6 ms·

My M1 Macbook Air was the first computer I've bought in a long time that was brand new instead of refurbished. The only reason I bought new this time was becau

My M1 Macbook Air was the first computer I've bought in a long time that was brand new instead of refurbished. The only reason I bought new this time was because the keyboard on my old laptop kept burning out and I didn't want to keep replacing it. Most of my electronics were bought as refurbished, and I've never regretted it. It's surprising just how "new' a refurbished item can be at a substantial discount. And not once have I had a issues with refurbished items. (the keyboard issue for my last laptop didn't manifest until after ~6 years of use).

gambiting 5y ago
I keep buying stuff from Amazon Warehouse based on the same principle....heavy discount for a "like new" or "very good condition" items, everything so far has been pretty much completely new, or maybe I'd guess someone opened the box once. Either way, Amazon still offers no questions asked 30 day return and 1 year warranty on everything, so it's a no brainer really.
- smoldesu 5y ago
  I'm fairly sure most of their "like new" products are just returned purchases that couldn't be repackaged for whatever reason. I bought a Samsung Galaxy phone off the site a few years back, and it came with 90% of the original packaging, and the handset itself had no visible blemishes. Pretty good for a 40% discount.
  - LeifCarrotson 5y ago
    I suspect it's not "couldn't" but "wouldn't": It's easier to sell it at a 40% discount to customers with reduced expectations than to try to go off-script through the streamlined, automated, quality-controlled assembly/packaging process. Raw parts in, good parts out is easier and safer than usually putting in raw parts, but sometimes putting in refurbished parts. Imagine you need something as insignificant as a replacement SIM tray, a replacement for the bent SIM tray ejector pin, and the scratch protectors, stickers, and box labels that need replacement to get that in and out. The scratch protector plastic film might be automatically applied from a massive roll as the case is conveyed out of the coating machine; it's not made to be hand applied. How would a technician guarantee that it's just the SIM tray that broke due to contamination in the injection molding machine and not a problem with the spring contacts inside the phone? The SIM ejector pin probably costs less than a penny and is automatically inserted in every hardware pack that are stuffed and weighed automatically to a fraction of a gram; do you have a technician inspect each one or just throw the old parts away and replace the whole bag? As a controls engineer, I work hard to make sure that a knowledgeable operator can run my robotic manufacturing cells with minimal waste. The first 80% of a cell, the no-faults "happy path" takes not too much time, but I have spent hundreds - probably thousands - of hours of my life ensuring that my cells are as flexible and fault tolerant as practical. But it's really hard. Customers are always on-board when it makes financial sense, and often when it makes environmental or ethical sense, but sometimes the laws of physics and the Pandora's box of automation just require some waste and leave a particular process untenable.
- boplicity 5y ago
  I agree with this -- however, for bigger purchases, keep in mind that warranties are not always "transferable", and may not apply to used products.
  - gambiting 5y ago
    Amazon gives 1 year of their own warranty on any warehouse item(at least here in UK). But yes, the manufacturer might or might not honour the original warranty separately to this.
    - boplicity 5y ago
      Here in Canada, there's no 1 year warranty, though they do seem to allow you to buy extended warranties. > Used products generally do not come with a manufacturer's warranty but all of our items are backed by Amazon’s return policy. If you would like additional protection, you can purchase a warranty from Square Trade to cover certain items. Maybe there are better consumer protections in the UK?
      - gambiting 5y ago
