WD my book 2TB- turns out to be refurb

[Cindy]

I purchased a WD 2tb usb 3 external via Amazon... long story short it turned out to be a refurb.   I have been working with the store owner and Amazon A-Z claims.   I have researched the cost of the exact device.   The refurb is 54.00.    The owners are wondering if I would be fine with a credit down to the cost of 54.00
Would you keep it or be out the shipping and insurance and return it?   It will cost me 23.00 to ship it back to them.   
I have scanned it and have played a bit with it and it seems to be functioning fine.   

Thanks Brian!!!!!  You are always my go to.  
 

[Brian]

I'd just get the credit and keep it.

All hard drives are "good" until they stop working. LOL!! You might get lucky or it could die next month, it's really hard to say. "New" these days does not guarantee "better." Things these days are made so cheaply, that it's all junk...Made in China. I get asked by my customers and end-users almost on a daily basis, "...So can I get a NEW one?" or "Gonna get me a NEW ONE?" (when referring to a printer or other piece of equipment,) thinking that things will be better if it's new. For a month or two, yes. But then three months from now it will start breaking down even more-so because things are made so cheaply and the plastic isn't that high of a quality.

With it being a "refurb" could mean a couple of things. There could have been something wrong with the drive, the interface PCB that has the USB ports, or the controller board on the HD. It's hard to say. It could have also been a return of some kind that didn't have anything wrong with it, but the drive couldn't be sold as new. So for your situation, I'd say keep it. It's probably a $79 special off of Amazon, right? What does Brian avoid and says over and over to avoid?

Typically those $79 specials.

[Cindy]

I am going to keep it and keep and eye on it.   But I have purchased another "new" one this time also.   I am a back up paranoid queen.   I back up to at least three externals all the time.  I have never had one fail on me but always better safe than sorry.  

Thank you for your time once again!!!!! 

[Brian]

As long as you have redundancy in your backup strategy, you will be fine. It's the folks who buy a inexpensive HD and keep ALL their images on it without some sort of extreme data recovery plan, are the ones we need to be concerned about. People are more worried about having too many images on one CF card, rather than paying attention to the fact that 10,000+ images are on a cheap EHD that was on sale.