buy refurbished?

[coastdan]

Just curious about any opinions for or against buying refurbished players. I've been looking at the Fuze and the Clip after returning a Sony. Always looking to save some $, but are you playing with fire getting a refurbished player (i.e. it was returned for a reason)? Any reports on either of those players having a bad track record bought refurbished?

Thanks for any advice.

[CrowdAds]

[WalkGood]

I've bought 1 refurbished clip from buy.com and just pulled the trigger on number 2. So far no problems with the refurb's, running dual boot OF & rockbox on a 1gb, 2gb and ordered another 1gb which will probably be set up the same

[bascom]

It depends on the player brand and where you are buying them from, and how much money you are saving. I bought these refurbs for $60 reach:

-Clix from iRiver.com. Stopped working after a month and I had to fight them for a refund.
-Cowon iAudio 7 from Amazon.com. I've only had it a month but works great so far.
-Sansa View from Buy.com. I've only had it a month but works great so far.

2 out of 3 is ok but I learned my lesson from iRiver. Only buy from trusted sites.

[sansaguy]

totally agree with bascom. I bought a refurb e250 last year from Tigerdirect ($30) and it looked and sounded brand new. A year later...1 happy dude.

[Chili]

Originally Posted by bascom

Only buy from trusted sites.

This is the big thing, in my mind. Buy from trusted sites or stores, that have a solid reputation for not selling low quality (a reputation they often care enough about to protect it by selling only known good items as refurbs), and that you know you can get a refund or at least store credit from if the refurb breaks down on you in the first few weeks of regular use.

Heh, I'd take store credit from Amazon. Music section, here I come!

[ranger67]

I've purchased 4 refurbs from 3 different sites - all Sansas with no problems whatsoever. I've rockboxed 3 of them and couldn't be happier. Both mine and my wife's are used 4+ hours per day and that has been for over a year now.

[WalkGood]

Since we're taking sansa, it's my experience that they are the ones that n00bs rma cause they think they're bricked and someone re-firmwares them and they're good as new. Not even a scratch

[sansaguy]

Originally Posted by WalkGood

Since we're taking sansa, it's my experience that they are the ones that n00bs rma cause they think they're bricked and someone re-firmwares them and they're good as new. Not even a scratch

ha!..that was me to a tee Walkgood. Sansa was my first mp3 player that I bought from Dell (3+years ago e260) and when I got it, it was totally bricked. Called Dell and they sent me a new one without asking for the old one back!.
So obviously thinking the old player was totally useless to me I did the unthinkable and chucked it in the garbage!

A week later I discovered ABI.

[MIX_MASTER_ICE]

I bought a refurb 4GB Sansa Fuze from newegg.com for 39.99, shipped. This was about a month ago and everything seems fine with the player. You also get a 1 year warranty from newegg.com, so I wouldn't hesitate to recommend buying a Fuze from them.

[coastdan]

Thanks for the responses. I found a 8 GB Fuze (black) for sale new from one of Amazon's sellers for $83, but then looking around saw 2 and 4 GB refurbs selling for around $60 and it gave me pause.

I totally understand about using reputable retailers. I'm still more of a brick and mortar kind of guy (returning a Sony NWZE-438 to Best Buy saved a lot of headaches), but if I find a jaw-dropping refurb deal I may have to pull the trigger. I've bought from Tiger Direct before (lots of refurb'ed Clips bundled with headphones there at the moment), but I'll have to check out newegg too. I'm still leaning towards the Fuze due to WAV files and expandibility, even though I doubt I'll use photo or video much at all (wish I could get one of the 8 GB Clips, but Wal-Mart's kind of hard to find in the Los Angeles area ).

[dgb52]

Originally Posted by coastdan

Thanks for the responses. I found a 8 GB Fuze (black) for sale new from one of Amazon's sellers for $83, but then looking around saw 2 and 4 GB refurbs selling for around $60 and it gave me pause.

I totally understand about using reputable retailers. I'm still more of a brick and mortar kind of guy (returning a Sony NWZE-438 to Best Buy saved a lot of headaches), but if I find a jaw-dropping refurb deal I may have to pull the trigger. I've bought from Tiger Direct before (lots of refurb'ed Clips bundled with headphones there at the moment), but I'll have to check out newegg too. I'm still leaning towards the Fuze due to WAV files and expandibility, even though I doubt I'll use photo or video much at all (wish I could get one of the 8 GB Clips, but Wal-Mart's kind of hard to find in the Los Angeles area ).

