Are Sony Seconds/Refurbs Product Risk Free?

Lshraky on 16/03/2022 - 10:06
Last edited 16/03/2022 - 11:05 by 1 other user

Often we see discussion about seconds/refurbs from Sony. Most people say it's almost risk free as it comes with one year warranty. I believed it and my experience proved I was wrong. The catch is warranty exclusions.

I had WH1000XM4B headphones bought from Sony eBay seconds. It came as nearly brand new but stopped working during 1 year warranty. I sent it back for warranty repair but Sony told me there is corrosion inside hence it voided warranty. I only used it twice and definitely no damages occurred to it when I owned it. It must have been liquid damaged prior being sold to me. Sony refused to repair it free of charge now I had to escalate the matter to NSW Fair Trading and it might take up to 8 weeks to get resolved.

I won't touch any Sony seconds again. Too much hassle not worth the savings. Maybe I'm the minority unlucky one but who can guarantee the next one is not you?

Electrical & Electronics Sony

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Comments

  • Muzeeb on 16/03/2022 - 10:09
    +1

    According to your story - NO

  • Jimothy Wongingtons on 16/03/2022 - 10:15

    I wouldn't buy sony seconds precisely for the reason you're facing.

    Most people say

    Who?

  • Hithere on 16/03/2022 - 10:23

    Most people say it's almost risk free

    Most people on OzBargain? Most people in your street? Most people who heard it from a friend of a friend?

  • Jason Genova on 16/03/2022 - 10:43

    not sure what you're asking here? you bought a refurbed item which carked itself, now you're asking (after the fact) whether its risk free?

  • Diji1 on 16/03/2022 - 11:05
    +1

    As far as I know, it doesn't come with a one year warranty, it comes with the same ACL rights as buying it new.

  • ESEMCE on 16/03/2022 - 11:06

    My experience also incredibly poor.
    Bought refurb x9500G TV through Sony eBay.
    1) It took 3 weeks to be delivered,
    2) Tracking info supplied was clearly for someone else. Unwittingly, my wife stayed home all day waiting for a delivery that wasn't ours.
    3) Called Sony and was given a promise of a delivery date through an entirely different company, which again didn't happen (another day at home due to their incompetence)
    4) Called Sony again and was given a third delivery date (same company) that did finally happen.
    5) It stopped working within 3 hours. Turned it off with the remote and it wouldn't turn on again.
    6) Sony Australia Phone "Support", after jumping through all their "reset suggestions" despite telling them I'd already performed said reset operations (along with a few others that I found online before even making the call) denied they could do anything but send out a technician, but maybe Sony eBay could arrange a replacement.
    7) Sony eBay took 10 calendar days to respond!
    8) Their response was "we can send out a technician"
    9) took a further 5 days to respond to my immediate "no, replacement please" and responded with "we will have to investigate"
    10) a further 4 days passed with no further feedback.
    11) I escalated to eBay who refunded in full within 36 hours
    12) Sony eBay took a further 4 days to send out return details
    13) Pickup was made and I wiped my hands of Sony, bought an LG C1 instead (and kinda glad I went through this to have such a good comparison between the two in home. The C1 is vastly superior to Sony's Top End LCD and Price difference is just so close as to make it a no brainer IMHO)
    14) Sony eBay decided that they needed more information in their investigation (which I ignored)
    15) Sony asked for positive eBay feedback on the transaction. (probably automated but also a bad move, cause I hadn't even considered that I could leave a scathing review for a refunded transaction)

    • shraky on 16/03/2022 - 12:47

      I think the problem is those refurbished items not adequately being "repaired" before they are released to the next buyer. If we are lucky it might work for a while otherwise it can die anytime. Just like my headphones it arrived almost like brand new and who knows it starts to be corrosive inside already. I was so happy to have it at beginning even persuaded my friend to get one as well. He received one with strong cigarette smell and managed to get it replaced. I thought I was lucky to get one almost new but eventually I am the real unlucky one who has to seek help from fair trading!

    • endotherm on 16/03/2022 - 13:08

      Only one of these points actually refers to the product. I'm sure when it was being inspected and tested, the technician found that it was working properly. The fact that some component died some time later is just bad luck. It, or any other component, could have died at any time in its life. If you look up "bathtub curve of failure" it will show that most products will have the highest probability of failing early (weeks/months), then a long period of reliability and low chance of failure, followed by a gradual rise in failures at end-of-life.

      • shraky on 16/03/2022 - 13:54

        Check below corrosion pics taken by the repairer and see if you still think it's just lifespan problem. It's definitely liquid damaged previously. Yes it was working perfectly when I received it. Did technician open the unit and inspect inside before released to me? I doubt it.

        https://ibb.co/1ftkrXr

        https://ibb.co/FYMD5Rb

        • Muzeeb on 16/03/2022 - 14:09

          That's definitely toilet bowl water ingress corrosion.

        • endotherm on 16/03/2022 - 14:28

          If the technician turned it on and it passed all the tests, why on earth would he want to open it? This looks more like being dirty rather than being corroded. there is nothing eaten away on the outside of the port. It looks like someone has pushed a half eaten sandwich into the opening, and even then it doesn't really look corroded. It is possible there is some electrolysis that has occurred, but I can't see it from the photo. The rest of the USB interface board is pristine. The first thing I'd do as a tech is wash it out with alcohol to make sure it wasn't just dirty and gummed up. If it was a corrosive liquid it would have wicked its way up well into the plug and spread to the board. Just water won't cause that. The contacts are gold plated and won't corrode. It should still work, passing power and signal through. If it shorted, it would probably confine itself to the USB control chip on this daughterboard. What exactly was the nature of the fault? Wouldn't turn on? Wouldn't charge? Some feature stopped working? How long has it been in your possession (e.g. 9 months in a cupboard and hardly used)?

