It is not bad, that's what I got before. There are better deals for open boxes at CC and Best Buys, but they are a lot more rare and the open box units are frequently pretty beat up- at least the one I considered at local Circuit City had scratches and dings all over the front panel.
The one I got from service center was in the original box, fully stocked with all cables and working remote, had IR emitter which was not in use before (had the glue pads on it). On the other hand the unit seems to be initialized and had a record of a couple of shows with a dial up number of the area where the service center was, possibly because they wanted to make sure it worked. All I needed to do is read the Rob's FAQ (top of the forum page) and change the number and choose my area cable provider. It takes a month to get a rebate but some people reported recently having trouble getting theirs. I, personally, found Panasonic to be one of the best companies to wait for rebate from- I waited for Prime Peripherials rebate for 9 months, and Xirlink rebate for 7 months, Staples on average 3.5 months and Microsoft for 1 month. Be sure to make copies of all rebate info and send it with a receipt notification, it will cost you a buck or two and guarantee that you will receive a 100.
The one I got from service center was in the original box, fully stocked with all cables and working remote, had IR emitter which was not in use before (had the glue pads on it). On the other hand the unit seems to be initialized and had a record of a couple of shows with a dial up number of the area where the service center was, possibly because they wanted to make sure it worked. All I needed to do is read the Rob's FAQ (top of the forum page) and change the number and choose my area cable provider. It takes a month to get a rebate but some people reported recently having trouble getting theirs. I, personally, found Panasonic to be one of the best companies to wait for rebate from- I waited for Prime Peripherials rebate for 9 months, and Xirlink rebate for 7 months, Staples on average 3.5 months and Microsoft for 1 month. Be sure to make copies of all rebate info and send it with a receipt notification, it will cost you a buck or two and guarantee that you will receive a 100.
