I don't see how you can compare a refurb to a new one at costco. I would much rather pay 30.00 more for a new one at costco and their return policy can't be beat. Returning something to woot is not nearly as easy as returning to costco. Well worth the 30.00.

ojohn wrote:The tricks for getting into Costco without a membership:

At the door say you are going to the snack bar. All Costco snack bars are free to get in to the public! Once in you can look around but you can't buy anything - except at the snack bar. Try the pizza or the hot dog or the sausage and peppers sandwich. Note, this is an old promotion trick for Costco, not something underhanded, they used to want people to come in and look around. They don't promote this bit anymore but it still works.

The trick for buying something in Costco without a membership:

Use a Costco Gift Card. Costco members can buy a Costco gift card inside the store. (I've never seen them sold anywhere else but they might be.) When you have a Costco gift card, say it's a $50 card, you can get into the store and you can buy anything in the store at the Costco price. You can buy the $500 computer or whatever else at the Costco price using the $50 gift card plus additional. So get someone with a Costco membership to buy a gift card there for you.

Now back to woot, Vizio, and Squaretrade...

There is something you might want to add. If you do this too many times costco will flag you and you will not be allowed to do it again. You do not have to be a member to buy at costco.com but you will pay a little higher price. If you are going to do a lot of shopping at costo I recommend that you and someone else in your household go in on a membership and split the 55.00 annual fee as the second card is free.

Vizio is not known for their quality, but if I wanted a cheap tablet for entry-level use or for playing Pimp My Tablet I'd pick them over a lot of the other no-name companies.

ojohn wrote:much great info

Thanks so much, that really helps.

ojohn wrote:The previous woot is
http://www.woot.com/Forums/ViewPost.aspx?PostID=4760881&PageIndex=1

See my posts on the last page there, or page 15 as it exists so far.

If you don't want to read through the 15 pages there, GET THE SQUARETRADE WARRANTY. I didn't for this although I do for some things. I wish I had it for this. :mad:

To keep it short, I thought it was great until the charging connector broke 1 week before the 90 days - the charging connector is the weak point of this tablet, with complaints all over the net. It just breaks. They sent me a second ref-urb one which won't connect to wi-fi. I am now on a third, they sent a new one, which is better than the 2nd but not as good as my first and I want it replaced too, or my money back.

I found that the ref-urbed ones have a peelable plastic protector on the screen, but new units have a different kind of peelable plastic on the screen and all around the unit.

Other users on that thread have had the same and other problems and some cannot get any warranty service from Vizio.

Avoid this, or get the Squaretrade warranty.

I am surprised that woot/amazon is selling, for a second time, this proven troublesome unit with proven troublesome warranty service.

I can't even understand why anyone would by a refurb from woot when for a another 20 or 30 bucks they can get a new one from costco with costco's unbeatable return policy.

I got one last Woot for my son . No problems with the tablet but the usb cable was bent. It looked like someone tried to jam it in wrong. Anyways after I called Vizio they said go buy a new cable. Later people commented that they got support from Vizio ?? but I found a suitable cable from an old phone. The tablet itself works great for games, movies and music. It sounds better to me than my Ipad the 3 speakers always give you stereo no matter if you use it portrait or landscape. I like the fact that you can use Amazon market or Google play. I just noticed today that it is offering an OS upgrade and went and read some users are having some bugs. I'll wait and see how Vizio deals with it. Im happy with Froyo actually works pretty good.One final thought for all the get it at Costco or Walmart posters. you can't find them at ANY of the Costco or Wallymarts in my area . Don't be so sure the bird in your hand is available unless you check the local stores in person.

jnfr wrote:Would someone explain to me please exactly how you get a Square Trade extra warranty for this? I see that Amazon sells them for various price points and lengths of time, but how do you determine what price to cover? The refurb price? Replacement price?

And once you have a warranty how do you attach it to a device? TIA!!

