Refurbished on Dell.com, good or bad idea?

Buying a refurbised Dell does not mean you are always buying a used or defective computer. I have been dealing with Dell for years and very familiar with how their internal process work. Sometimes a large corporation or a individual may purchase a Dell unit or have a bulk order placed and then decide hey I do not like the way I configured this or cancelled their order before delivery or in the corporation sense ordered 500 and they really only need 400 units. Well since this unit is either custom built for someone or left over from a big order Dell cannot sell these unit as new. The other benefit of buying the refeb unit is that they sometimes have the same or a better warranty that what you would configure for a higher price. I can say I have purchased both refurb and new units from many manufacturers and the rule of thumb I always go buy if it has the same or better warranty go for it. If it only offers you 30 to 90 days then buy new or buy an extended warranty through the manufacturer. Never buy from a third party source always buy direct from DELL, Epson, IBM etc....Not Tiger Direct or some reseller off of Ebay. I hope that helps.

Tom

I have bought Dell products for the last 15 years and have always bought a refurbished machine.

They usually carry the same warranty as new and when I have needed service, the service was always excellent.

My last two computers and two others I purchased for my kids have all been refurbed from the manufacturer. I have no experience with Dell, these are all Gateway models, but each has never had a problem. My take is that they are better than new. Each was probably tested and poured over by a technician to fix a standard problem. Chances are many are just overstocks or cancelled orderes anyway. Save some money!!

I've had a Sony VIAO referb for 2-3 years without a problem. Also have had refurb HP 19" monitor 5 yrs no problems.

Both bought via web (UBid). Saved a bunch of money & happy with what I got, but recommend you be sure of source (ie: vendors site or other trustworthy site), check price (ie: is it really a deal), be sure of what is/is not included in deal (ie: operating system, cords/cables/mouse).

Be very careful of 'Shipping & Handling' costs too ... can be as much/more than the product from some auction sites/auctioneers.

Is just perfect for me and was so much cheaper. I have had nothing but praise for it and have had it for about 7 months. It was cheaper than I could buy the components and software and build one this good. I recommend refurbishedespecially Gateways.
Keith Hinkle

I purchased a refurbished hp pavilion computer. There ws a guarantee that came with my purchase. After I hooked everything up and was ready to start using my computer, I couldn't.

It seems that the sound the computer was searching as a "dial tone" was a screeching, horrible sound that was so horrible that I had to tell the computer technician to turn it off immediately.

After "fighting" with them for about 6 weeks, I started bothering UBid daily for help. Finally, a top manager happened to see my mail on a thick file folder. He called me and said they would be shipping a box for the computer and would pay for the shipping fee, as well as a no-charge repair bill. (Considering the fact that it never worked, I pretty much dared them to say it wasn't covered. Since then, I've had a few problems, but have found hp to be concerned about keeping its customers happy. Would I buy another one? I don't think so. The stress of constantly pushing for assistance just isn't worth it for me. I'd try a new computer (probably with some problems) over a re-furbished one any day.

I purchased a refurbished Sony Vaio...from UBID. The only problem that I had was the hard drive crashed after 3 years. Anybody's hard drive can crash after three years! I have a friend that bought a new Hewlett Packard and the drive crashed inside 12 months and guess what he didn't get the extended warranty. This computer may have had the hard drive replaced but it is 5 years old and running great! Just make sure that you purchase an extended warranty. Generally, the warranty's only are for about three months.
Good Luck!

I am the Manager of the Computer Service Dept of a large national chain, therefore I am pretty familiar with refurbs. Basically, the refurbs are the units which were returned to the factory after the customer received an exchange.
The good news on these refurbs is that since the Manufacturer is reselling them under his banner, in theory, they are examined from A to Z. You do get fantastic deals on not-too-recent models. Any defective part is replaced in order to make the unit operable.
The bad news is that technicians are humans and, as such, sometimes a problem will only show up once the PC is used extensively.
My recommendation? If you are on a limited budget, buy the refurb and try it out for 3 to 4 days. I mean install every program you think you will be using. Restart the PC many times, leave it running overnite, run different diagnostic software to really dig up any thing negative. If nothing bad appears, protect your purchase with an extended warranty which many stores will allow you to add within a few days of your purchase, and enjoy.

Everyone is trying to save money these days. So
knowing Dell's reputation, go for it. My friend is
going to buy one. The trick is finding one that suits
your parameters. I have a Dell and am quite satisfied
with it.

