What's good (or not) about buying a refurbished item by internet?

Question

i wanna know whats wrong or right about it

Answer 1

The Good, saving money
The Bad, it depends...

Refurbished items have been serviced by the manufacturer and restored to original functionality, whether it works as good as a new one or not is another question. It may have scratches or marring on the case and any ports the item may have may be missing covers, the item is only guaranteed to function "like new". You can try it, most places offer at least 7 to 14 day returns on refurbished items so if you aren't happy with it, you can send it back.

Sometimes the refurbished item will consist of a demo unit that stores have up for display, these units have been used and used and used, turned on and off, on and off, on and off but SHOULD function like new...

I'll tell you about an experience I had with a Palm PDA I once bought refurbished... it made an annoying high pitched squeak from the display if it was turned all the way up, the headphone jack was cracked and you had to put an undue amount of pressure on it to plug headphones in, the same with the SD card slot. The display was also scratched and the battery life appeared to not be up to the specifications. I returned it.

You may get one that works great, you may get one that doesn't work so great. I'd say maybe 75% of the time you will be fine. Also consider the price difference, if a new one costs $180 and a refurbished one costs $160, get the new one because you aren't saving much money. It also depends on the item...

I would avoid refurbished PDAs, Cameras and Laptops. Desktops I guess are okay because I can repair the desktop myself (unless it's DOA).

If you're lucky you will get a refurbished item that was only used once and sent back simply because the person simply didn't like it. Any item that has been opened for any reason has to be labeled as Refurbished and packaged in a plain brown box. Also, you may not get all the original accessories or parts with it, you will get what is required to make it work and nothing more, in some cases that includes the item and only a battery and a/c adapter. The software or anything extra that was with it may not be included so be sure to read what's in the box and what's included.

Answer 2

Sure, I have had great luck with them