If believing this makes you feel better, please feel free to go ahead. I love my Nikon stuff and believe that NikonUSA is a reasonably decent company. But for some reason, a whole set of myths about how things work just won't go away.

First...everyone always just glows about how their stuff comes back from Nikon all cleaned up with new grips. And this is generally true. But it is not just from the goodness of their heart. Opening a camera requires removing every grip pad on it, because the assembly screws are hidden under them. Once removed, they cannot be replaced. New ones are required. That's one reason that contributes to regular repair costs.

Second...repaired items are repackaged by relatively unskilled workers into white boxes (or in the lens i bought on clearance, a dust bag and bubble wrap). They are not gone over by the trained technicians. That is one reason the warranty is 90 days instead of one year.

The result of buying refurbished is usually just fine. Sometimes it is not, as in my experience above. But folks here need to stop promulgating the lie that these refurbished products are "better than new." Some companies used to sell products like that. NikonUSA does not.

With all due respect, no rational company is going to send equipment back out the door that hasn't been put on the lift and given a good inspection and fixed where required. To do so would be risking their reputation and brand by carelessly putting back out gear that has not been vetted.
If they did so, the overall reputation the Nikon Refurb'ed Program would be on par with "Abes of Maine".
When I sent my D850 recently to replace the LCD screen which it cost me about $350 to $375 out of warranty. I did not select a cleaning or calibration but they included it anyway when i read the final work order plus cleaning the view finder. The regular cleaning charge is not far South of that anyway.
And I got it back less than 2 weeks later. I understand how jaded some people can get, but that is great customer service and points to the skill and efficiency of their techs.
And that's why I am a die-hard Nikon user on my 7th DSLR body since 2008. I still own 4 of them and gifted the other 3 to family.

No. No rational company is going to spend the money, the time, and retain the human resources to test equipment -- that was built to spec to last years -- and then sell this value-added (retested) equipment at a lower cost than new.

Let's test your theory and your business acumen. Let's just say on Monday I send you the following customer returns:

3 x D750
4 x D5500
2 x Z DX NIKKOR 18-140mm f/3.5-6.3 VR
1 x AF-S NIKKOR 500mm F/5.6E Pf ED VR

How long will it take you, an individual, to do your "thorough" testing? A day? A week? A month? Forever? Do you even have all the equipment onsite to perform your imaginary "thorough" testing? Beyond the equipment, do you have the procedures? If you're this level of 1-man all-equipment expert, how much are you paid? Can you do all this work at a cost lower than selling the same equipment new?

Take your big brain and equipment and divide over multiple employees, how big is your staff? Are they full-time, just waiting for an unknown quantity of equipment, in unknown model distributions, at unknown times? Is your small army of staff now the same size or bigger than the automated manufacturing at the original overseas plant?

With all due respect, no rational company is going to send equipment back out the door that hasn't been put on the lift and given a good inspection and fixed where required. To do so would be risking their reputation and brand by carelessly putting back out gear that has not been vetted.
If they did so, the overall reputation of the Nikon Refurb'ed Program would be on par with "Abes of Maine". You know? A dumpster fire.
When I sent my D850 recently to replace the LCD screen which it cost me about $350 to $375 out of warranty, I did not select a cleaning or calibration but they included it anyway when i read the final work order plus cleaning the view finder. The regular cleaning charge is not far South of that anyway.
And I got it back less than 2 weeks later. I understand how jaded some people can get, but that is great customer service and points to the skill and efficiency of their techs.
And that's why I am a die-hard Nikon user on my 7th DSLR body since 2008. I still own 4 of them and gifted the other 3 to family.

With all due respect, no rational company is going to send equipment back out the door that hasn't been put on the lift and given a good inspection and fixed where required. To do so would be risking their reputation and brand by carelessly putting back out gear that has not been vetted.
If they did so, the overall reputation of the Nikon Refurb'ed Program would be on par with "Abes of Maine". You know? A dumpster fire.
When I sent my D850 recently to replace the LCD screen which it cost me about $350 to $375 out of warranty, I did not select a cleaning or calibration but they included it anyway when i read the final work order plus cleaning the view finder. The regular cleaning charge is not far South of that anyway.
And I got it back less than 2 weeks later. I understand how jaded some people can get, but that is great customer service and points to the skill and efficiency of their techs.
And that's why I am a die-hard Nikon user on my 7th DSLR body since 2008. I still own 4 of them and gifted the other 3 to family.

I have purchased several bodies and lenses from the Nikon Referb store. No problem with any lens but did have a problem with a z5. I called and asked for it to be repaired. I didn't want a refund because I bought it on one of their referb sales and it would cost 200.00 more to purchase it as a refurb, not on sale. The person I spoke with at Nikon told me to send the z5 back for a refund and he would send me a code to purchase something from Nikon for 20% off. He said I could buy another z5 or a lens or whatever. I decided to upgrade to a z6ii. They also sent me a return slip so it cost nothing to return the z5. I would give Nikon 5 stars on the way they handled this situation. The z6ii came looking like it just came out of a box as a new unit and had zero clicks. I always look for good buys on referbs.

You run the refurb department with pre-printed checklists of visual inspection points and the necessary physical re-packaging materials. Now you just need a low-cost team to execute the checklist procedures focused on physically handling the equipment to the bare minimum, just repackaging and quickly adding into the 'refurb' inventory stock. Now, you recover some of the costs of this extra staff when reselling virtually new equipment at a lower cost (and lower profit margin).

BTW: nice dance around all the specifics of how you'd obtain your "thorough" testing equipment for the entire Nikon inventory and the staff needed to test all the returned "refurbed" equipment. Guess your acumen on how to operate this function isn't really there? Just vague assumptions of how it should be ...