Per Squaretrade website:

Your SquareTrade Care Plan is limited in value to the purchase price of your item, and we generally ask you to use the actual price paid for your item when purchasing a warranty.

However, if you bought your item from a retail website or store, and you got a substantial discount, the actual purchase price might be far lower than the fair replacement value of the item. In such a case, in order to make sure you have enough value in the warranty to replace your item after a claim, you are welcome to use the full regular retail price to purchase the warranty, as opposed to the sale price you paid. This might make the warranty more expensive than if you use the sale price, but you'll get more value in your coverage.

If you choose to use the full retail value to buy the warranty, please provide proof of that retail value of your item when you submit your sales receipt. If the full price is shown on your receipt, that is sufficient. If not, you can provide a local ad showing the original price, or a printout from the manufacturer's website or a national retail website (Amazon, Best Buy, etc.) showing the MSRP or regular price, or something similar showing the full value of the item.

buffaloed wrote:If I was forced to decide I'd go with the Vizio. At least it's a full-fledged tablet. The Kindle Fire is too restricted in what you can do with it. The problem with the Vizio is it's really underpowered and the viewing angle is limited. The Blackberry Playbook might be worth looking into.

Agree, if the MAIN reason you want it is for an ereader get a Kindle Fire. I wanted it to be a better tablet than it is, and am disappointed.

xupthree60 wrote:This thing is overpriced. This same referbed unit sells for $50 more on new egg, but for 130 you can get a Iview 760gt.

The Iview is just as good or maybe better hardware, infact its basically the same hardware as a Galaxy s or Nexus s. Also has an official upgrade to ICS and both gingerbread and ICS versions are completely vanilla android with no bloatware.

you need to look again. Thats the CASE thats refurb for $50. The refurb tablet is 199 with a case.

dliidlii wrote:Amazon price on 4-6-12 was $199 NEW with 1 year warranty

Was? It isn't now.

ojohn wrote:The tricks for getting into Costco without a membership:

At the door say you are going to the snack bar. All Costco snack bars are free to get in to the public! Once in you can look around but you can't buy anything - except at the snack bar. Try the pizza or the hot dog or the sausage and peppers sandwich. Note, this is an old promotion trick for Costco, not something underhanded, they used to want people to come in and look around. They don't promote this bit anymore but it still works.

The trick for buying something in Costco without a membership:

Use a Costco Gift Card. Costco members can buy a Costco gift card inside the store. (I've never seen them sold anywhere else but they might be.) When you have a Costco gift card, say it's a $50 card, you can get into the store and you can buy anything in the store at the Costco price. You can buy the $500 computer or whatever else at the Costco price using the $50 gift card plus additional. So get someone with a Costco membership to buy a gift card there for you.

Now back to woot, Vizio, and Squaretrade...

Just get a membership. They're worth it.

thinking about this as I don't love my Kindle Fire - eReader isn't my main priority, and I don't care a ton about book borrowing. But will I lose some of the Amazon Prime video streaming abilities it seems

MrJazz wrote:No, "Factory Data Reset" does not work... in fact mine wouldn't even perform one.

A "hard" reset though DOES work!

Make sure it's powered down (not sleeping) and hold in the volume rocker (top AND bottom) while you power up. Do not release the rocker until you see a triangle with and exclamation point. Of course, you'll still have to reinstall everything, but I viewed that as an opportunity to "clean house!"

True, you do lose the capacitive buttons (and screen real estate) but the tradeoff is worth it for the ability to select your external SD card as your default storage.

Still loving mine ~ Wootalicious!

I have done the hard reset.

I am telling you: It. Does. Not. Work.

Yes, I lost all my apps. No, it still will not play video for more than 4 - 5 minutes.

Honestly, if I did not want to play videos or read ebooks I might be ok with this thing. Unfortunately, those are the 2 things I bought it for and now I am super pissed about the disastrous update.

joulem wrote:Here is a link that might help shed some light on your question.

http://www.quora.com/What-does-it-mean-to-root-a-device

Thank you! This was beyond my computer knowlege.

ojohn wrote:The tricks for getting into Costco without a membership:

At the door say you are going to the snack bar....

