buying refurbished from best buy reddit - Brave Search

How do you feel about refurbished from Best Buy?

reddit.com › r › Frugal › comments › 1lr9htz › how_do_you_feel_about_refurbished_from_best_buy

Best Buy doesn’t have any 3rd party sellers so you don’t have to worry about that. I’ve bought a few refurbished items fromnBest Buy over the years. GeekSquad refurbished items are usually returned or repaired items that go through a specific test and check process and if there’s any accessories missing they replace them. Regular refurbished items are usually returns that get a once over, basic checks and put up for resale. Might be missing some box and accessories. Consider this equal to “used” really. I’ve had good luck with both these options. I’ve gotten headphones and SSD from geek squad refurb and they came with all accessories and looked to be nearly new. The regular stuff quality ran between looking new or missing stuff like boxes and manuals, maybe a little scuff here and there, but all worked fine. Apple also has some stealthy refurb items that are sold by Best Buy and Micro Center, but are actually fully refurbished by Apple themselves. You can usually spot them because they have a 1ye warranty instead of the usual 90 day. Answer from borderpatrol on reddit.com

reddit.com › r/frugal › how do you feel about refurbished from best buy?

r/Frugal on Reddit: How do you feel about refurbished from Best Buy?

July 4, 2025 -

Hi everyone, my son‘s iPad that I bought refurbished for Christmas for him just stopped working yesterday morning. We took it to the Apple Store and after running all the tests, the tech said that the display must be shot. It’s out of the Amazon marketplace seller’s warranty date, so they aren’t being any help. I was looking online at the Apple refurbished store and they don’t have what we were looking for, but now I am looking at Best Buy. There are two refurbished options, one is Apple certified geek squad and the other one is Apple certified. The geek squad option is not available for the item we are looking at, but does anyone have experience with Best Buy refurbished? It doesn’t say anything about it being from a marketplace or a third-party seller

Best Buy doesn’t have any 3rd party sellers so you don’t have to worry about that. I’ve bought a few refurbished items fromnBest Buy over the years. GeekSquad refurbished items are usually returned or repaired items that go through a specific test and check process and if there’s any accessories missing they replace them. Regular refurbished items are usually returns that get a once over, basic checks and put up for resale. Might be missing some box and accessories. Consider this equal to “used” really. I’ve had good luck with both these options. I’ve gotten headphones and SSD from geek squad refurb and they came with all accessories and looked to be nearly new. The regular stuff quality ran between looking new or missing stuff like boxes and manuals, maybe a little scuff here and there, but all worked fine. Apple also has some stealthy refurb items that are sold by Best Buy and Micro Center, but are actually fully refurbished by Apple themselves. You can usually spot them because they have a 1ye warranty instead of the usual 90 day.

I bought a refurbished Acer laptop from them a few years ago. Other than the minor scratch it had on the outside, it was basically brand new. I had that thing for a few years. They don’t sell third-party that I’ve ever seen.

reddit.com › r/bestbuy › how’s open box or refurbished laptop on bestbuy? deserve to buy? and it seems not all of them can be refundable

r/Bestbuy on Reddit: How’s open box or refurbished laptop on BestBuy? Deserve to buy? And it seems not all of them can be refundable

January 28, 2024 - DO NOT BUY. Most of them, even if they're geek squad refurbished apple devices with a really good prices, they're all going to be defective somehow. You cannot get protection on them and you only get a 90 days warranty.

Videos

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Should You Buy Refurbished Electronics? - YouTube

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Best Buy said it's "Like New" 😬 - YouTube

reddit.com › r/macbookpro › best buy refurbished… yes or no?

r/macbookpro on Reddit: Best buy refurbished… yes or no?

July 27, 2024 -

What do we think of Geek squad certified refurbished? i’ve heard mixed reviews, some saying it’s as good as apples and some saying it’s bad. can anyone share their own personal experience?

Not a MacBook, but I bought a gaming laptop from them open box and I couldn’t find a flaw with it. It looked perfect.