        https://www.amazon.co.uk/Amazon-Warehouse-Deals/b?ie=UTF8&node=3581866031 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Amazon-Warehouse-Deals/b?ie=UTF8&no... "All Amazon Warehouse items are covered under legal warranty for 1 year. If your item becomes defective after the Amazon return period, Amazon will repair any defective item, and if a repair is not possible, we will refund the purchase price in accordance with Amazon's Returns Policy."
- dealforager 5y ago
  Same! So much so that I built a website specifically for this: https://www.dealforager.com https://www.dealforager.com It's pretty bare bones, but the problem I was trying to fix was that it took me a long time to browse the Amazon Warehouse offers trying to find the best deals. Amazon doesn't make it easy since they don't show the new and used prices side by side if you search directly under the Amazon Warehouse category. There is also no way to sort by discount. I wasted many hours until one day I decided it was faster to spend a few weeks automating this process.
  - Jleagle 5y ago
    "This site can’t be reached"
    - dealforager 5y ago
      Sorry, for some reason I have to put the "www." before the URL and forgot to do that. I edited the comment and I'll look into fixing that. Edit: saw replies, I'll just say it's Monday morning and leave it at that.
      - macintux 5y ago
        You're missing an "a"
      - ddoran 5y ago
        No, you misspelt forager as forger in the URL :)
    - boplicity 5y ago
      https://dealforager.com https://dealforager.com
  - rhacker 5y ago
    dealfor-A-ger, like your username?
  - LeoPanthera 5y ago
- buildbot 5y ago
  This is no longer true about the returns - I may have to go to court with amazon over a warehouse item that was empty, and then they stuck me with the non-returned item when I returned the empty box, wiped my review of the 3rd party seller (fulfilled by amazon). They are currently lying to my credit card company about the chargeback. Not fun...
  - akouri 5y ago
    Amazon support 10 years ago used to be amazing. They were truly a customer-first company. Today, Amazon support is probably worse than Comcast. They've been winning too long. I have starting curtailing purchases from Amazon, and ordering from any alternatives whenever possible.
    - ziml77 5y ago
      The impression I'm getting here is that he didn't even talk to their support. You can do returns without ever talking to a CSR. But in this case that's a stupid move because when you do a return, you're saying that you'll return the actual item. So when they get it back and the box is empty, they're going to think you're scamming them. It sounds like his very next move was to do a chargeback, which again is a dumb thing to do if he hasn't even spoken to Amazon support.
      - buildbot 5y ago
        I did 3 times actually, at first there was no movement on it. I opened the return with support stating that I got an empty box, which they asked me to send back to them.
    - joshmanders 5y ago
      As someone who had Comcast and has dealt with Amazon support I cannot disagree with this statement anymore. My only experience with Amazon support was a failure to deliver a $600 item, Amazon not only refunded the price right away after we figured out what was going on, but also credited me $100 for my trouble. Comcast? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA.
NikolaNovak 5y ago
I've been buying Refurbished Thinkpads for 15 years. I still have two 10-year-old T420s in active use around the household. There are things I will NOT buy used/refurbished, such as hard drives (I always replace the drive in refurbished laptops and put the refurbished drive into secondary capacity).
ramraj07 5y ago
I still have fond memories of my 1000 dollar refurbished original Vaio Z. The one with a carbon fiber magnesium chassis and a Raid 0 SSD drive. Worked like a horse for years before going out. They don’t make laptops like that anymore!
- nfoz 5y ago
  I'd love to try one of the new VAIOs to find out if the quality is the same. https://us.vaio.com/collections/vaio-sx https://us.vaio.com/collections/vaio-sx

