Hi,

I was able to find some older posts with regard to my question but I really want to hear from people who more recently bought one of the pre-owned / used certified laptops from IBM. How was your experience and most important, was the laptop / notebook you received in really "like new" condition? I'm really hesitant 'cause some years back I bought a "refurbished" T21 from a different company ( usanotebook ) and received it dirty, scratched up with a fading screen. It seems all they did was clean it up (more like smeared it) with some grease and passed it on to me. I vowed never to buy one of these refurbished deals again, up until very recently when I noticed IBM was selling refurbished ones as well. Do they really refurbish, restore these properly? Please let me know, thanks!!

Dan

Two of the folks I work with have purchased T60's in the last year for family members and been very pleased with the machines. I've also purchased from the http://outlet.lenovo.com site (different from the IBM Certified Pre-owned site) and have had good experiences in each case (a T410 for my wife, E420 for my brother). In both cases the machines arrived looking like new with complete packaging, no blemishes of any kind that I could find and both were refurbished.

I wouldn't have a problem recommending the Lenovo Outlet myself and have heard good second hand reviews of the machines from the IBM Certified Pre-Owned site in the last year.

Good luck.

Hi.

I recently acquired a W500. It arrived in excellent condition, clean, running smoothly and quietly. However, it was purchased through a 3rd party so I don't know if some additional cleaning/refurbishing took place but it did originate with I.B.M. certified used equipment as per the documentation. I also can't comment on any shipping delays/order cancellations or customer service issues which of course is also an important factor.

I assume you've read this thread, some posts as recent as May of this year: viewtopic.php?f=25&t=97505

BTW, what kind of laptop were you looking for?

Daniel.

Hi,

Sorry for the delay. Thanks for all your responses. It's good to know the Lenovo site refurbishes these to new standard. Hopefully the IBM Certified Pre-owned Equipment site also offers such good service. Are the two sites run by Lenovo? I don't have a specific model in mind but rather looking for good deals, something maybe from a few years back or so.

Thanks again.

The warranty policies are quite different. And sites are run differently as well.

Lenovo's Outlet gives you a one-year standard warranty that can't be extended, and the machine is repaired in the same manner any other Lenovo ThinkPad would be when covered under a depot warranty.

However, IBM gives you 90 days (which you can extend to one year for additional $$$) and if something fails they do not repair it, but swap the entire machine...you also have a 7-day "no questions asked" return option if you don't like the unit.

I bought a T500 from the IBM certified used laptop program a few months ago, and it performs great.

Cross-posted from another subforum here:

I ordered a T61 a couple months ago; it came with a dying fan (lovely grinding noise) and totally worn out hinges. Was not impressed, and returned it. To their credit, IBM was very quick about processing the refund.
It was "slightly blemished", in theory. In reality it was "worn out and dying." I got a good enough deal that if it had been the fan alone, I might have considered keeping it and replacing the fan on my own dime, but since the hinges were toast too, I just didn't have much motivation--it would have become a big/costly enough project that it no longer would have made financial sense.

I'm happy to recommend the certified used products. I bought a 2007-5TU T60 with 15" IPS about five weeks ago for about $200 on sale. The machine is mint with battery at 83%.

What's the website to get these IBM/Lenovo certified refurbished notebooks?

Lenovo's Outlet Store is at the link below:

http://outlet.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/co ... als/Outlet

Thank you!

just thought I would throw in my $0.02 here, I've bought 2 T61s from them a couple of years ago, a M57P desktop about a year ago, and a T400 just a couple of months ago - they have all been in excellent condition, looking almost like new, and as advertised; the only signs of use were where some stickers on the lid had worn a little diffrently. The T61s came with brand new 6-cell batteries, and the T400 with a very good condition used battery. Overall I would reccomend them as an excellent place to get IBM/Lenovo equipment.

For the record, we were discussing IBM's refurb site, not Lenovo's Outlet, and it can be checked out here:

http://www-304.ibm.com/shop/americas/we ... &langId=-1

They don't ship outside of U.S. and neither does Outlet.

there is a Canadian version of it - it can be found here - I'm not sure how it differs from the US store, but I have been very pleased with the quality of the machines I've gotten from it.

I wouldn't be surprised that some other markets had it as well, but the latest question was coming from India, and that's a long way from anything that I'm aware of, unfortunately...

You are right! It is not available here in India..
Anyways, thank you all for the info.

@juanita:

Don't give up. If you know what you want, post a WTB (want to buy) ad in the forum's Marketplace and you'll likely be able to find what you're looking for.

Good luck.

Thanks George!
As suggested, i have posted one WTB on the market place. Let's see how it goes.