Are refurbished LCDs worth the risk?

[Yamiyanazz]

I mean, I'm thinking I don't want dead pixels. That's one thing I worry about. I hear wonderful awesome raves about the Hyundai L90D+, so I'm looking at newegg...

$350 shipped New Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824179014

$281 shipped Refurbished
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824179014R

I'm thinking $70 is a lot of money to save, but refurbished LCDs??? makes me kinda worry :( Anyone have any input? At $280, it's a steal if refurbs are safe.

[cack01]

Well.... The new one comes with a 3-year warranty while refurbished one makes no mention to a warranty besides the 8 dead pixel stuff.

Personally I would email newegg and ask about the warranty.
My guess is that the unit was returned for a reason other than dead pixels. If it had been returned because of dead pixels it would have needed to have more than 8 which means they probably would not be reselling it.

[Albaholic]

i think piece of mind is worth a little extra money. so i would go for the new one but its up to u

[YouEatLard]

I'm not sure they can fix a LCD screen. I think thats why 8 pixels can be dead before you can consider it DOA. So, the things I'd think they would fix is like bad or recessed pins on the connector, bad/loose wires, bad internal PSU, screen scratches (the plastic cover), cracks in plastic, (whether the casing or the screen cover, and maybe IC's.

Bottom line:
Shoot an email to Newegg as Albaholic said as they might have someone that knows about it, or more importantly shoot and email to the manufacturer that you are considering buying the refurbed parts from. Some, manufacturers are going to be better then others about telling you some information, so be persistent. If you don't think the tech you write or talk to knows what you want to know ask him to give to info to get a hold of someone else. Ask about the reburbed pixel policy and the DOA policy. If the cash saved is worth buying a refurbed item, maybe this is too.

[elfiena]

the only way to "fix" dead pixels is to replace the entire LCD layer, that's why manufactures and resellers don't like dead pixels(yes, they lose money in that).

as to refurb, there are several things to look / ask for.

1) is it refurbed by the manufacture or the reseller?
2) e-mail / call the manufacture and ask if they would give refurb product the same warranty
3) e-mail / call the reseller and ask if there is any warranty on reseller's account.
4) e-mail / call the reseller and ask if the manufacture's warranty still apply.

refurb products usually are in equal if not better shape than their brand new counterparts. This is because for new products, random sample are pulled off of the production line and inspected. while you know refurb products are definitly inspected fully and tested. you wont run into things like lots of dead pixels, leaky backlight, screwed up contrast / brightness etc. as long as the product is adquetly shipped and packaged. if you are buying a product from a local reseller store, you know it's going to work fine.
the down side about refurb product is that part of the product might be missing, such as a power cord or instruction manual. and in some cases, warranty may not apply anymore due to the stupidity on the reseller's part.

[Redstone]

Dell looks like they cover their Refurb LCD's with a full warranty.

[Slackfumasta]

There are other reasons why an LCD monitor would be returned too; blown backlight, faulty power converter, cracked casing, controls don't work, etc.

To me though, my peace of mind is worth $70.

[YouEatLard]

There are other reasons why an LCD monitor would be returned too; blown backlight, faulty power converter, cracked casing, controls don't work, etc.


True, I was just giving some examples of what I thought they could fix, but there are others too. What I was getting at though is that I don't think they can fix the bad LCD screen it's self. To my knowledge, if the screen has 8 bad pixels it's not like they can just fix one or two and call the screen good.

Personally I aslo don't buy refurbed parts. Are they probably good? I'd think so. As everyone else has said though, if that extra $70 means that much to you, I'd do some research first.