I've Been Had

A Warning

Published on October 2, 2004 By MrBadAxe In Laptops

For the past 18 hours since I wrote this entry, I've been the proud owner of a "professionally refurbished" IBM Thinkpad Laptop that doesn't work.

Here's the story: I'm in college, and I'm already tired of taking notes in class. Being a computer science major, It's especially frustrating to have to erase and rewrite code by hand. So I considered getting a laptop for taking notes in classes. I'll admit it was also partially peer influence; my roommate, Huan, has an excellent Averatec laptop that he brings to classes and many of the other people on the hall have laptops as well, whether they're a supplement to or a replacement for a desktop.

I had looked online at the price of laptops from all the major brands previously -- HP, Compaq, Dell, IBM, Gateway, even the Apple iBooks and PowerBooks. The cheapest were $750 -- I wasn't willing to spend quite that much on something that wasn't top-of-the-line. A google search for "cheap laptops" later and I find USANotebook.com. They look reputable, the notebooks they sell, while used, or, in their words, professionally refurbished, are cheaper than a brand new laptop preloaded with a lot of crap I don't need, and they've gotten a lot of cutomer satisfaction.

Eventually I found the perfect model: an IBM ThinkPad T21, with a Pentium III 800MHz, 256 MB RAM, and 20 GB hard drive, preloaded with Windows 2000, weighing only 5.3 pounds -- less than my calculus textbook, to be sure. Seeing as how I'd probably only use it for note-taking, I wouldn't need a lot of power, so this laptop would fit my needs perfectly. Taking advantage of the 5% student discount they offered, the laptop would cost about $600 plus shipping. Fine.

I already had the advanced system I was building planned out: After I got the laptop, I would purchase a docking station, ethernet hub, and KVM switch from some other discount online retailers, so that all I'd need to do after class is drop the laptop into the docking station and a few keypresses later I'd be viewing my laptop on my 19" CRT and using my own keyboard and mouse rather than the laptop keyboard and that annoying IBM trackpoint. And finally, Huan offered to sell me a wireless card for $10. So with visions of peripherals like these dancing in my head, I waited anxiously for Friday to come.

I got the laptop today. It starts up -- and then starts randomly rebooting, even while in the BIOS. When it doesn't reboot, sometimes the keyboard and trackpoint stop working, or else it just freezes. It's not a battery issue, Huan tried it with only AC power and the problem still exists. After a conference with some of my dormmates, computer geeks all, we determined that it was probably not a software issue.

So I'll be sending it in for a refund. I'll still be getting a laptop, but now I'll probably ignore the resellers and go straight for a brand new IBM, Dell, HP etc. Let this be a word of warning: stay away from USANotebook.com.

That's my story. Ever been swindled like this? I want to hear from you!

Comments

Ravenblack

on Oct 02, 2004

I've been swindled on my first desktop ten years ago. I can't remember the brand now, but it doesn't exist anymore anyway. I knew less about computers then and I went for the cheapest I could find. Bad idea in my case. The computer fouled up within the first week I had it and even after it was fixed, it just sprouts random errors for no apparent reason.

Laptops, I think Acer is pretty good. I don't know if you can get that brand where you are. I have one, a Travelmate and have been quite happy with it for half a year already. My supervisor also has an Acer and she goes everywhere with it. Her's is over a year old and I haven't heard her complain. On the contrary she complains all the time about the one she has in the office, one issued by computer department, a HP laptop - but that one's almost three years old so it's bound to be a little cranky by now.

I did find reading cnet laptop reviews helpful when I was deciding which laptop to buy.

_02

on Dec 31, 2004

Can't say I've been swindled, but I also purchased an IBM thinkpad recently.

I work for an OEM, and they decided to have an employee sale. I'm one of the fortunate ones that work the night shift. As the sale started at 9 in the morning, and my shift ends at 9 in the morning, I was one of the first through the door for the sale.

Now, the way our employee sales are set up, we have the usual stuff that we sell (desktops, notebooks, monitors, etc) at a discounted price, and then we have what we call "Cash and Carry". With the cash and carry, the stuff is all returns, parts that were deemed defective in the field and replaced by our phone techs, etc. You pays your money, you takes your chances, no refunds, no returns.

So, my first stop was the cash and carry area (I've gotten a lot of stuff from cash and carry in the past that worked and made money on eBay), and what do I see but a stack of old IBM Thinkpads. Some of them seemed complete, some of them had parts missing, some of them were just the notebook cases and nothing else.

So, I start sifting through them, found one that seemed to be all there, grabbed an AC adapter out of the box, paid my $50.00 and took the puppy home.

Turns out that it had Win2K installed. It's a P3 750 MHz (can't remember the letter designation), 20 gig hard drive, 384MB RAM, and an 8X CD-RW. I powered it up, and the only thing that does not work on it is the onboard NIC. I picked up a cheap Linksys wireless NIC, and installed it, and lo and behold, I have a complete, fully functional speedy little notebook to play with.

I'm sorry you had bad luck with your Thinkpad MrBadAxe. IBMs ain't all that bad, maybe you can pick up a decent notebook from Tiger Direct for a reasonable price. I believe that their new ones start in the $600 to $700 range.

IPlural

on Jan 10, 2005

sounds to me as if you might have wanted to check the RAM to make sure it is seated correctly after shipping....

Posted via WinCustomize Browser/Stardock Central

IPlural

on Jan 10, 2005

btw: IBM sold it's laptop division to a foreign interest which holds the right to use the IBM name for a period of one year...

GNNR

on Mar 15, 2005

A suggestion... IBM and most others sell refurbs direct from their own site, usually with a decent warranty and backed by their support. Try there... you can save a fortune and still get what you want.

twistedimage

on Apr 18, 2005

I'm currently working on an IBM ThinkPad T21 for an Irish Exchange Student. The problem with her computer is that it just quit working on her one day. She tried to turn it on and it wouldn't power up. She took it into Radio Shack to see if they could figure it out and they told her the motherboard was toast and she needed to just buy a new one. She took it home and about 2 weeks later she happend to try and turn it on and it started working again. It continued to work for a few weeks and then the same probelm AGAIN. She asked me to look at it as I am a CIS major with several certifications including A+ and also work in the IT field. After struggeling with it for about a week I have come to find out that these notebooks are notorious for having a capacitor that overcharges itself and then doesn't disapate. The fix for the issue is one of 2 things:

1.) Every time you can't power up the notebook you have to pull the battery and out of the back of the notebook, unplug the power cord, and then hold down the power button for a MINMUM of 90 seconds. Then put the battery back in and plug it on, press "POWER" and it should kick right back on.
2.) Locate the faulty capacitor and replace it (THIS IS ONLY RECOMMENDED FOR HIGHLY ADVANCED USERS)!!!

If you decide that you would like to buy a new notebook, the ONLY company I would purchase ANYTHING from anymore (and I know this from PERSONAL experience as I have worked for both DELL and GATEWAY) would be an Alienware. They are the ONLY company who makes a NICE laptop and stands behind their product. If you have any questins you are more then welcome to contact me at the email address below.

J.R. McKenney IT Professional twistedimagejunk@comcast.net

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