What exactly is a refurbished plasma TV?  A refurbished plasma TV is a television that has been returned to the retail store where it was purchased within the first 30 days.  Refurbished plasma TVs could have originally been returned for any number of reasons, most of them having nothing to do with the television being damaged or not working properly.  Some people just change their minds. It’s possible the customer wanted a bigger one or smaller one.  It could be one of a million other reasons they returned it.

Refurbished plasma TVs are sent from the retailer to a factory refurbishing facility or factory-authorized third party facility.  Here they address any performance issues, clean the plasma TV, make sure all original accessories, manuals, etc. are put with the refurbished TV.  The refurbishing facility also does a “burn in” test for 48-72 hours.  This “burn in” test makes sure there are no other performance issues and the original factory specs are recalibrated on this “like new” refurbished plasma TV.

The best thing about a refurbished plasma TV is that you can purchase it for 20% - 30% less than the price you would find at a major retail store such as Circuit City, Best Buy, etc. for a new plasma TV.  Some people are concerned about purchasing a refurbished plasma TV because they just aren’t sure it is as good as a brand new one.  The fact is that a refurbished plasma TV has undergone factory testing more recently than a new plasma TV off the show room floor. If fact many times the refurbished plasma TVs are brand new and the manufacturer is over stocked in that particular model number.  They cannot introduce that model at a greatly reduced price to the public unless it is marked Refurbished.  Otherwise they would have conflicts with their retail partners.

Refurbished plasma TVs have a shorter warrantee (45 - 90 days) than a new plasma TV (1 year).  By their way of thinking the manufacturer has just retested the whole TV and made sure it is in perfect working order.  They also have quite a bit of time invested in the refurbishment process and they are hedging their losses.  Extended warrantees are available for refurbished TVs if this is a big concern for you.

There are some refurbished plasma TV brands that are hard to find such as Sony.   Sony sells their refurbished plasma TVs through their 10 nationwide outlet stores.  Another manufacturer you cannot find selling their refurbished plasma TVs to the public is Mitsubishi.  They claim to sell all their refurbished models to their employees.  Pioneer and Panasonic’s refurbished plasma TVs can be found on the open market if you look around for them.  Brands that are readily available to the public are Vizio, Toshiba, Polaroid and Westinghouse to name a few.

Refurbished plasma TVs can be a great choice not only for your wallet but for the environment too!  Refurbished plasma TVs can also be a really great way to save money and still get the plasma you want.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 6th, 2008 at 1:39 pm and is filed under Plasma vs LCD TV. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.