Best Buy said it's "Like New" 😬

[@MangoSlicer]

Best Buy employee here, open box is one of the best ways to get a good deal on a laptop but it really is luck of the draw. I got an almost brand new galaxy book for half off with the accessories and all but before that I bought a tablet and I had to return it because it would power cycle on its own. Never buy open box online always go to the store if you can to inspect the unit!

[@mik3lang3lo]

Or don't, wait a week or so, get the extra $10 or $20 dollars you were saving and buy a new one

[@vertigoog2431]

@@mik3lang3loOr don’t, and buy open box and save money :)

[@ThatDudeDeven]

@@kennethlowe6511 you mean they let shitty stuff through?

[@Kornflaek]

​@@mik3lang3lo well somebody loves to burn money

[@enochianbard9411]

So... You meant to say it's a scam?

[@jediguy634]

Ex BBY employee insider tips: Always shop in store in for the item. If you can tell the item has been there a couple weeks you can usually talk the floor manager into a bigger discount. (One of the store Metrics was how long this stuff sits). The floor manager is more willing to cut you a deal if you shop on a busy weekend night, they can hide the "erosion" or discount when there's a bigger overall daily sales volume. If its a laptop and your bring up you'll tack on a service like Geek Squad accidental protection, floor manager will sometimes drop the price down to the next cheaper tier of GSP thus also saving you some extra cash.

[@MichealCams]

Depends on the store in all honesty I've worked at some where they wouldn't budge regardless and others where they will budge but only if they apply for cards or memberships...you already know the big push on those 2...edit: if there are missing accessories or have marks that aren't listed you can definitely get a discount i always recommend going to the store. And buying...buying online sucks for open boxes never know what your getting usually

[@Giotwo10]

We do also drop it into fair or satisfactory to just lower the price. 7/10 I usually will sell open box first and explain to customers that nothing wrong and show them !

[@MZRFaith]

Corporate policy doesn’t allow for bargaining in the store. They aren’t following company procedure.

[@MichealCams]

@@MZRFaith your definitely right about the policy. I always tell customers that as well and stand by it mainly because i don't make commission so what do i gain by giving you a discount...the store is taking a loss at that point but if there are damages not taken account for then that's different.

[@HoloScope]

@@MZRFaith oh shut it nerd

[@gamewinner00]

Former geek squad here, when an item is an open box and the new version is on sale, depending on the store, you can negotiate a lower price for the open box. You can get some great deals like this but you have to know if a new item is on sale or not first.

[@haidengeary8277]

Why would anyone admit to being part of "Geek Squad"? You people do everything you can to rip people off.

[@gamewinner00]

@@haidengeary8277 I wasn’t part of the sales team, I did repairs and my job of repairing computers. I am just letting you know from my experience working in stores what I saw in terms of open box. Idk what the company did to hurt you like that but that has nothing to do with me.

[@ThatDudeDeven]

@@gamewinner00 You need to get the rest of the squad, Haiden is here.

[@PantyGoblin]

@@haidengeary8277 Not necessarily true. It depends on the team there as well as the leadership at the store. I quite frequently would replace RAM if I had spares, and would discount services for a lot of clients.

[@LOLBROGAMER]

As a previous Best Buy employee, I can say that Open Box is best if you go to the store and look for it. I'm not 100% sure how all stores work, but the one I worked at allowed us to show the device to customers, and allowed them to look at it and make sure that they were alright with it. ALSO you are allowed to ask for a better price. My store allowed a 10-15% discount on the device. This might depend on the store, and also the manager working at the time. This means that you are generally able to get it cheaper than what the price tag is offering and get some pretty sweet discounts. I've had a few people come into my store, find an open box GPU, and get it for $100-$200 off new MSRP. Which is pretty sweet tbh.

[@gasti_musri]

How about a refurbished galaxy watch? Should i distrust? Its BBY online web, and so i would pick it up on my nearest BBY

[@chester0608ye]

I remembered they can show customer the device before purchasing, but recently they don't do that anymore...

[@phantomgunz1167]

As many former/current employees have already mentioned, always buy open box items in store. Buying them online is luck of the draw, if you visit a store and the unit is not as described you can always negotiate for a lower price. I'm a current Geek Squad employee and I work on open boxes all the time, there are usually more careful when working on those in store then when you buy it online.

[@Harry96mega]

Excuse me, do you guys really sell new products?? Or are they sell like new??

[@phantomgunz1167]

@@Harry96mega there's a grading scale with open box items, they range anywhere from Excellent Certified (pretty much new with all accessories, original packaging and thoroughly tested), excellent (all of the above but with just basic functionality tested), Satisfactory (items might have light scratches or scuffs, might not have original packaging), Fair (items have moderate scuffs and scratches, most likely no packaging and/or accesories).

