eBay Certified Refurbished.

[steve648536]

From my experience of buy eBay certified refurbished items has been nothing but a disappointment, I have purchased two items from this category both are not what they say there are.

I brought a hoover that arrived covered in scratches & never really worked correctly from day one, contacted the seller they said "everything inside has been refurbished we don't do the outside"? I also brought a PSU for a pc a brand name Corsair.

Installed this into my PC to find out that this is also faulty, unfortunately the PSU blew up a GPU in the process.

Short post but don't learn the hard way with electrical items that are eBay certified refurbished, spend a few pounds extra & buy new.

One seller wanted me to return the item the PSU, but the cost of returning it waiting for them to test it & say "it's fine must be something on your PC" is not worth the time or effort.

I got the PSU checked by a local computer shop & they told me there is several problems with it, wrong voltage on several cables, this is what caused the GPU to burnout.

After 22yrs with eBay I will never buy another refurbished item again that's for sure.

[red_magpie]

As you know, eBay has several categories of "refurbished", of which certified refurbished is the highest standard. Items are required to be "in a pristine, like-new condition and been professionally inspected, cleaned, and refurbished by the manufacturer or a manufacturer-approved vendor to meet manufacturer specifications." But note that it's the seller who self-certifies that it meets this description - it is NOT "eBay certified refurbished".

The bad news, of course, is that like everything on eBay it's entirely up to sellers to be truthful in descriptions, and all too many are not. eBay even warns buyers in the user agreement that "they do not guarantee the existence, quality, safety or legality of items advertised, or the truth or accuracy of descriptions".  Would you buy from a shop that stated this? Buyers can't say they were not warned. eBay is a jungle.

The better news is that if an item fails to meet this description, you can open an item not as described case under eBay's money back guarantee. There is a link to it in every qualifying listing, or see: https://pages.ebay.co.uk/ebay-money-back-guarantee/

Don't forget to leave appropriate feedback.