3 Posts
0
1118
November 1st, 2021 11:00
Bought refurbished Optiplex from local computer store - it went bad in 3 months
Hi – I’m looking for direction from this community. 3 months ago (July 2021) I purchased a refurbished Dell Optiplex 3020 at a reputable local computer store for $209. I bought it for my 85 year old parents who did not need any super duper new machine. PS they had an old Dell from 2007 running Vista that was still working (!)but we figured it was time to upgrade them to Windows 10. The hard drive went bad (not detected ERRORS) within 3 months (just last week!), just days after the store’s 90 day warranty. I bought the desktop back to the store, they diagnosed it as a defective HD and wanted to charge me $250 for a new HD (more than I paid for the unit). I declined of course. The store is saying they got it this way from Dell, and they had no idea it was bad. I’m trying to figure out where the disconnect happened in this supply chain. I have the service tag on the device and Dell’s site says its support expired 2019. I’m about to go pick up the unit and plan to speak with the store manager, but is there any recourse here if the store refuses to make good on this? I’ve read of some similar issues others have had with refurbished machines – I get it that I bought a refurbished machine, but bad HD after 3 months? This is really disappointing and just flat out wrong. Any direction will be greatly appreciated!
feussc
3 Posts
0
November 3rd, 2021 10:00
I am considering this issue resolved - I went to the store, and found that a 3rd party company did the refurbish. That was the missing info in the supply chain :). The store where I bought the machine has stepped up and issued me a complete refund via store credit; so this is the right solution for me. Thanks for all the off thread assistance on this. Not sure if I can set my own issue to resolved, but I'll try to figure that out!
jbclem
1 Rookie
•
112 Posts
0
November 4th, 2021 22:00
As a lesson learned, you need to realize that a refurbished computer is a used computer. Maybe they cleaned it up a bit, maybe they replaced a bad component, but for sure they didn't replace something that wasn't obviously bad. It would be interesting to know if they checked the SMART attributes of the hard drive, and that's something you can easily do yourself next time you buy a used computer. It's also very easy to purchase and install a new hard drive.
feussc
3 Posts
0
November 5th, 2021 08:00
Hey jbclem, so I absolutely know what a refurbished computer is (and is not), but thanks for your perspective. This was not purchased for me, rather for my 85+ year old parents - and replacing the hard drive on a machine that I had already declared "suspect" was not something that worked for me (whether I did it or the store did). I think we can both agree, this was not something anyone would have expected after such a short time post purchase. And, as I've already commented on the larger thread, the store is following up with the 3rd party company that did the refurbish. And they refunded my money in its entirety. I personally will not be purchasing another refurbish FOR THEM; and I would never do it for myself either. This issue has been satisfactorily resolved from my perspective, and at this point, thats all that matters.