 2. I just like sapphire too much and plus i've heard too many bad things about contact integration with blur.

 

[xmguy]

Id gladly take a refurb if it was truly "like new" i'm gonna be calling verizon tomorrow to try to get another one sent to me and i hope i get a good one like my friend did. He is on his second refurb but the first refurb he got ended up getting glitch-ed too much by 2.2 and now his current replacement is perfectly fine. In fact i think i would rather have a refurbished droid more than a new droid 2. I just like sapphire too much and plus i've heard too many bad things about contact integration with blur.

I agree. I'd rather have a NEW Droid 1 vs a Droid 2 anyday.

 

[NYC]

Another replacement arrived today and the space bar key is falling off in addition the bronze piece on the bottom of the battery looks like its about to fall off also. Come on Verizon. Their sending me another "Like New" phone. They were trying to convince me to use my new every two but I refused.

 

[ashenfang]

I'm in the same boat. Verizon sent my wife and I "like new" droids last week. One of them had dead pixels on the screen and the other acted like the capacitive touch screen wasn't calibrated. I called them back and told them they were junk. They offered to send two more. Well....they came today and guess what? Out of the box,they both have a very loose screen. With very little touch you can get it to slide open without any effort. When closed, you can rotate the bottom corners.

You can tell these are the phones that people brought back for other problems or because they didn't want them. They both still have the plastic backing on the back of the screen, each showing signs of continued use. The last rep I talked to told me that D1's aren't made anymore. When someone brings in a "bad" phone for whatever reason, they send them to Motorola where they are wiped and checked out. They then get recycled back into Verizon's "like new" circulation. Both Motorola and Verizon must have very low standards for "new condition"

 

[AzJazz]

"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