factory reconditioned

What is the deal with factory reconditioned amps?  Is this something to stay away from?

If not is there a good site you could recommend that carries factory reconditioned stuff?

Well, after being in the industry 20 years almost and seeing more than the average bear's worth of refurb equipment, to me I steer entirely clear of it now. I just sent a great Eclipse CD5423 back for the 5th time for the same issue that I saw with my own eyes. I tested it in the board and the customers car and had the same results, yet the service shop could not find the flaw, now this unit will be sold as a refurb, tested and certified.

Lots of companies make good gear, yet no company is immune to failures and failure upon failure as well. It is all about how reputable the dealer is that you are buying the refurb from and how they will honour warranty on it. IF you are buyuing from Sounddomain etc, chances are that the warranty will be dealt with properly etc, but if you are buying from some dude on line (Trailer Park Timmy's Discount Audio Sleazemart), will the warranty be the same or are you on your own. It all comes back to one thing, buyer beware.......

I have had a amp about 12 years back that had caught fire, was repaired and sold as a refurb. This happened at the big box retailer that I used to work for. I have seen subs with mismatched dustcaps and cones, yet the baskets are the same. I have seen cd players with differing faceplates to the chassis model #, I have seen the same models with different amplifier stages. Basically, I have seen my share and know enough to stay away as it does nothing except create headaches for me when warranty time comes. This is time that I could be spending with a customer installing his equipment or gaining new business instead of saying to a customer, I told you so.... Is all refurb equipment bad, no, will I sell it here, no. To each his own. There is nothing worse than selling a customer a refurb only to have it die and there are no more refurbs available to sell him and now the unit is gone for service after one week of use. It's gone for a week, maybe a month, maybe two. As I dealer I have to look after the customer, this means that I am now giving him a new unit, A stock, that I am now losing money on.... not the way to run a business profitably, but a way to ensure that a customer gets looked after. I will always look after my customer the best I can, but I will not sacrifice my business's ability to remain profitable at the same time. So I say no to refurds!

Well I guess considering I can get either a bazooka or a us acoustics 2 channel amp for $80 I will buy new rather than take a chance.  Espeically since this will be my first install, I don't need any additional trouble shooting for possible defective equipment.  I'm using it to power components or two way coaxials so I don't need a 1000 watt unit.

thanks for the input

Sedate, bang on with the amp. I laughed just as hard actually.

Dyonn, sorry for having than name wrong, oops

Auex, you mean that they have a swapmeet as well!