Behind the Scenes: Tech Refurbishment

Liquidation.com in-house refurbishment centers

Refurbished merchandise may have been used in the past, but has since been inspected, tested and restored to a fully working condition. While they rarely come in their original packaging and seldom contain any documentation or any additional part and/or accessories, they can possess noticeable cosmetic defects and/or blemishes – including, but not limited to dents, scratches and signs of age.

SO HOW DOES THIS TRANSLATE INTO LIQUIDATED MERCHANDISE?
WHO DOES THE REFURBISHMENT?
ARE THERE ANY WARRANTIES?

Over the last several months, Liqudation.com has built refurbishment centers within select warehouses across North America where electronics from certain sellers, like Sony, are getting refurbished in order to make the product offerings on the site more lucrative for our Buyers.

At these facilities, we offer full-fledge refurbishment. Sony is one seller who uses these services and we refurbish their speakers, receivers, personal audio, boom boxes, and more.

Electronic items arrive into this room via a conveyor belt to get its ‘license plate’ and a ‘traveler’ which records the unit’s movement within our refurbishment center. Just like a license plate of a car, everything that is unique to the specific unit will be embedded into the ‘license plate’ barcode, these details include: the model number, color, and number of units.

Additionally, we can find out information on whether the unit came from a consumer or vendor. This history is recorded by that barcode for up to 1 year.

After the initial processing of the units, they are taken through our triage process, which is a 21-step inspection of the item. Units that pass this inspection will proceed to a separate workstation for a deep clean and eventual listing on Liquidation.com.

LICENSE PLATE & TRAVELER

21-STEP TRIAGE PROCESS

If any of those inspection steps fail, the unit will be delegated for repair or salvage – depending on the severity of the issue(s). When this happens, those units will be assessed at the repair tech stations to determine if they can be fixed. Sometimes the units can be fixed, but given the cost it takes to fix them, it may be better to list them on the site in a Salvage condition or use it for parts on future items in need of repair.

For example, parts like Motherboards – we get from Sony. Since we have a long-standing relationship with them, and refurbish their merchandise before it’s posted on Liquidation.com, we get these parts to ensure their products meet their high-quality standards.

Provided the unit is fixed by our technicians, the unit will go back through the triage process and 21-step inspection to confirm it passes every step. Units that do not pass this inspection for a second time will go back to the technicians for further repairs, until the unit passes all the steps.

ELECTRONICS REPAIRS

ELECTRONIC TECHNICIAN STATION

Our audio component testing room is an additional partition to our refurbishment center where unique items that can’t be tested out on our main floor are properly tested and repaired (if applicable). These units are typically multi-input home theatre systems, receivers and car stereos – where we even mimic how it’s installed in a car for the ultimate test!

HOME THEATER & AUDIO TESTING

ELECTRONIC DOD WIPE

On the main floor of our warehouse, any gaming system, tablet or computer that comes in house gets a DOD wipe to remove any previous customer data. This included the iPads, eReaders, PS4s, Computers, etc.

Liquidation.com encourages all buyers to review the auction manifest and pictures for complete details on the refurbished items before bidding.