I’ve heard generally favorable things about them for the most part. If you’re really curious look up reviews of BestBuy refurbished Macs on YouTube so you can see what everything looks like

reddit.com › r/bestbuy › what is "refurbished (good)" ?

r/Bestbuy on Reddit: What is "Refurbished (Good)" ?

March 29, 2024 -

Mainly asking if there is a rating higher than (Good) ?

bought a controller from Bestbuy and just waiting on it to arrive. Did I make a mistake, will the controller be scuffed and worn down or worse, gunked up?

I only have the eBay rating system to go off of, Acceptable is below Good and Good is usually used when there isnt anything cracked/broken or clear sign of wear on the item.

I cant really find any item that is not (Good) on bestbuy refurb section. the controller is like $20 less than new if that helps.

Any idea ?

Do not buy refurbished

Yep excellent open box is highest for open box. Good is next with fair being at the end. It might have a scruff on it or scratch or just look like it has some wear. Online is harder but in store they have tags and will have under description if it has scratch etc. good news is if you don’t like it you can just return it and grab something else.

reddit.com › r/bestbuy › geek squad certified refurbished reliability

r/Bestbuy on Reddit: Geek Squad Certified Refurbished reliability

January 31, 2024 -

Hey y’all,

Turns out we get an employee discount on certain Certified Refurbished items, so I was looking at getting a 14” M1 Pro MacBook Pro, but I’ve heard pretty much nothing about if our certified refurb stuff is good or if they pretty much just ship a used product. Worried about issues.

So, anyone have positive or negative experiences with certified refurbished?

Just look at the warranty details, from my experience I’ve seen it’s a limited warranty but through a 3rd party company

As a customer. Don't. I bought a Geek Squad Certified Macbook Air M1 w/512 of storage. This is a 2020 computer for just over $800. Decent deal, but not a lot less than Apple does for their refurbs, which typically I do. Product delivered by Fed Ex - no signature requirement, box completely chewed up. Laptop in an inflatable sleeve in the box, no paper, no invoice, and no power cable. Small dents front and back lid. Unit doesn't power on - and again - no power cable. Website description said included power cable AND USB c cable. I have another macbook I used it to power on the device, battery max capacity close to 90% and once I started using it, it was going through power pretty quickly. I logged in and talked to Best Buy support - they said basically - sorry for the issue, go into the store and they will give you a cable. Went in with the case number from support. I tell the guy at the desk and he's like "it came like that, it's open box - you get what you get". And I was like - it's not open box supposedly it's Certified Refurbished - so what does that even mean? Also - the website description for what I bought said it comes with cables. I said that online support said that you would give me one. And he's like - "well I can't so..". Which just is really confounding to me - I bought something and I didn't get what the website said I would get - the issues with the battery and case dents (which I would be willing to accept) and Best Buy didn't really seem to care. So I returned it. And I'm ordering from Apple. Not only was the product not in great shape, it didn't come with what it said it would, online support said it would be fixed and in store reps basically gave me zero customer service, didn't really care about my problem, and didn't see to care about making their customer satisfied at all. I was very pleasant throughout this encounter despite this customer no-service, but I won't be shopping at Best Buy anymore - and it's likely Best Buy doesn't care if I do.

reddit.com › r/mac › are best buy’s geek squad certified refurbished computers good?

r/mac on Reddit: Are Best Buy’s Geek Squad Certified Refurbished computers good?

August 11, 2024 -

I’m thinking about buying a certified refurbished MacBook Air 13” 8GB RAM 256GB for $599 at Best Buy. Is it a bad deal? Their computers come in good conditions? Where can I get a better deal?

I own a Mac Mini M2 but I need something portable, I will do most of my heavy work on the Mac Mini anyway, so I don’t mind a 8GB RAM M1.

They're normally just open box machines that have been returned and taped back up. If you have problems with it, you can always just take it back to Best Buy.

Would not recommend. I got a refurbished laptop and received a different item than the one i paid for then was told i couldn’t return it in store and had to go to ups 👎

reddit.com › r/bapccanada › refurbished vs. open box from best buy

r/bapccanada on Reddit: Refurbished vs. Open Box from Best Buy

September 28, 2020 -

Edit: I pulled the trigger and went with the open box option. Too many unknowns with refurbished and the additional $67 for open box is worth the peace of mind and full warranty.

