Humax Refurb boxes: Mystery of the Universe??

[DavidSTiVo]

Someone explain this to me:

I received a refurbished DRT800 from Humax today, it came in a brown box stamped REFURBISHED on the side. The model number on the sticker on the back of the unit says DRT800F, which I've read is the model # of refurb boxes.

The weird thing is, this box is IMMACULATE. I would bet it was brand new, looks like it was never touched by human hands. The buttons all have a very solid "brand new" feel, there is not a single smudge or fingerprint anywhere, and the RCA inputs are so shiney they look like they never touched a cable. So, I opened the box up out of curiocity. Every circuit board and wire look brand new, even the fan looks like it's never seene electricity. It even has "NEW" smell! Yet most of the internal parts say they were made in 2004.

I don't get how this logistically would work, there is no way a box could be made on 3/1, shipped to retail, sold, installed, returned to Humax, repaired, refurbished, shipped out to me all in 2 weeks!

If the 3/06 date is the date the refurbish process was completed, and this box was actually in service, why would Humax spend all the time/labor that would be required to make their refurbs so immaculate? :confused:

EDIT: Point of clarification. THIS (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=291329) is where I got my refurb, NOT from tivo.com

[Shawn95GT]

I was impressed with my 40 hours referb too.

I expected it to be kind of scrubby but the only way to could tell it wasn't new is that it didn't have that static-cling protector across the front of the unit.

:up: :up: :up: to the Tivo referb folks!

[asm]

It is possible that the item had some minor defect with fan or hard drive shortly after the item was sold. Since such defect would have been return by the customer without much useage, that would explains the lack or dust on the circuit board.

ASM

[lessd]

My 40 hour refurbish box from TiVo said it was made in Feb of 06 and had version 7,2,0 software on it, it did have the static thing on the front..I think this was a new unit that they did not want to advertise it as such because it would make the retailers mad, they gave the unit away for a 12 month service contract..what a deal and you can still get lifetime on it.

OH!! and all the accessories were new

Les

[xnevergiveinx]

my 40 hour refurb box had a small scratch in the metal front, but i filled it in with a pencil, so you can't see it.
the remote has light rub marks on the edges, not bad...i beat up on my remotes
someone wrote "b" on the hard drive and "b" under the hard drive
the hard drive is from april 5th, 2005
i managed to crack off pin #39 on the hard drive last night when i was pulling it out. i've never even bent a pin...i'm not sure as to why it would crack off, i think it was a little abused.
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=291557
the box is from april 20th 2005. no warranty void sticker on the box
i imagined i would get a box that is loaded with dust and a noisy whiney hard drive...but i can't find any dust and the drive isn't loud.

not bad...i fixed the drive i ruined, sorta. it will just be excess storage on my server, that will hold copies of tivo files for me.

[xnevergiveinx]

oh yeah, the accessories were new

my box came with 7.2.0 also...so i had to do 2 upgrades

[MighTiVo]

It is possible that the item had some minor defect with fan or hard drive shortly after the item was sold. Since such defect would have been return by the customer without much useage, that would explains the lack or dust on the circuit board.

ASM

An item doesn't have to make it to retail to be refurbished, it could have been a pull from the line, perhaps a batch that had a higher than normal failure rate during testing, etc.

[dtreese]

I worked for an electronics company one summer in college doing refurb work on word processors. We'd have some units come in broken and covered in filth, and others come in almost prisine. We did almost complete rebuilds if that's what it took. By the time they went out the door, they looked just like the new units off the main line.

Long story short: you should expect your refurb not to be a piece of garbage. It's not scratch & dent furniture, after all. It should look new -- don't accept any less.

[cfand3boyz]

Where did you all get these units? I can't believe it is free with a 12 month contract. Oh and after that contract is over can you get the multi unit discount?

[Shawn95GT]

Where did you all get these units? I can't believe it is free with a 12 month contract. Oh and after that contract is over can you get the multi unit discount?
http://www.tivo.com/2.1.1.0.ws.asp

[mick66]

Where did you all get these units? I can't believe it is free with a 12 month contract. Oh and after that contract is over can you get the multi unit discount?
If you already have another active tivo ($12.95 monthly or lifetime) this unit will get the msd at the time of activation and with the prepaid 12 month gift card it will actually be prepaid for 23 months.

[DavidSTiVo]

Where did you all get these units? I can't believe it is free with a 12 month contract. Oh and after that contract is over can you get the multi unit discount?

My refurb wasn't from TiVo.com like some have assumed in this thread. It was from Humax direct. See THIS THREAD (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=291329) I started for the story of how awesome the refurb experience was with them!

[DavidSTiVo]

An item doesn't have to make it to retail to be refurbished, it could have been a pull from the line, perhaps a batch that had a higher than normal failure rate during testing, etc.

I think this probably answers my question! :cool:

[Shawn95GT]

My refurb wasn't from TiVo.com like some have assumed in this thread. It was from Humax direct. See THIS THREAD (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=291329) I started for the story of how awesome the refurb experience was with them!
Right, but he was asking about the free with a year of service box.

[TydalForce]

I got my refurb Humax from TiVo.com a whiles back when they still had them.

Mine also was in absolutely amazing condition! I was really impressed!

I don't know if it was refurb'ed by TiVo or Humax or some 3rd Party, but I'm definitely impressed. I've seen other refurb products like this that are "good-as-new" (Apple's refurb products are like this too) and now that I know I won't hesitate to recommend them to others or purchase more myself.

"Refurbished" is a scary word. Going in blind, you don't know what to get. I've seen some pretty shoddy refurb jobs. I'm glad this isn't one of them! Humax is definitely on my A+ list ;-}

(No "warranty void" sticker, eh? I didn't look on mine... maybe I'll pull it out of the shelf and take a peek... hmm... bigger hard drive time? hehe)

[Ipaqjoe]

I will add my Humax 80 DVD-R was "refurbished" as well but it was the cleanest one out of my 3 units by far.

I started out and bought a brand new 80 hour from Tivo with a year of service (to avoid the rebate hassle) then immediately paid the difference to go to lifetime.(this unit had the bad remote sensor) The case appeared to have a real cheap paint job, all kinds of greasy fingerprints on it. Did not appear new.

My second Humax to fix the bad remote sensor was sent out after I demanded a "Brand New" one. I figured I paid for a new one, why settle for a refurb. If I wanted a refurb I would order one in the first place. This was when Tivo and Humax told me they no longer make the 80 hour

My post about this
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=3525236#post3525236

So they sent me a brand new 40 hour instead (they also were out of the 80 hour refurbs, so I had little choice) The 40 hour they sent sounded like a lawnmower in my living room. The fan was putting out 50-70 db at 10 feet away!

My third unit came and all was well. Nice, quiet, clean, looked/smelled new.
Only difference was it was in a brown box vice retail.

Got it in Dec 2005 with a build date of Dec 2005 on the rear sticker. The only weird thing about the final Humax was it came with 5.3x software on it so I had to truck it down to my office to do the initial setup over phone (Vonage at home) ;)

On a final note, if any of you have been following my issue with 480p breaking after I went to 7.2.2
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=291342

TivoJerry has been working with me and looking at my log files. So far we have not found anything. Somehow it started working fine again all by itself last night. Chalk it up to gremlins or maybe someone made some changes to something. Knock on wood it is fixed :cool: (hopefully it stays that way)