Have you bought refurbished computers?

There's a new TechSoup article going up in a bit on how to buy refurbished computers. Have you bought refurbished for your org before? Any advice to offer others?

Update: Here's a link back to the new TechSoup article on the topic.

Hi Becky, I haven't purchased any refurbished computers, but inherited some 5 years ago when I started my IT job. While they initially saved us money, they needed to be replaced twice as quickly as our new computers. So, if purchasing a refurbished computer, think to yourself how long you need that computer. If the answer is longer than a couple of years, you may want to consider something new.

I bought 15 "refurbished" computers from a leasing company of one of the top manufacturers. The purpose was to defer the hardware technology upgrade for 2 -3 years so we could invest that money in new operations software.

Of the 15 computers that refurbishment consisted of wiping the hard drive and putting a base install of Windows with no drivers or updates. I have to repair or replace 8 motherboards because of bad capacitors and one failed power supply.

I consider an over 50% failure rate of these used machines and very unacceptable results. And if t all possible I will never buy their refurbished machines from the leasing company or ever buy and new PCs from them.

If you buy a refurbished machine make sure you get a 1 to 2 year warranty that will work for you. Plan for a shelf spare or two.

I agree with Gary that you are buying a shorter life and still have the same labor effort in setting up and configuring the machine (twice as often).

If you are running on hardware from the previous century and can buy a quantity of exactly the same machine so you can use imaging tools to deploy the machines, you can upgrade twice as many machines for the same amount of money. But in reality you have doubled your work effort and will have to do it again sooner than buying reasonable new machines.

The refurbished route may be the easiest way to stay on Windows XP for a little longer. I am planning to buy some refurbs (different vendor) for a project that the computer is simply running a terminal emulator and no other software. Again it is to reduce the start up cost and I know they will only last about 3 years instead of 7 or 8 in this application if we were using new hardware.

Dave

I'm in the same situation as Gary - never purchased refurbished computers, but had 10 of them donated to us a few years ago. At the time they were a life-saver, because we absolutely needed more machines, and didn't have money in the budget to purchase them.

The setup time was basically the same as for a new computer. In the case of the ones we got, all were in good shape, and I didn't have to do any repairs or use any of the machines as spares, although that's not unusual.

If you're looking at purchasing refurbished computers, find out as much as you can about the company doing the refurbishing - not all are created equal. I'd second Dave's comment about getting some sort of warranty. Also, don't forget that you're not getting the latest and greatest hardware, so make sure that the machines you're getting will be appropriate for your needs.

I use an Apple Refurbished laptop that came with the same warranty as a new one but the discount was fantastic. The refurbished Apples are sold through the Apple store - maybe elsewhere also.

Would love to know why techsoup does not offer Apple refurbished computers in its' initiative.

Jeri Baker

We have purchased just one refurbished machine - an IBM T41 from/through TECHSOUP's RCI partner.

Sadly, less than half a year later the screen appears to have a serious defect (see my post in the Hardware forum abour problem with T41). No reply to my e-mail about this - but a generally unhappy event.

I consider this problem to be TechSoup's responsibility since the description on the website is that "TechSoup Stock offers only high-quality computers formerly used by large corporations. "

I'd like to see what we're told - the right thing would be to fix or replace our T41; the wrong would be to be told, "too bad . . "

I will report as things develop.

Jeri, your Apple laptop was a unit that was returned to Apple due to some sort of defect. They fix the issue then resell through their store. The refurbished machines that RCI sells through Tech Soup are being cleaned up, wiped out, and getting a fresh OS and Office install. They are 2 very different situations.

A couple of days ago, a "lovely"bright horizontal white line appeared across the middle of the LCD screen. It's not supposed to be there - and the 90 days coverage is up.
-soho@child2000.org

I'm a big fan of used or refurbed computers. I consider them like the inverse of lottery tickets: You mostly win, but when you lose, it's a disaster!

In used computers there are three main things that are most likely to fail: Hard drive, power supply, and monitor. Given that most new equipment only has a one year warranty for a reason (the risk of something failing is realistic) I think getting any warranty on a used machine over 7 days is great. 30 days is very nice, and 90 days is super.

I hope that someone will make an exception for equipment that is about 90 days past the 90 day warranty and cover it, but I would not expect it, and I don't see how the responsibility could be Tech Soup's.

Vendors set these limits for a reason and that reason is that no equipment lasts forever. If your equipment is more than 1-2 weeks past the warranty, I would just accept it and do what you can to repair or replace it.

I have purchased a refurbished IBM ThinkPad T40 from Buy.com - it has been a champ. I even spilled coffee on it and it survived (though the page-up key is a little finicky).

As its been said before already, do a little research on the company selling the 'refurbished' unit. Different people have different definitions of refurbished. I happen to know that TechSoup's RCI does a lot more than just a disk wipe and fresh install of windows/office (I have a huge amount of data from them when I asked about being a refurbisher for TechSoup).

There is a large company that has a couple campuses near where I live: Pratt & Whitney. They have an initiative where they replace all of their PCs in 3 years. They have staff that do nothing but refurbish and sell the ones that are replaced in a store (its only open twice a week, but they have a website if you want to try and order some online). They sell them really cheap, and they are very reliable.

Also, take into consideration what you're going to use the computers for! A client of ours needed a mobile classroom for training on a web-based software. So we purchased 6 refurbished IBM ThinkPads from Buy.com, but the rest of the equipment (switches, projector, cradlepoint, etc) was brand new. It worked out very well. I've use refurbished computers for a very long time. I always try to get clients into new computers, but sometimes its just not in the cards.

Over the last few years, the only non-refurbished user computers I have bought for our non-profit have been a couple of notebooks (I won't buy a notebook without a three-year extended warranty) and eight Dell Vostro 200s that were being offered in a one-day sale early this year for the same amount of money I had budgeted for refurbished equipment, and which otherwise suited my purposes precisely.

Buying appropriate refurbished equipment has given us more money to spend on hardier servers (though I would have insisted on that anyway) and more importantly, on providing direct services to the community we serve.

By the way, those eight new Vostros had a higher failure rate -- one DOA hard drive -- than the refurbs I've purchased have had.

But I'm fairly picky about my vendors.

Years ago when I got into IT, I tried selling used computers. I picked up 8 HP Vectras, refurbed them, and ended up eating 5 of them. It's VERY tough handling refurbs because the fact is most electronics seldom last more than 3 years. One kid I know recently got an iPhone and is on it constantly. In an attempt to engage him, I asked him how long it would last. He looked at me very puzzled and replied what did I mean? I told him I'd never seen a cell phone last more than a couple of years w/o serious problems. It just wasn't in the kid's 'paradigm' how long the phone would last.

I've had good luck w/ refurbed stuff for my own use. Sometimes I'll sell someone a fixer upper if I think it's not going to come back and haunt me. But I know hardware and software and am not frustrated by most computer issues. If you buy refurbs, plan in some kind of redundancy so if something goes down, you can jump to Plan B. The same goes for buying new, too, for that matter. I've seen plenty of newer PC's (less than 2 years old) go south.

Also, make sure the unit you are buying has properly licensed and functioning software. Earlier this week I was trying to help a lady who's got a 501C publishing company. She's have problems installing Quickbooks on a refurb'ed P4 she bought off an individual. Turns out he told her not to try running Windows updates as it wasn't a legal copy. Her problem, from my side as a tech, is we can't run updates that might fix her problem. Ugh.