Opinions about refurbished monitors

[kiranv]

Just curious if any of you have had any experiences with refurbished monitors or if you've heard good/bad stuff about them.

thanks,
kiranv

 

[John]

I have used a few of them personally, and sell a lot of them. For the most part they are fine. However check on the refurb "warranty" before you buy.

 

[Supradude]

my roomie has a 21" sony refurb, it arrived like new and is trouble free for him, picture is super clear and very nice~

 

[KameLeon]

Bought a Sony G400 from ubid, for a computer I was building. No complaints so far..
Make sure to buy ones that are "factory refurbished" by the company, and has a factory warranty on it..

 

[Zucchini]

running refurb sony g400, no probs

 

[dimsum]

i guess if you get it from a mom/pop's store then you might have to worry, but from Name Brand manufacter or Brand store should not have a problem. just make sure you use your credit card.

 

[jamarno]

More important than the brand of the monitor is the company that does the refurbishment. You want a factory-authorized company, which can test everything more thoroughly and will routinely change even good parts if they're known to be failure-prone. The warranty should be for at least a year, preferrably 3, and backed by the manufacturer.

 

[err]

Yeah .. get it for cheap by bidding online ..

sell it 1 year later for the same price. that usually works

eRr

 

[kiranv]

Thanks a ton for the input, I looked at uBid and the prices for some Sony monitors looked great in comparison to retail, of course since they're refurb, but since you guys have had good experiences I may give it a try. Thanks again

 

[LuNoTiCK]

If I was going for the refurbished monitor, I would make sure I get an extended warranty, just in case since your still saving money anyway.

 

[Mule]

ONLY get a refurbished monitor if it has a 1+ year warranty. Most come with 30, 60, or 90 day warranties and those are no good. You also want to make sure it was refurbished by the manufacture, otherwise it was probably done with a crappy job.

Now let me tell you about my experience. I bought a cheapo 19" monitor from www.onsale.com about 2 years ago when 17" were mainstream. I got a great price (less than 300) for way back then. On the 28th day of my 30 day warranty the tube just blew up. It had worked flawlessly for 27 days without any hints of crapping out, then on the 28th day I was just surfing the web and all of a sudden I hear a big popping sound and my screen goes blank. I requested my money back from Onsale and I got it, never again will I buy a refurb. monitor.

(Also a good idea to check with manufacture about warranty policies, ie. who pays shipping so you won't be burned with a $50 shipment. Many manufactures have different policies for reburb. products so beware.)

 

[YZ12569]

My friend has Refurbished Mitsubishi and Sony monitors. They have worked flawlessly so far. One is only a few months old, but the other is over a year I think.
Whatever you do don't get a NEC Refurb, they are.

 

[YZ12569]

Sorry... They are Crap.

 

[kiranv]

interesting, thanks again guys

 

[mercutio11]

I bought a Refurb 21" P1100 with 1 year warrenty. I have no problem with it so far..

 

[AndrewR]

I bought an NEC 15" refurb quite a few years ago for $50 or so. Other than a bit of a whine from a capacitor (which I was told is harmless), it still works perfectly today. Better warranties are always nice. Mine came with a 90 day one, but I never had to use it. It has LONG since expired.

 

[Sundog]

Got a refurb. Mitsubishi 17" once, lasted for exactly 13 mo. then crapped out!

 

[CoderFirstClass]

So where is a good place to get refurbished monitors with an extended warranty? I've heard enough bad things about UBid to keep me away from there. I've seen some refurbed monitors on *Bay, even a few with warranties, but it's anybody's guess if the people selling them are going to give you an extended warranty or even be around in 3 years.

 

[Gustavus]

I have only 1 1/2 experiences -- bad. Several years ago I bought a MagInnovision MXP17F new and liked it so much that when Mag offered a refurbished MXP17F at a significant reduction in price, I bought one for a second computer. It had serious color problems -- badly purplish splotched lower right screen etc. A replacement had the tray controls broken. The second replacement was fine. I will say this for Mag though, they paid for the shipping both ways to straighten out the problem. When the original MXP17F developed a problem under warranty, it was replaced with a refurbished monitor which also had to be replaced. The replacement I still have on an old backup system. So I have had three bad refurbished monitors, but ended up with two good ones. I can only say good things about the customer service at Mag, but not much good to say about whoever does the refurbishing for them.

Based on this modest amount of experience, I would never voluntarily buy a refurbished monitor. You have no choice if that is what you get under a warranty replacement.

 

[Motero]

They are good if they haev a few years warranty on them from the manufacturer. If it's only a few months, I wouldn't take it.

 

[kiranv]

Hey CoderFirstClass,

what kinda stuff did you hear about Ubid?

 

[DoctorBooze]

I have two Dell monitors, both supposedly refurb by manufacturer, bought in 1996 (the 22", by my employer but I got it eventually) and 1998 (the 14", bought by me); both running just fine. Monitors are usually pretty reliable things, once they're past their burn-in, so refurb is fine.

 

[kiranv]

cool, I'm looking into some of the refurbished 21" Sony FDTrinitrons at uBid since you can usually get them at a good price in comparison to MSRP. If not those there are some Nokia 21" and Viewsonic 21# monitors. Anyone had experience with Nokia stuff? Btw, the only downside to the sony monitors is that they have a 90-day warranty :-(

 

[CoderFirstClass]

http://www.epinions.com/webs-Web_Services-All-Ubid.com

And various postings on Anandtech as well. Mostly what I heard was that customer service was horrible, deceptive listings were common, took forever to get your product and/or money back, etc. Now can someone recommend good places to get refurbished monitors with an extended warranty? I've been to TigerDirect already. They had an okay selection of 19-inch monitors, but only one 21-inch.

 

[kiranv]

thanks Coder for the info, hmmm, makes me think again about buying from uBid. But on the other hand, is it worth the risk for the really cheap prices? Maybe not if people have had trouble getting what they paid for.