Does Australia Have Any "Legit" Refurb Sellers? 6 out of 6 FAILS!

FLICKIT on 05/07/2023 - 02:46
Last edited 05/07/2023 - 02:49

This a half honest question and half rant.. Do we have any honest and reliable Refurb sellers in Australia?

I'm so frustrated, I've just been burnt for the 6th time!

1 - bneacttrader ebay, AKA: Australian Computer Trader: Purchased a Dell 9020 i7 16GB… Arrived with an i5 cpu, full of dust, obviously not opened or refurbed at all, returned for a refund…

2 - bneacttrader ebay, AKA: Australian Computer Trader: Purchased a Dell 9020 i7 16GB… Arrived with 12GB of mismatched ram and a stuffed front USB module, they sent out replacement ram and USB module.

3 - bneacttrader ebay, AKA: Australian Computer Trader: Purchased a Microsoft Surface 3, arrived with a totally stuffed Micro-HDMI port, bent pins and such, Item replaced with one with a good HDMI but a near stuffed battery.

4 - FuseTechAu - Microsoft Surface GO, arrived with a stuffed keyboard, one key VERY obviously stuffed, poking up and not functional, they said they'd send out a new keyboard, waited patiently, contacted after about a month, no response, bugged them on another deal on here and they responded, they then sent a new keyboard from a 3rd party seller on ebay, worked ok but not backlit as per the item I purchased, not worth chasing up…

5 - untech - Dell Latitude 5300 2in1 Touch "Condition - Excellent", arrived with a totally stuffed MicroSD slot, slogged out USB-C port, and scarred/damaged screen…Returned for a refund…

6 - bneacttrader ebay, AKA: Australian Computer Trader: Dell Latitude 7400 Intel i7 8665U 16GB 512GB "VERY GOOD" Condition, 80+% battery, "30 point inspection"…. Arrived with a totally flat battery, recharged and cycled battery, Battery-Report = 31,000mWh out of 60,000mWh, so battery at around 50%, no where near the claimed "over" 80%… Contact made, no response, I assume they're hoping I'll just accept it and go away, grrrr…

This latest one is sooo annoying. I purchased on a Sunday and paid extra for express postage expecting to get it that coming week, but it wasn't shipped Tuesday afternoon, it didn't arrive until the following Monday, I had to waste time and money hanging around Broome W.A. waiting for it, only to find it's a dud, and they cant even be bothered to reply to my messages !

SO, this is 6 out of 6 fails, you'd think I'd learn my lesson….

Are there any legitimate and reliable "refub" sellers in Australia?

Certainly NOT @Calmago @FuseTechAu @untech

Computing

Related Stores

Australian Computer Traders
Australian Computer Traders

Comments

  • sharkyoz on 05/07/2023 - 03:56
    +13

    dont buy shit second-hand then, buy brand new

    • pharkurnell on 05/07/2023 - 10:59
      +1

      We have a winner… after all the hassle and returns your still persisting with trying to save $0.??

    • FLICKIT on 05/07/2023 - 11:21
      +8

      Buying new is nice in theory but spending thousands on decent business grade devices is well out of my budget, and not really justified for what I use them for… I've never been all that happy with low end consumer grade devices….

      "Shit second-hand"… They're not really "shit", it just seems the companies aren't capable of actually inspecting or refub-ing them to the standard they claim… or, they're dodgy and let the crap slide through hoping the buyers don't notice…

      • bhubb18 on 05/07/2023 - 11:25
        +5

        And what about all the time you have lost from having all these issues?

