Bad Experience at Buy.com

[LCHIEN]

"Various retailers use different terminology. A reconditioned product
may also be referred to as "factory-reconditioned," "refurbished,"
"recertified" "repackaged." A "reconditioned" product can be anything
from an unopened item the customer had second thoughts about, to an item
that that was missing an accessory, was sent back to the manufacturer
where they replaced the missing part, tested and repackaged it. "
"technicians inspect, make any necessary technical or cosmetic changes,
and test each product to ensure it is in like-new or almost-new
condition"
The above is from their description of reconditioned.

The reconditioned laptop I received is heavily used, there's serious wear on the
left mouse key (silver plating is worn off and the black plastic underneath shows thru) and visible wear on the touch pad and wrist-rest areas, deep scratches and a faded
spot on the cover where there was a property label or something.
I could expect a bit of wear on a unit with a few hours of use but this
has clearly been heavily used for a period of at least a year.
I am very disappointed. It''s functional and the features are there but
its clearly a very used computer and not as represented by the
reconditioned description.
I asked, Do you feel this represents a reconditioned computer?
If I return it will I get one in better condition? Also the price dropped $20 do you have a price guarantee?

Their answer was I could return at my cost and get another one that would not be guaranteed to be any better. And their price guarantee was not usable since I had accepted free shipping.

So not wanting to waste time and shipping costs and hassle with trying to get them to give my money back we reached an agreement where I would keep the used computer, not buy any more from them, and tell everyone I knew what a lousy dealer BUY.COM is.

[Uncle Cracker]

Yeah, that's a pretty vague description of "reconditioned"... Makes you want to ask "reconditioned by whom" before ordering. I wonder if the original manufacturer would help? Perhaps if the retailer were some kind of "authorized" outlet, the manufacturer would hold some sway, or at least deserves to know of the conduct of their dealer. I guess it would be hard for Buy.com to police the activities of all the sellers that market there, but it is a shame that they have chosen to cop out behind the legalese.

[dlminehart]

I've had a similar bad experience with buy.com. Won't shop with them any more.

[Daryl]

If you paid by credit card you may have a bargaining chip.

[dealweb]

I haven't bought anything for buy.com in about 6 years due to poor customer service and slow shipping. Glad to know after six years I'm still not missing anything.

[Knottscott]

We've made one purchase with Buy.com and it went well.

[tewilk]

Never shop at buy.com again... Period. Out of about 6 purchases 2 of them were bad. The last one fixed my issue with "saving" money with them. I ordered a MP3 player and after 1 to 1 1/2 months of waiting I canceled my order then ordered elsewhere. About 3-4 days after canceling the order, I received the MP3 player that they refused to take back. Now I had 2 mp3 players when I only wanted one.

[jgrobler]

I'm adding my vote to not shop at buy.com, after a "reconditioned" bad mp3 player also broke after about 4 weeks, and they wouldn't help me out. At least that was < $50, and not a laptop/pc.

[cabinetman]

It doesn't sound like Buy.com follows their description of "reconditioned". HF also had similar definitions. They used to have "Factory Reconditioned" listings in their fliers, but haven't been aware of seeing them for quite a while.
.

[docrowan]

Yeah, that's a pretty vague description of "reconditioned"...

I agree that the description of reconditioned is vague, but the condition Loring described does not fit even that load of waffle. Just told my wife not to buy from them. The internet has opened up a world of savings, but it has also opened us up to being taken by opportunists as well. The only weapon we have is being used by Loring - telling others before they get treated the same way. Sorry it happened Loring, I'd be mad, too.

[Ed62]

Thanks for letting us know about Buy.com. It's always good to know where not to shop, as well as where to shop.

Ed

[JSUPreston]

For similar reasons, I no longer buy from Tiger Direct. Bought a NEW Soyo motherboard and case for a cheap system I needed to put together. Was obviously a return and was in rough shape (case had to be beaten back into shape, cards never would seat properly). Wasn't worth returning because of the need and shipping costs.

As a glutton for punishment, I bought a refurbed HP system from them. Machine work all right, but reeked of smoke for YEARS!!! Being allergic to cigarettes, this drove me nuts until I finally got rid of that thing.

If y'all remember DTK Computers, that's one of the reasons they pulled out of North America. I personally on several occasions caught them selling used components as new.

[sparkeyjames]

I recently placed several orders through BUY.com and have had no trouble what so ever. I never as a rule buy reconditioned electronics. Tools however are a different matter. Most high to mid end tool manufacturers make sure the recons are right because they would not risk a lawsuit over poor reman job and have it injure someone. Outright fail well thats a different story.

[Holbren]

I used to use them a lot but seems they do a lot of drop ship deals and because of that, don't take stuff back.

As far as a laptop, I consider factory refurbished a unit that was returned within a week and then checked and reboxed. Should be hard to tell from new.

[rjwaldren]

Some sites and retail stores for that matter used to define the differences between refurb/recon/recert...The old Onsale.com had a section of their site that clearly defined each, with examples. I'll tell you this much, at Best Buy, an open box item is likely a return (reason unknown) that MAY (but probably not) have had the cord plugged in to check that the power light illuminates.

I've had good luck with most openbox/refurb items I've purchased, but not always without some hassle. For instance my favorite online retailer Newegg had a steep discount on some AMD CPU's, it was clearly stated that warranty was through the manufacturer. 2 of the 3 I puchased had obscure problems, but AMD took care of it in reasonably short order. It's rare to see good service like that from the online retailer clearing houses like Buy.com.

Back when Onsale.com was around (old reatime auction site, that was susequently taken over by Egghead which eventually was take over by Amazon) I picked up a Toshiba refurb laptop. It was a fantastic purchase, at a great price for the day ($1100 Celeron 650Mhz, 6G harddrive, 128MB). I still use it for remote admin, and doubt I'll ever be manage to kill it, sigh. (I can't justify an upgrade when this thing does exactly what I need perfectly)

Anymore, if I want to save/risk money on something I can't see beforehand, I stick with the known good retailers, Newegg/Amazon and even Circuit City. But with Amazon make sure they are the Vendor and not redirecting you to a third party, you want Amazon to be the one you work with if there is a problem.