If you have purchased a refurbished laptop, are you happy with your purchase?
If you'd like to comment beyond the poll:
Battery wasn't user replaceable and battery died after a couple of years. So no, I'll never buy a used laptop again. Apple would have fixed it for free but I'd rather pay brand new prices jus to avoid the increased odds of the hassle.
Have mine for 3.5 years, had 1 warranty claim regarding a failed component. Was easy to do and took maybe a week to rectify with ASUS. For the saving I made to buy refurbished VS new i'd still get the refurbished one from a reputable seller.
Have purchased a couple from dell, they were good, still going strong a few years later. Condition was perfect. Purchase a t480s ThinkPad as a refurb off eBay, works great. All were way cheaper than buying new.
Have bought several over the years.
1 was an 'official' Toshiba refurb. All was fine.
More recently have bought a couple from https://www.ebay.com.au/str/australiancomputertraders for the kids to use at school. Both were in excellent condition.
One died a few months later, it happens with new as well so cant fault them for that happening. What i can say though their service was excellent. Sent me a prepaid label, shipped a replacement as soon as i dropped the faulty one off at the post office. Only took a couple of days.
One consideration buying refurbished. Check how much it is for a new battery first if battery life is an important factor. Some are easier and cheaper to preplace than others.
Edit: did it match the condition report?: If anything they were better than i expected. If you had told me they were a week old i would have believed it. The school techs thought it was new.
Bought a refurb/used ThinkPad T460 priced at ~$450 three years ago on eBay for uni. Needed something decent with 1080p screen so that fit the bill.
Receive it, and unfortunately it had 720p screen contrary to listing and also missing an internal battery just external.
Asked to send it back but ending up taking a partial refund (got it for like $300 instead), was in pretty sharp condition still had Lenovo warranty and it not hard to switch panel to a 1080p.
Laptop has been very good (except new panel been getting dead pixels) but if I was in similar situation again in future I'd just send it back.
multiple refurbs from apple store, no issues.
"Refurb" isn't really a consistent term, an Apple refurb is different from an eBay 'refurb' where they reinstall Windows and wipe down the screen.
I have a 2014 Macbook pro that's a non-Apple refurb, since the battery is near impossible to replace (Apple won't even do it, they'll do a 2013 or 2015 but not this model) it's likely going to recycling or being turned into a desktop. I bought it in 2017 so I'm not too fussed about how much life I've gotten out of it, but if it had a brand new battery in 2017 it'd still be going, instead it had a 3 year old one at that time.
A few years ago bought an HP G5 laptop from Australian Computer Traders (Bneacttrader) for the kids, it lasted to this very day but it came in a little bit dirty which I didn't mind at the time and over a few years, developed a rattling sound and started to have loose back cover. My kids loved it.
Fast forward to last month, bought a HP Elitebook G3 for the other kid because the school required it. The laptop once again came in a little bit dirty and had a rattling sound which after some going back and forth (and they were great about it), unable to resolve. Ebay refunded me on that purchase (surprised me tbh)
I then ended up buying with SMG-AU for the same laptop, my god, it was pristine clean and I have no issues with it and so far, my kids are loving it. It looks flashy albeit smaller screen size (13.3")
My first refurb (laptop) was technically new (first owner returned due to a DOA screen). Still going strong 10 years later!
Second refurb (laptop) may have had a dead CMOS battery, as it didn't seem to keep time initially. It's been fine since, but…
Latest refurb (mini desktop) - too early to tell.
Love a good refurb but - especially that first one. Signifcant saving over normal price, for (hopefully) minimal drawbacks.
I bought a sell refurb years ago (i7 4th gen) and it’s been fine until now, time for a new laptop.
The thing was like new and was a current model. But back then the prices were really cheap compared to new, like half the price. Now the savings are not so much.
But back then the prices were really cheap compared to new, like half the price. Now the savings are not so much.
Yeah I've noticed that too - my latest refurb was $240 for a 6th gen i5. Right now $800 could get me a brand new RTX3080 gaming build or 12th gen laptop. I understand refurbs have costs that need to be recouped, but compared to new it just doesn't seem proportional.
My Dell outlet laptop was around $600 for a current model, the new ones were $1300 (this was maybe 7 years ago). Now it seems Dell outlet refurbs are only a max of a few hundred off the new price. And with deals popping up for new ones the price advantage is not great.
My experience buying 3 refurbished laptops over the last few years, 2 from the same ebay seller, has been reasonable. There have been issues, the most pronounced of which was one of the laptops had a password protected bios. Fortunately that particular seller was able to remember it, otherwise I would have asked for a refund.
All were as advertised, but had the usual wear & tear, & one had a missing trackpoint.
I think it is a bit of a lottery, I suspect a fair few ram modules are removed or swapped before selling refurbs.
Bought a "as new" 5490 Laptop from the Dell outlet 2 years ago. Really happy with it. No issues at all.