Tariff-Free Shopping: 10 Things to Know Before Buying Refurbished ...

There's a simple reason to buy refurbished tech instead of a brand-new device: to save money. And, depending on how the tariff situation plays out, new electronics could get very expensive very quickly.

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As a bonus, if you go for refurbished products, they most likely won't be subject to shipping delays because, for the most part, they're already in the US. Finally, it's nice to avoid sending another gadget to the landfill.

The problem is that refurbished products had a life before you. Maybe it was a short existence with a careful original owner, but maybe not. What you do know is that the product was sent back, and it was given an overhaul to make it workable again—or at least checked to make sure it operated correctly.

That all happened under the original product warranty—a warranty you may not inherit. You might also have to forego the device's original accessories and deal with physical imperfections.

Here's a quick rundown of what you should know before you click the buy button on a renewed or revamped piece of hardware. If you can't get these questions answered to your satisfaction, stick with purchasing brand-new products, if possible (and affordable).

1. Is It a Refurb or Open-Box Return?

(Credit: Karolina Grabowska from Pexels)

A typical open-box product was purchased and opened but returned before use. Maybe the buyer or recipient decided they didn't want it, or perhaps the packaging was damaged, so it was sent back unused as a precaution.

I'd argue that to be a true refurb, a device should require some kind of repair, cleaning, or sprucing up. Legally, though, there's no actual definition of "refurbished.” It can signify whatever a vendor or seller wants it to mean. You may also see terms like "pre-owned" and "reconditioned," which are synonyms—until they're not. All returned, resold products tend to be lumped together, no matter the condition.

Thankfully, US laws prevent companies from selling returned products as though they're brand-new. That's beneficial to you since the price should drop once the refurbished label is on a product. Ask the seller about a product’s origin and hope for an open-box product; you may not be the first owner, but you could be the first user.

2. Who Did the Refurbishing?

Not all restorations are alike. It's possible a third party did the work and is reselling the product. Sticking with the original company handling the work is the smarter move. It will have the right packaging and parts to make the product as close to new as possible. Look for "factory-certified" or similar nomenclature.

That said, you can see real savings from a third-party refurbishment. However, some describe this arena as the Wild West, as there's no way to determine a product's quality until you've already bought it. Buyer beware!

3. Does It Come With All the Stuff?

(Credit: Zhang Peng/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Opening an iPhone box and not finding a charger is a sad experience (especially if the item is brand-new, but that's a different problem).

Refurbished products often lack the accessories included with a new purchase. That's another reason to try to find refurbs offered by the manufacturer; you're more likely to get all the parts. You might also get the product in something close to the original packaging, if that's important to you.

4. Does the Product Still Have a Warranty?

Don't buy any product marked "as-is," because that removes any implied warranty the product might carry. The buyer risks getting hardware that may not even work properly. Just because a device can turn on doesn't mean it can go online, get a signal, etc.

By law, used products in many states have an implied warranty. A device has to be able to do what it was designed to do, even if sold used. A has to make calls (phones still do that, so I'm told). A laptop must boot up and connect to the internet. A webcam had better make you look good in that Zoom meeting.

Your best bet is to ask the seller whether a warranty or guarantee exists. It's more likely if the original manufacturer refurbed the device. Without a warranty, the price discount may not be worth the risk.

Also, confirm the length of the warranty. Six months for a device that originally had one year's protection is risky.

5. What Does 'Like New' Mean?

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There are no rules on how to grade a refurbished product beyond the fact that the seller can't say it's brand new. They can, however, say it's "like new."

That might mean the item was never used. It could also mean that the product was refurbished after a hard life. Maybe a scratched or cracked screen was replaced. If you can find out, it's worth knowing exactly what "like new" means.

After "like new," the options are all "used" in some form, from "gently" on down. You'll find variations on that language from site to site and vendor to vendor.

