by Michael Dunsby
Isn’t it strange how there seems to have been an explosion of refurbished GPS devices on the market, in just about every online retailer that you can find? It is really no big surprise, considering the popularity of the hand held refurbished devices, and especially the automotive GPS devices.
What are the reasons behind this deluge of inexpensive refurbished GPS devices out there? There are actually a lot of…
by Michael Dunsby
Isn’t it strange how there seems to have been an explosion of refurbished GPS devices on the market, in just about every online retailer that you can find? It is really no big surprise, considering the popularity of the hand held refurbished devices, and especially the automotive GPS devices.
What are the reasons behind this deluge of inexpensive refurbished GPS devices out there? There are actually a lot of different reasons why a unit is going to marked as refurbished by a manufacturer or retailer. Oddly enough, some of the refurbished GPS devices have actually never even had a problem at all, and in some cases, they are still brand new, literally still factory sealed. The most common reasons for electronics based products (IE: GPS devices) becoming “refurbished” are:
1. For one reason or another the product was sent back to the place of purchase, this generally indicates that the original owner of the product took advantage of the store’s return policy for one reason or another. In some circumstances the reason behind this return has nothing to do with the functionality or quality of the product; sometimes people just don’t want the product that they bought.
2. The product sat on the store shelf too long and became “overstock”. When this happens, the store will either sell the product for a clearance price, or deliver the unit to it source; when the product is sent back to the manufacturer, the company has to decide what to do with the product – sometimes they just label it as refurbished after making sure it works, and then put the units back out on the market at a marked down price. The funny part about this is the simple fact that the product is still literally brand new, and has never even been opened at all.
3. Another reason could be that the product was the one on display in the store. Display models almost always get sent back to the unit maker; the producer checks out the navigation unit for any defects or damage and then sends it back out to be sold as a refurbished GPS.
4. The device’s packaging was opened by a customer. When this is the case, there is nothing wrong with the product, other than it needs to be sent back to the manufacturer to be repackaged, in which case, oddly enough, it is then labeled as “refurbished”.
5. Shipping damage. When this happens, it usually just means that only the box that the product was in got damaged, but if anything other than the product was damaged (accessories, or the actual unit), it is completely fixed or replaced by the manufacturer.
6. And finally, a reason for a product to be labeled refurbished is that there was an actual defect in the unit. How common this is depends largely on the product and how many mistake the manufacturer made in creating the product. The problems could be cosmetic, like a scratch on the display, or they could be mechanical, like a broken part, and anything that was broken or defective is replaced with brand new parts; once the repair is done the GPS is as good as new, and some might argue it is now actually less likely to become defective than the non refurbished products sitting on the shelves of the retail stores; they argue this because refurbished devices generally undergo a battery of tests.
As you can see, the reasons for a GPS to be refurbished are varied. There may still be some bad apples in the barrell, but probably not more than if they were all “new” devices.
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