[@phantomgunz1167]

@@Harry96mega Best Buy sells brand new products but they also sell open box items (items that someone bought and returned) that get tested and sold at a discount

[@joeblow5214]

Going back in the catalog, saw this and funnily enough had some fun with Best Buy refurb. Bought a 2TB 980 Pro for $96 after tax, they sent a 500GB 980 Pro had to return it got the runaround from the store initially they said they could take the return, then they couldn't because it was a online order. Got that straightened out and got the correct item. The 500GB came with the box but it was in very bad condition, the correct 2TB was sent out and it was like new in the box. The CS line was great and sent the replacement before they got the return. The 2TB drive was in great condition with the latest FW which is a good thing considering the SMART reporting issue they had with the previous FW rev.

[@joeymcguire6011]

As someone who worked there, never buy open box online. Try to see them in person in store. Its crazy how much they can vary in price and condition

[@robster7787]

As someone that quite literally just now opened my online open-box order (iPhone SE) from Best Buy, I can 100% confirm that you avoid online order open-box. It’s kinda insulting especially the $45 return fee for phones.

[@Rezigunn]

I can answer why the buds didn't have the medium. As part of the SOP whatever tips come on the buds are thrown away and we typically don't get the mediums to replace. As for the adhesive tab we just slide them out lol.

[@ethanjohnson5983]

I worked for a year at a Best Buy outlet. I also worked for a regular store. Stores don’t do as well with listing things properly on the website. The outlet has dedicated employees for checking to make sure everything is in proper working order. Buy from an outlet. Got an LG c1 65in for like $400 because it didn’t have a power cord.

[@LeafletMedia-si3tk]

That’s a great deal! $1800 TV at some point

[@cactusmanbwl1990]

With the laptop, it almost looks like there needs to be some sort of chipset update that wasn't done after the fresh install of windows.

[@Djuntas]

Yeah, wish Austion would steer his channel more into techy stuff, but I get that's what he choose not to some years ago. I just want some more details tbh. He should send it to a youtube and do like a mini collab :P

[@claycassin8437]

What I don't get is if they reinstalled Windows on it, why wouldn't they use the laptop's own recovery image to do it, which would have all the correct drivers slipstreamed in. Weird.

[@Lrix]

@@claycassin8437 sometimes i get computers with ms accounts on them and i have no other choice than to reinstall via external media.

[@andrewalexander9508]

The ping ponging to me screams poorly attached cooling. My guess is unscrewing, cleaning, putting on new TIM, and putting the cooler back on and the performance will straighten out. Could be a good savings but I think it's not worth it if you have to do that to get it to work correctly.

[@theElemDragon]

@@andrewalexander9508 this. I don't think chipset drivers are required for a computer to get the gist of "Need power? Here's power." That ping-ponging seems more like just extremely rapid cases of thermal throttling. Either very poorly attached cooling, or NOT attached cooling. Maybe the reason it was returned was cause the previous owner tried to "upgrade" the thermal paste and ended up borking the reattachment.

[@sobas8411]

Former doctor here, sometimes when my pc acts up i grab the defibrillators and just shock the mf

[@sm9109-m3w]

Ex employee tip: always go IN STORE. They will usually knock the price down a bit plus theyre usually just immediately returned or hardly opened. they just cant TECHNICALLY sell them as "new" anymore since the seal has been broken.

[@stephens9772]

Back in the 90s the Best Buy open box stuff was gold.

[@retrojake228]

Former BBY employee here. The first laptop was most likely a display model. hence the dust and finger prints. Also some store let them run demos 24/7. If they shut them down each day they are still running for roughly 12+ hours each day. As far as the packaging goes, If customers don't return all the packing materials, employees are supposed to do their best to make sure it is secure for shipping. Some of the items shipped were pitiful. Beats headphones, If memory serves all traded in/ returned headphone go out to be cleaned, repackaged and have all new tips in them. Pricing..... at the end of my tenure at best buy some prices were changing two times a day. I was not surprised to see that in this video. When something goes open box, and items missing are supposed to be listed on the red tags. When you buy online you can't see that. I personally have purchased open box item from BBY and have never had an issue with it because I do it in-store. Like some of the other people have said here you can negotiate the open box price. It works better if you buy geek squad protection and/or accessories. They make money on the accessories and protection not on the actual item itself. Sale prices on big box items (tvs, consoles, pcs) come from the manufacturer. The cell phone most likely came from "Geek Squad city" and that's why it was packed so nicely.

[@JWaltemire9]

I bought a Shark robot vacuum from Best Buy open box for about half off. It didn't work when I got it due to a bad cliff sensor, which I'm guessing is why it was returned. Contacted Shark and did a manufacturer warrenty and they sent a whole new vaccum. Worked out pretty well overall lol

[@1mlb704]

In the last year I bought two open box "excellent" items from Best Buy online. One was a very well spec'd HP Envy 15 for about $600 cheaper than a similarly equipped new unit from HP. Also got a Sony X90k for about $150 cheaper than a new one. Both had all of the original packaging and components, both looked brand new, both work excellent.

