Buying Renewed (Refurb) Products on Amazon

[joev14]

I'm sure everyone here has been in this situation at least once or twice while shopping online. You're looking for a new monitor or computer component and you realize it's waaay out of your available budget, but as you stare sadly at a piece of tech that is far too expensive for your paycheck, you notice that there is a renewed (Amazon's fancy new term for refurbished) version of the item with a massive cut in price, sometimes as much as thirty percent. 

 

I'd like to preface this by saying I'd really love to see Linus or someone from the channel do a video weighing in on this subject, but I'm also curious to see what other tech users on the forum think. I'm about six months away from graduating college and have begun working in the architecture industry; and having not incurred much in the way of student loans nor having to pay for another expensive semester of college, I am eager to spend the extra cash I will have at the end of each month on some long overdue upgrades to my various tech. Barring my phone, I am in need of a new TV/monitor, keyboard, mouse, various components for a desktop, and in addition to all this I'd like to purchase a PS5 when it comes out in about a year. 

 

I've had some experience with purchasing refurbished products in the past, my PS4 is a refurb and has lasted me nearly five years and is still kicking. My first laptop was a refurb and lasted about six years. However, I've also had some unfortunate situations; my parents purchased a refurbished Samsung TV and it developed dead pixels within about a year of purchase.

 

After that long-winded explanation, I'm curious what products you think are safe to buy refurbished/renewed, and which ones you should steer clear of. Is saving thirty percent on a particular item worth the risk? Or should you bite the bullet and just buy new?

[circeseye]

refurbs on amazon im going to say 50/50....so far keyboards have been a fail. i tried 3 different refurbs on keyboards and each looked good..but was flawed in one way or another where it was unusable.....

tried a mouse..nope returned

got a phone... returned it quick..was not in the condition stated.

im sure others have had good luck but i sure havent

 

[TetraSky]

I wouldn't even consider used goods on Amazon. Considering the amount of returns they get, I highly doubt they are actually spending time to properly check the products they receive. Heck, just look at the many videos of people buying pallets of used Amazon crap that was returned, it's not rare for them to see a box with a completely different item in it because whoever returned it, swapped it out with something else like some jackass.

[Anomnomnomaly]

I've bought loads of stuff from Amazon Warehouse deals in the past. I've had HDD's up to 8TB without issue so far after almost 2yrs. I've had graphics cards in the past R9 280X that was in my system then the media server so has been running fine for 6yrs.

 

Occasionally you get something that is faulty, but given the savings you can make and the free returns... all it really costs you is a little bit of your time and you may perhaps wait a few days for the refund.

 

I always check the warehouse deals, to see what's available... especially as I'm often looking to expand the 28TB of storage on my mediaserver... HDD prices have gone crazy again and seem to be rising instead of falling. I paid around £150 for an 8TB 2yrs ago and now you can't find one under £200 even if there's any on the warehouse deals.

[LogicalDrm]

-> Moved to General Discussion

 

Please make sure you post in the correct subforum.

[manikyath]

considering the (little) experience i have buying "new" from amazon.. i wouldnt touch refurb with a hazmat suit...

[dizmo]

Depends what the item is.

Though, to be completely honest, I've never had luck with refurb parts and wouldn't pay the money for them.

Most things you can find significantly cheaper used.

[RoseTech]

The only refurbs I’ve bought from Amazon were a 2013 MBP and a 2011 iMac.

 

Both work pretty damn great. The MBP is even getting Catalina and the iMac has a 1440p display.

 

Came from highly reputable refurb companies though. That’s what really matters.

[kaiju_wars]

I have ordered two "renewed" products from Amazon.

 

A Logitech mechanical keyboard that was shorting out, so it would restart my PC if I touched the metal surface and got static shock.  My new keyboard doesn't do this.

The other is my current Corsair wireless headset.  With the headset, I've actually not had any issues what so ever.

[JB25304]

I've bought a 2080 ti as a Amazon Renewed deal and have had no issues whatsoever out of it.  Bought some Corsair fans and a K68 keyboard directly from Amazon Renewed and have not had an issue either.  For higher dollar things, I usually only buy directly from Amazon Renewed or Amazon Warehouse since I know that their customer service has always been good about returns at least for me, but I have bought used from 3rd Party Sellers on their platform for some things.  I usually treat it like eBay though.  I look at their feedback rating and decide if I want to take the risk or not.

 

I will say that sometimes the deals as an Amazon Renewed are not as good as used on eBay, but again, I really look at feedback ratings.  Sometimes, it is worth it to me to pay a little more for the peace of mind that I am less likely to regret it later.