From the Daily Cheapskate inbox: what do you have against buying refurbished electronics? Actually, a lot.

From the Daily Cheapskate inbox, one of my most oft-asked questions:

Dear Daily Cheapskate, I notice that you never post deals on refurbished electronics.  Why?  They are so much cheaper than new ones, and most of the time just as good, though I always hear stories of nightmares.  I bought a refurbished iPhone and it lasted me almost three years and only had to be serviced once, but it was half the price of a new one.  What do you have against used things? -Shalom G. in Monsey, NY

Dear Shalom, Yours is not the first inquiry about this issue.  I know that in theory, you'd expect a blog about saving money to be all about refurbished electronics, right? First let me go on record saying that I am all for re-purposing and re-using.  I'm an avid user of Freecycle and gemachs.  My wedding gown was second-hand from a gemach, my car was used, and I am constantly giving away things that still have a lot of life in them, but that I have no more use for.  I'd much rather have someone else use them, than to watch them wind up in a landfill. To me, this is the true meaning of "going green." But unless you're going to get them for free, I totally draw the line at used electronics. I have purchased two refurbished electronic items in my life, and both were major losers that caused me nothing but headaches.  The first was a Dell monitor, that worked fine for six months and then developed funny lines across the screen.  The other item was a washing machine that we got at a Sears scratch-and-dent store.  The machine did work for two years, but always made a funny noise.  Turns out that funny noise was the motor, and we were stuck with the hassle of having to buy a new washer after two years. I won't touch refurbished anything with a 10 foot pole.  Sometimes a bargain is not a bargain. The Internet is laced with stories of people saving a small fortune buying refurbished electronics that are "just as good" as brand new ones, and saving a pile of cash. But I take all of these success stories with a grain of salt, because the success stories tend to be the ones that get posted on the web, while the failures don't.  While I have nothing other than anecdotal evidence to back this up, I suspect that for every one refurbished electronics success story, there are ten unhappy failures.  Whenever I speak to friends who have bought refurbished electronics, I hear horror stories.  Every now and then, I'll hear someone rave about a refurb laptop that he got for half the price that works perfectly.  And of course, there is no guarantee that something that you buy new is going to work the way it's supposed to just because it's new, but at least you're giving it the best shot by not buying someone else's former headache. I know that not everyone is going to agree with this view, and that's fine.  Some "expert" buyers will recommend that as long as you get refurbished electronics with a warranty or from a reputable company, you're good to go and will save a lot of money.  That's fine and I wish them well when they are on the phone with customer service.  I'd rather save money in other ways, like waiting for a killer sale and a really good promo code, or using gift cards saved up from other deals to purchase pricey electronics.   I've been burnt twice and that was enough. To be fair, I do think there really are some refurbished electronics and appliances that are major deals.  When I bought my new iPad, I accidentally bought a white one instead of the black one that I really wanted.  I had to open the shrink wrap to find that out, but I never actually turned on the iPad or even took it out of the box.  I brought it back to Target and they very graciously swapped it out for me, and the cashier told me that the white one that I returned would now be considered refurbished.  I thought to myself that whomever is lucky enough to buy that iPad at a refurbished price was going to get a real bargain. So yes, there are some excellent deals on refurbished electronics and appliances out there, but you've got to dig deep to find them.  With very few exceptions,  I am just not willing to take that risk with my money.  And I'm certainly not willing to take that risk with yours, which is why you probably won't ever see a deal on refurbished electronics on Daily Cheapskate.  (I won't say "never," because, well, if I can find a deal where I'm reasonably sure you'll be getting a great buy on something as good as new, I'll happily post it.) I'm all about saving money, but sometimes a bargain is just not a bargain.

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