Used / Refurbished Cisco Hardware

A. Everything we sell comes with a one-year warranty that includes next-business-day replacement. We'll extend that warranty to customers as long as they want for a fraction of the cost of SMARTnet — two, five, 10 years or whatever works for the customer. We do that with spares, because if you buy a spare and buy a five-year warranty, you’re basically done forever. SMARTnet typically covers what the customer is using inside a given chassis. Historically, Cisco will provide technical support for what's in a given covered chassis. We've never seen a problem between the two support models. [-] Collapse

A. We've heard the rhetoric for many years and there's probably been an increase in rhetoric from Cisco. I think they're realising, or trying to come to terms with, the competition the secondary market is providing.

I would love to sit down with Cisco and work on a way we could formally cooperate. We sell Cisco's product, and we love Cisco's product, as do our customers. So you'd think, fundamentally, we're on the same team. [-] Collapse

A. We're interested in selling more equipment, and the best way for us to do that would be to sell new and used equipment. But that's been a nonstarter with Cisco. And it's understandable why: They want their new VARs selling new.

What I would be interested in talking to them about is their recertification program, which really doesn't work for us. And that's where I'd like to work with them most. I'm not sure it was designed to work with us; I think it was designed as a tool to prevent customers from working with us. But it could be great. We're selling Cisco's products and our customers want to buy their products. There should be a way to make that make economic sense. By working better with the secondary market, they're only going to increase the value of their equipment in the secondary market, which increases the value of their brand.

If the fee structure for resale and reregistering of maintenance of secondary equipment made more sense, they'd be getting a huge amount of revenue from recertification fees and maintenance. As it is, the fees don't make a lot of sense. It's not uncommon for a customer buying a $50,000 system to be faced with $25,000 in fees to recertify and reregister the products. [-] Collapse

A. They can’t. All our products are clearly represented as to what they actually are.

Very few manufacturers are enlightened enough to know that the used network hardware market is the entry point for many small and medium sized businesses to the manufacturer’s products.

Considering those businesses with limited budgets and technical inexperience; they are simply not the prospects to buy new. But after purchasing refurbished hardware and as their businesses grow, they often become prime customers, ready to buy new and add the latest technology.

So why libel the secondary market? We are not grey marketers. We are not pirates or counterfeiters. We are proudly secondary marketers – yes a used equipment reseller.

We are the Green Market! [-] Collapse