Interesting opportunity to buy returned pc's from mass retailer

Appleby

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I've been offered a very interesting proposition from a mass retailer. I don't want to mention the name but let's just say everyone here knows who they are. Anyway I know the store manager and I'm really good friends with one of the assistant managers. My assit. manager buddy called me today and told me that when people return computers they've bought from them, they don't even attempt to return them to the manufacturers because they are a big box store and its not worth their time. They keep the computers in the back and end up selling them to employees for pennies. He said if I was interested, they would sell them to me for $25 each and the store manager approved it because they literally almost give them away now. I told him I was very interested and he brought me two HP laptops, both in the org. box and they looked BRAND NEW. They had no idea what was wrong with them because they don't test them or know anything about them, they just issue the refund if it is within the normal return period.

I opened both boxes and both laptops still had the plastic on them. It didn't take 30 seconds to figure out both had dead hard drives. The first powered up and the hard drive just clicked very loudly over and over. The other booted to a black screen saying "No boot device found". Simple and cheap fixes compared to the value of the laptops, even if I bought the hard drives and did the reinstalls myself. We talked about it and the assit. manager mentioned that the laptops should still be under warranty since they were new.....

That got me to thinking, so I got on HP's chat support, told them the problem, gave them the serial numbers and sure enough they said they were under warranty and they would replace the drives for free. Sweet!

So here is where I'm at. I'm going to get these both repaired for free and I'm going to have almost nothing in them. But if keep buying these and attempt to use the (very valid) warranty, aren't HP, Dell or the other manufacturers going to start balking and asking why I have so many brand new computers under warranty and in need of repair? I can imagine after a few of these warranty repairs they are going to start getting suspicious and wonder what is going on. I wonder what they will say if I just flat out tell them the truth, that I'm buying these in bulk from XXX store? I'm not going to lie about it and I don't want to "flagged" as some sort of a scammer by the manufacturers.

This is all on the up and up and the store manager is approving the sales to me and the computers are really under warranty, but they are just too big to care about messing with the returns themselves.

Thoughts?
 
well if all this stuff is basically brand new why dont you just do the repairs yourself and sell them.
Who cares if it violates the warranty. The price that you would be selling them for would likely still give you very decent profits.

I dont really see any issues having the warranty work done other then that the manufacturer may not like it.

If you end up buying some $1500 PC for $100 and its still under warranty I say get it replaced through warranty so that you can still sell it for top dollar.
 
Just a word to the wise, Make sure that you have receipts and documentation for every purchase! If the corporate office catches wind of this and they do not like it you could end up a really bad end of a deal. Just a thought. On the flip side if this works out to be a good deal congratulations sounds like a very good opportunity
 
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Well I agree on both counts. I would be more than willing to put a $65 hard drive in them and do the reinstall to have a brand new laptop in the box, with the power cord etc. But at the same time....it IS under warranty. Also, like you said, if HP does the work, no warranty is violated and the customer could still have a valid warranty.

However, if I do sell them, I'm not going to guarantee any warranty will be given but the manufacturer but I'll tell them they can check with them to see if there is. I will sell them cheap enough that it prob. won't matter if there is a warranty and I will NOT be offering any warranty myself on them. Heck I might even eBay them, just so I don't have my own customers calling me in 6 months wanting me to repair them for free, even though they signed a document saying I'm not offering any warranty. Been down that road with a couple nice but used laptops I refurbed and sold for $150.
 
I work full time at a office supply store at logistics. And I think that both manager and assistant are trying to get extra money. Be carefull.
 
Honestly it sounds pretty sketchy. If they're friends just ask them what the official policy is for those machines. I find it hard to believe nobody cares about them and they basically leave it up to the store manager. If that's really the case though I'd buy every single one for $25. If that's not the case I wouldn't touch them even if they were free.

Who cares what the OEM asks/thinks about all the warranty claims you'd be making. You'd have completely valid claims so if they ask why you're making so many tell them shove it.
 
Actually, if you go to http://www.liquidation.com/ you'll see what many retailers do with their problems. You might want to go to a different branch of that retailer and ask what they do with their warranty returns. Be careful.

Rick
 
I've done my fair share of retail management and I can't think of any corporate office that would allow returned electronics to just go out the door. Stores don't like and often get charged for returning electronics to their warehouses, but they tend not to just write it off and let it go out the back door. Tread carefully.
 
I had a deal in the late 90's with a local computer shop, they would give me 20 or so motherboards, I would test them and buy the ones which worked off them for £10 and give the dead ones back to them.

Sold a few computers via loot, and from about 2000 onwards told the boards on ebay for a profit of about £15 each.

Not a patch on the deal this shop has offered you though.
 
This has bad news written all over it imo..

First I would be worried about getting your friend fired. He may think he's in the clear but I highly doubt he has authorization to give stuff away for close to free that he is too lazy to RMA. I mean, we're in a down economy and I doubt even big chains are making enough to throw away money. I also seriously doubt HP gave them authorization to give them away without verifying the issues.

Second I would definitely be worried about the warranty.. A receipt for 25 dollars isn't gonna get you very far in a warranty claim I'm guessing.


If it sounds too good to be true...........
 
Thanks guys. First off the person who authorized this, I know personally, and is THE store manager of this mega-store. My buddy is an assistant manager and he is the one who asked me if I was interested in getting the computers. I do know that just "eating" the cost of these returned computers seems to be a common theme at this store. I know, dating back 2-3 years, several people who work there who have gotten approval to buy a returned/damaged laptop for their own personal use. And trust me, this manager makes alot of $ and if he was going to risk his job (which he wouldn't), he would not be selling returned laptops with bad hard drives for $25.;)

I have these two in my possession right now and I will ask more questions and see about getting something in writing, maybe a receipt, for any others I'm offered. I def. wouldn't be involved in anything I thought was shady and I wouldn't be involved if I hadn't known both these managers for over 10 years. I'll let you know what I find out about it all. I have a feeling there might be more to the story, not in a bad way, but something like, they eat some or certain items or something similar. We shall see.....
 
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sounds to good to be true but if friends of over 10 years were saying its on the up and up i would do it. tell them if it is on the up and up you need proper documentation of the sale.

as for the warranty i would send it in and sell it on ebay for 300 or 400. who cares how many you send in the might fight you alittle but its a valid claim theres not much they can do!
 
sounds to good to be true but if friends of over 10 years were saying its on the up and up i would do it. tell them if it is on the up and up you need proper documentation of the sale.

as for the warranty i would send it in and sell it on ebay for 300 or 400. who cares how many you send in the might fight you alittle but its a valid claim theres not much they can do!

I agree. If this was some guys I didn't know well or some guys lower on the food chain at the store, I wouldn't touch it with a 10ft pole. These guys are on the up and up and if they say it's legit...it is. BUT yep I'm going to ask alot more questions and I'll see what I can get in the way of paperwork and more info on what they normally do with these computers (besides selling to employees because I know that is common there).
 
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