A friend is looking to buy a lower-priced laptop, and I wondered if anyone of you knows a reliable source? There are only a couple of places in her small town, and they give the feeling of being fly-by-night operations.

Sue

Have you heard if they're okay to deal with?

Sue

Another possibility is the Asus Eee PC. I have never used this product; Asus has a hard earned reputation of building quality products. I have seen them for as little as $300.

Jeanette Isabelle

Pacificgeeks.com

I've bought a few systems from them over the years. Cheap and easy to deal with.

Or, look at Dell's refurbished systems, which I'm typing from now.

Susan:
I have a Tirger Direct laptop and this one is my second one I have bought from them. They work great and if you have a problem they are quick to fix it.

TigerDirect.com is okay to buy from if you know what you are purchasing. Don’t expect very good customer service if you have to call them for any post-order reason though.

My parents bought a bare-bones PC package from them and found after a few weeks of strange reboots that the packaged mainboard wasn’t compatible with the packaged CPU. It took at least a month of talking to their customer service people, and attempting to speak to one of the supervisors, to finally get them to realize what their mistake was and to figure out an appropriate exchange of mainboard or CPU.

You may be able to buy computers there, but the people you get on the phone know didly about computers.

Sue, I have plenty of experience with TigerDirect. I use them for parts/computers, etc. regularly. (I'm the default tech support guy for our practice group, since no one else want's to be bothered). Your friend should read and understand their policies regarding reconditioned products. I also think they offer at minimal extra charge a program called "ASSURZ" which is a no questions asked 90 day satisfaction guarantee. I have no problem recommending them.

That being said: If the computer fails within the 90 days... just send it back. If it works 90 days and fails later... find a brick-mortar service center. TigerDirect really isn't there to support products beyond the initial warranty period.

I avoid Tiger Direct whenever possible, simply because of their horrible service. They won't try to rip you off, but don't expect them to do anything for you, either.

Thank you all very much for the information.

Sue