A couple of additional comments:
If buying from Dell or Lenovo, only buy what they have on sale. If it’s not on sale, you probably overpaid. (This applies to buying from them directly.)
I’ve bought refurbs a couple of times and done well, but I also have heard from people who had bad refurb experiences. Usually the warranty is a lot shorter than what you’d get with new – most commonly 90 days vs. a year.
I won’t say you should or shouldn’t buy a refurb, only that you should be aware of the pluses and minuses involved.
I had a bad experience with a dishonest salesperson once when purchasing from Best Buy. I’ve also had unpleasant, rude, lazy and inattentive salespeople in the Bay Parkway store in Brooklyn. I know it’s not fair to hold it against the entire chain, but when I buy from them now (and I still do, occasionally), I make sure I have all my info before buying, and I don’t simply trust what the salesperson says.