If you are in the process of installing a home theatre in your home, or if you want to enhance a home theatre you already have at your residence, consider refurbished products and materials for the space. You don’t have to run out and by the most expensive items on the market for your home theatre. These is some essential information you that you will want to keep in mind when it comes to purchasing refurbished items for your home studio.
What is a Refurbished Item?
Most people probably think that a refurbished item is something that has been rebuilt. This is a common process when it comes to engine elements, like a transmission.
In the world of electronics, refurbished is actually a bit more complicated. An item that is considered refurbished has not necessarily been rebuilt. For example, if a consumer returns an electronic product within the permissible return time period, that product will be returned to the manufacturer and repacked and placed into the refurbished stream. In some cases, if there is nothing wrong with the product, a store will put it back on the shelf at a reduced price. This is mentioned because when seeking a refurbished product for your home theatre, you need to be cognizant of the background of the item to ascertain why it is considered to be refurbished.
Customer Returns
One resource for a “refurbished” product for your home theatre is a store return. This was mentioned a moment ago.
If a customer returns a product and it is returned to a manufacturer, the manufacturer will inspect it to determine if there is nothing awry with it. If there is an issue, the manufacturer will address and repair. The product will then be repackaged and marketed as refurbished. If nothing is found to be wrong with the product, it will merely be repackaged and sent out for sale as a refurbished item.
Shipping Damage
If the packaging of an electronic item has been damaged in shipment, the retailer typically sends the package back to the manufacturer, unopened. The manufacturer then opens the box and inspects the item. In a majority of cases, the item itself has not been damaged and is in perfect condition, despite the damage to the box. Nevertheless, the manufacturer must repackage the product as refurbished and send it back out for sale.
Cosmetic Damage
When an electronic product has suffered cosmetic damage only, and it is returned to the manufacturer, that manufacturer has two choices. It can repackage the item with cosmetic damage and sell it as refurbished. In the alternative, it can placed the internal components in a new casing. When a manufacturer takes that step, the product must be sold as refurbished. Again, bear in mind that the all-important internal components are in perfect condition.
Defect During Production
If there is a defect during production, a manufacturer can elect to replace units sold with the defect. The manufacturer ends up in possession of the units with the defect. At that juncture, the defect is repaired on all impacted units. These units are then repackaged and sold as refurbished.
Overstock Items
If overstock items end up returned to a manufacturer, the manufacturer can elect to repackage these perfectly good items and mark them as refurbished. In this this type of situation, the only thing that really occurs is repackaging. There may be a cursory inspection, but that will be minimal.
Refurbished in More Common Parlance
Finally, there are situations in which audio and visual equipment has been refurbished in the more common sense. In other words, these are audio and visual products that have been rebuilt.
You are more likely to find these types of refurbished products that actually have been rebuilt at a small shop in the brick and mortar world or at a variety of venues on the internet.
Summary
Unfortunately, when it comes to refurbished audio and visual equipment for your home theatre presented in a larger retail outlet or a chain store, you are highly likely not to really know what is meant by refurbished. In other words, you will not necessarily understand why a particular electronics product has been classified as refurbished. As you can tell from reading these different situations in which something is classified as refurbished, there are some situations in which the quality and functionality of a product is going to be more likely than in others. Your best bet is to ask questions and try to illicit helpful information.
Jessica Kane is a writer for The Pinball Company, the best online source for new, used, and refurbished pinball machines, arcade cabinets, and more!