Laptop bought as new, concerned it might be secondhand or refurbished

[UPDATED]Laptop bought as new, concerned it might be secondhand or refurbished

[IMPORTANT UPDATE]

Brilliant Tech did come back to me (on a Sunday night, which is surprising). They apologized sincerely and told me that they did not inspect the laptop at all, and that they believe the problem lies with their suppliers in America.

They are willing to give me a full refund, or replace the unit. This is surprisingly good cooperation. I am still deciding what to do. My problem now is that I don't know whether I'll be able to get another laptop like this one at the same price.

Hey guys

A few days ago I made a thread about my new Lenovo Y580 having battery related problems. My concern has now changed, and I think I might have been taken for a fool when I bought this laptop, but I am not sure yet.

I bought the laptop on BidOrBuy.co.za from a seller called "Brilliant Tech" who imports from America, now selling laptops under the name "Gaming Laptops". The seller seems reputable, and thus is why I had no worries. But I am starting to wonder.

Here is what concerns me:

• Serial number in bios does not match with serial number on back of laptop.

• The seal on the plastic bag the laptop came in was broken.


• The plastic bad wherein the AC adapter came in was not sealed.

• A sticker has been removed from the bottom of the laptop


• There is evidence that the screws has been tampered with.


• The was no protective plastic on the screen or touch-pad when I got the laptop.

• The laptop came with no manual, only a leaflet from Lenovo explaining the manual can be downloaded online.

• I think the poor battery performance may be because I am not the first owner of this laptop, although it was sold as new.

• After waiting over 2 weeks to receive the laptop, the seller upgraded the hard-drive from 750GB to 1TB to compensate for inconvenience, I don't know if that would explain some of the above mentioned things.



I have not contacted Brilliant Tech about this yet, but I will tomorrow. As I said, this might be a big misunderstanding, and I have no intention of negatively affecting the sellers reputation, I just feel I might have been lied to.

I have a feeling that the laptop is either refurbished or second hand. Is there any way I can confirm this, or anything I can do about this?

The sticker that was removed could that have been the Microsoft sticker?

Refurb, possibly a stolen one too. You can boot into the BIOS and use the serial number to check it up with Lenovo on their website, see if its still in warranty. Mind linking to the deal on BoB?

Wait, is that the 1080p Y580?

EDIT: Yes it is the 1080P Y580.

Lenovo's warranty check service has been down for a few days, but I checked it when I got the laptop, and it showed that it is still under warranty until next year February.

I am so afraid that this is a misunderstanding. The deal on Bid Or Buy: http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/item/8889..._BLURAY_8GB_750GB_32GB_SSD_Gaming_Laptop.html

Here is about the same deal under the new name of Gaming Laptops on Bob: http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/item/9193...a_GTX660M_1TB_32GB_SSD_8GB_RAM_Windows_7.html

After checking the BIOS, I just realized the serial number in the BIOS does not match the one on the back of the laptop!

If there are so many anomalies, then it can't be new. Go with your gut mate.

I would have lodged a complaint ages ago

IceDreama said:

If there are so many anomalies, then it can't be new. Go with your gut mate.

I would have lodged a complaint ages ago

Click to expand...

These types of things always happen to me...

What do you suggest is the best thing to do? Contact the dealer, or is there some other legal route I can follow without a huge legal fee accompanying it?

Definitely a refurbished unit, and not even properly done. I believe Lenovo are able to change the serial number following a motherboard swap to the original one printed on the casing. Selling that as a new item is fraud, plain and simple.

I have sent an e-mail regarding the condition of this laptop to Brilliant Tech and I will give them this week to correspond. If it turns out that they are unwilling to correspond and be of assistance, I will lodge a complaint in accordance with the CPA, and also report them (and their newly established counterpart) on Bid or Buy for fraud.

Yep, and pse keep us updated. The more this issue is made public the better - if it's an explainable error tell us about it.

sitnet said:

After checking the BIOS, I just realized the serial number in the BIOS does not match the one on the back of the laptop!

Click to expand...

That is what happens when a lappie is sent in for repair and the board is replaced. There's no way in hell that's new. Go get your money back. Like I said before, it could also be stolen. If he refuses, tell him you'll report him to the cops for fraud.

I will keep you updated all the way!

Thank you all so much, I can't explain how grateful I am. I really don't know how I would make it through things like this without the MyBroadband community!

Certainly not cool if he has been selling refurbished laptops as new, but you will find even if your is sorted bidorbuy will probably do nothing, they make a lot of money from laptop sales.

@NAG - Wesley

If he does not cooperate I will do that, and I will in fact go to the police in that case. I know it will probably be fruitless in terms of the case going through, but at least I will have the paper to prove I am serious.

@za1

Yeah that's probably so, greediness makes me sick sometimes...

@all

Well this has certainly been an expensive and time consuming lesson! I'm so negative right now. I'm trying to stay positive though, so: if he does decide to refund and not replace, what laptop in this price class can you recommend? In other words about same specs at no more than R12 000?

Check original post for update!

Well, if full HD isn't a requirement you could get the 720p y580 or y500 for around the R10-R11k mark.

Otherwise, personally I'd go with any form of the Clevo W370ET (rebranded as Mecer in this case) - decent review.

sitnet said:

[IMPORTANT UPDATE]

Brilliant Tech did come back to me (on a Sunday night, which is surprising). They apologized sincerely and told me that they did not inspect the laptop at all, and that they believe the problem lies with their suppliers in America.

Click to expand...

mwahahhahahahahahaha
of course they going to refund you, they don't want you to make a noise and what have issues with bidorbuy and all the laptops they have sold.
get your refund and then make some more noise, unless you don't care when you have your money back as all they will do is farm this onto some other poor sod.

Interesting, they didn't inspect the laptop at all, yet they did this:

After waiting over 2 weeks to receive the laptop, the seller upgraded the hard-drive from 750GB to 1TB to compensate for inconvenience, I don't know if that would explain some of the above mentioned things.

Click to expand...

whatever dude, get your money back and buy an asus or dell with local warranty

Get your money back, make some noise and never use them again.

Things like this happens to me a lot as well! Although, I worked with the police to catch 3 fraudsters from Gumtree, only for them to be released for no reason a month later... Actually found my old stolen PC for sale at a computer shop on Gumtree on Louis Botha Avenue in JHB! Although, the police didn't help me get it back, and it is not worth much anymore.

In your case, it is definitely fraud, they are taking chances! They should inspect everything they receive and when you receive packages, it shouldn't be open at all! Make sure you get your money back, before you give them the laptop back, and they should pay for courier to come and pick it up! After they have done that, you can post some bad rep on them wherever to warn people. First make sure you get your money! If they don't, you can go to the police.. But, police are not really bothered with these kind of things, and they sure don't understand your problem if you are going to explain it to them! If they see you have the laptop, they will certainly believe that it is the right one with no problems, since you have a laptop. For them, a laptop is a laptop.... Same as my PC that was just a PC..

Let us know what is happening!

Your first priority here is to get your refund, which they must do before collecting the laptop.

It would be silly from your point to cause a ruckus until you have your money back, but after that the right thing to do is make BOB aware, though as pointed out, they will probably brush this under the carpet.

Looks like they may have screwed a few people with refurbished machines, as 99% of people won't have issues or notice. If it wasn't for the battery problem I doubt you would have noticed as well.