I bought a refurbished computer from techsoup but could not open it until after the 90 day expiration date because we were waiting on some software.  I did not know about the 90-day period because I had not opened the box to see the documentation. 

They will no do nothing to fix the refurbished computer that never worked, so I am left with a large paper weight.  Very frustrating, and makes refurbished very unattractive.

Hmm, that is frustrating, but I think the description of the refurbished computers clearly says they have a 90-day warranty on them before you even purchase.  The lesson here to me does not answer the question on whether or not to buy a refurbished computer.  It's whether or not to check purchases you have received to see if they work before the warranty is up.

While I understand your frustration.  I would not say this is the fault of a refurb.  If you waited a year to open a new computer you would be in the same boat.  Ok that being said.  Does it not power on at all?  There are a lot of troubleshooting steps that can be taken.  If it is just a power supply that may only cost 15.00 after rebates.  Have you troubleshot it to determine what extactly is wrong with it.?  Depending on what is the fault it may be cheaper to fix than to replace.

There is no gurantee on how many days the refurbished items would work but it does not have much defect too.

We had a similar experience here, with two desktops and a laptop.  The desktops came with less than the stated memory, one with a broken PS/2 port (the supplied mouse never worked), and the laptop came with both a broken internal WiFi and PCMCIA ports.  They "worked" so I didn't hear about these issues until recently, which is now past the warranty, unfortunately (by a few weeks).  From this experience, I would thoroughly check refurbished computers when they come in.

Edit: Sorry to hijack the thread in this direction, I'm sure there are plenty of others with good refurbished experience.  I'm now working with the organization to figure out how we're going to replace these computers, so my experience was not so good.

eSCO Processing and Recycling, they are a Microsoft Registered Refurbisher. top quality work, and i was very impressed when buying from them. They have a huge facility in rogers arkansas that not only resale but they recycle almost anything that has a power cord on it.