[@gasti_musri]

How about a refurbished galaxy watch? Should i distrust?

[@1leggeddog]

For the gaming laptop, if it was sitting idling as a demo units for litteraly months, its very possible that the fans could be clogged up and/or the thermal paste dried out, so its not boosting as it should.

[@ChubbyTV69]

Best Buy Austin is back

[@oOsillyrabbitOo]

Why did I read Best buy Autism

[@loganmitchell2878]

3:36 Best Buy won't open-box a floor item. It was likely someone with the Totaltech membership that used it for a couple of months and then returned it with the extended return policy or protection plan. Item's are also resold as an open-box with very little intervention from employees after it's returned. It's just briefly looked at by Geek Squad.

[@UshiroUki]

bestbuy employee here, Open box is definetly the luck of the draw and best purchased IN STORE, any good associate will sit with a customer and open the thing and let them really get a sense of what they are getting. As for the packaging, we dont always get back the ORIGINAL packaging, if someone returned that GPU with loose or flimsy we cant control it, good geeksquads and warehouse crews fix that with adding bubble wrap (such as the laptop you got) or like the motorola phone

[@dailybs555]

I had the same issue, the fans start spinning and cpu downclocks itself, throttlestop 9.5 helped me save my laptop, just running it without any ticks checked was enough.

[@jujuu1339]

For the laptop, I think it would've been worth it to reset the cmos or fully reset the bios. I think thats the only explaination for the weird clock speeds.

[@kornelbittmann157]

The problem is, how Gaming laptops work. If its unplugged from the wall, the performance will go down and it will disable the dedicated gpu. The other thing is, its not plugged into an external monitor, so it wont use the dedicated gpu, just the integrated gpu

[@jujuu1339]

@@kornelbittmann157 Yes that is true. But despite him saying it didn't come with a charger, you can see he did the benchmarks with a charger plugged into it. I think he was also talking about cpu clocks not gpu clocks (R23 is cpu dependent), if the laptop was thinking it was running on battery, speedstep epp wouldn't make the clocks perform that way. I think he would've noticed the battery being siphoned

[@supracrisp]

I love best buy open box deals. The best is when the item goes on sale because the open box price can scale

[@JoseAlba87]

I had similar problems with laptops with this limitation of CPU. For me it was the battery that was holding back, as an emergency limitation. If you remove the battery and start up the computer it will run beautifully fast.

[@janosmegyeri1473]

From my experience the accuracy of descriptions and quality really varies from store to store.

[@elviorion]

I've bought many open box items at bestbuy, have never really had an issue. Just recently picked up a Samsung 65” Class QN90B that was open box "Satisfactory" for $600 off. There was no remote, but I asked the store and they magically coughed up the correct one. It was a display model and there is absolutely nothing wrong aside from some fingerprints. Happily I also didn't have to get rid of the giant box. Saved $600 on a $1600 TV. Open box can for sure save you a fair amount of money.

[@Nova2127U]

My experience with open-box items has been mostly positive, recent one was I got a Lenovo Ideapad Gaming 3 at Best Buy as a open-box model in "Fair" condition but it was entirely brand new, packaging and all, even the seal on the packaging itself was untouched. and got it for 500$, thanks Best Buy for mislabeling it lol. Specs are Ryzen 5 5600H and 3050 TI, so not bad at all

[@radiatamusic]

it honestly most likely had been mislabeled on purpose. at one of the locations i worked at, we would have a certain model of dell laptop labelled satisfactory consistently regardless of condition because we had so many of them open box that we needed them cheaper to get rid of them faster. there wasn't anything wrong with them, they just shipped with AMD processors and single channel ram, so people who didn't know that that kicks your performance in the shins or didn't want to install a ram upgrade would just bring it back.

[@TheOrangeProot]

Im a best buy employee and idk if this is just my store, but if something is missing parts when it says it should come with it or if it seems more damaged than it should, you can always go back to the store to do a return/exchange/or partial refund (but you keep the item) Also, I'll add that not all open box items are good value and id recommend just getting the item brand new if its only a savings of like 30-40 bucks. Lastly, if you bought sometbing and it went on sale, you got 14 days to price match it and 60 if youre a best buy plus/total member

[@bumpy86]

Or instead of buying a used/ new RTX 3050, the low tier king, you can get for the same price an RTX 4060 which is the mid to high tier dog right now... This being said, never buy used items from stores... I was working at one store like this and people usually came back with an item, all nice and clean in OG packaging and they made up a story like "my son doesnt like the laptop" and whatnot... The reality 90% of the time was that they bought the item, took it home, used it for like a week or two, something happened with the device and then they returned it to the store broken... But usually to find out what is going on with a GPU or a Laptop or basically anything, you have to test it like you did in the video. None of said companies, Bestbuy nor anyone else, does benchmarks to determine what is wrong with the laptop, GPU or any device... All they do is take the device, keep it on a shelf for a week, then open it, check bios, boot windows, check updates, test wifi, test USB ports or display inputs/outputs, test charger and its done in like 10 to 20 minutes and back on the shelf marked as "Tested = Working" and then it goes back to the store being sold as "like new" even tho its a laptop or device ready for recycling centre... And yes, its 90% so I think if you wanna save a buck, use facebook marketplace and buy used stuff from there, if its a PC or laptop, bring your own SSD and USB drive with everything loaded onto it, test it at the owners place, check score if it matches online results then ur good to go... any slight discrepency and seller will be obliged to put the price a bit down...

