Experience with Refurbished cameras

rwmj

Hi

I am looking to get a Nikon D90 body and am considering a refurbished model - both B&H and Adorama have the new ones on back order and the used cameras are ~$175-$200 less anyway. Any cautionary advice?

The Adorama offer says Nikon refurbished and the B&H is an in house job.
Both have a 90 day warranty.

I have never had any problems with Nikon equiptment but I have never purchased it used either.

Any suggestions welcomed.
Thanks,

Roy

Cygnus Studios

As long as you stick with reputable sellers like B&H or Adorama you should not have a problem.
B&H has fabulous customer service and really take care of issues that come around. I would not think twice about buying anything used from them.
I have not had a lot of dealings with Adorama, but from what I know they also seem to be a great stand up company.

rainbow

I bought a Canon 5D refurbished from Adorama and the item came looking brand new. There was no indication of any handling of the item. Only differences I noted was a "refurbished" sticker on the bottom of the camera and the plain white box (instead of a Canon 5D box) that it came in. No problems with the camera since I purchased it a few months ago.

BTW, savings over new was $500 (!) - likely because the 5D was discontinued. There is a trade-off when paying more for the full warranty and new becomes the more sensible choice.

divamum

I have a refurb'd Canon lens and a refurb'd Canon flash, both from Adorama, and they were indistinguishable from new and worked perfectly.

There was a big thread on this some months ago which you may find if you search; the main conclusion was that refurbs can be great, although to be aware that the "refurbishment" may include used replacement parts so, at least in theory, something "could" potentially break earlier (I'm thinking something like a shutter). That said, most comments in that thread gave a big thumbs up to the refurbs and the savings they offered. I'm definitely a fan from my own experience!

angevin1

My Brand new NIKON D300 from JR.com that I bought in October, failed within twenty minutes of arrival to me: Shutter issues.

1. Reputable dealer exchanged right away with zero hassle.

Any new thing can fail, as any used or even refurb-ed can.

I think though, that spending that kind of money for only a 90 day warranty would be my issue. Especially since for a couple hundred more I can rest easy that if it failed next year, it'd still be covered. Also it makes me wonder why such puny warranty's on a refurb?

Either way, just deal with the reputable folks!

rwmj

angevin1 wrote:

My Brand new NIKON D300 from JR.com that I bought in October, failed within twenty minutes of arrival to me: Shutter issues.

1. Reputable dealer exchanged right away with zero hassle.

Any new thing can fail, as any used or even refurb-ed can.

I think though, that spending that kind of money for only a 90 day warranty would be my issue. Especially since for a couple hundred more I can rest easy that if it failed next year, it'd still be covered. Also it makes me wonder why such puny warranty's on a refurb?

Either way, just deal with the reputable folks!

Thanks to all of you who replied for your comments and suggestions.
Roy

Ed911

angevin1 wrote:

My Brand new NIKON D300 from JR.com that I bought in October, failed within twenty minutes of arrival to me: Shutter issues.

1. Reputable dealer exchanged right away with zero hassle.

Any new thing can fail, as any used or even refurb-ed can.

I think though, that spending that kind of money for only a 90 day warranty would be my issue. Especially since for a couple hundred more I can rest easy that if it failed next year, it'd still be covered. Also it makes me wonder why such puny warranty's on a refurb?

Either way, just deal with the reputable folks!

I tend to like new because of the warranty...especially Nikon lenses with their five year warranty. Here's an example. My wife is shooting an 18-135mm on her D70. Back in March, while on a trip to South Beach, it just up and quit auto-focusing. I sent it off to Nikon for repair. We'd had it for over a year, but it was covered by Nikon's 5 year warranty...the encoder mechanism and motor were replaced free of charge.

If you bought that lens second hand...you would be out the repair costs...and with the cost of the 18-135 being so low, it might just have been cost effective to buy a new one.

Nikon does not transfer warranties on any of their equipment to the second or subsequent owners. So you buy a secondhand Nikor lens or camera...you got it w/o a Nikon warranty. This from a phone call to Nikon New York.

HelenOster

rwmj wrote:

Hi

I am looking to get a Nikon D90 body and am considering a refurbished model - both B&H and Adorama have the new ones on back order and the used cameras are ~$175-$200 less anyway. Any cautionary advice?

The Adorama offer says Nikon refurbished and the B&H is an in house job.
Both have a 90 day warranty.

I have never had any problems with Nikon equiptment but I have never purchased it used either.

Any suggestions welcomed.
Thanks,

Roy

My apologies for coming late to this thread (was out on vacation for 3 weeks), but thought the following info might be useful for those who're new to the idea of buying refurbished.

Refurbs may be ex-store demos, possibly used in field tests or sales displays, or are items that have been ordered in error and returned to the retailer (who can't then sell them as 'new' so they have to be sent back to the manufacturer for refurbishment). They can also have simply been pulled from the production line if something appears faulty, or which haven't passed the final inspection.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
Most of the time it is a very minor issue that needs correcting, nevertheless, once they are pulled from the normal flow of production, they get flagged as a refurbished model, so you may actually get a model straight from the factory that really has never been used!<o:p></o:p>
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A refurbished item will have been checked over by the manufacturer by hand, inspected very thoroughly, diagnosed, and calibrated by experienced technicians, and could therefore turn out to be more dependable than a new item - which will only have been checked by a process of systematic quality control protocol (ie by random sampling as they come off the conveyor belt).
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As to the individual history of a single item, the honest answer is we have no way of knowing. Refurbished equipment is not like new inventory; the manufacturers contact us when they have a batch to sell, and the availability is unpredictable. However, if you were to ask my personal opinion on whether the equipment that Adorama offers as refurbished is typically less than a year old, based on the regularity with which we receive batches, I'd be inclined to think it is all relatively new.
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<o:p>In the past Adorama warranted Canon refurbished for 90 days; since 1st May, all Canon refurbished products from Adorama come with a 1 year return-to-Adorama warranty; 14 days from date of receipt for a full refund, and the balance for repair or replacement All Nikon refurbished sold by Adorama come with a 90-day return-to-Nikon warranty.</o:p>
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<o:p>I hope this helps but do contact me directly if I can help with anything further.</o:p>
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