Seneca Data are a good refurbisher with good customer service. If you want to exchange they’re very good. If you want a refund, Woot will not do it without your contacting Seneca Data first.
I am very pleased with my transaction even though the laptop didn’t work. These refurbished laptops are usually very good.
Boo Woot…this laptop is 589 new at best buy which includes a one year warranty. I’d hope to get a better deal than 500 here.
that said, after much research, I’m going to go with Asus somewhere, but not here. Check out their reliability rating:
Wow, upon further consideration, the really high price does is not justified by the specs and refurbished state.
This doesn’t seem like a great deal. You are saving about 80 bucks vice new. However, this is a refurbished model, and only has a 90 day warranty. And it comes with Vista. You will want to upgrade to Win 7 (much, much better on portables), which eats the difference.
Pass, buy a new lappie with Win 7 and a full warranty. You may want to wait anyway: at CES Intel is supposed to annouce new Core i5 and Core i3 processors with immediate availability. This will instantly push down the prices of the current Core 2 and Core2 Duo machines.
[QUOTE=WilfBrim, post:44, topic:265785]
This doesn’t seem like a great deal. You are saving about 80 bucks vice new. However, this is a refurbished model, and only has a 90 day warranty. And it comes with Vista. You will want to upgrade to Win 7 (much, much better on portables), which eats the difference.
Pass, buy a new lappie with Win 7 and a full warranty. You may want to wait anyway: at CES Intel is supposed to annouce new Core i5 and Core i3 processors with immediate availability. This will instantly push down the prices of the current Core 2 and Core2 Duo machines.
[/quote]
Great advice! I was on the fence but wondered what lies ahead and wouldn’t mind waiting to satisfy a bit of peace of mind.
Not really an apples to apples comparison. The one you got has a bigger screen and is less portable. This one has hdmi as well and an expansion slot. Either way, this isn’t a good deal. Buy the new one at BB if you really want this computer. I am going to wait with the new intel chips coming out to push the old processors down further as others have mentioned.
The HP has less cache as well. Are the rebates even working from Newegg anymore? I thought one of the major rebate companies went out of business.
Yes but that’s an HP and their customer service leads a lot to be desired. Stick with ASUS.
About a month ago… Blog - Woot
Conclusion: No more refurbs from Woot for me unless the price is really good and the warranty is full. Read on for the rest of the story.
I’ve bought several refurbs from Woot. A Viao, at least two HP’s, maybe three. I don’t have a problem with the refurb per se, and refurbs are touted to be checked out better than non-refurbs, so no issue there, what I have a problem with is the refurb warranty.
I’ve been stung tree times by too-short refurb laptop warranties which were over (usually just barely) when a problem developed and I was stuck solving the problem on my own. That s u c k s big-time.
The Viao mentioned above from Woot had a one year warranty and the screen died about two weeks out of warranty. A new screen cost me 200 locally, then less than a month later it stopped powering up… it might be the power supply or it might be something more major - but I said enough is enough, pulled the hard-drives, reboxed it and put it in the garage - then spent the better part of a week transferring files from the hard-drives - who needs that drama? So, so much for the vaunted Viao cache’ - no more for me. My first Woot HP, a 17"er was okay for awhile before the hard-drive crashed and was unrecoverable for less than several hundred dollars. I installed a new hard-drive and reloaded the OS but now it’s a back-up lap-top mainly used for burning CDs. And truth be known, I don’t really trust it anymore.
So, to sum up, I’ve bought most of my laptop’s from Woot on refurb and, sorry to say, have not had great success. This note is being typed on an HP refurb bought last year, a 17" lots of bells and whistles most of which I deactivated, but excellent machine generally, but several months into ownership it developed the notorious hinge problem, once again just barely out of warranty - so looks like I took it in the shorts yet again. I fully suspect that before long the hinge problem will become a major issue.
Conclusion: No more refurbs from Woot for me unless the price is really good and the warranty is full.
Woot could do better on price-points on many things then they do, most of us recognize, and this is a great disappointment to me as a long time and dedicated daily Wooter. Been stung too many times on Woot laptops, so no more.
This Asus unit being sold today could be great but not worth the chance with a 90 day warranty.
Good luck to those who took a bite, though. You might need it.
((PostScript: Did you ever wonder why the refurb warranty is so short? It’s not rocket science is it? After such a thorough factory recheck of the refurb one would think the warranty would indeed be longer then the original, but it’s not. Instead it’s usually three quarter’s shorter than the original. Nuff-said.))
