let say u have a budget, which one do you prefer, used laptop or manufacturer refurbished ?  well, not just laptop, but electronics in general (printer, stereo, etc).  i have bought several manufacturer refurbished electronics (printer, car cd changer, drives) and they all work flawlessly, no problem at all, but i never bought expensive thing that cost more than $1000+.  now i have a choice to buy either a used laptop or manufacturer refurbished one, both of which i don’t have the option to inspect, but just to trust the seller based on the seller reputation for used laptop.  my friend said to stay away from refurbished cause it will give you problems, but i never have problem with refurbished stuff.  on the other hand, u never know what happen with used product, right?  at least manufacturer refurbished products are sold by the factory outlet, not by 3rd party, so you can sort of trust it.  but then used is new, someone just use it for a while.  some used stuff are just practically like new cause the owner take a good care of it, but sometime it’s not.  it’s sort of like buying a cat in a bag.  refurbished usually means it’s a return product, or something wrong with it and they just fix it.  it might cause problem again if it’s a lemon.

anyway, i dont know what to decide, so tell me what do you think.  thanks for the input.

i agree with you about the chance of problem happening again. however, most refurbished products do come with some form of limited warranty. purchasing a used laptop is a bigger risk for me. like you said you don’t know how it was used. are you thinking about the one that’s on ebay right now posted by one of the guest. he stated the upgrade was done professionally and did not damage anything or break any seals…bottom line is, the warranty is void. i’m not saying there’s anything wrong with the laptop, just there’s a alot of risk involved. if something goes wrong which would you rather go through, the seller or manufacturer.

I have recently bought a refurbished Toshiba P20-504. This is a really BIG laptop.
Within 24 hours the DVD RW drive went down. I phoned the retailer (Morgan Computers in Manchester) on Sunday. They advised me to bring it in.
They spent 15 minutes before deciding it wasn’t a simple problem, but a hardware fault. Iwas told that they would try a CD drive from a similar laptop to ensure that it was the drive rather than the laptop at fault. I went home.
I found that they had left a message for me to say it was fixed. :D The drive they swapped out of a P15 was actually a DVD RW, but wrongly maked on the box. My laptop was ready for pickup.
It has not skipped a beat since.
Great laptop, runs Media Centre Edition, get TV etc.
Great store. Service was excellent. I’d go buy refurbished again - from Morgan. :D

This is an interesting dilemma.  The warranty from the seller is huge, but the deals you can get from private sellers are too good to pass up sometimes.

Bottom line….warranty?  or save some major dough?

i am considering other laptop, not the one that is posted earlier.  anyway, u r right, if u buy refurbished, you have warranty, although it’s limited warranty compare to new, but then you can’t beat the price of used.  if something goes wrong, if u buy it manufacturer refurbished, you can always return it and get your money back, but not in the case of used.  i m not saying that the seller is bad person, but sometimes sh*t happens during the shipment, and in that case, the seller say that it’s working, but the buyer say it’s not working. while on the refurbished, it’s safe.  but then again, you can’t resist the price of the used and if the seller really pamper their laptop like most of this forum users, it’s like buying like new (slightly used) and at a bargain price.

My friend had bought a refurbished laptop from eCost to take to India a few days before going there. Unfortunately for him the optical drive was not functioning and since few days were only left for him to go, he could not even return it.

It really depends on what I’m buying…if it’s something like a laptop or a processor, I’d go in for new (prefer not used, and never refurbished), while if it was some cheaper item like batteries for a laptop, etc I might still buy it in refurbished or used condition.

Whatever you decide, if u get refurbished make sure u test all ports, etc on the laptop and if u get it used then it should match the sellers description.

While I have never had much problems with the products I buy, I almost never buy refurbished. I bought a refurbished Sega Game Gear one time, and it works pretty good ( still does ), except that the screen has major scratches on the upper part. Other than that, it’s a great system.

I usually prefer buying used over refurbished, but like Rahul stated, I prefer new over both the latter. Except for the Vaio RX650 in the house, I’ve never had to go back and use warranty. I buy used or second-hand when I can find a good deal so I can still afford the other little gadgets that make up my world of “style” .... and because I know that it’s not always worth buying retail price because the system I buy will be topped by a better model in only a matter of months that might make me regret the purchase of my current model.

However, if the deal you’re getting is a super deal, I’d get it. You’ll never know—if you get a really REALLY good deal, you can always resell it for a higher price and make some small profit out of it to reinvest in something bigger. Otherwise, it might not be worth your time. 

-best,
Concura

25 July 2004

i was under the impression that most refurbed computers are cosmetic errors.  no? :shock:

I think that would be true for clothes, footwear, etc. It could be cosmetic for computers too but mostly its technical flaws.

If there’s a technical flaw with some product under the warranty period generally a customer would return the product and get a new one while the manufacturer would attempt to rectify the flaw and resell the product as refurbished…although some might just be selling the product as new again…never know

Not necessarily.  It could have been a product return or a demo/test unit.  Perhaps even an Exec with Sony used it for a few months.

Manufacturer Refurbished products differ from other refurbished products because they are restored to the exact manufacturer specifications by the original manufacturer in a certified refurbishing center. In addition, these products typically come with the added advantage of a manufacturer warranty. These unused or used items have been returned to original manufacturers for various reasons: use in field tests, use in sales displays, and cancellations. They are then cleaned, quality checked and tested twice. They are also serviced, if needed, in the original manufacturer’s certified refurbishing center. Refurbished products may come with minor blemishes and may come with or without manuals, batteries and back recovery disks.