I have bought two laptops as refurbs-an Omni notebook and an eMachine. The Omni performed flawlessly for years. The eMachine I got recently (Jan 2005) from Tigerdirect. It's hard drive failed within the 90 day warranty, and it's CDRW has never worked right. I don't care about the CD RW so much, but the hard drive was a pain. My advice: if you get a refurb, make sure you use everything more than once to make sure it works before the warranty is up.

...and they have been at least as reliable as any others I've bought.

The biggest issue is that the warranty is potentially too short (usually 90 days), and (at Dell) the moneyback guarantee period is a lot shorter (10 days) than with a new PC.

But if you know that you want the model you're getting, as opposed to thinking that it seems to be what you want, the moneyback guarantee is probably not an issue.

Good luck.

I've purchased several workstations and peripherals over the years through Dell Factory Outlet, and have always been a satisfied customer. In fact, I've been checking the inventory on laptops over the past few days, looking for the features I want at a price that can't be beat. I've recommended Dell Factory Outlet to a number of friends and family, and they have been as happy as I have!

My husband and I have both had refurbished Dells for several years. We got a very good price, the features we wanted, and have had absolutely no problems with the computers. My daugher used to work on a computer help desk for a state agency, and told me they had less trouble with the Dells than any other brand, and they were the easist to update. Both of our daughters also have refurbished Dells. Before the Dell I bought a brand new computer with what I thought was a very reputable brand, and the hard drive crashed in less than a year. I had constant trouble with that computer.

I bought a refurbished Tecra laptop from e-bay.
It works, but the battery was dead from the first day.
the onboard windows (it included windows 98 SE) didn't accept the licence that was on the computer (it broke down eventually as windows always do, and when I wanted to re-install it, it didn't accept the cd-key that is glewed on the back of the computer)!!
as an overall, I would do it again and buy refurbished gagdets.

Make sure refurbs are a better value than new PCs of similar specs, else you'll be missing the point of getting refurbs in the first place.

As far as Dell refurbs vs new PCs, both are OK since the former's warranty will usually be on par with the latter's warranty. Any problems, and they're obligated to take care of it. Make sure other warranty is included if you want it. Stuff like on-site service is included with new units for only a year, but they may not include that with refurbs.

Another note: If u read the sales contract for new PCs, much of it may end up being refurbed parts, as it states "if Dell can't find new parts, we can use 'like-new' parts instead". E.g. they can't find a 300GB SATA hd for your brand new PC..... someone else returned their entire PC order after 2 weeks of use. Then they would swap out the SATA hd from the returned unit and put it in what would be your "brand new" machine. Everything would be brand new except the 2 week old (or in other cases even older) hd. Some parts may have been sitting around or been used in customers' PCs for many months by then

I bought a new PC..... Dimension 8300 from Dell. First one, all USB ports didn't work. Tech came in and replaced the motherboard. Now the ethernet/internet wasn't available. 3rd time, they replaced the whole system. I was told it would be a refurb. I didn't mind despite paying for a new PC since there's a good chance this time, everything would be right. I was right. 3rd time, the refurbed worked nicely. They tell u new PCs are "rigorously quality tested" for hardware and software problems, but the new PC and replacement mobo were problematic. IMO, It wasn't unreasonable to think that if a new PC had problems, a refurb would work fine.

Conclusion, go for the refurb, esp. if u can get a good deal. Make sure any specific warranties u want (besides the standard limited like on-site, or spyware removal help) is included

We always buy Dell refurbished. A lot of the times the computers are brand new and have been returned because customers wanted to upgrade, open boxes, etc. If they did have any problems they go through extensive testing to make sure they are right. We have a Dell dimension 8200, 2 Dell Inspiron Laptops, Dell printer/scanner/fax, Dell 1702 17'' Flat Screen Monitor, Axim PDA, Dell DJ - all refurbished. We've only had 1 problem. When we purchased our sons laptop we also purchased an extra warranty plan and glad we did. He had trouble with his laptop and Dell came to him while he was in class and fixed his computer right then and there. If it is a new computer you are buying it is a good idea to get an extended warranty with it. Just think about it, if you buy a new computer and have trouble you have to get it fixed, these have already had the bugs taken out of them. Yes, we did have that 1 incident, but out of all the products we brought through Dell Refurb. I think their track record speaks for itself.