gambiting 5y ago

I keep buying stuff from Amazon Warehouse based on the same principle....heavy discount for a "like new" or "very good condition" items, everything so far has been pretty much completely new, or maybe I'd guess someone opened the box once. Either way, Amazon still offers no questions asked 30 day return and 1 year warranty on everything, so it's a no brainer really.

smoldesu 5y ago
I'm fairly sure most of their "like new" products are just returned purchases that couldn't be repackaged for whatever reason. I bought a Samsung Galaxy phone off the site a few years back, and it came with 90% of the original packaging, and the handset itself had no visible blemishes. Pretty good for a 40% discount.
- LeifCarrotson 5y ago
  I suspect it's not "couldn't" but "wouldn't": It's easier to sell it at a 40% discount to customers with reduced expectations than to try to go off-script through the streamlined, automated, quality-controlled assembly/packaging process. Raw parts in, good parts out is easier and safer than usually putting in raw parts, but sometimes putting in refurbished parts. Imagine you need something as insignificant as a replacement SIM tray, a replacement for the bent SIM tray ejector pin, and the scratch protectors, stickers, and box labels that need replacement to get that in and out. The scratch protector plastic film might be automatically applied from a massive roll as the case is conveyed out of the coating machine; it's not made to be hand applied. How would a technician guarantee that it's just the SIM tray that broke due to contamination in the injection molding machine and not a problem with the spring contacts inside the phone? The SIM ejector pin probably costs less than a penny and is automatically inserted in every hardware pack that are stuffed and weighed automatically to a fraction of a gram; do you have a technician inspect each one or just throw the old parts away and replace the whole bag? As a controls engineer, I work hard to make sure that a knowledgeable operator can run my robotic manufacturing cells with minimal waste. The first 80% of a cell, the no-faults "happy path" takes not too much time, but I have spent hundreds - probably thousands - of hours of my life ensuring that my cells are as flexible and fault tolerant as practical. But it's really hard. Customers are always on-board when it makes financial sense, and often when it makes environmental or ethical sense, but sometimes the laws of physics and the Pandora's box of automation just require some waste and leave a particular process untenable.
boplicity 5y ago
I agree with this -- however, for bigger purchases, keep in mind that warranties are not always "transferable", and may not apply to used products.
- gambiting 5y ago
  Amazon gives 1 year of their own warranty on any warehouse item(at least here in UK). But yes, the manufacturer might or might not honour the original warranty separately to this.
  - boplicity 5y ago
    Here in Canada, there's no 1 year warranty, though they do seem to allow you to buy extended warranties. > Used products generally do not come with a manufacturer's warranty but all of our items are backed by Amazon’s return policy. If you would like additional protection, you can purchase a warranty from Square Trade to cover certain items. Maybe there are better consumer protections in the UK?
    - gambiting 5y ago
      https://www.amazon.co.uk/Amazon-Warehouse-Deals/b?ie=UTF8&node=3581866031 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Amazon-Warehouse-Deals/b?ie=UTF8&no... "All Amazon Warehouse items are covered under legal warranty for 1 year. If your item becomes defective after the Amazon return period, Amazon will repair any defective item, and if a repair is not possible, we will refund the purchase price in accordance with Amazon's Returns Policy."
dealforager 5y ago
Same! So much so that I built a website specifically for this: https://www.dealforager.com https://www.dealforager.com It's pretty bare bones, but the problem I was trying to fix was that it took me a long time to browse the Amazon Warehouse offers trying to find the best deals. Amazon doesn't make it easy since they don't show the new and used prices side by side if you search directly under the Amazon Warehouse category. There is also no way to sort by discount. I wasted many hours until one day I decided it was faster to spend a few weeks automating this process.
- Jleagle 5y ago
  "This site can’t be reached"
  - dealforager 5y ago
    Sorry, for some reason I have to put the "www." before the URL and forgot to do that. I edited the comment and I'll look into fixing that. Edit: saw replies, I'll just say it's Monday morning and leave it at that.
    - macintux 5y ago
      You're missing an "a"
    - ddoran 5y ago
      No, you misspelt forager as forger in the URL :)
  - boplicity 5y ago
    https://dealforager.com https://dealforager.com
- rhacker 5y ago
  dealfor-A-ger, like your username?
- LeoPanthera 5y ago
buildbot 5y ago
This is no longer true about the returns - I may have to go to court with amazon over a warehouse item that was empty, and then they stuck me with the non-returned item when I returned the empty box, wiped my review of the 3rd party seller (fulfilled by amazon). They are currently lying to my credit card company about the chargeback. Not fun...
- akouri 5y ago
  Amazon support 10 years ago used to be amazing. They were truly a customer-first company. Today, Amazon support is probably worse than Comcast. They've been winning too long. I have starting curtailing purchases from Amazon, and ordering from any alternatives whenever possible.
  - ziml77 5y ago
    The impression I'm getting here is that he didn't even talk to their support. You can do returns without ever talking to a CSR. But in this case that's a stupid move because when you do a return, you're saying that you'll return the actual item. So when they get it back and the box is empty, they're going to think you're scamming them. It sounds like his very next move was to do a chargeback, which again is a dumb thing to do if he hasn't even spoken to Amazon support.
    - buildbot 5y ago
      I did 3 times actually, at first there was no movement on it. I opened the return with support stating that I got an empty box, which they asked me to send back to them.
  - joshmanders 5y ago
    As someone who had Comcast and has dealt with Amazon support I cannot disagree with this statement anymore. My only experience with Amazon support was a failure to deliver a $600 item, Amazon not only refunded the price right away after we figured out what was going on, but also credited me $100 for my trouble. Comcast? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA.

NikolaNovak 5y ago

I've been buying Refurbished Thinkpads for 15 years. I still have two 10-year-old T420s in active use around the household. There are things I will NOT buy used/refurbished, such as hard drives (I always replace the drive in refurbished laptops and put the refurbished drive into secondary capacity).

ramraj07 5y ago

I still have fond memories of my 1000 dollar refurbished original Vaio Z. The one with a carbon fiber magnesium chassis and a Raid 0 SSD drive. Worked like a horse for years before going out. They don’t make laptops like that anymore!

nfoz 5y ago
I'd love to try one of the new VAIOs to find out if the quality is the same. https://us.vaio.com/collections/vaio-sx https://us.vaio.com/collections/vaio-sx