Community Newsletter: Q&A forum: Your thoughts on refurbished or "recertified" computers

First I want to say good luck. I am a computer tech, have owned my own pc shop. I have bought several refurbished laptops from ubid.com, every one has been in new condition, I have not had a single problem. I have not purchased a desktop from them. I generally always buy the parts from Newegg.com & build my own desktop computers. In December I was pricing parts to build a new system for one of my customers, I found that I could buy a complete computer from www.3btech.net for cheaper than the cost of the parts. They have really good prices and free shipping on everything on their web site. If anybody is looking for a great laptop and does not want to pay Dell's steep price, check out the line of ASUS notebooks from Newegg. I bought myself one 2 months ago & this is the best laptop I have ever used, I paid under $1200 for an awesome laptop that would have run over $2000 from Dell.

If you are a good sized corporation a proprietory system like Hp, Gateway, or Dell might be the way to go. They charge corporations "UP THE GILLS" for anything. If you don't have that kind of budget then it's not for you. In case you haven't noticed your company's computer works quite well, not the same can be said of your perssonel computer at home. Corporations have "Business class" operating systems(Windows XP Corporatin Version etc.). You can not buy these things in your local computer store.
You most likely don't even know how to begin to purchase such items.
My position on these things is very simple. When you see a computer all you see is an enclosure that contains some rudimentary items. If the rudimentary items inside is of a high caliber.. Name Brand motherboard, memory, video card, etc, etc, you will have a trouble free system to a degree. You don't have corporation class support that seems to lock you into "Purchasing Only from them" All of todays computers are susceptable to the non standardization of software, drivers, hardware and their inability to interact with each other correctly, compounded by spam attacks, virus attacks, Data Mining of your personnel information, all of which degrades your system performance and sometimes making it "just plain crash". No one has achieved making a computer system "regular people freindly" If you're not a computer WIZ, spending hour after hour learning about the incompatablities, your GOING to Have Personnel Computer Problems.
What you need to concern yourself with is.. Is the computer able to handle what you need it to do. No one needs a computer that's capable of 3 billion calculations a second just to do word processing. If you purchase an operating system that has "BLOAT" (overhead) it needs that kind of processing power just to read the disk even when you just want to start a program. The sales people at the computer stores I've experienced are some sort of kids looking for their paycheck at the end of the week and don't know a damn thing about computers much less how to advise anyone else. The outside case of a computer is meaningless, the quality inside is everything. I have purchased good cheap computers on eBay BUT you have to know how to make it operate correctly with what "YOU" install on it. So to answer your question, if the the refurbished or recertified computer is not too much of yesterdays model, then it probably will work for you.

I don't agree with the statement that "refurbished" or "reconditioned" means that something went wrong with it. Before purchasing, I did some research on "off-lease" laptops. If you search for it on the Web, you will find quite a few companies who acquire off-lease latops from a corporate setting. I bought mine from just such a place and it has a 6-month warranty, which I did not expect but was pleased with.

I, too, did NOT want to spend the $$$ for a NEW laptop. I WANTED a laptop, but did not NEED a new computer - my desktop works fine - I have just wanted a latop for about 8 years now.... However, I have equally had problems with NEW desktops in the past, so you are never immune from having problems with new equipment.

I looked at new ones to get an idea of the brand I wanted, researched different models and reviews, and made my selection and decision based on this and my BUDGET. I purchased an IBM ThinkPad, and I LOVE it! I have had NO problems, and it DOES work better/faster than my desktop, which is maybe only a couple years old.

I use my laptop almost exclusively now. I rarely touch my desktop anymore. I don't regret my decision, and would buy another reconditioned laptop!

When I am strapped for cash refurbished is the way to go.The quality is still there without the price tag.

I HAVE BEEN BUYING REFURBISHED FOR OVER 10 YEARS, 4 DESKTOPS AND 1 LAPTOPS, SONY VAIO, COMPUTERS WITH NO PROBLEMS. BEFORE THAT I HAD 3 HP REFURBISHED WITH NO PROBLEMS. THIS MONTH I GOT MY FIRST NEW LAPTOP WITH XP PRO SINCE 1995. I USE UBID.

I have owned three different refurbs (which appear to be reboxed returns without blemishes) in the last eight years. IBM, eMachine, and Gateway (pre-merger). All came from TigerDirect.com at very good prices. The Gateway Media Edition has by far been the most well-equipped and best performing. It is three years old and running strong. I add the extended warranty and still come out ahead on the money. CompUSA appears to be reinventing itself to sell online like TigerDirect. Aveerage savings for a reboxed/refurbished has been about $300 off of retail.