Here the snack bar is OUTSIDE the entry door.

Ok.. I just ordered one but I am not seeing the square trade warranty info on the main page. I have looked all over the main purchase page and nothing.. any ideas?

mmoconnor wrote:I have done the hard reset.

I am telling you: It. Does. Not. Work.

Yes, I lost all my apps. No, it still will not play video for more than 4 - 5 minutes.

Honestly, if I did not want to play videos or read ebooks I might be ok with this thing. Unfortunately, those are the 2 things I bought it for and now I am super pissed about the disastrous update.

WOW ~ sorry to hear that!

After the update, I had connectivity issues first, then it went into a boot loop. I was pissed, too.

Just for giggles, I contacted Vizio (they emailed me a phone number) and they very patiently walked me thru several attempts to rectify the issues. Ultimately, the hard reset worked for me.

But considering that my Woot refurb warranty had expired, I think Vizio support went above and beyond. Try reaching out to them...

sellbuyer92 wrote:http://www.vizio.com/

Hope this helps anyone get closer to buying one...

Bought one in December. The OS upgrade they sent out last month was outstanding--improved battery usage tremendously. Love the device.

Love the device. Bought one in December (my Xmas present to myself.) The OS upgrade they sent out last month improved the device (especially battery usage) tremendously. Great buy for $149!

keriah wrote:Here the snack bar is OUTSIDE the entry door.

Mine, too...
I believe non-Costco members can still use the pharmacy, optometry, and hearing aid centers.

woomama wrote:Ok.. I just ordered one but I am not seeing the square trade warranty info on the main page. I have looked all over the main purchase page and nothing.. any ideas?

It's just above the product description or feature details & right above the line that says "Warranty: 90 Day Vizio"

Just left Costco, yes Costco has them for $189.00, but they don't come with an HDMI cable or the case...

Can someone compare this with a Nook 8gb Tablet for me? (I just bought that for 199 + a free $50 gift cart on Thursday, so I could return it).

Obviously, this will have more access to the real Google Play app store as opposed to the woefully limited access on the Nook. The Nook has more storage, but the SD card slot can even that out. It looks to me like this has the same RAM as the 8g Nook Tab and the same 1GHZ processor.

I guess I basically answered my own question, but does anyone who has had hands on both (and eyes on both screens) have any feed back?

I want to be able to watch Hulu Plus, edit documents, check e-mail, facebook, and read blogs etc.

Does it ship to Canada

jha1223 wrote:much useful info.

Many thanks for this as well.

woomama wrote:Ok.. I just ordered one but I am not seeing the square trade warranty info on the main page. I have looked all over the main purchase page and nothing.. any ideas?

And it's right under the line that says "Authorized for SquareTrade Extended Warranty". It's a Flash/ad/button/graphic. If you have a script or ad blocker running, (or one of those machines that Doesn't Do Flash), it might be blocked. If so, you could use a different machine to get it today. The Squaretrade account does not use your Woot account (I think).

borntohunt wrote:It's just above the product description or feature details & right above the line that says "Warranty: 90 Day Vizio"

It uses a flash ad so if you have Flashblock you'll need to click the button and then again on the flash it opens. Or at least I had to

Many a fortnight ago, 'twas th' anniversary o' me mate's whelping. So, says I to meself, "so," I says, "Self! Why not get 'em th' Vizo 8" Android Tablet (refurbished)?". 'T seems 'twas the bulls bullocks, like- th' Vizo 8" Android Tablet (refurbished) changed the bloke's life, right?

So, 'ere we are- I'm gettin' me own Vizo 8" Android Tablet (refurbished), yeah?

Yeah.

docsolo wrote:Does it ship to Canada

If you live in a US city named "Canada", then yes. Otherwise, you'll have to wait until the US invades the country of Canada.

