Ebay Refurbished versus new

[wzakaras]

i want to know why folks are willing to pay the same price for polk refurb's when they can get new from an online dealer for the same price.
polk refurbished come with a 3 month warranty versus a 5 year new warranty.
i just bought a pair of monitor 50's in black for 258 delivered (NEW) from amazon.
with one exception folks have paid in excess of 250 (including s&h) for a pair of refurbished monitor 50's in black on ebay from polkdirect ? Why???

any thoughts

here is the link:
http://search-completed.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&dfsp=1&catref=C6&from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=monitor+50+black+polk&sacat=-1%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=08753&sabfmts=1&fis=2&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1&fsoo=1

[tcrossma]

Quote from the link you included:

You are bidding on a Factory Refurbished product, direct from Polk Audio. It comes direct from Polk Audio and has the original factory warranty. To learn more about what Factory Refurbished means, click here.

It looks to me as if they have the same warranty as a new unit. One of the winning bidders got them for $192.50 shipped, which seems like a pretty good deal to me. My guess is that a factory refurb from Polk would be in pretty nice condition.

[VSchneider]

It looks to me as if they have the same warranty as a new unit...

You are confusing "Remanufactured" with "Refurbished" and corresponding 5-year vs. 180-day warranty.

[tcrossma]

You are confusing "Remanufactured" with "Refurbished" and corresponding 5-year vs. 180-day warranty.

Yeah, I see if you dig deep enough they differentiate between "remanufactured" and "refurbished" in the length of the warranty. But the big, bold, quote on the Ebay item page states that it comes with the original factory warranty.

If it doesn't come with the full factory warranty of 5 years i'd say it's a bit misleading.

[VSchneider]

A bit misleading, but not untrue. This is still much better than any other warranty (read "NONE") you can get from eBay on Polk Audio.

[mmadden28]

Quote from the link you included:
It looks to me as if they have the same warranty as a new unit. One of the winning bidders got them for $192.50 shipped, which seems like a pretty good deal to me. My guess is that a factory refurb from Polk would be in pretty nice condition.

I've gotten a few refurbed items from Polk recently, and ALL of them look BRAND SPANKIN' NEW to me. They could have sold them as NIB and I would not have known the difference. I always reserve joy until after I get and inspect the product, because as its described-it could contain some blemishes, but so far all refurbs I got were 10/10. Besides some of the speakers i got are outdoor speakers, and I could care less if they are less than perfect.

Further down in the details of a refurb listing it states: "Refurbished speakers are covered by a Polk Audio limited warranty." Well, all Warranties are limited in some way so no flags there. But if you follow the link (http://www.polkaudio.com/support/direct_sales_refunds.php#q9-3) its goes on to state:
"Polk Audio, Inc., warrants, to the original retail purchaser only, that the LOUDSPEAKER(S), and PASSIVE CROSSOVER COMPONENT(S) on this Polk Audio Loudspeaker Product will be free from defects in material and workmanship for a period of one-hundred and eighty (180) days from the date of original retail purchase from Polk Audio."


I was under the impression that "Original Factory Warranty" was just that, especially since they mention that and "refurbished" in the same paragraph in the main listing.

I didn't realize it was actually different until I saw a new warranty statement sticker stuck on the LSi9 User Manual which said 180 days.

I can only imagine that since they are marked as refurbs, they do, in fact, have a shorter warranty period than new products. I personally think they should make their listings a bit more clear. 3 months is not all that long, but it is a bit more comforting than no warranty at all from a non-authorized dealer-but I guess it all depends on what you get it for. But to go from 5 years to 3 months is too much, maybe 5 years to 1 year but come on Polk! I thought I was getting the Original Factory Warranty on all of these, so I felt comfort in buying this way. I would definitely have limited my bidding a bit more had I known that. I won't even have the speakers installed before my 3 months are up. :(

-Madden.

[tcrossma]

180 days is 6 months, but I agree with you. I've not purchased anything from Polk Audio's Ebay store, but I feel that when you look at a listing and see this:

You are bidding on a Factory Refurbished product, direct from Polk Audio. It comes direct from Polk Audio and has the original factory warranty. To learn more about what Factory Refurbished means, click here.

To me that makes the person think that they're receiving the full, as-new warranty. Even if you click the "click here" link, there's information about the description of what a refurbished product means, but nothing about the warranty. You have to dig deeper.

To me a 180 day (6 month) warranty is NOT "the original factory warranty".

In any case, as the original poster stated, if the warranty is only 6 months I would not buy that speaker if I could get it new from an authorized online retailer for approximately the same price. That's not to say that all of Polk's Ebay Store deals aren't better than the one specified though -- I didn't go looking, nor did I verify that the Amazon deal is from an authorized retailer with a 5 year warranty. I just find the wording on Polk's Ebay Store site misleading.

[mmadden28]

180 days is 6 months

Sorry, somebody else mentioned 3 months, so I just used it. I didn't think about it. Well at least I feel a little better-I'll have the outside speakers up by then, but, like you said-you have to really dig to find out the truth.

-Madden