I was looking on the Philips website, and stumbled on to their outlet page. They have some great deals on televisions that are, according to the website “Factory Renewed”.
I called and my suspicions were confirmed. These are returned televisions, with a defect of some sort, that they fix and offer for resale. They offer no long-term protection plan, and they only have a 30 day return, 90 day parts warranty. You can also get TVs that are virtually new, or a TV with cosmetic flaws, but still functioning.
Still, if you are willing to roll the dice, you can get some great deals.
Anyone ever buy one of these products, and what have been your experiences? (It doesn’t have to be a TV or a Philips product).
Remanufactured stuff is usually pretty good provided you get it from a reputable company/dealer. Chances are that those TVs had a minor defect that effected the functionality and were returned. They took them, fixed them, and they’re good to go.
For big ticket items I wouldn’t necessarily go with a remanned product, but then again, isn’t that exactly what a used car is?
I have had a lot of success with refurb products from Manufacturers. They usually go through more testing than those directly off the line.
I have a Konica Minolta Magicolor 2300 DL Color Laser, works great, never a problem, about a year old now.
I bought my daughter a refurbed CoolPix 775 Digital Camera because we like ours so much and the refurb was only $99. We had paid Close to $300 new 18 months earlier. Her Refurb takes better pictures.
I even have a refurb Go Video DVD & VHS player because it just makes life simpler to have a combo unit and it was less than $50. The other one we have was $89.
I have had much luck with Refurb and will keep buying refurb equipment.
Well i mean they are supposed to suck. Suck the dirt right out of my carpet (or at least the top layer of dirt). That’s all I can ask out of a $59 vaccuum, right?
No problems with a refurb KitchenAid food processor. It came with all the blades and doo-dads the new ones come with. Only differences I could detect were an “R” stamped next to the end of the model number, and a shorter warranty.
Bought a used Ford from a Lexus dealer once - it had been through the Lexus Certified Pre-Owned program, and they really went over the car with a fine-tooth comb. They replaced all four tires and shipped the car down the road to a Ford dealer to fix a power window that was being cranky. In addition to replacing wiper blades, oil change, topping off everything else and a good wash, wax and vacuum the interior. They really seemed to treat the car (and me) no differently than they would if I’d been buying a new Lexus and were falling over themselves apologizing for the window problem as it delayed my picking up the car by a day. I still somewhat regret not taking up their offer of a courtesy loaner for the day, just for missing the chance to drive a late-model Lexus, if even for just one day.
Sears Outlet deserves consideration here. They don’t sell refurbs there, but I’ve never had any problems buying “used” appliances from them. “Used” sometimes means nothing more than it was taken out of the box, used as a display model, or got scraped in delivery. Of course, there was one used fridge I saw there once that was truly used and stank of fish. If you don’t care that the fridge or stove is scratched on the side that faces the wall and you’ll never ever see it again, you can save some serious bucks here.
I’ve bought almost all of my consumer electronics from www.refurbdepot.com and everything came in what appeared to be a factory sealed box with the item still in the original sealed plastic inside the box. All of the little accessory baggies still lhad that yellow tape and the cords are still folded up nice and neat. Everything has been less than half price, so I figure if I get a lemon one out of five purchases, I still come out ahead.
I bargain shop like crazy so I leaped to this website when you posted it.
I did a quick compare on PANASONIC Lumix DMC-FZ20K and it was only a few dollars less than what I paid for it new.
For Work I picked up the MagiColor 2350DL Network Color Laser for $300, they list the non network older model MagiColor 2300W for $285.95
I would say while it is a useful sight, you should still shop around.
The SAMSUNG DVD-V4600 for $63.95 is very good. Save about $25. How is shipping?
No bargains in the monitor section, the HP Color LaserJet 2550L for $244.95 is great but HP is overpriced to start with.
I’ve bought a BUNCH of refurb/reman stuff. To an item they’ve all been good. I’ve purchased Sony Computer monitors, stereo and home theater equipment (Alas, our Sony outlet store closed up shop).
I’ve also purchased an electric impact wrench, Garmin GPS/PDA, several cell phones. My iBook was a refurb.
All were great, except the Sony monitor, which was repaired under warrantee for free and ran 7 toublefree years. At the time it was $900 when the new monitor was $1200+…course, now you can buy 'em for $100 or less.
I’ve bought three or four refurbed small radios and Walkman CD players from a Sony outlet, and a refurbed Uniden radio scanner, and have never had a problem with any of them. I proabably would not buy a big-ticket refurbed item, but that’s more just my natural caution than any particular experience.
I bought two B-stock Onkyo audio receivers. One had an intermittent problem. It went silent and sent infrasonics to the speakers. I’m not entirely sure it was the recvr and not the CD player or something else. By then I had the second, a surround-sound model, so I didn’t bother sending the first back. The second has been flawless.
I’ve bought refurb and been totally pleased with the items.
My view is that they are probably more reliable than new stuff because they get tested more and the 1 or 2 problems that got them returned get fixed. So you get a double tested item with new parts that are then tested again. Good deal.
Seems that most have had good experiences, so that’s encouraging.
What about cosmetic problems? This is a TV, so I’d like it to look new. I think if it was a washing machine or refrigerator, I wouldn’t care about cosmetic issues if a hidden side was dented.
I don’t want to have a TV with the name of some kid carved in the front plastic. Any bad experiences on this concern?
