By Cor Merx, attorney at law
Before I arrived in Sint Maarten – 15 years ago – I never heard of the word “refurbished” because this was not taught in my school-English.
In Sint Maarten there was a discussion about this issue between some suppliers as it was like: you should be aware that the prices are so low because the items are refurbished. They were packed over in another box to make sure they looked like brand-new.
Well, let me try to explain something.
Refurbished means: the product was in use by someone and it went back to the manufacturer to be repaired according to the standards of a new product. The price of these items, most of the time, is better than a new one. That sounds reasonable.
But is it really scary to buy a refurbished product for less money and a lower period of (manufacture) warranty?
No, but please be aware that someone other than the manufacturer can refurbish the product. We call this B-refurbished. My advice is not to buy that kind of product.
I purchased a refurbished generator from a Dutch-German brand because it was totally revised. I took that generator because some other people had a good experience with it. It also is according to the noise and hindrance standards from Holland or the EU (Europe). The American ones make a lot of noise. The difference in noise regulations (in both countries) is clear: in Holland people live very close to each other and a loud generator would cause a lot of hindrance. In the US people live (sometimes) miles away from each other so a generator does not cause hindrance.
Back to the story.
About the law To be or not to be refurbished
