Does anyone have any experience with this? It would save me a lot of money but I also don’t want to flush it down the toilet.
I prefer buying refurb laptops on eBay personally. eBay’s buyer protections are top tier, you can return the machine easily if it’s not exactly what was represented in the listing or if there’s any undisclosed damage or loss of function. Essentially you’re getting what the listing showed you or it’s like 5 clicks for a seller paid return label to send it back for a full refund (including any shipping costs both ways.)
Amazon is hit and miss in my experience, they care about their cut of that particular transaction and moving product out of the warehouse ASAP and not so much about whether you’re coming back to make more transactions in the future. Their customer service is atrocious too, you have to fight for a refund a lot of the time.
Edit, more detail in case you really want fleaBay to work for you:
If you’re going to shop eBay regularly go look up their buyer protection policies (so you know what they can and will do for you) and also take a look at the item condition and listing policies that apply to sellers.
Sellers often list items under the wrong condition category (like selling broken things in “Used” condition with an “AS-IS” disclaimer) and try to weasel in “as-is no refunds” or similar wording into the listing description. Well, they can say whatever they want, but unless the item meets the condition specified in eBay’s listing policy you’re still entitled to an easy refund at no cost if that item arrives at your door in less than fully functional condition (and with all cosmetic damage clearly described in the listing before the sale.)
Once you understand how eBay handles policy disputes (they always adhere to policy, and almost always find in favor of the buyer when they don’t) you can hold scummy sellers over a barrel and demand a partial refund when items arrive damaged, or just ship the whole mess back to them at their expense and wash your hands of it.
TL;DR: eBay is a great place to buy, not so much to sell
I wouldn’t trust anything like that from amazon. I got a refurb kindle once and it still had food in the charging port.
I’ve had better luck with ebay, but I’ve been seeing a lot of shit drop shipped from places like Amazon lately. So check the reviews and pick a seller with a lot of reviews.
New egg is probably your best bet. They have lots of refurbs.
Amazon is a marketplace.
If you go to the flea market and buy a laptop that is bad, does that mean everybody selling laptops at the flea market is selling a bad product?
There are solid sellers on Amazon and there are shady scam sellers on Amazon.
My advice for your best chances of buying what you are expecting to buy is to go through an authorized reseller of the laptop you are looking for. I bought my last laptop from Newegg and got what I paid for.
Very good point and thank you. I’ve simply not bought a computer in a long time so it’s not clear where I begin.
Go to Newegg, look for ones sold by Newegg. They also have a marketplace model, so picking a laptop from them can make a difference should you have the unlikely outcome of an issue. Newegg is pretty solid with customer service.
I try to avoid Amazon for my personal shopping, but I’ve bought literally hundreds of renewed/refurbished laptops and Chromebooks on Amazon for work. I have not had a single DOA or switcheroo in over 200 laptops from different sellers except one that has a broken screen, which was ready to return. You are very likely not throwing your money away by buying via Amazon, though that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily the best place to buy.
I just have gift cards to use so it wouldn’t cost me anything for an inexpensive one really to buy there is why I’m looking. I will also look at my community store.
That’s kind of a no brainer then. Amazon already has your money, might as well get something from it.
It’s really hard to say because there are so many different listings for laptops. Try calculating a spec to price ratio to determine if it’s a good value or not.
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Another thing I’ve noticed on Amazon is oftentimes you’ll get the first generation of a product. I bought a smart space heater from there quite some time ago and by the time I’d owned it for a few months it was already unsupported, then six months after that it was impossible to connect to (it lost WiFi and I had no means to reconfigure it).
Had I purchased elsewhere I probably would’ve received the fifth or sixth generation. If I do buy from Amazon now I’m always super picky about details.
Thank you. That’s a good point.
I would not buy anything electronic from Amazon used or new. You never know what you are getting (Real thing? Counterfeit? Working? Quality repair parts? Undisclosed customer return? Sold by Amazon or third party? Who knows — they mix stock at the warehouse).
Most manufacturers sell their own refurbs on their own website and they come with a warranty.
Thank you.
I bought all my devices refurbished from ebay.
on my xps 15 I saved $1500 alone. still runs fine almost 10 years later.
Ok great thank you.
I’ve bought several Dells and they were indistinguishable from new. YMMV but be sure they are backed with a good return policy and it should be safe.
One of the problems with used laptops is that batteries degrade over time. If it has been heavily used, you might only get an hour or two out of it.
You can buy replacement batteries for many laptops that would solve this problem, but they are often $100 or more. Still, it may be worthwhile for you.
Yeah this is my only issue with refurb electronics. Imo they are often a fantastic option because people are too scared to purchase something used. BUT the biggest problem is battery degradation. For that reason, I would actually avoid most refurbished phones, laptops, and tablets. That is…unless they are either relatively new release models (within about a year) or if the seller states the battery has been replaced.
Laptop batteries seem to vary wildly in price depending on the model. Some can be very cheap as the people responding to you say, but still others are very expensive like you say. Also, when most people sell a particular battery for $100, if you happen to find a seller from China that sells the same specced battery for only $20, the quality becomes a bit suspect. Battery safety is not something I’d really want to play with too much.
Try $20-$30. I do this for a living.
You were right, I am seeing batteries between about $25 and $60 (Canadian) on Amazon. I’m pretty sure that the last time I looked for one, which was, granted, about 10 years ago, the one I needed was significantly more expensive.
That’s really good to know.
Which bit? Refurb used hardware to sell? Purchase used hardware for business use? Genuinely curious.
I bought a refurbished laptop on Amazon 3 years ago. I still use it every day no problems.
Can’t speak to all of them - I imagine they’re all in varying conditions. However Amazon has a very generous returns policy (at least here in the UK).
I would say go for it.
Thank you. Opinions online seem to vary.
My pleasure. Remember: dissatisfied customers are far more likely to write a review than satisfied customers.
Check open box prices on ebay. Open box means the product was opened or used for a trivial amount of time, so practically new. Bought a $3000 surface laptop studio for $1200
Thanks for the advice!
We have a traditional store reselling refurbished laptops in my city. They’re pretty awesome and I got a nice Dell laptop from them. 100% recommend. But I don’t know what Amazon does.
With my laptop, the battery is old. It has like 40% of capacity left and turns off after 2h. But it’s plenty fast and was cheap. And I got to look at the details before buying.
We do have a very good store as well. I should also look there. My tower seems ok but is 12 years old so I’m mulling it over. I simply need it for work.
I had good luck with https://www.wisetekmarket.com/
Of course any used laptop will be a toss up. I had good luck, I know others have, but it does come with a little bit of risk.
There are some decent looking ones on woot. I might get one. They have the same models regularly so some consistency of supply.
I’ve bought tons of used laptops over the years and done fine. Mostly thinkpads.
Also there are some very good black Friday deals for new laptops. Try best buy (today only) and Costco) through December). This intrigues me:
Black Friday price is $550 for those reading later.
Good ideas too, I just have Amazon gift cards so it would basically be free is why I ask.
I wonder if you can use the cards on woot.
Hmm no idea.
