re: refurbished IBM products

[Jason Lin <jasonlin@nwu.edu>]

In the past two months, I have bought two refurbished Thinkpad 560
(P100/8MB/810HD) from two  different vendors.  Unfortunately, both of
Thinkpads required repair upon my receiving them.  (Fortunately, IBM's
EZServe was wonderful).  I was wondering if others have had bought
refurbished IBM goods, whether they be Thinkpads or others products, and
encountered the same unfortunate circumstances.

Moreover, one thing I have noticed about the two IBM notebooks I bought was
that it had a sticker on the back which stated ,"The product is refurbished
and contains USED parts." (capital letters are mine).  I have bought many
refurbished products before in the past from many different manufacturers
such as Compaq, HP, NEC, Sony, etc. but none of them claim to use "USED"
parts.  Furthermore, all of the non-IBM refurbished products I have bought
appeared new, physically- you couldn't tell them apart from a "new" product
with the naked eye.  However, the two IBM's I received had some minor
physical blemishes.  I was wondering if anybody knows anything about how
IBM "refurbishes" its goods.

jason

jasonlin@nwu.edu