How good/bad has ur experience been with refurbished electronics?

[Shammikit]

I hope im posting in the correct area of the forum. Im building a PC on the cheap and im thinking of buying a refurbished GPU(a gtx 960 or an RX 570 possibly). I might even buy a motherboard on how things turn out. I want to be sure that it serves me for a couple of years atleast. Would like to know how ur experience has been when it comes to refurbished PC parts. Has it been serving to u like a new item and lasted long? or did it start causing trouble or die on u after a few of months. comment below. Thanks      

[WereCatf]

17 minutes ago, Shammikit said:

Would like to know how ur experience has been when it comes to refurbished PC parts. Has it been serving to u like a new item and lasted long? or did it start causing trouble or die on u after a few of months

Do you specifically mean store-refurbs or do e.g. second-hand items bought from random people count?

[dfsgsfa]

33 minutes ago, Shammikit said:

refurbished

it means broken once, why bother

[Shammikit]

15 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

Do you specifically mean store-refurbs or do e.g. second-hand items bought from random people count?

store refurbs. i think manufacture refrbs get warranty as well so thy r somewhat trust worthy. i want to know about store refurbs

[WereCatf]

3 minutes ago, dfsgsfa said:

it means broken once, why bother

No, it doesn't. There's Plenty of people who return their purchases because they didn't actually understand what they bought or they didn't know how to use it and those still count as refurbs.

2 minutes ago, Shammikit said:

store refurbs. i think manufacture refrbs get warranty as well so thy r somewhat trust worthy. i want to know about store refurbs

Mmmkay. Can't help you then, since I can't remember ever having bought store-refurbs.

[pm128]

I have no expirience

[Fatih19]

Are you going to buy store refurbished or third-party refurbished? Because they're very different.

[DerPfandadler]

Personally i wouldnt go for refurbished cards. You wont get your moneys worth.
At the moment you can get a RTX 2060 for pretty cheap on the used market, probably even cheaper than any refurbished card.

[DesolationGod]

Never bought refurbished individual components but i have computers and monitors from newegg and have never had an issue with them, most have come looking new practically. Buy from a legitimate seller and you shouldn't have issues. Avoid the sketchy accounts on ebay.

[CommanderAlex]

I bought my MSI RTX 2080 Gaming X Trio from my local Micro Center as an open-boxed item that was shipped back to the manufacturer and was completely tested and determined everything worked...they associate was kind enough to let me take it out of the box (was in Sept 2019, pre-COVID) and I decided to buy it at the time and got home and put it in my rig and everything worked fine. It still had a game bundle that was still open and worked for me, as well as registering the warranty as if I bought it new, for the price of open-boxed. Can't beat that. 

 

I know I was looking at refurbished keyboards and stuff at that Micro Center and they come with manufacturer warranty but is limited to maybe a year, but that's cause they were refurbished. 

 

Also, my dad bought a refurbished Gateway HTPC back in like 2007 and used it up until 2018 or so. Never had a problem with it. 

[FrankySam]

Bought a refurbished android phone few years back, worked without a hitch :)

[Tristerin]

Id say generally a pretty decent experience, as in, don't be a sucker - don't buy without a return window, don't buy without ensuring their refurb policy is understood on your end, etc.

[SolarNova]

Depends on what the seller means by 'refurbished'.

 

If its something thats been 'aesthetically' refurbished, then sure no problem there.

 

if its actually been refurbished in terms of functionality, e.g a GPU thats been re flowed or had some other board level repair done, I would want specific details and guarantees on the refurbish before buying.

 

[divito]

Ultimately it depends on the reason and cause for refurbishment in the first place. Some items are merely cosmetic fixes, or where a part might have failed and been replaced, with little overall usage. However, there will be some where there's a lot of usage and they've done minor work, if any at all, and turn around and sell it as "refurbished."

I would say from substantial experience in personal and professional settings, I've had primarily positive experiences with refurbished items. Some hard drives, full off-lease PCs, etc... And depending on who does the refurbishing (store vs. manufacturer), there will typically be some warranty or return policy. If there isn't a return policy, or warranty, I'd be skeptical.

[Morrie Sells Wigs]

I think it's pretty much luck of the draw.

 

 

[PWforPower]

You have two types, manufacturer and seller refubished. 

Look for manufacturer refubished where they saying that the item is in perfect condition and its fully cleaned and repaired something like that, same with seller refubished. 

[Tedstonegenious]

Depends on what you're buying, I have a referb echo dot for about 6 years and she's still going strong. And a while ago I got a used motherboard for my sisters rig. A quick one on ebay for like $40 worked fine, didn't get the shield, though. 

 

I generally trust referbs, they (usually) do the job just fine, are cheaper, and you are preventing some electoronics from going into a landfill. Be shure to check the return polocy for that usually. A good return policy also implies that they'll make sure it actually works. 

[ewitte]

The problem items are the difficult to diagnose user spent a month troubleshooting before getting an RMA.  Someone popped it in and ran a quick test and relisted for sale.  You can get lucky but you have much greater chance of issues and/or gremlins.

[WkdPaul]

Bought refurb GPU from NewEgg, twice, first one I didn't take their protection plan ... card died 4 months later, outside of the 90 days warranty they offer for refurbed items.

 

Bought a second one, bought the protection plan ... the GPU died 14 months later, 2 months AFTER the 12 months protection plan had expired.

 

I won't by refurbed anymore and I now buy used instead. If it lasted 3 years in the hands of someone else, chances are it'll be fine for a while (still have a used GTX 480, used HD 7870, used R9 290x, used 650ti ... only one that died was a mined 7950 that was artifacting when I bought it for $50 CAD ... so yeah, used = FTW, refurb = FML).

Edited September 28, 2020 by wkdpaul

[sub68]

my main rig is a refurb and is pretty solid

[Sauron]

13 hours ago, dfsgsfa said:

it means broken once, why bother

It doesn't, it just means it was cleaned and tested by a professional to guarantee it works and doesn't stink before reselling it.

 

My experience with refurbs has been solid, of course it's partially luck of the draw just like regular used parts.

[CommanderAlex]

9 minutes ago, wkdpaul said:

Bought refurb GPU from NewEgg, twice, first one I didn't take their protection plan ... card died 4 months later, outside of the 90 days warranty they offer for refurbed items.

Bought a second one, bought the protection plan ... the GPU died 14 months later, 2 months AFTER the 12 months protection plan had expired.

I won't by refurbed anymore and I now buy used instead. If it lasted 3 years in the hands of someone else, chances are it'll be fine for a while (still have a used GTX 480, used HD 7870, used R9 290x, used 650ti ... only one that died was a mined 7950 that was artifacting when I bought it for $50 CAD ... so yeah, used = FTW, refurb = FML).

Wow what bad luck you have!! The manufacturer's didn't supply a refurbished warranty? Or was it just the Newegg 90 day warranty? 

[Helpful Tech Witch]

13 hours ago, WereCatf said:

Mmmkay. Can't help you then, since I can't remember ever having bought store-refurbs.

gamestop referbs = bad

nintendo offical refurbs = ok

PC part refurbs = someone brought in a prebuilt and got a new one and the old ones are fine and were sold as refurbs.

[WkdPaul]

25 minutes ago, CommanderAlex said:

Wow what bad luck you have!! The manufacturer's didn't supply a refurbished warranty? Or was it just the Newegg 90 day warranty? 

NewEgg warranty, they only have 3rd party refurbished items afaik.

[bmx6454]

i have bought a few refurb pc parts, with good results, but i pick very carefully. reviews of people who have already purchased are helpful, but as said a few times, warranty and what the repair was are pretty important in the decision imo.