Hey guys, I'm looking at picking up a monitor that appears to be discontinued and Best Buy offers it refurbished from a 3rd party with 90 day return policy or for about $70 more open box and full warranty from Geek Squad.

Does anyone have any experience with refurbished vs. open box from Best Buy? Is the $70 savings worth the risk for refurbished from a 3rd party? It doesn't say if there is anything wrong with it like dead pixels, just that it's refurbished.

Thanks

3rd party refurbs are like a box of chocolates... you never know what you're gonna get. But in my experience, what you get is garbage about 75% of the time. I would only get something 3rd party refurb if it was an EXTREMELY good value (like below 50% of the price it'd cost new), WASN'T expensive, and WASN'T something that I absolutely needed to have work.

I don’t have experience with refurbished but I do with open box. The monitor I ordered was brand new and with no issues or dead pixels. Even open box it was still a good 50 or so bucks cheaper than brand new.

reddit.com › r/bestbuy › are refurbished products trustworthy??

r/Bestbuy on Reddit: Are refurbished products trustworthy??

February 19, 2025 -

I am looking into buying a refurbished MacBook, and I don’t wanna get scammed obviously, does geek squad actually make sure these returns don’t suck? What are y’all’s experiences and opinions. Please lmk

I personally really do not BestBuys refurbished program. A lot of those units come with like a 90 day warranty or something but other than that are some come "As is" where you can't add a protection plan for them, also afaik no MFG. Personal experience I had a young guy almost cry cause they spent some decent money on a macbook for school and it died within the year and I had to beg a manager to please make an exception. So not a fan...but Openbox, I shop those almost religiously

I've bought 2 refurbished laptops from Best Buy, and I have been satisfied with both of them. You can definitely tell they're not new (nor should you expect them to be), but they get the job done.

Find elsewhere

Google Bing Mojeek

reddit.com › r/macbookpro › is best buy refurbished reliable?

r/macbookpro on Reddit: Is Best Buy Refurbished reliable?

June 25, 2025 - If I recall they replace the entire ... like 100 dollars less Continue this thread ... I have purchased refurbished and floor demo from Best Buy and had no issues at all....

reddit.com › r/bapccanada › worth buying a laptop refurbished off best buy??

r/bapccanada on Reddit: Worth buying a laptop refurbished off Best Buy??

August 17, 2023 -

I am going to university with a tight budget and in need of a laptop. My price range is around $1.5k

Here is the laptop:

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/dell-xps-15-9530-15-fhd-intel-arc-a370m-i7-13700h-16gb-ram-512gb-ssd-win-11-home-certified-refurbished/17171038

Is buying this too risky? Should I choose a different laptop? Thanks in advance.

I don't see any issues from a purchase\consumer side. You have a 30 day return period and 1 year warranty. Might also be worth checking with your credit card if you get an extra year warranty (not sure if it applies to refurbs). I bought a refurbed S10 from Best Buy years ago... she worked fine and no issues during the 4 years I used it. As for if it is good value, I am not really in tune with current laptop market.

It's Bestbuy Marketplace so I would not. If it was a regular sale directly from Bestbuy, then it's worth considering. Bestbuy is really easy to deal with for returns. Even delivered items have the option to bring in to a store for a refund or swap. Marketplace items have to go through the vendor, which Bestbuy won't help you with. There are too many variables for me. I wouldn't want to deal with an almost anonymous company. This one's return policy looks okay, but a lot of Marketplace vendors have a predatory return policy where once you open the product and find it's defective, the opened status of the product means that they will only honour a percentage of your refund price. edit: the warranty is with the seller, not Dell, which is not a good thing.

reddit.com › r/gaminglaptops › is best buy's open-box "excellent" condition worth the risk?

r/GamingLaptops on Reddit: Is Best Buy's open-box "Excellent" condition worth the risk?

October 8, 2023 -

Hello all!

I found a great deal on a Lenovo Slim 7 for around $400 less than retail value at Best Buy open-box.

Is this something that is trustable for buying a gaming laptop?

