Buying Refurbished From Manufacturer

[D500 001]

Just purchased a refurbished Nikon D7100 at Nikonusa website. It is shipped from Camtronics in Obetz, Ohio (very near to Columbus).

Have you purchased a refurbished product from the manufacturers website? Do you know where it shipped from?

Obetz website states "We service and repair all camera brands, including: Canon, Nikon, Minolta and Sony".

 

[yardcoyote]

I bought a refurbished lens from Sigma last year. It shipped from Sigma in full Sigma packaging, not that that necessarily means anything.

 

[bgbgbgbgbg]

I bought a refurbed lens from Nikon and was shipped from somewhere in Ohio - don't remember what town it was though.

 

[Gato Amarillo]

I'd guess Nikon contracts Camtronics to handle the refurbish. But that's a guess.

Gato

 

[Tequila MockingjayBird]

My Sony refurbished lens shipped from El Paso Sony service.
--
you need a team to realize your dream

 

[leelamb]

I purchased two factory refurbished Olympic cameras. One from a local dealer and one from Olympus. The second one was shipped from Olympus, somewhere in Pennsylvania if I remember correctly. Both came in factory boxes with new cables and manuals. The cameras were perfectly new looking without any defects.

I saved money and got exactly what I wanted.

~Lee

 

[peripheralfocus]

I'd guess Nikon contracts Camtronics to handle the refurbish. But that's a guess.

Almost certainly a good guess. Years ago when I worked for Nikon USA, I was at the annual national sales meeting one year and found myself at a dinner table one night sitting next to a guy I had never met. When I asked him what he did at Nikon, he told me that he owned the company that handled all of Nikon USA's refurbished cameras -- receiving, inspecting, repairing if necessary, and repackaging. That's when I learned how my company handled refurbished products -- just by virtue of where I happened to sit at a buffet dinner.

His company was in southern California, if memory serves, but this was 20 years ago. It might very well not be the same company as the one cited by the OP.

 

[Smaug01]

I bought my FZ1000 refurbished. I don't care where it came from, as long as it has a factory warranty.
--
-Jeremy

 

[techjedi]

Just purchased a refurbished Nikon D7100 at Nikonusa website. It is shipped from Camtronics in Obetz, Ohio (very near to Columbus).

Have you purchased a refurbished product from the manufacturers website? Do you know where it shipped from?

Obetz website states "We service and repair all camera brands, including: Canon, Nikon, Minolta and Sony".

 

[David Pavlich]

I've purchased three refurbished lenses from Canon, the latest, an EF 100 macro. All could have been placed on a shelf and sold as new. Not a mark on them AND they come with a one year warranty as if they are new. I still have 2 of 3. The one I sold was an EF-S model which won't work on my FF bodies.

David

 

[Leonard Migliore]

Just purchased a refurbished Nikon D7100 at Nikonusa website. It is shipped from Camtronics in Obetz, Ohio (very near to Columbus).

Have you purchased a refurbished product from the manufacturers website? Do you know where it shipped from?

Obetz website states "We service and repair all camera brands, including: Canon, Nikon, Minolta and Sony".

 

[Dr JLW]

I think the odds are very good that a refurbished camera will be a good buy there is one concern and it is worth looking for in a the item.

These camera use a lot of firmware and on occasion some of these programmable chips are "squirrley". This shows up as intermittent failures. If the camera is returned it can be cosmetically refurbished but it will still be intermittently "squirrely". If you get a refurb and it does something funny during the warrantee period it's a good idea to try again.

 

[Gato Amarillo]

I think the odds are very good that a refurbished camera will be a good buy there is one concern and it is worth looking for in a the item.

These camera use a lot of firmware and on occasion some of these programmable chips are "squirrley". This shows up as intermittent failures. If the camera is returned it can be cosmetically refurbished but it will still be intermittently "squirrely". If you get a refurb and it does something funny during the warrantee period it's a good idea to try again.

This reflects my main concern - that a product may have some sort of intermittent problem that slips past the checks. Or in the case of lenses some optical flaw that would be seen by a picky photographer but passes whatever testing is done - I doubt there is any in-depth optical testing on refurbished products.

I still buy refurbished at times - my main Nikon lens is a refurb and I have another refurb Nikon lens in shipping right now. I suspect that the "refurbish" process is pretty minimal - a reset, a quick test, and wiping off old fingerprints. I'd guess most items that fail testing are junked rather than repaired - repair can be expensive. But I also suspect the majority of refurb products never had a real problem, that they are mostly either store display or demonstrators, or returned due to operator error or buyers remorse. Refurbish could sometimes be a way to clear excess stock without having to mark down retail prices.

I think the odds are pretty good, but I am careful to buy from a reputable dealer with a good return policy or directly from the manufacturer. And I make time to thoroughly try out the gear as soon as I get it so I can return it quickly if I see a problem.

Gato