I've had some mixed experiences with Dell Refurbished Laptops. I bought an Inspiron refurbished for $750 in 2006 and then promptly two weeks later it was stolen by a black man from the back of my car when I wasn't there. You might ask, hey Jonny, how do you know the guy was black? Well the same fella came back a week later and offered to sell me the same laptop back to me for 200 bucks. I, of course, obliged because at 200 bucks an Inspiron laptop is a really good price. So thus in the end I had a positive experience with Dell Refurbished laptops because I still use it today and I only paid 200 bucks for it. I am having some issues with the speakers though.
I love the refurbished Inspiron 530 Desktop that I bought. I got it for $300 + about $50 shipping and tax. Similiar new PCS were going for $450-550 at Lenovo/HP/Dell Retail. It's hard to get a deal, because some people use scripts to refresh the screen and pick up the best deals first. I spent hours hitting refresh until I got the configuration I wanted.
If anyone's interested in buying refurbs, Tiger Direct is having a refurb sale. It's supposed to end 6/3/09 : http://www.tigerdirect.com/email/we...ffiliateID=9eASk0x48lo-zPTFhsxkBpUVhvC76_ukhA