[Q] Buying refurbished router?

I'm thinking of buying Cisco/Linksys E4200 router and I was wondering if refurbished products (from Cisco.com) are good as the brand new retail.

I can buy refurb for $116.00 including UPS Ground shipping whereas Amazon has new one for $159.99.

I've never purchased a refurb product so I'm not sure how it will work out.

Is $43 worth the trouble (new vs. refurb) and time? What exactly is the difference? Will there be scratches and dents? Bad hardware, firmware?

 

It should be ok, see how the warranty is. I bought a refurbished netgear wnr2000 router for 20$ while the new ones were 90$. It only had a 90day warranty, but it's been 2 years and i never had a problem. I'm was still able to flash the firmware to new versions when they updated them. I don't know how yours will be, but mine was basicly a box w/o any labels with just the router and power plug in there. Sometimes you get the assesories,manuals sometimes you don't.

 

They offer 90 day warranties on refurbished. It looks like they offer all accessories.

I guess it's matter of whether product is scratched/dented, but otherwise, from the sound of it, it's okay hardware-wise.

 

It's a good deal- take it while it lasts.

 

In my opinion it all depends on where you buy it.

I've never had a problem in most major retailers.. but I've bought a few referbed products at some liquidation places and had problems.

If you're buying a refurbished router from somewhere like Best Buy it should be fine.

Refurb just means that the manufacture took the product, fixed what was wrong, tested it to confirm working and resold it again.

Shannon