Refurbished Gateway Laptop Computer - Good Buy Or Waste Of Money?
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This morning I received a sale advertisement from Tiger Direct which was advertising refurbished Gateway laptop computers for $399.99 on sale. What caught my eye about the sale was the model number of the unit, which just happens to be the same unit I bought for my wife about a year ago from Circuit City and paid $629.00 for.
The unit is a Gateway MX6421 Refurbished Notebook PC - AMD Turion 64 Mobile ML 32 1.8GHz, 802.11g Wireless, 15.4″ WXGA, 512MB DDR, 80GB HDD, DVD RW, Windows XP Media Center. Thus far the wife has been enjoying her system and [knock on wood] hasn’t had any problems with it. My personal system is also a Gateway laptop, two of my daughters have Gateway’s as well as my good bud Denny back in CA.
So why Gateway? Well Gateway has been running some fairly good deals through their retail outlets such as Best Buy, Circuit City & Staples. There are sevral features I like about these Gateway units that Dell and others at the time were not able to match. First, there is the 15.4″ WXGA screen with super bright. At the time, most OEMs were only providing 14″ or smaller screens. Another thing I liked were that this units came with a DVD burner. Again, most OEMs at the time were still using CD burners + DVD players. Also these units have 4 USB ports, built in modems and a superb wireless system. Oh yeah, and a 4 + 1 card reader.
Back on topic. Why a refurbished unit? The first thing that pops in everyone minds is that there must of been something mechanically wrong with the units. Not to say this could be the case, but sometimes it is not. Some of the other reasons units are returned are:
- The system runs slow. With all of the junk and gunk all OEMs put on these systems, your first out of the box experience may not be stellar. But once you spend a few hours cleaning off the freebies and trialware off of any new system, they spring back to life.
- Missing parts such as power cables or CD’s. Sometimes the units may have missing hardware when they are shipped.
- For some people it may have been their first laptop experience and they do not understand that laptop systems will not run as well as their desktops did. That is just the nature of the beast.
- For others, it my have been a gift that they open, play with, than return.
- We also have the people who just can’t get use the system and give up thinking that computers are just to complicated.
I am sure there are other reasons why systems are returned as well. But the bottom line is once the box and is opened and the computer is used, they can not be sold as new. They then carry the term ‘refurbished’. The downside is that these units normally come with a reduced warranty period. In the case of the above Gateway it is 90 days.
Do what do you think? Is buying a refurbished a good deal or a waste of money? Let me know what you think and what your experiences with refubished units has been.
Comments welcome.
PS I neither endorse buying from Tiger Direct nor buying a Gateway unit. This is for informational purposes only. However, I have purchased items from Tiger Direct in the past and for me the experience has been just fine. I’m also a Gateway lappy fan so yes, I am prejudiced. 
Your mileage may vary.
Tiger Direct Sale here.
Tags: gateway, refurbished, tiger direct, laptop, computer
19 Comments
marc klink
June 9th, 2007
at 10:32am
I would not buy a laptop of any brand sight unseen. The picture is way too important to me, as I am very sensitive to bad or malfunctioning pixels.
Other than that, I have had very good results with refurbs, including disk drives. I also have good experiences with Tiger Direct, going back many years [I bought Borland Sidekick and some oddball hardware from them over 20 years ago as my first purchase.]
Ron Schenone
June 9th, 2007
at 11:15am
Hi Marc,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I have had good luck as well buying refurb units. Agree that Tiger is a OK place to buy.
Thanks again, Ron
[Side note - heh Marc, I just posted a reply to your comment and it actually appeared here without going through the spam box fiasco. :-)]
Jeff B
July 27th, 2007
at 12:56pm
I have bought a number of refurbished Gateway desktop units from TigerDirect and have never had a problem with these machines. I run two of them as my personal machines in my office, as well as a handfull of machines from 4 years old to 6 month’s old in the office. My home desktop is a reburb as well but my GW laptop is new from Gateway. I’m not that comfortable buying a laptop. At least with the desktops if it blows up, I can get parts to completely rebuild it. The laptop, not so much.
I have been buying stuff from both of these companies for many years and would recommend them both.
Ron Schenone
July 27th, 2007
at 2:47pm
Hello Jeff B,
Thanks for the information. Your comments are appreciated.
Ron
Justina
August 5th, 2007
at 9:50pm
My husband and I have purchased a number of refurb items from Tiger Direct and have been satisfied. However, we recently purchased a Gateway Laptop MDX6426 from Tiger Direct and it has been a nightmare. The 90 day warrenty on this item was clearly not enough. The first week we had it we had to send it to Gateway because of a system fan issue and the problems continue to surface. We went with Gateway because our desktop is a Gateway and we love it - no problems, but this laptop has been a great disappointment. We are now sending the laptop some where else to be fixed and we are hoping that does the trick.
