Buying a new Fire tablet from eBay

[greenjp]

Looking to get a 2nd Fire HD 8 Kids version, $130 from Amazon, $95 NIB from a handful of eBay sellers. Multiple thousand feedbacks, 99%+ ratings. Assuming there's no counterfeit issue, is there any risk here? Warranty-wise this would be no different than having received it as a gift?

jeff

 

[dishdude]

I would assume no warranty. If it was a gift from a friend, they could send you a gift receipt.

 

[atikovi]

Probably no warranty unless they are an authorized seller or you get the receipt from when the seller bought it.

 

[JayhawkRoy]

I noticed that some vendors have a 2 yr protection plan from Square Trade, so if you want some kind of warranty, $8.99 but provides you some decent protection. My family has purchased and used Square Trade protection plans for electronics in the past with good results.

 

[CKN]

Have you seen the "Fire like" tablet Walmart is coming out with for like $64.00. Unlike the Fire it has access to the google play store without any work-arounds.

"Walmart is releasing three sub-$100 tablets under its Onn store brand this week. They include an 8" screen model at $64, a 10.1" model, and the larger one with a detachable keyboard for $99. Each model has 16 GB of storage and uses Google's Android operating system.

 

[philipp10]

Originally Posted by greenjp
Looking to get a 2nd Fire HD 8 Kids version, $130 from Amazon, $95 NIB from a handful of eBay sellers. Multiple thousand feedbacks, 99%+ ratings. Assuming there's no counterfeit issue, is there any risk here? Warranty-wise this would be no different than having received it as a gift?

jeff

I have bought quite a few laptops and tablets off Ebay. They were termed "refurbished". From my experience, these are returned units and arrived to me looking new. Even the box they came in looked new. I wouldn't worry. With tablets and electronics, if it turns on on day one, it's probably good for the next 10 years so the warranty is worthless anyway.

 

[philipp10]

Originally Posted by JayhawkRoy
I noticed that some vendors have a 2 yr protection plan from Square Trade, so if you want some kind of warranty, $8.99 but provides you some decent protection. My family has purchased and used Square Trade protection plans for electronics in the past with good results.

but did you actually make a claim on the warranty?

 

[JayhawkRoy]

Originally Posted by philipp10
Originally Posted by JayhawkRoy
I noticed that some vendors have a 2 yr protection plan from Square Trade, so if you want some kind of warranty, $8.99 but provides you some decent protection. My family has purchased and used Square Trade protection plans for electronics in the past with good results.

but did you actually make a claim on the warranty?

Yes, we got it repaired and Square Trade arranged for the repair with the manufacturer. It was on a laptop my wife uses. Except for losing the laptop during the repair cycle, it was painless.

 

[HangFire]

The good news is, no one bothers with faking Fire for Kids tablets.

The bad news is, of 5 Fire tablets, none of them ever made it past 2 years life. Half broke outside warranty, requiring ponying up for a new one. None of them were broken by my kids.

The issue was never screen breakage, it was always the charging port breaking internally, and then it wouldn't charge, and then it would die.

When the last one broke, we bought an iPad 256GB with 3 year warranty and never looked back.

Before buying, I would consider the price of the warranty, and ask if a broken charging port is considered "wear and tear" on the warranty.

 

[Linctex]

Originally Posted by CKN
Have you seen the "Fire like" tablet Walmart is coming out with for like $64.00. Unlike the Fire it has access to the google play store without any work-arounds.

"Walmart is releasing three sub-$100 tablets under its Onn store brand this week. They include an 8" screen model at $64, a 10.1" model, and the larger one with a detachable keyboard for $99. Each model has 16 GB of storage and uses Google's Android operating system.


THANKS for the heads up!!

 

[Linctex]

Originally Posted by philipp10

I have bought quite a few laptops and tablets off Ebay. They were termed "refurbished". From my experience, these are returned units and arrived to me looking new. Even the box they came in looked new. I wouldn't worry.


I always buy "the year before last year's model" iPhone - - - on ebay from these "licensed refurbished' sellers.

