I've purchased three refurbs in my lifetime. All of them have been good buys.
If the refurb is done by the manufacturer, they are probably BETTER than the one that came down the line, passed the initial test and was boxed.
I suspect a refurb gets MORE testing before it goes out again than the brand new box.
My experiences are a 1996 vintage NEC laptop that I STILL have. It's my OBD-II machine. It came with a 1 year warranty and I got a replacement battery under the warranty. That was it's only failure.
I purchased an HP refurb 14 months ago from MicroCenter, and then 6 months later, purchased a Dell refurb to upgrade my grandmother's computer for her birthday.
I realize my sample space is small. But my factory refurb experience has been better than my NEW PC experience. I've owned five brand new machines, two work laptops which were flawless. My wife's ASUS netbook also has been flawless. However, my two new Dell desktops, one was flawless for the first three years give or take, and the other puked up a hard drive and power supply in under two years of ownership.
I don't think new gets you much over used other than possibly the latest components.
Being in the IT world, latest isn't always better as that means they may not have found all the bugs yet. So my conservative bent likes staying just behind the bleeding edge of what's new.
If the refurb is done by the manufacturer, they are probably BETTER than the one that came down the line, passed the initial test and was boxed.
I suspect a refurb gets MORE testing before it goes out again than the brand new box.
My experiences are a 1996 vintage NEC laptop that I STILL have. It's my OBD-II machine. It came with a 1 year warranty and I got a replacement battery under the warranty. That was it's only failure.
I purchased an HP refurb 14 months ago from MicroCenter, and then 6 months later, purchased a Dell refurb to upgrade my grandmother's computer for her birthday.
I realize my sample space is small. But my factory refurb experience has been better than my NEW PC experience. I've owned five brand new machines, two work laptops which were flawless. My wife's ASUS netbook also has been flawless. However, my two new Dell desktops, one was flawless for the first three years give or take, and the other puked up a hard drive and power supply in under two years of ownership.
I don't think new gets you much over used other than possibly the latest components.
Being in the IT world, latest isn't always better as that means they may not have found all the bugs yet. So my conservative bent likes staying just behind the bleeding edge of what's new.