          I wouldn't be happy with that explanation to exclude a warranty claim. I'd want a second opinion and would have taken it to another Authorised Repairer.

          • shraky on 16/03/2022 - 16:09

            @endotherm: I purchased it Apr 21 and set up used it once when I commuted on train (absolutely no liquid contact). It's supposed to be used with train commuting but it's COVID I only drive to work once a week so never used it again after. At home I use my Bose QC35 only as I found it has better chances of connection with Microsoft Team on my work laptop. A few months ago I took XM4 out from study drawer and checked battery power which was still ok got some power left and I fully charged it again tried a couple of songs without any problem. Last week I received my new S22 mobile and tried to pair it with XM4 but found can't turn XM4 on, can't charge either. No LED lights on. If not getting my new mobile I could have left this pair of headphones in drawer another few months without touching it and it'd be totally out of warranty by then!

      • ESEMCE on 16/03/2022 - 16:28

        Agreed.
        I can forgive a faulty product… it happens to everyone.

        Can't forgive the shit service though and that's kinda the point of this thread.

        This was an open and shut case in both my and (apparently) eBay's opinion, yet Sony wanted to drag it out even longer than they already had.
        The delivery issues, just show how much of a third rate customer they consider you to be.

        • endotherm on 16/03/2022 - 18:04

          I took it more of an exploration into whether seconds/refurbs are reliable or not. Not to belittle your experience, the same crap warranty return procedure could have applied equally to a low-end refurb, or a brand new premium product.

          • ESEMCE on 17/03/2022 - 09:00

            @endotherm:

            Too much hassle not worth the savings

            Direct quote from the OP. I can't see any comment about the product itself aside from the assertion that the goods were water damaged prior to OP's ownership. Which is, if anything a comment on the lack of analysis in the return/refurbishment process, again, service based issues.

            the same crap warranty return procedure could have applied equally to a low-end refurb, or a brand new premium product.

            I think we'd all like to think that Sony wouldn't be like this if you paid full price.

  • payless69 on 16/03/2022 - 12:21

    LOL! It used to be a premium brand!

  • endotherm on 16/03/2022 - 13:35

    I have had exceptionally good luck with my purchase of Seconds/Refurbs. I have bought quite a few items from both Sony and Apple, many dozens in fact. They either were ordered directly via Sony Australia or via their official eBay store. In all cases but one, you couldn't tell that the product supplied wasn't brand new (the exception had a couple of small scratch marks from a slipped screwdriver around a screw on the back panel of a speaker, cosmetic at best). I have more confidence in these products than one off the production line as each one gets a human to thoroughly test all features are working before reselling it. Brand new ones only have a fraction of units produced that are selected for testing, maybe 1-in-10 or even more. It is more to check that there hasn't been a missed problem on that batch in production, e.g. a component was skipped due to a faulty machine. The rejects will be inspected, the defect found and a human will address the fault, which is probably the same failure across multiple successive devices.

    When I think seconds, I imagine a product that has failed during manufacture or inspection, or has box damage only, from shipping etc. I am more concerned if it is a product that has been a store display model, or one that has been sold and returned. Store display models tend to come back with cosmetic defects, which is typically repaired and has panels/knobs/remotes/cables replaced with new ones. Many returned products are because the owner was too stupid to read the manual or figure out how to operate it. In those cases the product is typically unused and just unboxed. A product that has been returned because it failed should correctly be described as second-hand or refurbished.

    In my experience Sony don't resell a return as new, they are very accurately described as a refurb. Some of the big franchise stores accept returns, but just repack them and put them back on the shelf as new. I've heard a lot of stories about people buying external hard drives, but they are full of someone else's data.

    In your case it is very hard for them to establish where the corrosion came from. You might have unknowingly splashed water on them, had them in a humid place like a bathroom, got in and out of an airconditioned building or car in hot weather… All these could cause condensation while you were the owner. It has the same probability of happening during your ownership as it does with a former owner.

    • ESEMCE on 23/03/2022 - 09:58

      had them in a humid place like a bathroom, got in and out of an airconditioned building or car in hot weather… All these could cause condensation while you were the owner.

      In that case, the product is not fit for purpose and a refund is automatic under Australian Consumer Law.
      Any reasonable person would consider this to be typical usage and the product should be designed to avoid issues from such usage.

  • XPunK on 22/03/2022 - 22:19
    +1

    I am just starting my own experience with a sony TV from the seconds store. Item received was very obviously defective. My wife saw it immediately as I was switching it on at the wall (as the power point was off initially) and her reaction was like - wow thats bad! To which I quickly looked in horror and yep, it is bad!

    Now started the process to either refund, replace or do whatever I can to get this situation fixed.

    I wouldn't purchase again at this point, as I don't believe they are all inspected properly. Or the inspection is so bad they just don't care.

    As I am just starting this process - I am happy to update this once I get a bit further through the process.

  • USER DC on 19/04/2022 - 17:55

    There's a reason why so many people continue buying cheap Kmart headphones, (from my experience their headphones are actually okay, they keep lasting unless they get broken like in moving btw bags etc., BUT their earphones like that $1-2 ones, they are pretty much garbage most of the time, manufactured to have a defect in them, those wouldn't generally even last 1 year warranty period for me most of the times.)
    1. Price
    2. Kmart Customer Service, not many questions asked for warranty issues, simple refund.

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