Refurbished Laptops??

I was thinking about providing some of my employees with laptops so that I had a bit more control over the systems they are using. I was wondering if anybody knows like the top sites offering refurbished (yet still relatively new) laptops and electronics at the best rates. Trying to save money if I do this because of a lot of projects up in the air right now.

THanks!

Dell Outlet Store is probably your best bet. We purchase Corporate off-lease inventory but those are older and specs are smaller. The advantage is they're solidly built. Corporates don't lease cheap laptops that most likely wouldn't last the lease period. We still sell these older laptops in the low $200 range (2gb/80gb/dual cores) and even after 3 years of Corporate use they still look damn good.

On the other hand, we have retail laptops in for repair all the time that will most likely never last 3 years. All plastic with wedge nuts in plastic trying to hold them together. Much carrying around and all that plastic breaks. Corporate laptops are typically metal frame and built a little better.

If you look at Dell go for the Latitude series and avoid the Inspiron series.

HTH

Depending on your application you might be better off renting a VPS for your employees. I have a few sales people that work for me now, and I won't interview them if they don't have a laptop. It's a huge investment for something that they need to own anyway. I understand what you're saying about control, but it might be better to set up a network or remote server they login to so you can protect your data.

A good example is the POS system we use at one of our stores. It uses a remote desktop connection to login to the main server, and you access the POS that way, but anyone of my employees can access it from any where in case they need to ring up a sale. But I make them do it from their own laptop.

Actually, for the new projects I'm working on this is how it's done, too.

I remember back in the day we spent all kinds of money on computers, but they ended up just getting bogged down with malware and porn. Making them have their own computer is totally feesible, considering what 300 dollars can get you at wal mart these days.

Imagine if every employer went out and bought cars for their employees. Sure, they need cars... but really, who's ultimately responsible for that thing when they wreck it, drive it like they stole it.. etc...

Also, if you're dead set on buying computers for them, make them pay for them in some kind of way. Just like paying for uniforms at any other job... I'd make them pick out which laptop they want from a vendor and deduct the money form their paycheck monthly, or something.

I'm pretty sure i saw refurbised laptops on amazon.com you could find some there.

I'd recommend that, whatever you purchase, make sure to get all of the same laptop make/model. One client I have insists on buying used, cheap laptops from the local discount computer store, and bless her heart, first she doesn't bother to consult with the computer expert she pays to maintain these dinosaurs, so we have a lot of single-core processors running WinXP Home in a professional, networked environment, but worse, each of the laptops is completely different from any of the others, so each computer has it's own unique way of "how things are supposed to be done", most particularly (my most strident bitch and complaint) is that worthless piece of shit the "Intel Proset Wireless Manager" and the dumb-ass Dell wireless device driver that disappears when you uninstall "Proset".

Meaning, they've slaved the driver to the wireless manager software. You can't have one without the other. The wireless won't work without the shitty software. So you have to have it installed and running, and then figure out how to have Windows manage the wireless, because if you don't, then you have to teach multiple employees how to fuck around with the piece of shit Proset.

Ugh. I've forgotten how much this pisses me off, until just now. Somewhere. Somewhere, in my mind's eye, there is an engineer. A software engineer, and he works for Dell. He's asian, in my mind, maybe japanese, and he lives and works in Austin, Texas (just up the freeway). And, in my deepest, darkest and most satisfying fantasies, I have him hog-tied and suspended by his feet in the basement of an abandoned parking garage, and he is begging for his life. This is the guy that decided it would be a good idea to force-feed that shitty Intel Proset Wireless Manager to unsuspecting, paying customers, and as much as I would like to share exactly how I torture this person WELL BEYOND death, I cannot as it is simply too wonderful to share.

I must keep this joy all to myself, and pray to the good lord above that someday he may see fit to make this fantasy come true. But don't worry, I WILL videotape it, and upload it to YouTube so that all the other computer techs that have had this nightmare will be able to fap for the rest of their lives. Monetize THAT you blackhat marketers!

Whew! Time for a cigarette. Damn. I quit. Anyways, OP that's my contribution. Buy all the same make/model computer, and if you ever find out the name, address and phone number of that software engineer, you can repay me by sending to me via PM.

For sure... It would need to be the same model and I would have the same image. VPS is a good idea since that is remote, also thanks for the tips about Dell. Still doing some browsing, just trying to figure out if there are any big heavy hitters in the refurbished market. Also corporate leases are a great option, that is what every computer (except my main one) are in the house

LMFAO about the Dell driver rant Nigel. I remember going on that carousel a number of years ago. Actually one of my tech invited me after he fucked around the better part of a day trying to remove the management software without yanking the driver.

Find the Intel native drivers, install a later OS or just unzip the Dell package and manually install the driver without the "install for dummys click next, click agree, click next, next, next, finish" wireless management software and you should be good to go. I can't remember the last time I saw the Intel Proset software as we passed that hurdle a while ago.

P.S. If you think Dell is bad wait until you stumble on some of the older IBMs with Cisco Corporate Security LAN management and try to pass that to a retail client.

Back to OP if "big heavy hitters in the refurbished market" means you're looking for someone that is giving away laptops you won't find them. The process of Corporate Off-lease is we must purchase bulk lots. Bulk lots that are untested and are described on a spreadsheet by 5-6 specs. Typically there is a grading method (A, B, C) but those can mean about anything. Grade A should mean like new, grade B has some scratches but mostly decent and grade C is beat to shit. Again my grade B might be someone's grade A and so on.

What happens is when you pull the lot apart there are winners and losers. We must make back our money on the winners because nobody is buying the losers and the cost of repairs isn't reasonable. So although I might bid and win 100 IBM Thinkpads for $50 each, I have to pay techs to go through and test all of them. Toss all the bad batteries. Sort the ones that are just for parts and ones we can salvage. Then I have to pay them to go through each of them before we can sell them. Out of a lot of 100 I might end up with 20-30 grade A, 30-40 grade B and the rest are for parts. I must make my money on the winners to cover the losers. With the initial cost, labor costs, and salvage costs my realized investment is now over $100 a unit. In order to make all this work and investment worth my time I need to earn $100 a unit minimum and there are several sales outlets what allow that. Sales are not based on cost but on market value in the off-lease business. Even if I only had $10 in a laptop I wouldn't sell it much under market value.

I compete with huge Chicago companies for off-lease lots and we all operate about the same. Some will have sales but typically they're pushing out their grade B- or Cs. We'll move the parts in large lots typically.

you can get cheap basic single core laptops from pacificgeek.com ???