#7
Post
by TuuS » Thu Oct 18, 2012 10:05 am
I purchased several of them and thought I was getting a great deal as a stockholder, but when I got my 08/08 T61p from them with a 1yr warranty extension, it had at least 4-5" of play in the hinges. I was thrilled to get an 08/08 date so figured it was a simple matter of getting the warranty to replace the hinges... but no... they refused. Not only would they not replace them, they wouldn't even send me the hinges so I could replace them, the only option I had was to replace the machine with no assurance of getting an 08/08 to replace it. I eventually got them to send me another 08/08, but it too had bad hinges. In the end I got so tired of dealing with them that I packed up both T61p units and 3 T500 units and shipped them all back. I would have been willing to replace the hinges at my own expense, but then what happens if something else goes bad, lets say my power jack fails, instead of installing a new $10 part they'll send me another laptop, probably with an older gpu and I'd lose the new hinges I installed in it, not to mention if the replacement ended up having some screen blemishes or whatever.
Bottom line is, if you only want a working computer and don't really care about details, then that's all you will get, but if you tend to get attached to your computer and don't want it replaced if it can be easily fixed, then consider their refurb warranty to be worth slightly less then the paper it's written on.
As for getting a good GPU, that is very unlikely. They don't even replace them when a board is refurbished, and they definitely don't replace the boards when a laptop is refurbished, they trash the laptop if it needs something that major.
I think you'd be far better buying one in our forum where you're buying a specific computer, one that is accurately described, not a mystery box that you either take or leave after inspecting. Perhaps other members here have had good experiences with ibm refurbs, I have not.