[@TomFinn-m9g]

EX BBY employee here, we would often mark things as open-box fair for items that were in perfect condition just so we could get it off the floor. odds are, it's probably excellent, but you have to roll the dice.

[@georgelupercio2795]

Accurate, I've picked up a MB Pro 14" for 1550 despite it being mint when they were no less than $2000.

[@robster7787]

To those curious, I just picked up an open box 2020 iPhone SE from Best Buy. Here are some stats: Phone: 2020 iPhone SE 128Gb Carrier Lock: Unlocked (No Sim restrictions) Price: $229.99 Battery Health: 81% (the deal breaker) Cosmetic damage: Yes Type of damage: Scuff in top right screen, but everything else is mostly pristine. Is it worth it? For the damage and barely passable battery health? Absolutely not. Am I going to return it? Nope: there is a $45 return fee, also the phone was basically free since I got a non-refundable in-store credit. You’re better off gambling on Amazon refurbished smartphones since they’re about $100 cheaper for what’s potentially a better deal.

[@SuiSlyder808]

I bought a DJI RS3 from Best Buy “like new” open box online, and saved almost $200, which I used to get a warranty plan (I get them with camera equipment, they saved my life in the past). When I opened it, I found out a few of the pieces were missing and extra pieces left over from the people who used it before returning it. I was able to take it into my local Best Buy and trade it in for a brand new unit for no extra charge due to the plan that I bought.

[@jaroslavmrazek5752]

300$ for an RTX 3050 even discounted, is a terrible deal.

[@norfolkngood8960]

Same with the Xbox obviously

[@CatapultGaming]

I bought 2 open box excellent monitors from Best Buy, both are missing items and one was physically damaged due to poor packaging. They are refusing to exchange them under their "return and exhange" policy, telling me they will only refund it.

[@freezedriedicecream]

I guess you're telling the truth

[@javakitsune]

I paid $20 for my Beats Studio Buds due to an employee event at my job that allowed us to buy them for that much brand new. Using them rn as we speak. Great buds.

[@thewoz_man5379]

Bestbuy employee here you can get a price match for the video card also there is a 14 day return policy

[@DDRPriest]

I got a 55" LGC1 open box in good condition. Notes included were: Works good. $470 out the door. They brought the tv itself out to the car and loaded it in. No box or any of the accessories. Not even the stand. I love the tv and there are mounting options, but I thought I'd at least get a stand. lol. I thought it was a floor model, but hours on indicated 168 hours after a few weeks having it home.

[@zxca100xz]

my last 3 macbook pros were open box and they came-in in perfect condition, with the box and all the accessories.

[@dr.razzleberry7383]

Best buy employee here. That's pretty much open box. It's a luck of the draw for the most part. However, I have seen some open box laptops that go for a decent price and have been marked "satisfactory".

[@gasti_musri]

How about online web BBY a closed refurbished galaxy watch? Should i distrust?

[@radiatamusic]

current bby employee here! tips for shopping open box: ALWAYS shop the open box options available at your local locations if you can, as you can inspect the product before purchasing in that case. open box tech items (tablets, computers, phones, watches, etc. have to be inspected by the geek squad at that location before putting out (small items are inspected by the associate taking the return), so the quality of open box items depends on the quality of the employees at that location sadly. there are some locations that will have 'excellent' condition that's thrashed and some that will have a 'satisfactory' item that looks like it's never been taken out of the box. additionally, please be aware that the online open box pricing is usually an estimation. since pricing varies item by item and by how the condition was marked and by the level of missing accessories/documentation the online listing for open box price will almost never be the exact in store price for the open box item. you can do a quick guess at an item's open box price by subtracting 10% from the current list/sale price, but even that is only an estimate for an excellent condition, nothing missing, with the box, returned within standard not totaltech policy (15 days for standard, 60 for totaltech) item, so even that's dubious. open box is a great way to get a deal IF and i make it clear IF you are willing to shop what's around you, check the item's physical condition before purchase, and test the item to the full extent to which it can be pushed before your return period ends (for example, i took a return of a laptop that would crash but only if the GPU utilization went above 70%, which geek squad would pretty much never see in testing and most users would likely not notice until months after purchase considering it wasn't a gaming laptop, but had a dedicated gpu anyways). EDIT: some items will see like no open box discount depending on how much money best buy makes off of it in the first place, which is why things like game consoles, and apple products will often be basically the same price until the item sits for a while (although (and this is the opinion of me and my coworkers, not bby as a company) apple really is AWFUL to work with so bad open box pricing is the smallest issue we've had with them LMAO). one more note: open box will pretty much NEVER be a floor unit/display model because those things have been looping demo software, with their batteries installed, permanently connected to power, for months to even a year or two. if a floor unit is put as open box it's almost always marked the lowest open box will allow in quality, and will most often even be put on the floor on a display table rather than with the other open box items to make it clearer that it's a display unit. LMAO that timing for the G-power was AWFUL. the 2023 model launched like a few weeks ago so the 2022 model (which that ice blue colour way is not in the 2023 model is how i can tell) is super discounted now, but open box pricing doesn't often adjust.

