I've read quite a few posts re reburbished Phantoms over the past several months and I have yet to read a single negative comment. Everybody is throwing roses at the refurbs.
I recently bought a P3P refurb and couldn't be happier so far. I was hesitant because I did a computer "refurb" from Bestbuy a year ago and when I got it home it was stuck in a bootloop. It was too obvious BB never looked at it as it was locked up in the booting process. You couldn't get it past that. I'm sure someone returned it because it was stuck in a bootloop and wouldn't go further. This was the 3rd time I have been burned by BB so I don't shop there anymore.
I only have about an hour and a half of flying with it but everything has been good once I got the battery firmwares updated (frustrating for a newb, also it was 1.10.9 yuck but no problems yet). The controller was wrapped in original plastic protection, never opened, the charger was in the original unopened box (has tape seals), The tool kit was unopened box, the props had the seals on all the hubs, the 100w charger was in a unopened box. The cables were in sealed bags. This is my first phantom and I don't regret the refurb. The bird didn't have any protective plastic (I don't know if they do) and there were no markings on it making me think it ever crashed, but all the accessories were brand new and in sealed boxes.
I did the Christmas deal a refurb'd P3P, and an extra battery. Batteries the day I bought were $149 (they hadn't put the batteries on sale the day I bought mine but they did a couple of days later) the refurb w/ an extra battery was $749 shipped. I was going to get an extra battery anyhow so I looked at it as getting a P3P with full warranty for $600 and $149 for a new battery. I do know it has had a very thorough checkout by a tech somewhere which is more than a new one has had (it shipped from Atlanta).
I bought from DJI directly which I did have one issue. My credit card, a Visa, decided to charge me $14.98 (2%) for a foreign transaction fee. I called and they said the vendor ran the charge through Taiwan so I had to pay it. I told the gal I would not be paying that charge and I would close the account right now if they don't take it off. There was nothing stating the transaction would be through Taiwan that I saw when I bought the bird and I even read the fine print, unless I missed it. Anyhow she handed me off to a supervisor who quickly removed the charge when I said I'd close my account immediately and I would never pay that charge either way. (Thanks to Dave Ramsey for the thought of calling the CC company and threaten to cancel and being willing to follow through if you don't get your way). I thought I was dealing with a US branch of DJI as they don't ship from Taiwan. I won't be buying from the DJI store anymore unless they process the transactions in the USA since they are refurbing and shipping from the USA. Afterwards I was reading others were getting burned by that fee too.