6. What's the Return Policy?

It takes a while to notice problems in some products. You want at least a month's window for returns (not much to ask for when companies selling giant mattresses give you 100 days). That should go for refurbished products as well. If you can't get at least two weeks to futz with a product with the option to return it at no cost, don't bother. Many sellers will say "sale final," and you don't want that (unless the savings are truly astronomical).

Always read the fine print. And the moment you open a refurbed product, thoroughly inspect it. You might want to take advantage of that return policy right away.

7. What Should I Not Buy Refurbished?

We recommend avoiding the following refurbed products:

• Items that touch your skin a lot, such as headphones and earbuds

• Mechanical items like keyboards

• Hard drives or solid-state drives (They can't really be reset to factory settings.)

• TVs (It's hard to tell how used a TV might be.)

Some of those purchases might be OK if you trust the company behind the product's renewal. Conversely, you should only buy refurbished products from select companies because their products are too expensive when new (cough, Apple, cough).

8. Does My Credit Card Offer Protection?

(Credit: wkmike/Shutterstock)

Probably. Many credit cards extend warranty coverage, assuming a warranty came with the product. This includes refurbs—in most cases. Wallethub reports that 87% of all cards cover refurbished products with pre-existing warranties (up from 66% in ), while 42% will extend a separately purchased warranty (down from 47%).

Extended warranties are a perk on many cards, but not all. Look for it on cards from Citi, Chase, Capital One, American Express, and quite a few others. Even several no-fee cards offer it. (Wells Fargo won't offer warranties on refurbs; Discover does not offer any extended warranties.)

Before you buy a refurbished product—especially something high-end such as a smartphone or laptop—call your credit card company to be sure it has your back. When you purchase, keep the receipt and a copy of the original or refurbished warranty. You may need repair estimates in order to file a claim.

9. Are Refurbished Products Always Cheaper?

No. Do some price comparison. When you find a cheap refurbished item, go to another refurb site and see if the same or similar model is available for even less. That said, don't let price dictate everything. Sometimes, your trust in a site or vendor makes spending the extra money worthwhile.

10. Which Companies Do Refurbs?

Vendors

Here's a quick list of tech vendors that offer some of the best refurbished product programs. If your favorite vendor isn't on this list, Google its name along with "refurbished," and you'll likely find the (fixed) goods.

• Apple

• Dell

• Google

• Microsoft

• Nintendo

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• Samsung

• Sony (PlayStation)

Retailers and Carriers

Retail stores and mobile carriers are also in the refurbishing business; many rebuild products to resell them. These sites are a good place to find an open-box returned item, as well.

• Amazon Renewed and Amazon Resale (Both could have refurbs or open-box products; Amazon refurbishes only its own products, and third parties do the rest.)

• AT&T Certified Pre-Owned

• Best Buy Outlet

• Walmart Restored

• Verizon

Refurbishing Specialists

Then there are the refurb-specific sellers, places that do nothing but sell renewed goods. Usually they even include a warranty.

• BackMarket

• Gazelle

• Decluttr

• Reebelo

You would think that buying a robotic vacuum like a Roomba would be pretty straight forward.  In it’s simplest form a robot vacuum is little suction machine self drives around your floors; what else is there to know?  It turns out that there are quite a few things to look for.

Below we list the items you need to consider before buying a robot vacuum in order of importance.  That order will change depending upon your particular needs but this will give you a good starting point.

1 – Price:

There is no point in considering a 5 million dollar robot vacuum so start by figuring out a rough range of what you want to spend before you waste your time looking at $60 toys and $ Roomba’s,

2- Roller Brush:

Most of the low end robot vacuums do not have a roller brush (a.k.a “beater bar”) that you see in all traditional vacuums.  Those cheaper units perform poorly on non flat flooring.  If you do not have any carpets or rugs, the roller brush is not critical, but if you do you are going to want a “beater bar”.

3 – Edge Traversal:

Virtually every house has flooring connected with slightly different heights so there are edges to traverse.  Think about tile flooring butting up to hardwood flooring or even rugs you put on top of your floor.  If you vacuum cannot climb or drop a small distance, and the cheaper vacuums cannot, it will be frustratingly useless to you.