[@edopt7204]

fyi from a former best buy employee while its frustrating to see something go on sale after you spent more money on it you can bring the receipt into the store and we can give you back the rest of the money via price adjustment.

[@theElemDragon]

Prety sure the reason the GPU was all wiggly in the box was a) pretty sure most GPU's (though oddly not Founders Edition cards) come in an anti-static bag, and b) also pretty sure those kinds of boxes also typically have a thin piece of foam on TOP of the card, too, to hold it in place.

[@georgelupercio2795]

Open Box at MicroCenter Best Buy and Amazon has saved me probably thousands or tens of thousands. $2000 laptop for $750, $1500 TV for $600, $3000 monitor for $225. All have protection plans as a total tech member and all have been flawless. These of course, are only a few items.

[@scottbaileymsc]

He went from packaging it like like best buy to packaging it like Linus real quick...

[@izzajuanito8905]

i brought a monitor thats open tech, 3 months later, stopped working. My parents brought it for $600, original price is $800. It was amazing while it lasted, now looking forward to see if we can get a brand new one with warranty

[@SilkroadAllDay]

Couldnt you just buy the item, return it, and them buy it again but with open box saving money in the process?

[@JxredF]

as a former best buy employee i will say the condition is very very different between stores some would mark fair and some would mark good. Then when it comes to open box idk if they still do it but there was another level which was GEEK SQUAD CERTIFIED. meaning extra stuff would have been done and instead of a regular employee grading it, it would be graded by a geek squad team member and those seemed to be better overall. Best thing you can do is go into store and see the product and even possibly talk to a gm and they may lower the price more to match the qaulity and give you a bit of a better deal since BBY motto is to be customer oriented and making sure the customer feels like they got the help needed. i never bought open box while working at bby unless it had the geek squad certification i mean they were closer to retail but the certified laptop i bought came with all OG pieces and paperwork and didnt have a mark on it

[@Soggy_Bunnns]

“Damaged” on the tag doesn’t necessarily mean the product is damaged. “Damaged” actually is fully written as “damaged/missing piece” in the system but the tag just prints out the word “damaged” instead of writing it out fully, which explains why the Xbox series S said “damaged” on the tag when it was in great condition but missing the HDMI cable. 6:46

[@ThinkerOnTheBus]

As far as the missing packaging goes, I completely put that back on the consumers. So many people are like children on Christmas morning where they just tear into things, and toss anything every which way that they believe is packaging, or owner's manual, or warranty card. They lose vital pieces that are too small to notice, maybe in a tiny bag that is taped to the plastic wrapping, and they simply toss the plastic wrapping halfway across the room, believing it to be complete garbage, and forever losing those vital screws until they do some thorough spring cleaning five years from now, stumble upon the screws, and wonder, "What the hell are these for?" They manage to do all of this destruction before they have even determined if the device is suitable for their situation, or if it is compatible with what they need it to be, or if the dang device even functions as it should! They discover that it isn't what they want, or it doesn't do what they thought it did, typically from their own ignorance, and lack of doing any research to know what you are buying, and god forbid, what you need exactly. So, they pack it back up, missing packaging, although they have it right there on their living room floor, but they simply do not care, "Not my problem!", or they don't want to hassle with attempting to make everything fit back inside of the box, mainly caused by a lack of cognitive capacity coupled with tearing into the device so haphazardly, that they can not even begin to recall how things were positioned inside of the box to allow everything to fit. Yeah, I totally put 99.9999% of any of those open box items that are missing either packaging material, parts, or even the box itself, completely on the consumers. I'm sure Best Buy will lose a few things here and there, but I highly doubt their track record even comes close to comparing with consumers!!!! With that being said, I have managed to acquire some really good deals on open box items. Depending on what the device is, and its likelihood of failing or developing some type of functional issue, I will use the money I saved to purchase an extended warranty, and many of the deals I have managed to get, the savings were still more than what the cost of the extended warranty cost! I would definitely recommend going to the store, and physically examining the device rather than ordering online, if you have that choice.

[@GFourGadget]

If it doesn't affect the usability and it cuts a lot from the original price, its definitely worth buying these open box items 📦 Pricing is everything!

