Does anyone have any experience with this? It would save me a lot of money but I also don’t want to flush it down the toilet.

  • seaQueue@lemmy.world
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    27 days ago

    I prefer buying refurb laptops on eBay personally. eBay’s buyer protections are top tier, you can return the machine easily if it’s not exactly what was represented in the listing or if there’s any undisclosed damage or loss of function. Essentially you’re getting what the listing showed you or it’s like 5 clicks for a seller paid return label to send it back for a full refund (including any shipping costs both ways.)

    Amazon is hit and miss in my experience, they care about their cut of that particular transaction and moving product out of the warehouse ASAP and not so much about whether you’re coming back to make more transactions in the future. Their customer service is atrocious too, you have to fight for a refund a lot of the time.

    Edit, more detail in case you really want fleaBay to work for you:

    If you’re going to shop eBay regularly go look up their buyer protection policies (so you know what they can and will do for you) and also take a look at the item condition and listing policies that apply to sellers.

    Sellers often list items under the wrong condition category (like selling broken things in “Used” condition with an “AS-IS” disclaimer) and try to weasel in “as-is no refunds” or similar wording into the listing description. Well, they can say whatever they want, but unless the item meets the condition specified in eBay’s listing policy you’re still entitled to an easy refund at no cost if that item arrives at your door in less than fully functional condition (and with all cosmetic damage clearly described in the listing before the sale.)

    Once you understand how eBay handles policy disputes (they always adhere to policy, and almost always find in favor of the buyer when they don’t) you can hold scummy sellers over a barrel and demand a partial refund when items arrive damaged, or just ship the whole mess back to them at their expense and wash your hands of it.

    TL;DR: eBay is a great place to buy, not so much to sell