Ditch HP. I used to be a die hard HP fan until I had them bto my last windows desktop. They do not stand behind their product and after a year of fighting with them and them not honoring their extended service contract, I spent $120 (it was bad ram) and fixed it myself and told them I would never buy another one of their products again. I was so tired of the 'it's the software' from the hardware people and 'it's the hardware' from the software people and all the pointing fingers because no one wants to deal with the issue that I switched to Apple. I would buy one of their refurbs as they provide the same warranty on those as you get with a new machine and you can go to the store and talk to them face to face instead of someone half way around the world reading a script. With the new intel chips - you can run windows on a mac (vista actually runs faster on a mac) for any windows programs you can't live without.

I can't speak for Hp's but I have purchased several refurbished Dell Pc" and laptops....I did this for the same reasons. In order to up-grade and go"fast" and get more tech for my buck. I won't turn this into a Dell commercial but they sell used (refurbished) and Pc's that are just out from being leased. the ones I bought were in great shape and ready to be upgraded. these are usually stripped down business desktops etc. Check out the Dell site and compare it to HP maybe it might be worth it to you.

This is my first time commenting in the forum because I did not see a good answer to your question. I dealt with this situation and I think I can help.

The most important issue is the support contract. If they offer a full warranty with quick turn around on repairs and pick up the shipping, then I would say that it is a good deal. This of course providing that the company is reputable.

I recently purchased a refurbished big screen and they first told me that the warranty was two years. I had it 3 days and it died. They then told me that the warranty was 90 days. I previously considered this manufacturer to be reputable. It was six weeks from the time I shipped it to the time I got it back. They sent me a new model because they could not fix the old one. Two weeks later, the remote died. It took two weeks to get a new remote. I was afraid that the main unit would be the problem.

I hate to say this but the techs are low budget and low tech across the industry. I would ask the manufacturer if their tech support is in the USA. If it is not, then I would not even consider purchasing from them. I know too many people who paid for their own repairs because they got tired of trying to deal with techs who could not speak English well.

Every company deals with refurbished units differently. Some companies test thoroughly and some don't do very much at all. Your worst nightmare would be if you had a unit with an intermittent problem. Your best situation would be to get a unit that someone returned because they did not like the color. If your unit has to be shipped back and forth a couple times, then it will be a piece of junk because few units can survive this much handling.

If you do decide to buy a refurbished unit, I would suggest testing it thoroughly. Find free software to run tests overnight for the first week.

Hi I brought two refurbished digital camera from HP never had a problem with them the rep. from HP said that the cameras. Was never used just return from a store that had to many of them.

If you buy refurbished you have to buy the extended warantee for 200-300 anyhow I bought refurbished from computer Trends and not a great experience ie my adapter broke and it wasn't covered after paying the money. I guess it is more upset with computer trends anyhow a no hassle warantee is worth it for buying new. I bought compaq and the computer is working fine but I could have bought new for the same amount of money

I have purchased both new and refurb desktop and laptops. I have found no difference in a refurb or new. I purchased HP and Compaq refurbs and if you pay attention to the description of the item you can purchase a new computer with a refurb tag on it. I worked on these machines when I was in the Navy and either way you go you will get a good machine, the price is the only difference. Sure you will find someone who has had a bad experience with a refurbished machine and will get on here and run them down, but I have sent plenty of brand new ones back too. Good Luck.

I work for HP as a field engineer. When ever I want a "new" computer, monitor, printer, camera...etc. I always go for Refurbed from the hp shopping site.

New is for idjits who like higher bills. Save your money.

The bottom line in PCs is that all machines -- new and old -- go kerflooey. Visit the Apple message boards, for instance, to see how many shiny new Apples have problems. The answer is lots.

This isn't an anti-Apple post; in fact, I think you'd be better off with an Apple. There are fewer problems in software with them than with PCs. But the fact is, in hardware, anything can go at any time in any brand.

Get a warranty and get over the idea that computers are perfect. You'll be happier.

for many years I bought all refurbished computers wheni wanted to upgrade and the only brand togive me a headache and wallet ache was HP, worked fine for a short time and then it spent more time touring the US via fedex than on my desk. Reputable dealers are the key. I also bought a refurb laptop (Again HP) and it ended up being given to a local rehab place for practice in repairs. sooo good luck in your quest.