[@GaryGaryGaga]

And also the physical condition of it

[@Odinarcade00]

Yeah if you have to go buy 20 of something because something keeps breaking over and over again you could have just used the same amount of money to buy the new thing and just take care of it. There’s levels. Most of the time you get what you pay for.

[@ruinfox4108]

clearly someone didnt watch the video all the way through LOL.

[@audiokrak9598]

Did you not see the gaming laptop performance lol

[@claycassin8437]

Unless the very same company turns around and starts selling a brand NEW item for 50 dollars less than the "open box" one, like they just did to Austin. That is a very cautionary tale- you better make sure that the price you are paying is WAY below what the possible lowest price of that item could be. Tough to do. Even Austin couldn't. I will say that if it is too good to pass up, then go for it. I got an Adata XPG 1TB SX8200 Pro, one of the fastest gen3x4 ssd's made, for 35 dollars "open box". And it was brand new- zero hours of use on it, and full 5 year/640tbw warranty. At that price, the risk is totally worth it, although the price for brand new has dropped to only about 65 dollars.

[@Tyleron1]

As a 7+ year Best Buy/Geek Squad employee, it totally varies from store to store. Sometimes there's basically no incentive to ensure a good open box experience. Very dependent on management.

[@jonresanovich154]

Just in case you didn’t know you can return those or just take your receipt and the item with you is best and just say your prices are different now. Can I get my price adjustment if it’s within a 30 day period they will have no problem doing it I used to work there not bragging or anything.

[@MUSIKO]

I got a like new macbook pro for $700 the BB rep gave me $100 discount on top of the open box price cause it was missing the charger lol it also got a apple watch 5 for $150 back when it was 349

[@Random_4400]

Honestly, open box can definitely be worth it. You just have to find the right item. I saved 250$ on an asus ROG Ally open box. It was in such good condition that you couldn't even tell it was previously used if it wasn't for the missing packing wraps etc.

[@Nbkdelta1-Playthroughs]

my skull candy only cost me 20 and have noise canceling.

[@ndeeeed]

I don’t do Best Buy tech anymore. One time I bought some Beats by Dre & took them home to open them. nothing was in the box except the brochure.

[@devilmikey00]

Open box is an in store only kind of thing for me so I can actually inspect the item. Open box can mean anything from "it was a barely used display unit" to "returned because it was busted but the geek squad couldn't find out exactly why so they said it was fine". The first one can lead to a great deal and the second one can be a bad time. Also, if the discount isn't at least 20% lower than the new one then I'm not even going to consider it. I'm not taking the risk for 10 bucks off lol

[@joep1984]

Recently (~2-3 months) purchased from BB, an open-box Samsung 28" ViewFinity UR55 4K HDR monitor, the normal price was $375, and I got it for uhhhh $160 or so. Box said "frame scratched," but I inspected the thing top to bottom, back to front, and can't see a single scratch. Total W for me.

[@silvrbaxx]

i worked in the bestbuy outlet which is all open box items. i would not recommened going to buy them unless you are willing to drive back and return it for another just because of how likely you are to get something terrible or broken due to the fact that no one reports actual issues when they return, they just say "i dont like it"

[@silvrbaxx]

it leaves you stuck selling things you know nothing about the history of

[@silvrbaxx]

also when new items go on sale, the open box item price drops with it accordingly you may just have to go in store to match the price

[@cdgames69]

I remember I got my first TV for myself open box from Best Buy (Canada) The only issue I had was that it had a super slow interface (almost unusable at times), which I imagine was just due to the processor inside being super underpowered since it was so cheap and had nothing to do with open box

[@Darkstartsb]

So I was told by a friend that used to work for bestbuy that employees will put fair on some items that are in good condition to give people deals

[@jollygiant-xq1lk]

I did buy my bedroom TV open boxed about 2 yrs ago. Was little over 500 brand new. Was satisfactory for around 275. I bought it and just added a 5 yr warranty through geek squad. Ended up paying around 350 with warranty. Tv was pretty much brand new and i have had no issues. Saved over 150. Still got 3 yrs on the warrantytoo. I now buy open boxed items from best buy and just add a warrenty. Haven't had issues with anything I've bought.

[@jjcooldog05]

My dad always gets open box LG tv’s whenever there’s a bigger better one for a good price

[@thomasculkin349]

I've purchased over a dozen open box laptops, mostly Chromebooks, from Best Buy. Every single one has met or, often, exceeded their description of the item, for example, a recent open box HP Chromebook was listed as satisfactory, but was in my opinion like-new. Often the open box item is at least 20% off, sometimes much more. In fact, I ONLY buy open box items. Coupled with their 14 day return policy with no restocking fee, which also applies to open box laptops, I don't think the combination can be beat.

