Is this T4x keyboard new or refurbished?

Hi, I have to replace the keyboard in my T43 and need some help to identify the condition of these T4x keyboards I found. The part# for the English/US one is 13N9988 and the FRU# is 39T0519. The other keyboard is in german with part#13N9992 and FRU#39T0523.

How do I know if it's new or refurbished? I assume all keyboards that IBM/Lenovo send as service parts are refurbished, am I right?

Thanks in advance,
ariel

 

in general, the industry's standard practice is to provide refurb parts unless they are not in availability. some will swap bad for bad until you find one you are willing or grudginly accept then they are off the hook. i have no experience with lenovo's practices as the TP line might be operated differently but i can say that for consumer tech including non PC that is the practice.

 

if you're asking about parts sold by the IBM maintenance parts department, nearly 100% of the parts they sell are new.

 

Actually they are from a service call, that is why I am assuming they could be refurbished, but I'm not certain.

 

parts requested by the tech support team ship from the maintenance parts department.   what i said above still holds true.

faulty keyboards typically get recycled or sent back to the manufacturers for internal diagnostics purposes.   it would cost IBM or lenovo too much to risk sending a faulty keyboard to a customer only to have it come back again.   the chance of you getting a refurbished keyboard is slim to none.

 

yeah but what about a refurbed momma board or LCD panel?

 

parts are only refurbished when the parts are expensive and old parts are readily available from customer return. For things like old/broken keyboards which Lenovo does not require you to return, due to the total cost of collection (old one) from customers, refurbishing and re-distributing is more than the manufacturing cost of a new keyboard, then the likelihood of Lenovo refurbishing these parts are very low. On the other hand, motherboards and LCD, which are collected back and the cost of refurbishing is less than a new one, which means as part of the overall cost saving exercise, refurbished parts are delivered to customers where possible.

 

no.   those parts would be used to create refurbished systems sold through the outlet.   they are not resold through the maintenance parts department for reasons i stated above.

two employees in the IBM maintenance parts know me by name.   what i'm saying here doesn't come from any guesses or speculation.

 

thats great to know. boo ya!