What part of L.A. are you in?

there are several stores in the Long Beach area and thats where i picked up mine

here is a link for you

http://www.walmart.com/storeLocator/...3.y=0&%23=Find

[Short_Fuze]

Originally Posted by coastdan

Thanks for the responses. I found a 8 GB Fuze (black) for sale new from one of Amazon's sellers for $83, but then looking around saw 2 and 4 GB refurbs selling for around $60 and it gave me pause.

you can't go wrong with a refurb Fuze from newegg imo. as another poster pointed out, exchange for up to one year if anything goes wrong. no questions asked, really. newegg is good about that kind of stuff. i have had one for around two months and its perfect

$30 w/ free shipping for a 2 gig atm. add an 8 gig microSDHC card and you're in business with a 10 gig player for around $50.

the 4 and 8 gig refurbs seem to have disappeared from the newegg refurb list in favor of some Zunes, however. so if you want the deal on the 2 gig Fuze my feeling is to move fast. and even if they keep it on the list i have seen it for a regular refurb price of $40, too

[coastdan]

Originally Posted by Short_Fuze

$30 w/ free shipping for a 2 gig atm. add an 8 gig microSDHC card and you're in business with a 10 gig player for around $50.

I saw that deal on newegg. Now I'm thinking "do I really need more than 10 gigs?" Boy, am I cheap!

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by coastdan

I saw that deal on newegg. Now I'm thinking "do I really need more than 10 gigs?" Boy, am I cheap!

It all comes down to how much of your music do you want to carry around....some people think the world will end if they don't have their entire collection with them at all times. I use either an 8GB Clip or 4GB +8GB Fuze and I think that is plenty to carry around.

[WalkGood]

While I have no problem with refurbs, I suggest you read the site your dealing with return policy. While other posters pointed out newegg offers up to one year, most others offer 1 to 3 months and SandDisk won’t warranty a reburb bought from these dealers.

[Short_Fuze]

Originally Posted by coastdan

I saw that deal on newegg. Now I'm thinking "do I really need more than 10 gigs?" Boy, am I cheap!

yeah. the beautiful thing is the microSDHC card, though

i have 8 gigs of music on one card and another 3.5 gigs on another. about 1 gig on the internal memory, with the rest dedicated to music video on the internal. to assure smooth playback i only use the internal memory for video

anyway, great thing about the Fuze is you can change the music on the entire player in a snap. no need to delete content or make room for a change of pace. just swap out cards. and of course you can also delete music and change it like that

its just an amazingly versatile set up. i love thinking how an 8 gig ipod nano costs $100 more, but if i wanted to put a load of new or different music on a full one i'd have to delete all that i have on it to do so. with the Fuze its just a matter of swapping out cards

thats nice

[DPyro]

8GB of music...I have a 4GB Fuze and only used maybe half of that with all my cd's ripped to it.

[BXCracer]

Maybe someone could help to get one of these babys to Europe ?

[coastdan]

Originally Posted by Marvin the Martian

It all comes down to how much of your music do you want to carry around....some people think the world will end if they don't have their entire collection with them at all times.

That's a really good point. I'm looking for something to use for exercising to replace an off brand 2 gig player that died. No need to have every single thing I've got on hand anyway. Since I'm never planning on using video or only a very few photo files I may not need such huge capacity - I've just been thinking about 8+8 since that's the biggest thing out there. Maybe a refurb'ed 2 plus a larger card when they get cheaper would do just as well.

Getting back on the main topic of this thread, is there any validity to the thought that buying a refurbished unit is actually a better idea since it'll have a clean bill of health because it already got checked out? Just wondering about that.

[Chili]

Originally Posted by coastdan

I'm looking for something to use for exercising to replace an off brand 2 gig player that died. No need to have every single thing I've got on hand anyway. Since I'm never planning on using video or only a very few photo files I may not need such huge capacity

If you plan to use it for exercising and don't need video or photo ability, I'd actually recommend a Clip instead of a Fuze. The Clip comes in the same capacities as the Fuze (no microSD slot), will cost a bit less, has a good clip on the back that can attach to nearly anything, it's sturdy, and ridiculously easy to use at the gym.

That's where I use my Clip, and then I have the Fuze for everywhere else I go, and my Zen Touch for carrying all my music and listen around the house.