[@JustAnotherViewer6]

I bought a RTX 3050 TI 4gb VRAM 8gb RAM and 256gb storage SSD for 570$ on Backmarket for excellent condition and mate i've been using it for 2 weeks and it works great it can play Apex Legends at nearly max settings. I even got my S20 Samsung from Backmarket for 210$ USD in good condition i have no complaints.

[@geek4901]

Current GSCA in my store we are very thorough in our open box check (Func Check). I got super lucky with a open box back from in home service CX LG 65inch OLED with only 3 hours on it. NO BURN IN AT ALL!!. For $110. I will say the craziest deals usually go to us employees first, one of the few perks of working there.

[@austinhartley6566]

When it comes with the open boxes. It's best to haggle for the price. I got them to come down an additional $200 for a PC. So in total I saved like $800

[@smilingeyes1938]

I got a Yamaha receive two years ago on an Open Box deal. It was an Excellent Condition item along with being on closeout. Got it for roughly 2/3 the new cost. It arrived in pretty much mint condition. About the only difference I could see was the receiver having been rewrapped. Accessories were still in factory bagging. My guess it was a display model.

[@oTASERxFACEo]

I bought an open box excellent laptop from them and it came looking brand new. With box, instructions and no fingerprints for less than $200 of a brand new one

[@octxbrs]

its always a good day when austin evans drops 🔥

[@trainsdestinations3960]

It’s always a mixed bag with Best Buy. I got two open box laptops from them in the past which were mint. However, another one was dirty and was a floor unit. Worst experience was buying an open box Pixel, which had a white spot on the screen, even though it was described as excellent.

[@christiancervantes1920]

You guys should do this again but with Austin and Matt guessing what it was graded as.

[@stephenpoltorak6889]

As someone who is a vendor that goes into Best Buy, I can assure you..... these display units are on 12-14 hours a day, depending on what type of power source they're connected to, for months, and should be avoided at allllllll cost

[@ej_tech]

2:54 That's supposed to be in one of those generic blue box used for open box laptops.

[@matt2m]

Pro tip you can ask for it to be up to 20% and it stacks with other promotions. I left with a 2017 MacBook Pro for 880ish that was 1299 new and they had 200 off and I got 20% off 1100 for it being open box. Won’t work for geek squad certified items.

[@scorpio3439]

As an employee, if you want a deal, find massively discounted items. Like that victus and then shop open box. If you can find a clearance item the open box discount is insane. I got a MacBook Pro 13 inch with an m2 for $450, it was a display model with a dead sku so open box discount on it was over $600

[@remymartin15]

Best Buy open box is great. My 16” intel MacBook Pro and a few Apple Watches open box. They will open it up for you and show you. It not having a panthlet can save you $100. Also if a item is on sale the open box price also drops as well!

[@KitsuneVoss]

Not Best Buy but the motherboard, CPU, and ram of my current gaming desktop was open box. It was from eBay and the seller told me it was an Amazon return. Prices have gone down since but I did save about $159. It was $400 and the components would have cost around $550 at the time.

[@robster7787]

Hang around university surplus or dumpsters. They throw out or surplus PC parts all the time. That’s how I got a triple monitor 1440p Dell setup for $15. Yale has been good on surplus.

[@sgregorybird]

I just ordered the same refurb Beats on Monday and they'll be here Friday. They were $50 since I had rewards. Fingers crossed they're in the same good shape. Even if they're missing the ear tips I plan on getting foam ones anyway.

[@sgregorybird]

They came today and did in fact come without the 3rd set of ear tips. Also without the box. But everything else was there. For $50 I can't complain. And in settings they show to have Apple Care until the end of October.

[@manossteele1335]

Former employee here. The quality posted CANNOT be counted upon just because it all depends upon the employee who checked it. I'll be 100% honest here, I freaking HATED dealing with open box product. We barely sold any due to people saying the item was excellent when it clearly wasn't. And because of this, I would mark every open box item I dealt with as satisfactory in order to get the best discounted price, which would then sell super quick. Also, if the product was in bad shape, I would try to mark it as defective so it could be shipped off and not take up space in our store.

[@cesarn.5330]

Hi, I just buy an open box laptop but sometimes seems slow and showing abnormal behavior. I'm still in the return window period. I wonder if they going to give me a refund or give me a replacement (new product). Would you please advise. Thank you.

[@6ft5wonder]

Have bought open boxes tv and laptop on 2 separate occasions. Best buy always seemed to misplaced them. Ended up getting brand new for open boxes prices

[@pcs9518]

I bought an open box excellent- certified item from Best Buy and it turned on but didn’t work with lots of scratches. The original store wouldn’t do anything about it so I had to go to another store and they made it right with a new one at open box price.

[@Nox_The_Box]

Hi geek squad employee here. “Open box” items are usually inspected however don’t take the rating to heart because even if damages are listed it’s up to the manufacturer what is excellent, satisfactory or fair, also you aren’t always gonna get a box

[@ThaRookie12]

Original packaging of an open box item is entirely up to the person who bought it. Most customers do not keep the packaging of an item. Shipping on the other hand is within Best Buy's control.