This is why you get a USB keyboard to use as well, Never saw a laptop with a good keyboard period. Just plug it in and use it with windows.
ummm…but then they would be buying a nice netbook instead of a nice laptop
Will this purchase be eligible for a Windows 7 upgrade?
Laptops actually get more expensive the smaller they get (netbooks not withstanding). I would not want a 16 inch to lug around all the time. It is too big to transport and too small to be a desktop replacement. Actually seems like a pretty poor size choice to me. This on the otherhand seems to be a pretty portable unit. Small enough to take with you but big enough to be useful. Specs are pretty good too.
Oh, and enough with the refurb talk. That is all I buy and I have not had a single failure. Not kidding. You save a bunch of money and someone has gone over it again before shipping it back out. It is tiring to read, “refurb, no thanks” all the time on woot.
I have this laptop. I bought it new from BB in Sept. for $650.
I think it is an awesome laptop. I hook it up to my 37" TV through HDMI and have no problems running 1080P trailers from apple.
For those worried about the keyboard. I like it. The keys are spaced apart from each other. The only thing is a back lit would be nice.
Mine was eligible for Win7 upgrade as well.
i just bought the Asus U80A from staples for $550. it has the exact same specs although i think mine has a T6600 processor. so far i love it. the express gate app is really cool, starting the PC up in a linux kernel in 5 secs.
the keyboard is really nice as well as the sturdy case. its plastic, but its not like the cheap plastic toshiba’s and other computers are made from. i was amazed that this product sells for around 500. its beautiful and well made and hopefully it holds up better than my other two laptops (HP and a toshiba)
http://www.staples.com/Asus-U80A-RSTML05-Laptop/product_831633?cmArea=SC3:CG71:DP4118:CL161747
its out of stock online, but apparently they aren’t selling well in store as none of the stores i went to had floor models. don’t be fooled, you WILL like this laptop.
[QUOTE=justinjhopkins, post:42, topic:265785]
Check out their reliability rating:
Thank you so much for that link!
This is the original page for that study http://www.squaretrade.com/pages/laptop-reliability-1109
I’m extremely curious to see what percentage is refurbished units failing vs new ones failing. If 50% of HP’s refurbs fail but only 10% new ones fail that’s a whole different situation vs combining the 2 and saying HP has a 40% failure rate. Very interesting none the less.
Well, “welee”, you are simply wrong. Experience is the best teacher, anyone will admit. I’ve owned probably a dozen and a half computers and the only ones I’ve had any problems with at all have been refurbs I’ve bought from Woot. True story. Moreover, I’ve had major problems with every single one of them. A coincidence? I doubt it. But I’m not tar and feathering Woot for it and I honestly don’t understand why it has been this way. But it’s taught me that the only way I’ll buy a refurb from Woot again is it it has a full warranty AND it is a really good price break. Truth is, I probably won’t find that combination at Woot at all in the future and that’s too bad.
Don’t go around saying things like…‘enough of the refurb talk…’ people are free here to express themselves and their experiences as they wish and I don’t think we need policing from you based on your own opinions. And fact is, you don’t save a bunch of money buying refurbs, given the short-warranty tradeoff’s, as many others have noted on this thread.
You can go ahead with your defense/retort - I won’t be visiting this thread further anyway.
Agreed. As someone who actually has worked on warranty-return laptops for a living, refurbs are pretty much the only types of electronics that have been through the hands of some pretty serious QC (as opposed to new, in which almost the opposite is true). As far as I’m concerned, refurbished units (from most manufacturers, I realize there might be exceptions) beat the pants off of new units, since they’re the only ones you can be sure have been thoroughly tested.
That other guy that was so snippy with you is simply a tool that doesn’t know any better. He’s best ignored, or better yet, seperated from his cash first.
I cannot verify this for absolutely sure, but I do not see anything that says specifically that refurbished ASUS machines are automatically disqualified for Win7 upgrades. I know that a couple of refurbished Compaq notebooks (yeah, I have my fingers and toes crossed that they don’t self-destruct) that I purchased recently are qualified for a free Win7 upgrade. I was also able to find the U81A in the list of ASUS laptops eligible for the upgrade.
If anyone can find definite proof that ASUS is denying upgrades to refurbs, please post!