        • FLICKIT on 05/07/2023 - 12:11
          +4

          Normally the time wouldn't bother me but this recent one has been a huge annoyance because I'm on a road trip, (9000km from home, cruising around heading back east after doing the Canning Stock Route on the bike)… I've had to hang around waiting for the lappy to arrive, hang around waiting for a response from the seller, due to the time wasted I'm now stranded up The Kimberley because the Fitzroy River has flooded and there's no way around, lol, …

          "If" I had been sent what was advertised, in the advertised time frame, it would have all worked out well, but that's too much to ask from these companies…

          • bhubb18 on 05/07/2023 - 12:14
            +3

            @FLICKIT: IMO theres a cost to getting things, and the cost of things not working

            Yeah you might save $500, but how quickly is $500 used up when the device has failed. In your case it might not be critical but its a cost that shouldn't be ignored

    • Geekomatic on 06/07/2023 - 01:35
      +2

      When the sellers sell or state "as new" or such, they should be held to that & buyer should expect as advertised.

      Attacking the buyer is weird. Almost like you're being manipulated into being the flying money for the perpetrator. Hmm…

    • Kranbone on 06/07/2023 - 22:55
      +1

      I agree with you, but also feel if something is advertised as refurbished, then it should've gone through a process where it's been refurbished. I recently had a fairly negative experience buying a "refurbished" phone.

  • Richardc on 05/07/2023 - 04:25
    +11

    apple, dell

    • FLICKIT on 05/07/2023 - 11:23

      I have had a couple of nice devices from Dell Outlet, they haven't really been "refubs" though, they'be been new basically… Their lappy prices haven't been that great in recent years…

  • Fatboy74 on 05/07/2023 - 05:53
    +46

    Why did you keep buying from the same place after the first…. Second… third…. Bad experience with the same company?

    • jakepods on 05/07/2023 - 11:17

      3rd time's a charm?

    • FLICKIT on 05/07/2023 - 11:29
      -1

      It's been over about a 6 year period, you live in hope things may have changed…

      They seem to sell a lot of refurbs to people on here and you tend not to see too many complaints, so you get to thinking, "was I just unlucky to end up getting the odd ones that slipped through the cracks"? ….

  • Sal in SA on 05/07/2023 - 06:08
    +12

    Fool me once…

    • Jimothy Wongingtons on 05/07/2023 - 07:51
      +19

      "There's an old saying in Tennessee—I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee—that says, 'Fool me once, shame on…shame on you. Fool me—you can't get fooled again.'"

      • SpicyPeanut on 05/07/2023 - 08:09
        +6

        And you thought he was the worst president in our lifetime

        • Gdsamp on 07/07/2023 - 16:28
          -2

          Brandon

      • Wiede on 06/07/2023 - 21:59
        +1

        He stopped himself from saying shame on me, although unsure whether this one was any better

    • kekw on 05/07/2023 - 11:10
      +1

      Fool me 5 more times before I post on OZB.

  • solidussnake on 05/07/2023 - 06:25
    +6

    Why did you keep buying from ACT 4 times if you had nothing but problems 🤦

  • djones145 on 05/07/2023 - 06:39
    +6

    have u tried bneacttrader ebay, AKA: Australian Computer Trader?

    they seem ok. not many complaints on ozbargain
    except this one guy FLICKIT, maybe u can PM him for his experiences

  • mskeggs on 05/07/2023 - 06:42
    +2

    FWIW I’ve bought from 2 of the 3 with no issues. I am assuming with this volume of purchases there are also other successful deliveries not mentioned. Hard to imagine such serious issues in 100% of your purchases, but if so, you should buy a lottery ticket as your luck has been six sigma bad and you are due for a change.

    • Chandler on 05/07/2023 - 10:07
      +2

      Have bought twice from ACT.

      First was a laptop. First boot gave a CMOS error - presume due to flat battery / coin cell (haven't pulled it apart to check), was fine after that. So presumably not powered on by them in some time (if at all…). Some time later started having issues with the keyboard: some keys don't register after boot, but after running for a short time it comes good. No software installed apart from some Windows updates and Firefox, so doubt it is anything I've done. And since it's an oddball issue, not sure if/how they could assist so haven't gone down that track yet.

