I'm not sure about that. It seems to work for refurbished computers, which are end of lease. For general appliances I doubt it, because not energy efficient enough, liability, warranty and so on.
Of course common sense would say refurbishing is better for the environment, but common sense? EU?
Computers are actually the more competitive electronics. Probably because they're easy to acquire, refurbish and transport.
Refurbished home appliances like washers/fridges/dryers/dishwashers/ovens are a good product to sell, there are lots of small shops that buy dozens or hundreds of them for resale, and of course, lots of individuals furnishing their own place.
Energy efficiency for them is not going up anytime soon, they've been stuck in the same ratings for more than a decade. They're simply as efficient as possible already.
Liability and warranty would be handled by the resellers, and if agreed, by us. Mostly by return and replacement, but it could be feasible to create an on-site repair service. We can provide the necessary parts, too.
The thing is, a properly fixed appliance will last just as long as a new one. In fact, the failure rate on used electronics can often be lower - newer models that use a new internal design fail more than older, "proven" appliances. The saving grace for them are the warranty and return policies.
Customers will still give 4-5 stars even if their first purchase was a dud, but it was swiftly replaced with another one. That always surprises me, btw. It's like, "oh my new Indesit fridge was DOA, but they replaced it the next day. 5 stars."
Anyway, a big downside is that transportation costs are rather high. And they can only be loaded by forklifts with special attachments, or several people at the same time.
However, the more thoroughly they're checked, repaired and cleaned, the fewer returns, the less money spent on transportation.
I know that. I'm using an old and big fridge from Privileg (Duo Cold). I thought of 'tuning' it with a microcontroller, but deemed it unnecesary after logging temperature and power use at different settings for a few days. Only impractical thing is the needed deicing after about half a year. But then I can at least clean and disinfect it thouroughly.
Which I btw. got for free from the streetside, it was just standing there with other stuff, probably houshold clearing. Saw it on my way home, checked it out, was clean. Looked OK. Went home, got my foldable sack barrow and a few rubber straps from my bicycle, went back there and had a nice upgrade to my even older, but much smaller and louder fridge. Which I then rolled to the communal recycling center a block away :)
Of course common sense would say refurbishing is better for the environment, but common sense? EU?
Anyways, I wish you luck/success.