Refurbished or Used?

Depends. If I knew the owner, and I knew the phone was used correctly, (and I got a notarized bill of sale, and was with the owner when he told his carrier to remove the phone from his account), I'd probably buy used. If not, and those were my only choices, I'd buy refurb.

 

My fiance got a refurbished Asus TF300T and it had a bad backlight, which it took them a week to fix. Not bad, otherwise.

 

Typically 90 days. I'd only get a used device if I was allowed to test it fairly extensively, first.

 

re-furb all day long, if it was "manufacturer" re-furbed. the thing with used is that batteries don't last forever. especially on a device that does not have a removable battery, i'd get nervous if the device had alot of use. with a refurb i don't have that worry as much.

 

Refurbished ... checked and probably under warranty ... flashed to out-of-the-box state.

If I ever bought it used the FIRST thing I would do is flash it back to out-of-the-box state. You never know and the unknown can nail you.

... Thom

 

I recently purchased a refurb Asus Memo Pad ME172V (saved about $60) that seems to be fine. I've also taken a gamble on a sight-unseen used Motorola Atrix 2 which I'm extremely happy with.

 

Refurbished will be the better option most of the time. In the UK, the term isn't even used in the way that many assume it to be. Products described as refurbished are often no-fault customer returns (rather than items that have been repaired), that have had minimal - if any - usage. The refurbishment process simply involves checking the product works as it should.

Manufacturer refurbished products can be good too. As an engineer once pointed out to me, in some circumstances it can actually be preferable to buy a device that has been screened. Hardware and software will often be updated to remove issues found in initial production runs.

It's all a question of what kind of discount your are getting. Whilst refurbished products can have their benefits, buying new is still generally better. So there is needs to be a decent reduction offered to make purchasing a refurbished product seem like good value.

As for used products, I wouldn't pay as much as I would for the refurbished equivalent. With used purchases you are often taking a greater risk, as typically minimal maintenance has been carried out, and you won't generally be offered a warranty.

That's not so say there aren't some used bargains to be had, though. This is can be especially true when buying from someone you know personally, or the seller has a good reputation.

 

If it comes from my provider and I got it as a replacement for a bad new phone, I hold them responsible for it being the same as new. If I got it from eBay, the term 'refurbished' just means it's used.

 

Refurbished, really because still have full manufacturers warranty. From what I've seen of used recently, generally means it's knackered or it was crap to start with, and is why they're getting rid of it.

"refurbished" an item that is sold by the store. May have been a customer return, because they weren't satisfied, etc.

"used" an item is second hand. May have had a lot of use and is sold by the person who owned and used the item. No warranty, maybe sold as seen or test it before parting with any money.

 

I would rather buy refurbished phones because they are almost guaranteed to function.

 

A refurb has a warranty and is generally considered by the OEM as "like new." But also depends on the company, as a refurb from Apple is essentially new and comes with a new warranty.

I'll take refurb over used unless there is a drastic price gap.

 

Refurb is definitely better than used. Just because refurbed could of just been someone who bought it and was like, well I all of a sudden don't want this anymore but opened it...oh well.

I mean they could of used it, found a fault, returned it to the store to get fixed and gotten a new one, but usually it is rather new.

I have bought refurb before and generally am just as satisfied as I would of been if I would of bought it, except I save some money too