      Second purchase was a mini PC - no issues with it to day *touch wood*

    • FLICKIT on 05/07/2023 - 11:35

      The 6 mentioned above are all the refubs I've purchased… I've ordered from Dell Outlet without issue but they've been new items, not really refubs, and I've bought a couple of second hand lappies from ebay without issue, private sellers and overseas companies (when our dollar was good)… It's just the Aussie companies that claim to be professionals that have been an issue for me…

  • randomusername2017 on 05/07/2023 - 07:10

    Don't expect a reply from @FuseTechAu

    They're busy sweeping the floors at https://radiumpcs.com.au/

  • Trips on 05/07/2023 - 08:30
    +6

    In my experience, 'refurbished' doesn't mean anything unless you're buying directly from the manufacturer. You're better off buying from a private seller (and not one of these enterprise EOL tech sellers) if you're after something that has been taken care of.

    I personally wouldn't buy my work laptop back from a seller (battery swelling, some keys need to be pressed really hard to register etc).

    • elusive on 05/07/2023 - 18:34
      +2

      I wouldn't buy an ex-business laptop, those things get beaten up. Desktops, on the other hand, spend their life just sitting in a desk… there isn't that much opportunity for damage.

  • jorf on 05/07/2023 - 08:37
    +3

    "Refurbished" in most cases just means they hit it with some Spray and Wipe.

    For second hand laptops, you're better off just buying from a private seller as they mostly have an interest in selling you something that isn't a broken POS. Companies selling "refurbished" work on the idea that a large percentage of sales are to people who either don't know what they're looking at, or won't complain.

  • Sinnerator on 05/07/2023 - 08:40
    -7

    who did you vote for so this country gets flooded with cheap labour (and a sh!tty min wage etc)?

    • Crow K on 05/07/2023 - 09:30
      +3

      you're right, it's the political party's fault there's substandard refurbished laptops on ebay

  • ThithLord on 05/07/2023 - 09:14

    I've bought three machines from ACT, only one had an issue which they rectified. Other two are going solid

    • rumblytangara on 07/07/2023 - 09:24
      +3

      I've been scanning this thread for comments about failed machines… and have ended up being surprised at how accepting people are of failures. 'Only' one out of three doesn't sound good to me, someone else mentioned the same figures. Someone had 1 out of 2.

      I've gone through over a hundred refurb machines when I did some work with an NGO, they were laptops via another charity (i.e. a not for profit). We had maybe a couple of dead batteries (we were told upfront that not all batteries were in good condition), all other machines were fine. This is because someone booted each machine up and went into BIOS before sending them on to us.

      I've personally bought around half a dozen 'refurb' tiny PCs and they have all worked right off the bat. Had an SSD failure on one last week, after ~4 years of daily use. Each one I bought in store, and they always boot up the machine in front of me and show that it goes past POST.

      All of this was in another country, where I tend to expect shoddy work and fake parts are common (I'm not convinced that the Kingston SSD that failed was a legit item).

      If people are regularly experiencing 1/3 failure rates from from a profit businesses, I would say this is pretty slack. If I'd experienced 3 failed machines from one ebay vendor over several years… I would just buy via a individual Gumtree or some private channel.

      The only refurb I've bought locally was a printer direct from the manufacturer, and it was shockingly bad. The contractor who did the refurb spilt food into the box, and left in dozens of pages of failed print tests where the other side of the paper was the testers immigration and rental documentation. Printer didn't work. Got replaced within a week, but I was surprised at how poorly Epson oversees their refurb process- in this case they'd outsourced it to a third party, and that third party appeared to be mostly a front for getting work visas for people trying to get into Oz.

  • Gunnar on 05/07/2023 - 09:36
    +2

    This has more fails that gun laws in the US

    • iDroid on 05/07/2023 - 09:46
      +1

      It's bad, but nothing is that bad.

  • bargaino on 05/07/2023 - 10:12
    +1

    SO, this is 6 out of 6 fails, you'd think I'd learn my lesson….

    Six in a row? Rotten luck. I've had to return 1 out of 6 (wrong description) to ACT. They did not respond to my messages, but it was easy to initiate a return via ebay.

