Refurbished by Canon?

So Bryan posted today that Adorama had updated its inventory on Canon refurbished products. Checked out the camera and called Adorama to see if they could give me any more information on the condition of the product. They were less then helpfull. So this evening I called Canon via a number found on there website for customer support, to find out information on reasons for refurbishing as well as conditions of refurbished items. After reading word for word whatever he was looking at the gentlemen on the phone stated that there has never been a Canon 1D refurbished by Canon for sale....ever. He stated that in his 9 years of working for Canon he has never even heard of a 1D being refurbished.


So can some one help me out here. Are Adorama refurbished items refurbished by Canon? Is the representative from Canon misinformed?


Im confused


Thanks


Joel

Joel, I can

I sent an e-mail to Helen Oster, who is an excellent Adorama Camera Customer Service Ambassador, in the hopes that she may have some possible insight into this situation. In the past, she has posted "All refurbished items sold by Adorama come in directly to us from the manufacturer

I can't speak to 'Refurbished by Canon' but I can tell you that the refurb business is an interesting one. For example, there's a US appliance brand called Hotpoint, a discount label owned by General Electric. I don't think this is still the case, but for many years (in my youth, I installed and serviced washers and dryers), appliances sold under the Hotpoint brand were units originally sold as the GE brand, and when returned for one reason or another, they were sold along with the factory seconds under the Hotpoint label.

I again wrote Canon and this is thier response:


Dear Robert Williams:


Thank you for writing to us regarding Canon refurbished digital cameras or lens. We value you as a Canon customer and appreciate the opportunity to assist you.


A refurbished Canon product, including cameras or lenses, is a unit which has gone through Canon

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Daniel Browning

"All refurbished items sold by Adorama come in directly to us from the manufacturer's factory where they have been refurbished, and are sold by Adorama with a 90-day warranty."

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As of about a year ago, Adorama itself extends the warranty on Canon Refurbished items to 1 year, covering the exact same defects as a new item Canon warranty. They'll cover return shipping from wherever it was originally shipped.


I've heard returned units can end up as refurbished, since they can't be sold as new. If they're returned for non-defect reasons, perhaps they don't always go through the whole return to Canon QA step. I have no idea, I'm just trying to find a way a refurbished 1D can be available. Perhaps the 1D in question was returned due to financial pressures, spouse pressures, being overwhelmed by the options, or the sudden realization they just needed a Rebel XS... who knows. Adorama deemed it perfectly fine, and was willing to offer their warranty on it themselves, knowing Canon wouldn't do such a thing with a 1-series. Rather than see the camera destroyed, they offer someone the chance to own a 1D on the "cheap".

I

Thanks to Daniel for alerting me to this thread [:)]and giving me the opportunity to clarify.





All refurbished units sold by Adorama Camera are factory refurbished by the manufacturer, for example, Canon cameras are refurbished at their manufacturing plant in Newport News, VA.; the room that houses Canon’s entire refurb process is said to be completely dust-free, and with every employee working in there being required to wear special booties!


They can have simply been pulled from the production line if something appears faulty, or if it hasn't passed the final inspection. Most of the time it is a very minor issue that needs correcting, nevertheless, once it is pulled from the normal flow of production, it gets flagged as a refurbished model, so you may get a unit straight from the factory that has never been used.


A refurb may also be an ex-store demo, possibly used in field tests or sales displays, or it may have been ordered in error and returned to the retailer (who can't then sell it as 'new' so it has to be sent back to the manufacturer for refurbishment).


All refurbished items will have been checked over by the manufacturer by hand, inspected very thoroughly, diagnosed, and calibrated by experienced technicians, and could therefore turn out to be more dependable than a new item - which will only have been checked by a process of systematic quality control protocol (ie by random sampling as it comes off the conveyor belt).


All Canon refurbished products from Adorama now come with a 1 year return-to-Adorama warranty as David pointed out (we extended this from 90 days about 18 months ago); the warranty we give covers anything the manufacturers warranty covers for a new unit, including shutter defects. Plus, as with all items sold by Adorama, you have a 30 day returns period for exchange or refund. NB refurbs directly from Canon, come, I believe with the 90-day warranty as before.


[All other refurbs sold by Adorama come with a 90-day return-to-manufacturer warranty].


In addition, Refurbs come into us with the firmware updates and latest fixes which were carried out at whatever stage it was at when we took delivery.


If you need additional firmware updates you can download them, but for any hardware fixes the unit would have to be sent to Canon.


[By the way, if you send a camera (any camera) to Canon for any hardware work, they will always update the firmware].


As to the individual history of a single item, the honest answer is we have no way of knowing. Refurbished equipment is not like new inventory; the manufacturers contact us when they have a batch to sell, and the availability is unpredictable. However, if you were to ask my personal opinion on whether the equipment that Adorama offers as refurbished is typically less than a year old, based on the regularity with which we receive batches, I'd be inclined to think it is all relatively new.


I hope this helps, but you are most welcome to email me directly: HelenO@adorama.com, if you need anything else, now or in the future.





Helen Oster


Adorama Camera Customer Service Ambassador

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HelenOster

All refurbished items will have been checked over by the manufacturer by hand, inspected very thoroughly, diagnosed, and calibrated by experienced technicians, and could therefore turn out to be more dependable than a new item - which will only have been checked by a process of systematic quality control protocol (ie by random sampling as it comes off the conveyor belt).

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So now we know, Thanks Helen and Daniel


Bob

Thank you to everyone who replied expecially Daniel and Helen.


Thanks


Joel