I buy "B" stock items, but not refurbished. Refurbished products from my experience, almost always have reoccuring problems. I bought a warantee on my cell phone and when it was stollen, they would only give me a refurbished unit. I have went through three refurbished units this month and I will be picking up my fourth on Monday. I have had several bad experiences with home audio and video products also. I just don't feel like wasting my time and not being able to enjoy a product over a few dollars.
"Refurbished"?
I guess we all know what a "new" component is, what a "demo" component is and what a "used" component is. We can quibble on the "box opened just for inspection" representation as somewhat fudging the concept of "new" and feel much better thinking that an unopened box really means it certifies the product within as really, really "new". My question then is : what is actually a "refurbished" product? Is it the same as a "B" product? Is there anything actually done to the unit to qualify it as "refurbished" aside from taking off the fingerprints and packing it neatly in the original shipping materials? Does a component returned by a consumer for some malfunction that is then repaired qualify as "refurbished". Is "refurbished" a cleaned up demo sent back to the manufacturer when a line or specific product in a line is passed over by the buying public or being replaced by a manufacturer to be liquidated by a central agent?. In short, are we, yet again, dealing with fuzzy definitions? Oh BTW what would the range of % discount be on demo units and refurbished units, if one accepts all the problems with generalizations?