Thanks!

As a Best Buy worker, I can say if it’s ‘excellent’ it usually is something that was returned very shortly after it was purchased.

Hit or miss if you can see it in person that is better. Recently, I ordered a excellent condition computer and it was scratched and covers with stains with no box.

reddit.com › r/bestbuy › refurbished or openbox?

r/Bestbuy on Reddit: Refurbished or Openbox?

November 7, 2022 -

I'm stuck looking at the 55" LG C1. One TV is Refurbished (excellent quality) and the other is Open Box.

Price is the same.

The Refurbished has a 1-year warranty, and states " This is a Refurbished product in Excellent condition, with very light to no signs of wear. Product has been tested for 100% functionality."

The Open Box has a minimum 6-month warranty (1 year I think?)

Open Box: LG 55" 4K UHD HDR OLED webOS Smart TV (OLED55C1AUB) - 2021 - Open Box | Best Buy Canada

Refurbished: https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/refurbished-excellent-lg-oled55c1aub-55-2021-4k-hdr-oled-smart-tv-factory-refurbished/15692942

I read somewhere that the Refurbished in excellent quality is less likely to have issues because it's been thoroughly tested, whereas the Open Box could have been returned because of dead pixels, screen tinting, or some other issue (or it was a floor model).

Any experience, thoughts or help would be appreciated! Thanks.

I wouldn’t buy either unless I could see them. I personally would trust open box more than refurbished.

Always best to test IRL

reddit.com › r/airpodsmax › best buy refurbished

r/Airpodsmax on Reddit: Best Buy Refurbished

October 23, 2023 -

How serious are people about needing Apple Care? Is Best Buy Refurbished a good deal since you save nearly $200? Or people would rather buy new to have Apple Care?

I bought Best Buy refurbished and was able to buy AppleCare for it.

I just got my headphones from Best Buy refurb a couple of weeks ago. They are perfect. They are more or less new, I could never tell otherwise. Highly recommend this route.

reddit.com › r/laptops › are refurbished laptops on best buy good?

r/laptops on Reddit: Are refurbished laptops on best buy good?

September 14, 2025 -

https://www.bestbuy.com/product/refurbished-dell-latitude-5420-14-intel-i5-1145g7-16gb-256gb-ssd-windows-11-pro-grey/J39WY9HFHP

mostly asking to know if this laptop is good to buy

it depends on the laptop age and model, but that latitude (business line) with that age (not that old) and that cpu (not that bad) are a solid buy to me. The price is about right too, and the support from best buy will be a lot more straightforward and possibly better than most other online retailers. I think this is perfectly fine buy for basic computing tasks, internet, email, office, etc.

The Latitude 5420 is a mainstream business laptop. I have one, the i7 variant though, bought it from eBay. It's your typical business laptop, i.e. easyish to service, upgradeable RAM, etc. Note that 'refurbished' is a bit of a stretchy term - most likely, it was leased to a company, the company has now returned it, and the refurbisher perhaps put in a new SSD (if the company removed the old one at the end of the lease), reinstalled Windows, and that may be about it. Some of these off-lease systems can be in much better health than others.

reddit.com › r/gaminglaptops › best buy refurb(good) or open box?

r/GamingLaptops on Reddit: Best Buy refurb(good) or open box?

December 19, 2021 -

Hey guys I found a really good deal on Amazon but it’s refurbished good and I’m not sure if refurbished is better or worse than “open box” so pls help a bro out!

To be honest, I would never buy a refurbished computer. If it has a good warranty that helps a bit, but if/when there is a problem, you still have to deal with sending the thing to some technician (and possibly getting them to honor the warranty, many companies will do anything to avoid accepting warranty claims). Refurbished means that someone (usually not the manufacturer unless it specifically says “manufacturer refurbished”) has stripped it down and replaced aging parts, theoretically restoring it to a near-new state. In most cases that’s not the case; people tend to cut corners where they can so it’s actually profitable. Open box just means someone bought it, opened the box and returned it. However, there are a variety of reasons someone might do this; sometimes people return computers because something wasn’t working right, but those are actually supposed to be sent to the manufacturer, not back to the store that sold them the product. If you buy open box, it’s safest to make sure they have an actual return policy and/or let you inspect & turn on the device before purchase.

reddit.com › r/bestbuy › how to find refurbished items in store?

r/Bestbuy on Reddit: How to find refurbished items in Store?

