Sony Outlet refurbished... really refurbished?

I just bought a Vaio VPCZ1390X from the Sony Outlet store... a refurbished model. I was hoping to get a good deal (and come on this forum and ask y'all to welcome to the club )... plus as we know the Z's are no longer around for the moment. It had the key points I wanted... the 128GB SSD, the Core i5-580M and 4GB with the FHD screen for $1700 (before CA tax).

When it arrived, it had a swath of damaged and dead pixels in an area about 1/2" wide, 1/4" tall... kinda like a "tear" in the LCD panel.

With some ado I am set up for a return & refund... though it took 4 people from Sony to get me to the right area- and I'm annoyed with that more as a Sony shareholder than a customer because I can only imagine the labor costs of that inefficiency.

But honestly I really would rather have a laptop. For the moments I booted it up (and I saw the problem immediately) it was a very nice machine. I was positively surprised about the screen brightness (though negatively surprised as to the vertical view angles)... but it was a definite keeper other than the screen damage.

I am still thinking about buying another refurb although I'm going to have pay at least $250 more for extra SSD I didn't really want. I talked to a Sony salesperson over the phone and they won't discount further on the Outlet store.

My concern is that this "refurb", which was likely a customer return, was not really refurbished, aside from maybe cleaning off fingerprints and sticking in some clean parts (manual, battery). When buying a refurb, I expect a Sony technician to inspect the laptop's functionality, and this problem with the screen was not just some ordinary few dead pixels (like the first support person wanted me to believe)- this was a serious defect or damage (I took pictures).

I could buy a *clearance* model but the price is not as good and I can't quite get the config I want... e.g. right now I can buy the Burgundy instead of the Carbon Fiber with the i7-640M and the same config for $550 more than what I paid for the model I wanted. That's alot given the Carbon Fiber is normally $50 more and for a slight upgrade in CPU.

Does anyone have any positive or negative stories about buying a refurb in recent memory? I'm inclined to put my toe in the water again... I've never had an issue with refurbished stuff in the past outside of Sony, but I'd like to think that maybe I just got unlucky rather than go through the hassle of another return.

 

My two cents, you are nuts for paying $1700 for a used computer.

 

Don't forget that the refurbs only have 90 day warranty while other companies like Dell offer the same 1 year warranty on refurbs. I would look at other places outside of SonyStyle for a a new Z, I was able to get a great deal from buy.com for a Z that actually cost more in the outlet with similar specs

Well when the original price is over $2200 then it's not such a bad idea. Used computers are not always defective computers.

 

It may just have been bad luck on the one that you received. If you're really into the VAIO Z series, I'll suggest that maybe you go for another refurb from the Sony Outlet store. I seriously doubt that you'll get a similar condition notebook again.

Good luck.

 

Yeah, I agree. Most refurbs are just laptops that people returned because they were satisfied and they just run some tests on them to make sure it's functional then they just put them back on the shelf and sell it since they cant sell them new (by law). Yours seem to be a dud, maybe in transit the screen got hit, etc.

 

Thanks all... I have scoured outside the Sony store somewhat but I just can't find the Z with the FHD screen anywhere in the US.... guess I waited too long to pull the trigger and now the supply has dried up. (Actually CDW has one but it has the vastly overpriced BluRay player for $3K+ and there are the places who do custom builds of the Z14.)

The condition of the laptop when it arrived looked perfectly new... not one speck of dust on it anywhere.

I don't mind the 90 day warranty (it took me 0.90 seconds to recognize the screen issue), though I admit my barely alive Toshiba M400 did suffer a motherboard flaw over a year into its life, which I had fixed under warranty so I know that not all problems are necessarily found early.

If I change my mind and go for the 1600x900 I'll just park myself on the Microsoft Store webpage and hit F5 until I can pick one up for $999...

 

I was in the same situation, I wanted one with the FHD and there was none in the outlet with the specs I wanted, I ended up getting one with the 1600x900 and then ordered the LCD separately and now I'm going to change it myself

 

When it comes to "refurbs" I do have good experience with sony (however, sony EUROPE) - I bought 3 Z's from the Outlet Store in order of friends and 2/3 arrived in 100% new condition (2 hours on HDD S.M.A.R.T, probably from the preinstallation process). The third did have some scratches and dead pixels but was replaced by a new one after a call. There was no sign of "use" on any of them - probably they were just returned. Anyways, in Europe, Sony provides the standard 2-year warranty even on "refurbs" and a 30-day free-of-charge return policy.

If I were you, just order the desired refurb, check it with a linux live cd and you know what's going on:

Code:

$ sudo smartctl --all /dev/sda | grep Power_On_Hours
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   099   099   000    Old_age   Always       -       2