Ron Schenone
August 6th, 2007
at 3:23am
Hello Justina,
I am sorry to hear about your bad experience with a refurb. Gateway laptop. I certainly hope that you do get your problem fixed. Please let us know if you are able to solve this issue.
Regards, Ron
Justina
September 7th, 2007
at 9:52pm
More bad news about our Gateway computer…we sent our computer to a laptop rescue place and it was determined that we need a new mother board which will cost $600.00! Needless to say we are so upset about it. Even though it is out of warranty I sent emails to Tiger Direct and Gateway and no one has responded. At this point, my husband and I have determined this was a very, very bad investment!
Ron Schenone
September 8th, 2007
at 5:58am
Hello justina,
Thanks for getting back to me. May I suggest the following course of action. Find out who the current CEO’s of both Tiger and Gateway are. Go to your local court and file a small claims action against both. I learned some time ago that you can’t just sue a company, you must sue someone in the company personally.
Sit back and wait to see what happens. You may be pleasantly surprised how quick you will be contacted once the small claim action is received by both companies.
Regards, Ron
Jim
September 17th, 2007
at 6:36pm
Well all I buy is refurbished computers, why? They are cheaper and I have not had one fail on me yet. Actually gateway sells it’s refurbished desktops and laptops on ebay with huge discounts of retail and their website prices. Same units for hundreds less. And they offer the same extended warranty 3 years for $149.99 or less on any refurb desktop. I know because I bought a gateway desktop off ebay for $799.99 and it sells on gateway website for $1349.99. and the warranty for 3 years is only $129.99 and it comes with 1 year warranty even if I dont’ buy the extended. Can’t go wrong with refurbs, they are same quality only cost less. I only purchased sony refurbs till now. gateway_auctions is gateway user id on ebay they have lots of deals. Don’t miss out buy the warranty and have peace of mind.
Ron Schenone
September 17th, 2007
at 7:13pm
Hi Jim,
Thanks for the information.
Ron
edb
October 25th, 2007
at 11:11pm
i also bought gateway desktop computer in tigerdirect and mine supposed to be an outstanding PC since it’s the one of the highest processors of AMD..The 64 X2 6000+. Well to think that i have a knowledge in fixing computers (basic i should say) hence i got no problem with my purchase even though this one was just refurbished.
WATCH out since NOT all on the description is TRUE!
When I received mine, i right away checked on the properties and specs of the computer..and shockingly to know that while the system is in the process of accumulating the data of the computer, an eMachine Logo pops up in the screen..wondered why and what that logo is doing, i tired to open the general properties of the system and it showed that it was manufactured by eMachine and not by Gateway. secondly, it should be 2GB RAM but mine was just 1GB. and finally, it should be 64 bit processor but that computer only had 32 bit..not the exact price of what I paid and not the actual PC that I wished to buy. I ended up returning the item to tigerdirect the next day.
Smoky
November 5th, 2007
at 4:26pm
I bought a gateway mx6440 refurbished laptop about five months ago for $700 from tiger direct and it is pretty much usless now. Just through normal wear and tear here are the things that went wrong, in chonoligical order.
1. DVD RW drive door kept popping open by itself and quit working entirely after two months. A few keys popped off the keyboard also.
2. Hinges became loose and the screen is completely detached from the rest of the computer and only connected by two little wires. This happened after four months.
3. Power supply began to get extremely hot and failed after five months.
I understand the computer was refurbished but I expected to last longer then five months. Next time I am buying new with a warranty.
Erik S
November 27th, 2007
at 1:32pm
Just a side note on refub anything. Think about it. It got fixed, it was broken. I worked in the automotive foeld for a few years and found the reman engines are far superior to new. They have been taken apart, re-assembled and tested for durablity. New engines aren’t. they’re built and shipped. Same with Laptops or what have you. They are tested better when they return, then when they left the factory, thus the initial problems. I only have two problems with my gateway laptop that is just out of warranty. The spacebar doesn’t always work, but mostly from me not strikeing it right and my DVD drive failed, but I have an external and it’s not that huge of a deal to me for a 400 dollar laptop.
Ron Schenone
November 27th, 2007
at 3:19pm
Hi Erik,
Thanks for sharing your experience with us.
Karen Downs
May 8th, 2008
at 4:55pm
I have a MX6428 Gateway laptop. The disc drive needs to be replaced. What do you have for a replacement?
Ron Schenone
May 8th, 2008
at 5:35pm
Hello Karen,
Gateway has replacement optical drives.
thompson
June 23rd, 2008
at 4:51am
Thanks for the info again
solano
June 26th, 2008
at 4:56am
Hey that was some real piece of information I must say
david solomon
June 27th, 2008
at 5:43am
i also bought gateway desktop computer in tigerdirect and mine supposed to be an outstanding PC since it’s the one of the highest processors of AMD
hmmm…. this I gotta pay heed to