Is it safe to buy a refurbished monitors?

considering the price that would be saved upon buying a refurbished monitor, but any bad experience you encountered on buying a refurbished one aside from having minor scratches and signs of use? They say that it was professionally repaired by the manufacturer, any inputs...Thanks

I don't know where you are, but here in the UK refurbs are often perfectly fine products that were simply returned by the 1st purchaser as unwanted (under the distance selling regs).

But you do have to ask your question *why* were they returned unwanted. One of the reasons could be because of stuck pixels.

I am not saying if you buy a refurb you will get one with stuck pixels, but I would think the chances of it are definitely higher than if buying brand new. That said, if you buy from a reputable vendor, you can always return it yourself (under the distance selling regs) if you aren't happy with it.

I bought two refurbished monitors from http://www.dfsdirectsales.com/ about three months ago and have had no problems at all. Each one had about 30 to 40 thousand hours of run time on them. The only visible damage was some light scratches on the bezels. The screens where in great condition no scratches or dead pixels. And are holding up great.

I know DFS Direct Sales has a 100 day warranty on the refurbished products with a restocking fee if you decide to return. I would really read the return policy and warranty for whomever you would be making the purchase from and be sure you understand it and are comfortable with the terms. Although I have had a good experience with refurbished monitors myself recently, I would still air on the side of caution and be sure I knew what my options where if I was unhappy with the product.

Refurbished monitors are each hand inspected unlike retail counterparts. They look for dead pixels and any other errors. I actually prefer to purchase refurbished monitors due to quality control.

I bought a couple of Dell 2007fp monitors from dfsdirect.com. They were 3 years old when I got them and they were flawless. These are the only Dell products I've ever bought. Over the past couple of months both monitors developed one bad pixel in the upper right part of the screen. I have 6 other LCDs that are up to 8 years old. None of them have developed any problems.

OP20 said:

Refurbished monitors are each hand inspected unlike retail counterparts. They look for dead pixels and any other errors. I actually prefer to purchase refurbished monitors due to quality control.

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They look for dead pixels sure. But when they see 3 or 4 (dead pixels) they pass them as within spec and OK to go out.

Refurbished units: I own two NEC LCD2470WNX displays purchased from NEC, one refurb'ed Samsung 244T purchased from a commercial seller on Ebay, and one refurb'ed HP LP2465 purchased from a private seller on Ebay.

They all work fine. Two have slight smudges on the screen. I am not sure what this is--a bruise of some sort, perhaps? Another one has a couple of dead pixels in the nether regions of the screen, no biggie. One of the units with issues was purchased from NEC so that strategy offers no assurance of perfection. It appears to me that smudges and dead pixels will pass inspection, to a point. That point is perhaps the point where the customer complains.

qtip920 said:

I bought two refurbished monitors from http://www.dfsdirectsales.com/ about three months ago and have had no problems at all. Each one had about 30 to 40 thousand hours of run time on them. The only visible damage was some light scratches on the bezels. The screens where in great condition no scratches or dead pixels. And are holding up great.

I know DFS Direct Sales has a 100 day warranty on the refurbished products with a restocking fee if you decide to return. I would really read the return policy and warranty for whomever you would be making the purchase from and be sure you understand it and are comfortable with the terms. Although I have had a good experience with refurbished monitors myself recently, I would still air on the side of caution and be sure I knew what my options where if I was unhappy with the product.

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How old were the monitors? 30k hours is 3.5 years of continuous run time.

I bought an HP ZR24w refurbished from HP Refurbished Products. It got damaged in shipping on the way to me but since it is enterprise equipment it had similar warranty to a new one I had already purchased. Called HP, they sent a tech out with a replacement panel. He boxed up and took away the damaged panel no questions asked. It actually had less hours than the one I bought new and had been using for a while. Not a hitch with it. Gave the one I bought new away and still using the refurb unit. Saved me quite a bit of money. They still have one available which I'm seriously thinking of getting since the monitor has been discontinued.

Can't speak to purchasing from middle-men/third parties but if you buy from the manufacturer you should be in good shape. HP and I'm sure other companies have tons of refurb products available.

Thanks for the inputs. I want to purchase a refurbished monitor already but the seller is not responding to my question. I just want to know regarding its pixels and they only show a stock photo of the monitor but not the actual. 7 monitors sold by them. 3 remaining available as on ebay.

It's going to be a dice roll. So it comes down to price, and how much you are willing to risk. A refurb may be like new, or may have problems. Heck, even new monitors sometimes have problems.

The one exception may be if ordering an apple refurb direct from apple. From what I have read, they typically are like new.

It may be easier to offer advice if you list the model you are talking about and how much you will save. With eBay people, ask the reseller what their refund policy is in case of problems. Some will accept returns for minor defects and pay shipping themselves, some will make you pay, even if the thing doesn't work at all.

Also keep in mind that depending on the manufacturer, the warranty (if there is one) will may no longer be honored if purchasing from eBay. I've been told NEC is first owner only (or proof of authorized dealer), while Eizo goes by date of manufacturer + 3 months.

As a general policy, if a reseller doesn't reply at all to my questions, I won't buy from them. Give them a couple of days though. But if they never ever reply, I'd forget about them, unless it's an insane deal.

Zepher said:

How old were the monitors? 30k hours is 3.5 years of continuous run time.

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Both of them are 2007fp's not sure off the top of my head the exact age I'll check when I get a chance. I think that the internal run time counter does include time the monitor is in sleep state.