Buying Refurbished Laptops - Worth It?

Little_Mermaid_2

Hello All,

I'm on the look out for a laptop, but I need it to be cheapy cheap! I've seen one I want, but it's a little out of my price range... Unless I buy a refurbished one.

The seller is offering 12 months warranty, which seems good, and it's about 35% cheaper than if I bought it new.

What do people think? Worth it?

It's from a positive-reviewed Amazon seller, if that makes a difference.

NiftyDigits

Is this a serious question?

Unless you, at the very least, tell us the exact model and the price, how can we be expected to give you a meaningful reply?

John_Gray

.... and how old the laptop is.
For a 35% discount I would expect (much!) less than two years old.

Little_Mermaid_2

Are you two always this friendly to first time posters?

It's the Asus EeePad Transformer TF101 with keyboard and docking station, so it's technically a tablet. New it's around £330, but refurbished is around £230. I don't know how old the refurbished model is, but it does say "100% Like New"

For me, the priority is the battery life, as I'm using this primarily to write with when I'm out and about. I looked at netbooks, but the max battery life with them seems to be around 10 hours for one priced at £200, so for an extra £30 I can get the EeePad, which brings with it an extra 6 - 7 hours approx. IF it's worth getting the refurbished model.

kwikbreaks

Most refurbs are just items that have been returned for one reason or another so they can't be sold as new. Check the description to make sure nothing is missing and see if it mentions cosmetic damage at all - if either not mentioned then ask the seller. You will still have a 7 day return under distance selling regs if you aren't happy (which is probably the reason it is being sold as a refurb).

Sooler

I'd go for it.
The operating system is Android, not Windows as netbook would be.

Little_Mermaid_2

Thanks for the advice everyone. I've emailed the seller for more information. Hopefully this will make up my mind, one way or the other!

Avoriaz

Little_Mermaid wrote: »

Hello All,

I'm on the look out for a laptop, but I need it to be cheapy cheap! I've seen one I want, but it's a little out of my price range... Unless I buy a refurbished one.

The seller is offering 12 months warranty, which seems good, and it's about 35% cheaper than if I bought it new.

What do people think? Worth it?

It's from a positive-reviewed Amazon seller, if that makes a difference.

A 12 month warranty is probably worthless unless the person or company behind it will be around in twelve months time.

If this seller is well established, has a good track record on Amazon and you can pay by credit card (you have more protection with a credit card) then it is probably a very good deal if you are really saving 35%.

However I would also consider second hand. There are plenty of second hand bargains on Ebay etc if you have the knowledge of what you want and what things to check etc.

But if you want this specific model and are uncomfortable with second hand then go for it.

Good luck and welcome to the forum.

We aren’t all nasty on here.

Trillionaire

I bought my Samsung RV520 from Tesco via eBay. It was a refurbished laptop. I received it monday and returned it yesterday lol! It was a lovely laptop BUT within 1 hour of turning it on for the first time it closed down and reverted to a blue screen with error messages. I'm back to looking for a laptop.

The moral of the story is, if you're going to buy from eBay choose a company that has good feedback score (and check it) and has the facilities to accept returns if there is a problem with the item. A one year guarantee sounds good - but if there are problems would you be returning the item to the person/company you bought it from or do you have to return it to the manufacturer? Good luck:beer:

Neil49

Argos also has an ebay site with end of range and refurbished stock.

Some of the deals can be quite good while others are nothing special so always check elsewhere. For example, they had a refurbed laptop on offer for around £339 on their ebay site but had the same model brand new on promotion on their main site for £299. (They changed it the following day and it came down to £269).

eschaton

Little_Mermaid wrote: »

Are you two always this friendly to first time posters?

It's the Asus EeePad Transformer TF101 with keyboard and docking station, so it's technically a tablet. New it's around £330, but refurbished is around £230. I don't know how old the refurbished model is, but it does say "100% Like New"

For me, the priority is the battery life, as I'm using this primarily to write with when I'm out and about. I looked at netbooks, but the max battery life with them seems to be around 10 hours for one priced at £200, so for an extra £30 I can get the EeePad, which brings with it an extra 6 - 7 hours approx. IF it's worth getting the refurbished model.

Had a quick look around, is this the same one?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Asus-EeePad-Transformer-TF101-1B028A-16GB-Keyboard-/180984777389?pt=UK_iPad_Tablets_eReaders&hash=item2a23888aad

New £254.99