General > General Technical Chat
Ethics of declaring repairs during resale
cincin:
Greetings!
I've recently gotten into repairing electronics, for fun. I buy defective music gear, mostly, and tinker with it until I figure out what's wrong, source parts, repair, and usually end up selling it.
I'm an honest person, and I like the people who buy from me to be happy with their purchases. As such, I should really declare everything I know about the gear I'm selling. However, talking about repairs in an ad tends to shy away potential buyers, when really it should be the other way around. After all, the unit has been looked over, cleaned, extensively tested, and all failing parts have been replaced with new ones, sometimes better ones. Marketing dictates I should say it's been "recently serviced", and keep it at that. "Recently serviced" comes across as positive, and actually spells out that someone tinkered inside, but it does not imply a previous defect...
I realize only I can come to my own conclusions about my own ethics, but I"d be interested in hearing how others who resell repaired items feel about it. Do you divulge everything? Nothing? Somewhere in between? What sort of language do you use?
Cheers!
PlainName:
If your repairs are good you could call it refurbished. If it shows signs of repairs you should note that it is repaired, though, otherwise you might get bad feedback and returns.
james_s:
When I have sold repaired equipment I either call it refurbished or don't mention it unless there are visible signs of repair. With old equipment I don't think it's reasonable to expect it to have never been serviced. I do high quality repairs and stand behind my work though, I have no way knowing what your repairs are like.
edavid:
OP doesn't mention where he is selling, but describing an item as refurbished on eBay is asking for trouble. Just describing it as "used" is a pretty big commitment for the seller. Did you really test all 100 functions after your repair? Verify every spec in the manual?
My experience is that most buyers don't want to hear about repairs. I think it comes across as "I bought this cheap and marked it up". However, you can still mention them if you prefer. It's not an ethics issue.
nctnico:
IMHO it is better to call equipment refurbished or fully checked. More importantly offering a warranty works much better to sell especially on a platform where you can build up a reputation.
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