4 – Stair / Edge Detection:

All but the cheapest units will have edge detectors to ensure the vacuum does not tumble down stairs.  The better units will have more edge detection sensors and better algorithms to decide what is a dangerous edge and what is not.  Obviously this is a very big deal if you have stairs, so be careful.

5 – Sweeper Brush:

All robot vacuums a sweeper brush and many have two.  The ones with two will do a better job, but shorten the battery life.

6 – Docking Station:

Mid-range and high end robot vacuums will have docking stations that they will automatically return to when then need charging.  This is a key feature if you want to have truly autonomous cleaning.

7 – Noise Level:

Put simply, the cheap units are loud.  This does not translate to expensive robot vacuums being quiet.  Check the decibel level on the vacuum you are buying if you care about the noise.  The best way to do this is to watch a few video reviews on YouTube.

8 – Height:

Because the robot vacuum will go under furniture, the thinner the unit the better.

9 – Display Screen:

Cheaper robot vacuums will rely on simple on/off type controls or their remote control, but the better vacuums will have larger LCD screens so that you can easily program the unit or see what it is doing at a glance.  If you are older or have eye problems, a larger screen is a better screen.

10 – Brand:

This is really about the vacuum quality.  Unfortunately you will not be able to tell the build quality and suction quality until you try the one you bought, so buying a brand name unit will provide you with some comfort that the unit is more likely to be well put together and work.

11 – Scheduling:

The cheap units get turned on and work until you turn them off but the better units have computers that will turn themselves on and work for a few hours often when you are not at home.

12 – Getting Unstuck:

Even robot vacuums with good sensors can get stuck under furniture.  The cheap or old technology units will typically just turn off when they are stuck, but the better units will try to wiggle their way backwards

13 – Warranty:

A robot vacuum has moving parts so it is going to fail at some point.  The better units have a 30 day money back guarantee and 1 year bumper to bumper warranty.  The best vacuums will have a 3 or 5 year subsidized repair program, like car tires do so you pay some of the cost and the manufacturer pays some of the cost in this extended period.

14 – Battery Life:

The longer the battery life the better.

15 – Remote Control:

The cheap units typically need a remote control so you can turn them on and off easily but the better units have remote controls so you can easily override the scheduling or tell the vacuum you it to concentrate in a particular areas

16 – Wet Wipe:

Some units have a damp cloth that they drag across the floor.  This is good for that last level of clean but should not be considered a real replacement for scrubbing or mopping.

17 – Replacement Parts:

Specifically the sweeper brush will need to be replaced over time and so many robot vacuums will supply one or two spares.

18 – Room Mapping:

Most people think that robot vacuums learn and map the room, but that is a rare feature which today is largely limited to only the most expensive Roomba’s.  None of the common Roomba’s and very very few of the other robot vacuums do any sort of room mapping; nearly all work on random patterns.  The better units will have sensors the determine if a particular area of the floor is really dirty and then they will attack that area with different patters (like doing concentric circles).

Which Robot Vacuum Did We Choose?

After considering all of the details above we started our search for a robot vacuum by considering all of the models we have readily available to us from Amazon, Costco and BestBuy.  We immediately ruled out 95% of them based three factors:

1. PRICE: We considered only products between $100 and $400
2. DOCKING STATION: We wanted a fully autonomous system so no-dock = no sale
3. ROLLER BAR: We only considered robot vacuums that had beater / roller bars

After that we carefully considered each of the other options and settled on the BobSweep product line:

We then found a very good price (about CDN$225 on Black Friday) on the Bob PetHair on Amazon and that is what we bought.

Our early testing of this device has gone very well.  It has performed as advertised.  In particular we have liked how self sufficient it is.  The “Bobsweep Pet Hair” does not drop down stairs or get stuck, but it does a good job cleaning and is completely self sufficient.

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