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    Refurb Asus sold as new?

    Discussion in 'Asus' started by twsnnva, Aug 25, 2012.

  1. twsnnva

    twsnnva Newbie

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    Hello All,

    I have concerns that the N76VZ that I purchased as new, is actually a refurb. I just placed the order yesterday, and with Prime Saturday delivery, had it delivered this morning. I also purchased a 512G SSD and 16GB of RAM, with the intention of upgrading both components right away. The first thing I noticed, was that the screw for the HDD/RAM bay cover was stripped. I was surprised at first, but assumed it was no big deal. I thought that perhaps the robot that inserts that screw was poorly calibrated, or perhaps my system was a randomly pulled from the assembly line for QA. However, after actually opening the bay, I noticed that both of the tabs used to pull the HDDs were creased, suggesting the HDDs had been removed at some point. At this point I was very suspicious and while going over everything with a fine-toothed comb, I also noticed the Windows COA had parts of characters missing, as though it was removed and reapplied. The tamper seal on the box was fine, so whatever happened, had to happen at Asus. Perhaps I am going overboard, but there are too many oddities to simply ignore. Had the only "problem" been the stripped screw, I could have believed it was new, but some type of fluke. So, I ask for everyone's opinion. Do you believe this is a refurb? Thanks, Thomas.

    I apologize for the large pics - I wanted them to be as clear as possible. I did have to resize a few to 75% as they were too large to upload.

    Edit: The center of the Windows COA looks fine, but notice the ends.
     

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    twsnnva, Aug 25, 2012
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  2. Kaiser2000

    Kaiser2000 Notebook Enthusiast

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    It does look suspicious.

    It looks as though you may have a system that someone else originally purchased (and modified), returned it to the store, the store then sent it back to Asus, Asus then sent it back to the store in a new box (without doing anything to it), and then the store then sold it to you as is.

    When I did an SSD swap, the HDD paper, panel screw and OS sticker were unworn.

    It could be a mishap in the QA department on Asus' part, or the store reapplied the seal to make it look new after it was returned. Maybe check the serial # on the notebook and compare it with the one on the box.

    I'd definitely exchange it for another one if I were you.

    Where did you buy it from?
     
    Kaiser2000, Aug 27, 2012
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