September 25, 2024 -

Hi

I always see posts of people scoring amazing deals on refurb items in store.

Best buy definitely does not have refurb TVs on display right? Should I talk to the employee over there and they will share all the open box deals they have?

How does it work?

Refurbished means the item required repair service work. These will not be sold in store, they're online only. Open box items are items which required only in-store care like software resets. These can be sold in store or online. Inventory for them is individual item specific, but you can look them up online and see which units are available for pickup at which stores.

reddit.com › r/bestbuy › is buying refurbished geek squad certified worth it ?

r/Bestbuy on Reddit: is buying refurbished geek squad certified worth it ?

August 25, 2023 -

hey yall so i wanna buy a macbook from best buy since they have sales for it rn. i really want one with a touch bar but a new one is out of my budget, i noticed that geek squad certified refurbished is muchhhh cheaper but is it worth it? i wouldn’t want the computer to break on me or have a bunch of issues since im gonna need it for school. has anyone bought refurbished and how was it ?

Not worth it. I would go for an open box m1-m2 if your store still has them available. It’s a way better option

Not with it. Intel macs are quickly losing Mac OS support there's only a few that support even Ventura

reddit.com › r/ipad › is it okay to buy a refurbished ipad from best buy?

r/ipad on Reddit: Is it okay to buy a refurbished iPad from Best Buy?

June 23, 2024 -

I want to get an iPad but I’m balling on a budget. Are refurbished iPads worth it? I don’t feel the need to get the newest model.

Can you register AppleCare with them? As in, can you register through apple directly and not Best Buy? If not, no, I wouldn’t touch a refurbished through Best Buy.

I saw your post and ran to Bestbuy site. I couldn't remember if refurbished had the option for Apple Care+. So I checked and noticed for refurbished there wasn't an option for Apple Care. I also noticed there were quite a few iPad Air M1 on sale that did have the option for Apple Care. So they offer past generation new with Apple Care, probably have tons in the warehouse, so offering good deals. Like the other comment said I wouldn't buy a refurbished without Apple Care, and I wouldn't accept Bestbuy insurance either.

reddit.com › r/laptops › worth buying refurbished/open box from best buy?

r/laptops on Reddit: Worth buying refurbished/open box from best buy?

February 23, 2025 -

I'm looking around for laptops on best buy, costco, etc and I am heavily debating just buying open box/refurbished from best buy. Has anyone had any experiences doing so? Is it a bad idea?

Also, if you would suggest it, recommendations of open box/refurbished laptops would be greatly appreciated!

Generally buying open box is a good idea if your budget is low

I've bought at least two open box laptops from Best Buy. It can save you quite a bit.

reddit.com › r/applewatch › best buy open box vs refurbished? what’s the difference?

r/AppleWatch on Reddit: Best Buy open box vs refurbished? What’s the difference?

March 1, 2017 -

Does anyone know what Best Buy does to ‘refurbish’ Apple Watches? I know with an open box it’s a return, looked over, then repriced - but what do they do to ‘refurbish’? Can you add AC+ to a refurbished if it’s less than 60 days old?

I believe open box is a return with in the return window, they making sure it works, in a new like condition and has very thing that’s in the box as if it where new. Where refurbished is something has been used, let’s say an iPhone 7 that was traded in. Returned in ear headphones are almost always considered refurbished because they need to be cleaned. They inspect it, clean it and maybe put it in some sort of packaging.

Open Box are generally in-store returns. Refurbs can be either factory refurbs (which apple does'nt work with Best Buy on I don't think) or Geek Squad Certified Refurbs, which means they had a little more going over at a GSQ facility, usually these are web returns.

My AWS was an Open Box and I got a great deal on it, because the charger was damaged (cheap to replace) and it was missing one of the default band lengths (traded a friend for the longer one I needed then.)