Some of the deals are great, but just wondering if anyone has experience of how 'cosmetic' the damage actually is and whether it is worth taking the risk over a new one. They come with 12 months warranty FWIW

Our firm used to buy refurbed Dell's and never had any problem with them. I had a Precision M70 for about 4 years and it never let me down.

I got one a while back. It was a shiny blue one with 'cosmetic scratches' apparently.

I couldn't see any scratches on it. it was like new.

Do you remember whether it was cat 1 or cat 2 damage Terrahawk?

Yep bought an XPS about 2 years ago,
It was supposed to have a cosmetic scatch on it, but its so small i struggle to see it and is on a replaceable panel any way, couldnt understand why they didnt put a panel on it and sell as new?

cat1 I think

Cheers, now to make the big decision of which one to choose!

yep – me too. Mine was dent/crack categroy though – it had obviously taken quite a hit and put a dent in the metal cover. It was a Precision M4300 though and had a 3 year warranty so I wasn't bothered. 2.5 years later, no issues at all, and at the time I got it for about half price. spec is still good now!

A lot of those systems are not always scratch and dent – some are canceled orders as well. The factory builds to order so if you order and pay it starts to build, if you then cancel the system can sometimes have finished build before you cancel so its sold through ARB (asset recovery) or scratch and dent. Also some systems may from the outlet may be swapped systems (ie not fixable on site as it would cost to much / take to much time / parts not available / customer experience) and so will be repaired and resold through ARB.

They are superb deals and you can save a fortune on kit that way. Just watch for the cheeky VAT and shipping add on 🙂

Warranty will be as for new kit (ie you dont get any less as its ARB).

Oh and the new precisions are superb 😀

Mate in work got one and she is well chuffed, saved a chunk of cash as well.

There's a shop near me that is (was?) an outlet for Dell cancelled orders. I bought one and it was fine right up to the point where I dropped it onto a stone floor.

I have no reason to believe a full price one would have fared better.

these sound great! can you get them online or there is a physical Dell outlet store?

Yes, here:

Dell Outlet

I just bought mine 😀

Scratched & Dent laptop here too, looked as new and works fine. Had one prior to this one that lasted well also.

There's been a spate of good deals recently on 17inch I7 laptops with "cat1" cosmetic damage on Dell outlet.
I'm waiting for this one to arrive (due today):

Studio 1747
Operating System
English Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)
Memory 4096MB (2×2048) 1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel
Hard Disk Drive 320GB HD (7200RPM)
320GB Serial ATA (7200RPM)
Graphics 1 GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650
Media Bay Optical Drive (DVD+/-RW)
Screen 17.3in Full High Definition (1920X1080) LED with TrueLife
System Color Black Chainlink
MISC
Camera Integrated 2.0 Mega Pixel Camera
Internal UK/Irish Qwerty Keyboard
Primary 9-cell 85W/HR LI-ION
Processor Intel Core i7 720QM 1.6GHz (2.8 GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB Cache)

I'm no expert but that sounded like a pretty good desktop replacement for about £650 inc VAT and delivery.
Opinions?

ecky-thumb – niiiice 🙂

Ecky-Thump – that is nice – the truelife LED screens look awesome in real life!

cat 1, couldn't see a mark on it. It was a good deal for me.

I bought a Studio 15 last year from here Bargaintastic Dells!
They come with 3 year Dell 24hr waranty and it was a great experience allround. Had 1 issue after 6 months and was sorted immediately.
Well worth a look.

My XPS is a cancelled order from the outlet, saved a fortune.

There was a way to find the service ID in the page source of the details and then use the Support pages on Dell to find the full details, including when it was ordered etc.

Blimey – some cracking deals there. Why haven't I come across this before?

The question is what's worse, a cat 1 scratch/dent or having a "pretty pink" case, given that's by far the cheapest on there for what I'm looking for (£60 more for one in black, though admittedly with 4GB rather than 2GB)?

The "pretty pink" case is fooking nasty in real life mate. I would run away from that. Although £60 would get you a lot of RAM from crucial.

There was a way to find the service ID in the page source of the details and then use the Support pages on Dell to find the full details, including when it was ordered etc.

You shouldn't be able to get the tag from the ARB site, but if you can then enter it here: http://support.euro.dell.com/support/topics/topic.aspx/emea/shared/support/my_systems_info/en/details?c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&l=en&s=bsd

And go to Original System Configuration to see the shipping date first time around. I wouldn't believe the warranty info there tho as the warranty will reset once its resold through ARB to the warranty that ARB offer on the system.

Just an update for anyone that is interested. Recieved new laptop today and it is utterly perfect, even on close inspection there is not a mark or blemish on it. Also used dmillers link above and it appears it has never been shipped before, mine is the first order.

Cannot recommend using this service highly enough, the desls are killer 😀