Has anyone else worked in refurbishing? - Is my experience normal? (PL inside)

[Penis Drager]

I make Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE). My usual job is dealing with the circuit boards so they're ready for assemblers to do their thing with them.
We ran out of work orders, the assemblers were sent home, and I was directed to deal with refurbishing shit. The unit I was working with only needed a new conduit because the customer in question cut theirs short. I asked where the proper screws for this particular unit were and they had me reuse the ones I pulled out (a big no-no in most manufacturing contexts). I actually fucked up and stripped a screw hole in an enclosure and some Ukrainian dude came out and installed a longer screw. I looked at him weird and he just responded "It is refurb. Who cares?"
No care was taken for internal fit and finish. We overtorqued everything because "It's refurb. overtorque no big deal."
The RMA guys make a lot more money than I do and take much less care of the shit that comes back to them than even assemblers do.

Is this normal?

 

[185405]

Kys

 

[Penis Drager]

Kys

Factory's shutting down around the end of the year. Maybe then.

 

[David Brown]

Sounds about par for the course. The bar for quality assurance has dropped universally in all industries. I work in construction and even on the commercial/industrial side tons of shit is just jerry rigged or ignoring spec because it's convenient or we could save a dollar by using whatever was lying around available in arm's reach. It's even worse now that EVERYBODY is suffering supply issues so parts and pieces that a few years ago could be ordered today and received tomorrow morning can be a week out or more. So yeah we'll just say fuck it and use the wrong part or whatever because it's in a wall, this kind of thing.

One thing I've learned in this life is that most things are done under the principle of "the finest goods from the lowest bidder".

Factory's shutting down around the end of the year. Maybe then.

What are your plans afterward? Transition to another industry?

edit: OP asked for people who worked in refurbishing, I haven't worked in refurbishing, so sorry for my somewhat off topic response, but I think my general observation about the state of industries generally is still relevant.

 

[BelUwUga]

I didn't strictly work in refurbishing but that came under my purview. In a larger context I dealt with reverse logistics through myriad automotive vendors. There is a wide, wide variation in what is acceptable. I have had vendors accept items for full credit that were laughably destroyed. I've had others outright refuse flawless merchandise. I've seen everything in between. To a certain degree you just need to prioritize what is important: what is going to keep you in the good graces of the boss, what your coworkers expect, and taking reasonable effort not to royally fuck over someone down the line.

For example our good old vendors down in Mexico had quite liberal QC. Parts didn't exactly fit until you put in enough torque to make them fit. They're also half the price of OEM and we were very honest with the expectations. I've bent shit with my hands to make it right. On the other hand, we had some LED lights come in to the tune of a $18K order. We had the vendor overnight a unit to a VIP customer and found out for want of about $0.05 in epoxy on each unit they were worthless. My happy ass got to decipher the Chinglish spec sheet, I got proper potting epoxy, and went above/beyond standard destructive testing on several units to make sure I flawlessly replicated what should have come off the factory line.

TL;DR- it's really about your judgement and the boss's expectations. You should be least concerned with coworker gripes. If 'good enough' for them isn't 'good enough' in your eyes, trust your gut.

 

[Penis Drager]

If 'good enough' for them isn't 'good enough' in your eyes, trust your gut.

Well the point is that "good enough for me" is well below my tolerance that I've been taught.
"It's RMA, who cares?" digs deep into me and I just see garbage going out. Shit we'd never consider selling and practices we'd never concider following are suddenly okay.
But it's a refurb: who cares?

We've had brand new products catch fire. I'm now afraid of my refurbished laptop that I'm making this post right now on.

 

[BelUwUga]

Well the point is that "good enough for me" is well below my tolerance that I've been taught.
"It's RMA, who cares?" digs deep into me and I just see garbage going out. Shit we'd never consider selling and practices we'd never concider following are suddenly okay.
But it's a refurb: who cares?

We've had brand new products catch fire. I'm now afraid of my refurbished laptop that I'm making this post right now on.

TBF, I've taken in RMAs we'd spent untold amounts shipping back from some far-flung shithole, and then I would get an order from on high to complete a "Letter of Destruction" for the item because we'd decided to write it off. So I would take that RMA, and a reciprocating saw, and bisect the item. There's a lot of waste in this sector and I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it unless something is clearly fucky.

 

[Manul Otocolobus]

Sounds like a bad work culture. Refurbished are supposed to be to factory standards for new equipment. I find this is rarely true though.

 

[Penis Drager]

TBF, I've taken in RMAs we'd spent untold amounts shipping back from some far-flung shithole, and then I would get an order from on high to complete a "Letter of Destruction" for the item because we'd decided to write it off. So I would take that RMA, and a reciprocating saw, and bisect the item. There's a lot of waste in this sector and I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it unless something is clearly fucky.

I mean, All I did was replace a conduit and strip the enclosure.
The bitch passes testing. It just fails final inspection if that were a thing on it.

Sounds like a bad work culture. Refurbished are supposed to be to factory standards for new equipment. I find this is rarely true though.

You're a teacher if I'm not mistaken.
Not sure if I'd take your word for anything tbh.

 

[Penis Drager]

What are your plans afterward? Transition to another industry?

Maybe move to Texas. Texas Instruments hires tards like me. I also heard of a place near Corpus Christi that disassembles nuclear warheads but I PL too much for that to be a viable option.
I'll live.

 

[Manul Otocolobus]

You're a teacher if I'm not mistaken.
Not sure if I'd take your word for anything tbh.

I taught at university, but that was years ago.

Discount anything and everything I write. It is a rather ignorant stance though. None of us know what jobs/experience most of us have here.

 

[Psychotron]

Quality only counts if stuff breaks bad.
I don't know where long screw went, but it's only really a problem if a layman can notice it. Or if the longer screw made contact with a wire or some shit, IDK.

I've learned there are qualities of RMAs, you get to know your vendors; shitty vendors the best tactic is just to over order and send back the trash.

IDK, yeah, quality seems to suck now everywhere; Heaven forbid someone have pride in their work.

 

[RustedPeacock]

I bought lately laptop that was supposed to be refurbished. At first nothing wrong but the deeper I was checking the system the more flaws I encountered.

For example:
The Windows wasn't reversed to factory defaults. System was on shelf for preview and had some "User" generic account with ton of shit bloatware. The CPU was overheating but I wanted to change screen anyway, so I didn't mind that but once I have upgraded screen, embedded GPU on CPU wouldn't kick-off. The HDD it came along with was on its last legs. Number of errors gone to few hundreds.

My guess is nobody cared about it. If it boots its okay.