My iPhone 6s was $173 and looked like it had never been used a day in it's life and has always been flawless.

I can't see why anyone would pay full retail price when the deals are LEGIT and out there..... I'm glad for the people that *DO* so the savings get passed down to me!

 

[4WD]

Originally Posted by philipp10
Originally Posted by greenjp
Looking to get a 2nd Fire HD 8 Kids version, $130 from Amazon, $95 NIB from a handful of eBay sellers. Multiple thousand feedbacks, 99%+ ratings. Assuming there's no counterfeit issue, is there any risk here? Warranty-wise this would be no different than having received it as a gift?

jeff

I have bought quite a few laptops and tablets off Ebay. They were termed "refurbished". From my experience, these are returned units and arrived to me looking new. Even the box they came in looked new. I wouldn't worry. With tablets and electronics, if it turns on on day one, it's probably good for the next 10 years so the warranty is worthless anyway.


Think the GeekSquad I just got from BestBuy was slightly different … returned right away when someone decided to get a more upscale laptop … so they purge data, test, clean and box … (did not need repair) …

 

[HangFire]

I wouldn't burden my kids with any off-brand child's tablet, especially not with only 16GB.

When the Fires weren't denying WiFi access to Xfinity (available almost anywhere) or just plain bombing out of some Apps for no reason, they actually had a lot of good content and did a good job curating and keeping out the inappropriate stuff. We started with the 16GB (upgrade from the useless 8GB) but it just didn't hold enough games to keep the kids occupied while on the road, and it was always rotating a favorite game off the platform to make room for the latest. Going to 64GB fixed that.

 

[Andrew1972]

The kids warranty covers drops/damage and 1 year on Amazon.com. Good luck with that for $30 saving with an eBay seller.

The only downside of Fire Os is it does not seem to be capable of hooking to a public wifi with captive login screen where you accept terms. That being said my 5 year old loves the $30 Kindle Fire with her music downloaded, two games(Fruit Ninja/slither.io) and some amazon tv shows loaded for longer car rides.

 

[HangFire]

The Amazon warranty is great, while it lasts. Got 2 replacement Fire's over the years (meaning I had to pay for the other 2 replacements). Used to be 2 years.

 

[philipp10]

Originally Posted by Linctex
Originally Posted by philipp10

I have bought quite a few laptops and tablets off Ebay. They were termed "refurbished". From my experience, these are returned units and arrived to me looking new. Even the box they came in looked new. I wouldn't worry.


I always buy "the year before last year's model" iPhone - - - on ebay from these "licensed refurbished' sellers.

My iPhone 6s was $173 and looked like it had never been used a day in it's life and has always been flawless.

I can't see why anyone would pay full retail price when the deals are LEGIT and out there..... I'm glad for the people that *DO* so the savings get passed down to me!

I believe most of these are returns, basically never used. I have saved tons of money this way too. I got my kid a high end graphics computer from one of these sellers. The original retail (which no one pays) was $1750. Paid 349, its been flawless 4 years running except the battery.

 

[CKN]

Originally Posted by HangFire
I wouldn't burden my kids with any off-brand child's tablet, especially not with only 16GB.


When the Fires weren't denying WiFi access to Xfinity (available almost anywhere) or just plain bombing out of some Apps for no reason, they actually had a lot of good content and did a good job curating and keeping out the inappropriate stuff. We started with the 16GB (upgrade from the useless 8GB) but it just didn't hold enough games to keep the kids occupied while on the road, and it was always rotating a favorite game off the platform to make room for the latest. Going to 64GB fixed that.


I think buying kids a cheap one to be abused is not a bad purchase decision.

I would "burden" them.

And having access to the Google store is a big plus.

 

[greenjp]

Well I rolled the dice and bought it from eBay. It got here in two days (shipped from about 10 miles from my house) and is as advertised, new in box. I went through the setup and got the email from Amazon regarding the warranty and FreeTime subscriptions, so all seems well. I'll post back if I end up having any warranty or service issues.

jeff