Not everyone, I never received UCE from newegg or amazon. My experience with tigerdirect is many years old, maybe they are more careful now. Back then when I unsubscribed from one of their lists I was instantly added to another list, I just couldn't stand it, I blocked their domain and never bought from them again.

I made a small purchase from TigerDirect once- a $15 item. It was defective- and the trouble and time it took to deal with them just trying to get a replacement or refund, made me never want to do business with them again. Yes, and then the spam (both email and snail mail) started!

Apparently, the big-wigs at most companies don't seem to get it: You spam your customers [ESPECIALLY after they've checked/unchecked the boxes indicating that they don't want to be spammed/don't want any unnecessary communication!] and you will create hard feelings and lose that customer! An existing customer with a good opinion of your business is a big asset, and will often make other purchases and recommend your business to others. A disgruntled customer will never come back, and will convey his dissatisfaction to 10x the number of people that he would have recommended a good business to.

I was a regular customer of one [non-electronics related] business. I loved their products, and used to recommend them; and got other people to try them. When that company kept spamming me, I emailed them, telling them that they had just lost a once-loyal customer. They apologized, and sent me a discount coupon- and promiosed to stop the spam. I never used that coupon- I figured that I'd wait and see if the spam actually stopped. It never did! To this day, I still get their garbage in my mailbox and in email!!! Now I tell everyone that that company, while having good products, does not respect their customers wishes/privacy, and will spam you, no matter what...for YEARS. I have effectively warned more people away from that company now, than I ever brought to it.

What IDIOTIC business practices!!! And then when they go bust, they blame "the economy". Don't they realize, that they are alienating their own customers and creating hostility? They haven't figured out that NO ONE likes spam and junk mail??!!

Or better yet...how about when you order something from a website...and then they send you a hard-copy catalog....that doesn't even list half of their stuff- including what you had ortdered from them? It's like "I obviously know of your website, and can use it, since I've already ordered from there; Do you think I am going to sit down and pour through a paper catalog? And even if I did, I wouldn't find what I wanted, since it only lists your more items, and I'd thus HAVE to use the website to find the items I buy, anyway"??!!!

Sure..alienate your customers, and waste advertising dollars! Jerks! (I'm sure that 100 page full color catalog wasn't cheap to produce or mail!)

I finished my research Friday night and I went with a used Lenovo Thinkpad T400. I hadn't read Emerson's post yet but I guess I followed his lead. I bought it from online from US Micro and got their 2-year warranty which looks pretty worthwhile. Thanks for the input everyone.

Good choice!

I just recently bought a Thinkpad R61 on Ebay, for under $100, and I LOVE it!