I'll ask again, Do these things overheat when you watch video for extended periods of time? and how is the battery life while watching movies?

MichXelle wrote:Was? It isn't now.

I know it isn't today.Makes me think Woots' owners raised the price today to make this deal look better than it actually is. Check Amazons' price in a week and see if it isn't back down to $199 again.

Nekosdad wrote:Just left Costco, yes Costco has them for $189.00, but they don't come with an HDMI cable or the case...

But Costco sells it NEW with double the manufacturers warranty and best return policy anywhere. You can get the cable and case for $10.

I am selling my new (12-6-11) 32 GB Lenovo K1 (1 yr warranty) 10.1" + real leather case + Lenovo dock + 3 (2 unused) screen protectors + + 32 GB Class 10 Micro SD for $250 to buy this.

My Lenovo has sits in its dock 2' from both my 28" monitor att'd to a $2K full tower gaming PC and 55" Plasma att'd to PC. (I BT media.)

My K1 tab is too fracking big and heavy for me!

Comments?

PS: I got my sis a Vizio for xmas and it seems more manageable.

ojohn wrote:The day of the woot sale, if there's a Squaretrade button on the page, you can click it to get the warranty. Sometimes, like today, there is a very good discount on the warranty. Today through that button it is $28.99 for one year for this unit, $15.00 for a second year.

If you don't get that warranty today through that button, you can go to their website within 7 days,

squaretrade.com

and get it separately. I just checked and through the website the 1 year would be $75.99 on the website for this refurbished unit. That's their full normal price.

You can register your unit on their website by emailing them your emailed receipt from woot, or for store bought items you can email a photo or scan of your store receipt.

Once you get any warranty from them, every month or two you'll get an email with a 25% or 30% off code for a warranty for anything else you get anywhere else, the discount code is good for only 7 days or sometimes 2 or 3 days.

So, if you're getting this Vizio here today, get the warranty here today through the button on the front page. You can do that all day long, but only today for this model. It's a good deal, and as we see, you just might need it for this model.

(I want to be clear, this is a great tablet at a great price with a nice case. When it works.)

WHY buy a refurb and a squaretrade warranty when you can buy a new one with 1 year manufacturers warranty and an additional 1 year warranty from Costco for LESS than that?!

I got my mom a Kindle Fire for Christmas because she likes reading but I think my Dad was a bit jealous..Was going to get him one for Fathers Day but would this be a good alternative?
Also - Would this be good for parents who are a little older & slow to technology? My Mom has caught on to apps a little more faster than my Dad but I think this would be pretty close to a kindle with the custom Vizio interface. Thanks!

bbonacci wrote:1. Sounds like a little attitude there.
2. Let's forget about the Costco membership and say that it's worth it if you buy some other things there.
3. $189 PLUS $10 shipping and no extras.
4. Are we sure it's NEW? I don't see any indication of new or refurb, nor do I see any warranty information.

EQUALS - this is still a good deal!

If you think this EQUALS a good deal you must have flunked math. The woot extras are worth $10 to anyone who knows how to shop online. The Costco 2 year warranty is worth at least $100 not to mention the priceless ease of returning a defective item. And YES,the COSTCO one is NEW not refurbished.

The only problem that I have had was the mini charger broke internally. I purchased mine at Costco and did a return and purchased a new one. The new one was much tighter feeling from the start.

Other than that, this tablet does everything I need. It has a clear screen, nice size, Android based, and has not given me any problems with upgrades. I have spent some time in forums to try and learn a little about Android, since it is new to me, but I think that wouldn't be necessary.

Nice unit and cheaper than I've seen it elsewhere.

I bought one and forgot to add the square trade warranty, is there any way to add it at the reduced woot price? The order has not shipped yet.

If you want a ST warranty, goto their website, get on mailing list and wait for 30% off email coupon. Or buy a ST tab warranty at Amazon.

$45 for 2 yrs plus drops and spills.