    Those shops are all a bit quick & dirty. Not dishonest, but sloppy.
    Last "refurb" laptop I bought from ACT, the wifi did not work. Fortunately just a BIOS setting, but clearly they had never tested it, just a wipe down, and re-install Windows.

  • Look Up on 05/07/2023 - 10:32
    +2

    Do we have any honest and reliable Refurb sellers in Australia?

    Millions of them - called individual private sellers

    Plenty of listings on second hand markets at the moment

    OP - you are not going to get Japanese style inspection and refurb quality for PC's in Australia

  • Drakesy on 05/07/2023 - 10:38
    -3

    I want to know why OP keeps trying to save money in getting a refurbished item with the expectations of brand-new performance.

    • FLICKIT on 05/07/2023 - 11:54
      +1

      I've never expected "Brand-New", I only expect what is advertised…

  • [Deactivated] on 05/07/2023 - 11:02
    +1

    Have you tried homeopathy?

  • jakepods on 05/07/2023 - 11:16
    +1

    have you tried dk odlies?

  • rumblytangara on 05/07/2023 - 11:16
    +4

    There's the old quote "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

    OP, the clear solution to this is to buy your next computer from ACT.

  • Geekomatic on 06/07/2023 - 01:37

    I've bought from two on your list & been okay. Wow. You either got a bad batch or bad luck or the places dumping and hoping their good reviews are better than bad?

    • Click_It on 06/07/2023 - 22:32

      Came to say the same thing, I've bought from 2 on that list also, and both times very impressed, not a spec of dust on the inside (and I'm OCD about that kinda thing) so someone like me had obviously refurbed the ones I received. Basically indistinguishable from new besides the specs themselves.

      • rumblytangara on 07/07/2023 - 09:41

        Who did you buy from where the machines had been done properly?

        Asking as I will continue to buy secondhand sometimes and am pretty surprised at the comments in this thread where there are common failures.

        • Click_It on 07/07/2023 - 12:26
          +1

          bneacttrader and FuseTechAu. I'm sorry I forget which of the 2 was in immaculate condition, the other was also well presented though. I think FuseTechAu was the great one.

          It certainly sounds like a case of YMMV based on comments, perhaps I got lucky.

  • babo on 06/07/2023 - 23:02
    +2

    Bneacttrader have been dodgy for years

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/comment/4636176/redir

  • RolandWaites on 06/07/2023 - 23:52

    I'd probably only get a refurb direct from a brand. Refurbished is a pretty vague term. I wouldn't trust the average Joe garage business to check every product up to the standard of a Dell or Sony.

  • Handymancan on 07/07/2023 - 02:15
    +1

    Bufferstock is the only refurbished seller that I can highly rate. The best of the best for refurbs.
    I recently bought a thinkpad T480S and it was honestly swear to god like brand new. Can't rate them highly enough, their packaging, service and products are all very impressive with quick delivery times beating expectations. Bufferstock are different from all the rest and are the best refurbished seller from my experience.

    I've also had a similar subpar experience with Bneactrader aka Australian Computer Trader. Product was poor, marks, scuffs and not to description, inferior quality. Got cheated also with the battery life, one of the cells was probably dead. It runs normal for 50 percent of the battery life and then suddenly dies and goes straight to 0 from 50 percent. I'm surpised OP bought from them so many times when I was disappointed from the first purchase.

  • gimme on 07/07/2023 - 06:17

    they don't refurb anything. As evident sometimes you get a good one sometimes you get a bad one. luck of the draw. refurb is a sales term meaning visual inspection at best for really obvious damage.

  • holdenmg on 13/07/2023 - 09:43
    +1

    I bought a Dell Laptop from eBay Seller Maxtradinggroup and I'm perfectly happy with it.

  • mattyman on 16/07/2023 - 15:10

    You got burned by this guy (bneacttrader ebay) once and then ordered from them 3 more times, getting burned each time?

    Dude. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Why the heck would you order more from them?

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