[@SoteroMurguia]

Former BBY employee here. Always get the geek squad protection for peripherals. Before the protection expires, go back to BBY and tell ‘em it stopped working and get yourself the newest version of the product.

[@carlosr5918.]

I purchased refurb studio buds as well about 6 months ago for $70. They also looked brand new but were missing medium tips lol

[@amalHope3]

Two days ago I ordered an open box laptop that was described (excellent like new). I was very disappointed because it did not look like new at all. The original box and charger are missing, the laptop has many scratches and the touchpad is not responsive. I did not set the device, returned it immediately.

[@himanshuvictorlall02]

"Oh you packaged it like best buy" had me weak😅😅😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@robster7787]

It’s really convenient given that I literally have a package from Best Buy arriving tomorrow that’s also a “like new” smartphone. Good to see what I should expect

[@shua510]

If there’s no visible cosmetic damage check the battery on it! Would help and see if the open box is worth it or not

[@robster7787]

@@shua510 Here’s an update: Phone: 2020 iPhone SE 128Gb Carrier Lock: Unlocked (No Sim restrictions) Price: $229.99 Battery Health: 81% (the deal breaker) Cosmetic damage: Yes Type of damage: Scuff in top right screen, but everything else is mostly pristine. Is it worth it? For the damage and barely passable battery health? Absolutely not. Am I going to return it? Nope: there is a $45 return fee, also the phone was basically free since I got a non-refundable in-store credit. You’re better off gambling on Amazon refurbished smartphones since they’re about $100 cheaper for what’s potentially a better deal. Edit: Yes it is an open box. I triple checked my order and made sure it’s not pre-owned. For some reason a 2020 open box is the same price as a pre-own.

[@die444luve]

@@robster77871% battery health is nice, ngl. Esp for smthn like this, but that can def b a deal breaker. rmb its "like new" so expect scuff or minor scratches.

[@Markthe619]

Former in store employee here, always buy open box in store, never online, idk about most people but certain areas like mine, we have a store in the area that is a outlet one so it’s all open box stuff ! Those stores you can try to get a cheaper price !!! P.s if you want a bigger deal, get the protection plan on it, managers will Bend over backwards for u 😂

[@00SNIVY00]

Definitely shop in store. Especially for bigger things like TVs. Being able to look at the item in store too is good.

[@ajspice]

He's right. Some of the best open box deals, or even deals in general, are in store only. I picked up a $900 Sony XV900 for less than $650 and it's near perfect condition.

[@DDT997]

I’ve had nothing but great experiences with my many open box purchases. Usually they actually score it lower than I feel it should be. Like I’ve gotten my pc monitor from I think $350 down to $250 being “fair”…it just didn’t have its box and a small amount of sticker residue on the back that wiped off and was like new. My iPad pro was “good” and all it had was a tiny micro scratch on the top corner of screen you can’t even see especially with a screen protector on it

[@lambo603]

I'm not from the US, but I do like a good open box deal myself from local shops Last week I bought a Corsair H100i RGB Pro XT which is 150 euro new, found it open box for 99 euro. It was literally never used, even still had the original thermal paste on the coldplate and still had all of the plastic film, but it was open box and the radiator has been installed previously as the holes have the paint scratched off, nothing you can see when it's installed though So basically I got a new item with an open box for 50 euro off

[@glitchdev]

As a german I love the fact how he is saying "Schmutz!" xD For the people who don't know that word, it means something like dirt or dust.

[@jack_hanks]

I’ve bought open box but never online, I still have my pc from about a year ago when I bought it open box, the reason the customer returned it was they didn’t need it, the original price of it 1,800, what I bought it for open box, 1,100 and in perfect condition, I recommend buying in store.

[@dueric1]

Open box items are never worth taking a chance on unless you know EXACTLY when and why it was returned. Large companies have entire departments, or even third party contractors that use any and every technique to “clean up” and grade a product for resale. They move fast and don’t take their time processing these items either. If it’s too good to be true it usually is.

[@EduardoDiaz-bq7bm]

Down side about open boxes is how they label the conditions of products. A product is considered excellent as long as the actual product looks really good. Doesnt matter if its missing a charger or packaging, if the product looks good then its excellent. if the product is scratched up or shows any cosmetic dmg then the condition goes down to either fair/satisfactory.

[@norfolkngood8960]

I got a 7900xt open box from Amaxon recently (appreciate this video was many months ago) but it was nearly $200 off list price when it arrived it was BNIB still factory sealed

[@jamesturner8174]

Ex BBY employee here. Open box is either perfectly fine or terrible depending on the category and your luck. Computers are a 90% chance of a return. If the item was returned for a problem, it most likely will not 100% be fixed before being sold again. If it was returned because the customer did not like it then you are lucky and it is probably fine. Unfortunately best buy does not claim on the package why it was returned. Other items like small electronics and such are usually fine to buy open box.