Epson wants to replace my new pj with a refurb! Is this really normal??

Actually, that is completely normal throughout the electronics industry. Either you send it in for repair (and do without the unit for 2 weeks at best), or you exchange for a refurbished unit. Epson has one of the best policies because they send you the new one first and cover all the shipping. Some companies make you ship the old one (at your cost), evaluate it, then send you a replacement. Usually takes a week or more before they even ship the replacement.

The only exception is if your retailer has a policy that allows for new exchange, but that is usually only for the first 30 days unless you purchased an extended warranty through them.

Sometimes you get lucky and they send a new one if there are no refurbs available, but that is the exception.

In my experience, most of the time, you can't tell any difference between a refurb and a new unit except maybe an R on the serial number or a small sticker.

They do regularly send refurbished units and if you send your unit for repair they may still send you a refurbished unit. I sent my 8700UB for repair after going through many units to finally get a new unit that wasn't defective last year. I didn't want to risk getting another bad refurb so my unit was sent for repair and when it came back it had a new serial number and a new lamp. Luckily it had the best convergence I have seen on the 8700UB yet so the picture was really sharp. That added up to me being happy in the end because I had put over 500 hours on the lamp and now I have a sharper unit with a new lamp. It sucks that I waited all that time that they were supposed to be doing a repair just to receive a different unit though.

Do not get a replacement unit if you can wait ten days for yours to be fixed. My brother had four different replacement units and each had different problems. Get yours fixed if you can wait for it to be repaired at their service center.

Yep, as stated this is pretty normal procedure.

In all honesty i wouldnt stress about a refurb.

Refurb's are great, i dont know why people have a stigma about them.

Refurb's are 9 times out of 10 units that were DOA, got returned, then were thoroughly inspected by a technician on all points of operation, fixed whatever the issue was (usually something stupid like a bad solder point) and sold at a much lower price.

The best part is your refurb is GUARANTEED to work properly, whereas your brand new unit isnt guaranteed to do squat, thus the warranty.

+1 I totally agree