Anyone ever buy a refurbished laptop or desktop from the Dell outlet?

[BentValve]

Anyone ever buy a refurbished laptop or desktop from the Dell outlet? I am considering purchasing a laptop from the outlet but before I do I would like to see what your experiences have been with Dell's refurbished goods.

Thanks in Advance

 

[BentValve]

I have one in my cart that I am very tempted to buy right now, the price seems too low but then again I am not very in tune with
what laptops are going for these days, what am I missing? I know I would need more ram but that is not biggie , I would assume
that it has several Ram slots.




Inspiron 2650 Notebook: Mobile Pentium® 4 processor,1.7 GHz-M 14.1 XGA

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

System Price $804.00
Promotion Discount ($100.00)
Discounted Price $704.00

Memory: 128 MB 200MHz SDRAM (1 DIMM)
Floppy Drive: Floppy Drive
Hard Disk Drive: 20 GB EIDE Hard Drive (4200 RPM)
Video: 16MB DDR 4X AGP NVIDIA GeForce2 Go?Vid
NoteBook Screen: 14 inch XGA Notebook Screen
Modem: Internal 56k v.92 capable Modem
Network Interface Card: Integrated 10/100 Fast Ethernet Network Card
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows XP Home
CD ROM Drive: 24X Max Variable CD-ROM

 

[Kermy]

Yep, I got a refurbished Inspiron 8200 last month. One thing to note is that some of the refurbished systems are cancelled items. So they never make it to the buyer. I don't know if this is the right but you can check if you get the service tag before you buy it and check the warranty. If there's no ship date that means it never went out. Take it for what it's worth.

But after a month with my refurbished Inspiron, I haven't had any problems and liking it so far.

 

[BentValve]

Is the service tag the same as the system identifier? If not then where do I find this number?
Thanks

 

[Kermy]

When you go browse the inventory there should be an id 6-7 characters long. That's how they identify the systems. Think it's on the farthest left side of the listings. Each row has one.

 

[CallTheFBI]

The thing I have wondered about refurbished laptops is weather or not people have already used them for any length of time. If that is the case then the batteries on them might not last as long.

 

[Kermy]

Yep, except people can't return it after 30 days. So all the systemson there would've been used for less than 30 days if that.

 

[DrVos]

I bought my girlfriend a Latitude from Dell SB refurb section 2 years ago, not only did it cost signifcantly less than similarly spec'd laptops at the time, but it came with a 3-year warranty (dont now what their refurb policy is now though). She has been very happy with the lappy and has had absolutely no problems with it.

 

[CallTheFBI]

Originally posted by: Kermy
Yep, except people can't return it after 30 days. So all the systemson there would've been used for less than 30 days if that.

Thirty days is quite awhile. A laptop's battery pack lifespan could be seriously reduced if there was heavy usage of the laptop during that time. Is there an option to buy a refurbished one that had a new battery in it?

 

[IanthePez]

how about just buying a new battery?

 

[CallTheFBI]

Originally posted by: IanthePez
how about just buying a new battery?

They can be expensive. Might negate the savings you get on the refurbished laptop.

 

[tenoc]

Bought a refurb off-lease Latitude PII 366 from dfsdirect for a friend last year. CDN799. Six month warranty.

The price was very good for a model that a couple of years before had been on pcworld's best-buy list for months.

It arrived without the advertised nic/modem card (a CDN150-200 value). One email later they shipped a new one.

It also came with a real leather carrying case, not vinyl crap, another 150-200 value.

Supposed to have a 4 gig HD. Major disappointment - a 12 gig!

Loaded up an OS, latest drivers, (they come wiped and naked), software and off to the races.

Battery and all still strong.