FAQs about Refurbished Equipment

Remanufactured Products

Remanufactured technology products are programs manufactures of IT equipment have to address the needs of the IT community to purchased refurbished products for a myriad of reasons. Remanufactured programs are available through Cisco, Dell, HP, IBM, Juniper and SUN. These products are sourced internally through demo pools, factory surplus, cancelled orders, customer returns, end-of-life runs and through their in-house leasing organizations. Remarketed products allow customers a great pricing alternative to new products while offering the same technologies in the manufacturer’s current product portfolio. Products go through a rigorous remanufacturing process at the factory and are usually backed by the same warranty as new equipment. The biggest advantage to remanufactured technology products is the savings compared to new.

Remanufactured Products Include:

• Dell PowerEdge Servers and EqualLogic Storage
• HP StorageWorks (EVA, MSA, MSL, Switches & Disks)
• Business critical servers (Integrity, HP9000, Alpha)
• Industry Standard servers (ProLiant DL , ML & options)
• HP c Class blade servers & infrastructure
• System X, x Series, BladeCenter
• System P, p Series
• Fast, DS Series
• Cisco switching (stackable & chassis based), routing, firewall.

Refurbished Products

Refurbished products are products that go through our own exhaustive refurbishment process in our 63,000 square foot technology center and are priced far below manufacturers Remanufactured products. Our refurbished products typically come from manufacturer lot buys, distributor model liquidations, surplus inventory, asset recovery agreements, customer trade-ins, off lease equipment and rental returns.

Great Lakes Computer’s refurbished products include the latest technologies and also those hard to find end-of-life options that Cisco, Dell, HP, IBM and SUN customers still need. Our Refurbished Products are backed by our best in the industry 3 year warranty and our exclusive manufactures maintenance eligibility guarantee.

Refurbished Cisco Products Include:

• Cisco switching (stackable & chassis based)
• Modules
• Routing
• Firewall
• Cisco options and accessories

Refurbished Dell Products Include:

• PowerEdge Servers
• EqualLogic Storage

Refurbished HP Products Include:

• HP StorageWorks (EVA, EMA, MSA, Switches & Disks)
• Business critical severs (HP9000, Itanium, Alpha and Superdome)
• Industry Standard servers (ProLiant DL , ML & options)
• HP c Class blade servers & infrastructure

Refurbished IBM Products Include:

• System X, x Series, BladeCenter
• System P, p Series
• Fast, DS Series

Leverage Your Options

Partnering with Great Lakes Computer will get the most out of your budget by mixing and matching New, Remarketed and Refurbished products into very cost competitive solution. So if your needs are for current technology but you can’t fit them into your budget, you should take a look and the tremendous cost savings that remanufactured and Great Lakes new and refurbished products have to offer.

There is a lot of talk these days to "green IT" and recycle products that are in perfectly good condition. Even Toyota and Lexus offer Certified Pre Owned vehicles as a way of managing their portfolio. At some level, every IT organization should have refurbished and remanufactured a part of their overall IT strategy just to meet internal SLA’s and manage costs.

Manufacturers such as Hewlett Packard have created a product channel specifically to manage their massive inventory portfolio. HP’s Renew Program offers an exhaustive inventory of equipment that has been returned to HP for various reasons and is comprised of state-of-the-art HP technology. HP Renew products are certified to be good as new and come with the same on-site warranty and support options as new equipment. The benefits to you are that by leveraging products remanufactured by the manufacturer you enjoy lower acquisition costs and equal performance for state-of-the-art Factory-Certified technology.

The refurbished technology market (often referred to as the secondary market) consists of an estimated 40,000 resellers, dealers and distributors worldwide who conduct over $180 billion worth of technology sales annually. Employing more than 100,000 people; it represents more than half of the entire market for IT products.

In fact, leading edge current technology is so abundantly available from every manufacturer, in product line and model that even the largest corporate enterprise could outfit their entire IT infrastructure with 100% refurbished or remanufactured equipment.

• If you have a lean budget, then remanufactured enterprise products can offer a high quality, fully warranted solution at a low cost. For most applications, the latest technology isn’t necessary.
  
• Companies may not have the resources to keep pace with short technology lifecycles.
• Your company has a need to maintain a proven, stable environment and further deploy production on that platform has been discontinued by the manufacturer.
• A new product that is out of stock or back ordered may be immediately available from the extensive worldwide availability of remarketed products.
• Leveraging new, remanufactured and refurbished products optimizes IT budgets while ensuring reliability and performance in a 7x24x365 world.
• Refurbished equipment may offer the best price/performance value for application testing.
• Continued standardization of models, processor speeds and technology generations on recently discontinued product lines.

There are a number of things to keep in mind when you buy remanufactured or refurbished products.

Here are a few tips:

1. Check the warranty – Does your seller guarantee the quality of its remanufactured products? What kind of warranty do their products come from?
2. Ask about return policies – What is their process for handling warranty and replacement of defective products within the warranty period?
3. How long has the company been in business? – Since we’re talking about refurbished technology equipment, you want to be working with an established, reputable company that’s been around for a while.
4. What kind of technical support do they have? - You’ll want to know if your seller is actually doing the refurbishing themselves or are they offering manufacturer remanufactured products. In either case, do they have a knowledgeable technical staff that can help me if I run into a problem?
5. Is the reseller a member of ASCDI?

The Association of Service and Computer Dealers International (ASCDI), is a worldwide, nonprofit organization, made up of companies and manufacturers who provide technology business solutions, technical support, and value added services to the business community. The ASCDI has representation from every manufacturer of new technology equipment.

Several technology manufacturers offer either a limited or full warranty with their remanufactured products. Most products in a manufacturers Remanufactured program can have their warranties extended to 3Yr 24x7 on-site service levels. Products can also usually be added to manufactures on site maintenance and support agreements.

Resellers that refurbish their own products usually offer at least some warranty their own products. The length of the warranty will vary by company and product line so be sure and ask. Resellers of refurbished computer equipment will usually guarantee their products eligible manufacturers on-site maintenance agreements.

Great Lakes Computer (GLC) warrants that the computer products purchased by end users will be free from defects in materials and/or workmanship when in normal use for the period of 3 years from the date of purchase. Advance Replacement Extended Warranty options are also available for all of our refurbished products.

New products will come with the standard manufacturer’s warranty and supersede our warranty. All systems and options are guaranteed eligible for manufacturer's installation and maintenance

For specific warranty details, please refer to the warranty section of our web site or contact us.