TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Why would one assume that a refurbished product receives a more thorough QA testing than a new product off the assembly line? This is often repeated, but is there any evidence it is true?

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

A $100/hr tech spends 30-minutes testing, then they sell the lens for a 12% discount with a 90-day warranty. That it has more QA verification than one directly from the factory has got to be true? Right, you read it on the internet ....

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Actually Canon does go through them and rebuild as necessary with new parts to new condition then give a 1 year warranty.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

Your post would have been better timed BEFORE you ordered.
99.9% of the time folks return a lens because they just did not want it or (this is really funny) they feel they got a bad copy.
You cannot go wrong with a refurbished Nikon lens. They do come with a shorter warranty, most new Nikon lenses come with 5 year warranty, and considering the electronics and gears that now are in most AF lenses, this is a good idea.
Refurbished lenses come with a much shorter warranty, my advice, shoot the living (you know what) out of that lens when you get it to make sure you are happy. Return it if you have any questions on it's performance.

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

First thing first, do not compare a refurb camera to refurb food. We cannot eat cameras.
If by reputable you mean dealers like Adorama, H&B and Cameta I am entirely in agreement with you. Some dealers do refurb in house.

Yes, if you bought a Nikon lens from a reputable dealer it was Nikon that did the refurb. Usually these are sample floor or returns. Those lenses are checked by Nikon to make sure they are up to specs. If the lens has to be overhauled, improbable to me, I do not call it refub but repaired.
Be confident, you will get a lens practically brand new. Cameta offers a year warranty in the refurbs they sell.

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

When I buy a refurb I usually add a 5 year drop & spill warranty and I still end up with a substantial savings over buying new.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

That's not what Canon's own website says ....

JohnH3 Loc: Auburn, AL

I will say this. By purchasing refurbished, I have upgraded to a higher quality lens a few times with great results as a result of the savings. The warranty pretty much says all in my opinion.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Just to give you one example of what I did that WILL cause this product to become a refurbished retail item:

I bought a pair of Samsung wireless bluetooth earbuds. I got them, charged them up, read the little booklet, and then tried them. I did everything I could to get the volume to go up high enough so that I could wear them at the gym. I even tried Googling how to get the volume up higher. They wouldn't go up high enough and I figured that they were defective. I returned them to Costco, ordered a new pair, got them 2 days later and same thing. So I figured they can't all be defective so after playing around with them in the app that I downloaded for my phone I discovered a setting in the app for volume up and down. It worked and the volume went high enough for me.

The first earbuds that I bought are perfectly fine even though I returned them. Costco will return them to Samsung, and Samsung will repackage them with new things that go into the person's ear because I'm sure that nobody will want to put used things in their ear. Then they will push them to a distributor that will find retailers for refurbished products or they might put them on their own retail web site for sale.

nadelewitz Loc: Ithaca NY

In general, "refurbishing" camera gear can mean whatever the refurbisher wants it to mean. External cleaning, changing a battery, cleaning front & rear lens, checking proper operation, new packaging....ANYTHING.

To think that a dealer will "rebuild" a lens, whatever that entails, is a bit much.

"Detailing" a car is the same thing. It doesn't include rebuilding an engine.

colt4x5 Loc: Central Connecticut

Not sure what is involved with Nikon's refurbishing, but over the years I have bought several refurbished lenses (also on sale on the Nikon site) that I simply could not afford new. I have never had any issues with any of them. I trust refurbished over just plain used.

Kozan Loc: Trenton Tennessee

The problem with buying refurbished equipment is that if the original had a faulty part, the manufacturer is going to replace that same type of faulty part. You always take a chance that there was a fault to begin with. In time, it will fail again.

Having said that, I have bought two fairly expensive pieces of gear. One was a Tokina 100mm MACRO lens
and another was the Nikon P900 camera. Both are working great. But I always wonder if someday they will fail.

Kozan

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

The vast majority of my gear is used, not refurbished, both cameras and lenses. Professional-grade equipment is designed and manufactured for long-term and extended heavy use, situations I submit them to in my own work, without issue. I've rejected a few used purchases from KEH, my primary used source. Once accepted, I've never experienced a latent problem.

Bill P

I would expect that if you return a lens, they would give it a visual inspection, and perhaps if there is a complaint of something not working, put it on a testing fixture or on a camera and see if it is working as expected. If it is not functioning correctly, it is likely used as a source of spare parts. It would also not surprise me if there is a process where every 10 or 20 or 100 lenses are even inspected at all by the factory, so it might be fair to say these lenses get a better inspection than a new one.

assman Loc: Grand Rapids, MI

The big difference is refurbished or re-manufactured. Refurbished means it passes all the tests and parts are repaired or replaced as needed to perform as new. Re-manufactured means all wear items are replaced and item performs as new and usually has a warranty similar to new.