What does refurbished hardware exactly mean?

Return by Customer – As a policy, most major principal networking hardware companies have a 90-day return policy for their products. For whatever reason the hardware is returned, it undergoes testing by the company. Most of the time, if there is nothing wrong with the product, the partners/distributors or the end clients themselves reduce the price and resell it as an open box special. However, if there is some sort of defect present in the product, many stores have agreements to return the product to the manufacturer were it is inspected and/or repaired, and then repackaged for sale as a refurbished item.

Damage in Shipping - Many times, packages can get damaged in shipping, whether due to mishandling, the elements, or other factors. In most cases the product in the package may be perfectly fine, but the retailer has the option to return the damaged boxes to the manufacturer for full credit. The manufacturer, then, is obligated to inspect the products and repackage them in new boxes for sale. However, they cannot be sold as new products, so they are relabeled as refurbished units.

Surface Damage – In some cases a product may have a scratch, dent, or other form of cosmetic damage that has no effect on the performance of the unit. The manufacturer can either sell the unit with it cosmetic damage visible or fix the damage by placing the internal components into a new cabinet or casing. Either way, the product qualifies as refurbished, as the internal mechanisms that may be unaffected by the cosmetic damaged are still checked.

Demo Equipments - At the store level, most retailers sell their old demos off the floor, some manufacturers will take them back, inspect and/or repair them, if needed, and send them back out as refurbished units for sale. This may include demo units used by the manufacturer at trade shows, returned by product reviewers, and internal office use.

Production Defect - In any assembly line production process, a specific component can show up as defective because a faulty processing chip, power supply, disc loading mechanism, or other factor. Usually, this is caught before the product leaves the factory. However, defects can show up after the product hits store shelves. As a result of customer returns, inoperative demos, and excessive product breakdowns within the warranty period of a specific element in the product, a manufacturer may "recall" a product from a specific batch or production run that exhibits the same defect. When this occurs, the manufacturer can repair all the defective units and send them back out to retailers as refurbished units for sale.

The Box Was Merely Opened – Even if there is no issue technically, other than the box was opened and was sent back to the manufacturer for repacking (or repacked by the retailer), the product is still classified as refurbished, because it was repacked, even though no refurbishing has occurred.

Overstock Items - Typically, if a retailer has an overstock of a particular item they simply reduce the price and put the item on sale or clearance. However, sometimes, when a manufacturer introduces a new model, remaining stock of the older models still on store shelves is "collected" and redistributed to specific retailers for quick sale. In this case, the item can be sold either as "a special purchase" or can be labeled as refurbished.

Why buy refurbished hardware?

Price- Global IT Networks has an extensive experience in dealing with secondary/refurbished networking hardware of makes like Cisco, Nortel, Sun, Cabletron, 3Com, Juniper, Extreme, Lucent, Avaya, IBM and HP. We can give you a very competitive pricing advantage as our prices can be anywhere between 30 to 70% less than the manufacturers. With this advantage you can focus more on you core business and leave your networking needs to us.

Availability- With two warehouses we have a huge inventory of used/refurbished networking hardware and are in a position to make a speedy delivery. Unlike the time spent waiting for the delivery of new hardware, you can depend on us to meet your deadlines as we value them more than anything.

Quality Assurance- Refurbished hardware by definition warrants a certification of the product quality from the reseller. We have a testing facility where our engineers test the components for their performance. In addition we also avail our customers with a replacement warrantee.

Myths about Refurbished Products

Many companies tend to overlook the option of refurbished equipment when purchasing equipment for their business. Refurbished equipment is often associated with 'sub-par' and 'out-of-date'. This assumption is totally wrong as it is mostly fueled by the “you get what you pay for” mentality of many purchasers. In reality, refurbished products are a far-cry from the used and re-sale items that are often available at a low price and the outcome has been a perception gap of refurbished equipment.

Click on 'More Info' to read in detail about 7 myths of Refurbished Networking IT Hardware.