Buying (cheap?) laptop replacement keyboards on Ebay

[wilfred]

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[eugenenine]

I bought a couple here and there a long time ago with mixed results, one was nice and new the other had a bad key.  I found out it was cheaper to buy from Dell anyway.

[gadget73]

I bought one for my old Lenovo.  It fit and worked fine, but some of the FN keys were marked a little different.  It had the same part number though. 

[Monkeh]

I've been stung recently by two replacement Dell keyboards which did not have spreader bars under wide keys (spacebar being the most annoying example).

You're better off buying a second hand one in good shape.

[wraper]

I bought one for my old Lenovo.  It fit and worked fine, but some of the FN keys were marked a little different.  It had the same part number though.

Almost for each laptop model, there are at least a few genuine keyboard suppliers (manufacturers). Layout and dimensions are the same, construction is not. As of those few replacement keyboards I have bought on ebay, they were genuine stuff.

You're better off buying a second hand one in good shape.

Totally disagree. If you receive some crap, just request your money back.

[Monkeh]

You're better off buying a second hand one in good shape.

Totally disagree. If you receive some crap, just request your money back.

And by the time you've gone through that dance and wasted a week or two with each seller, you might just wish you'd bought a decent second hand one.

[jmsc_02]

i bought one for a Toshiba laptop. The result was OK but i had also exchange some keys to maintain the spanish layout

[wraper]

You're better off buying a second hand one in good shape.

Totally disagree. If you receive some crap, just request your money back.

And by the time you've gone through that dance and wasted a week or two with each seller, you might just wish you'd bought a decent second hand one.

Do you think you have a better chance with a used keyboard? IMO the chance of receiving some filthy crap is not less by any means.

[Monkeh]

Do you think you have a better chance with a used keyboard? IMO the chance of receiving some filthy crap is not less by any means.

Buying a visibly clean, known genuine and complete keyboard from someone who breaks laptops down for a business? Yes.

I can clean keyboards. I can't put missing parts in them.

E: to put it another way, start ordering these, see how long it takes you to get tired of spacebars which don't work:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-GENUINE-DELL-LATITUDE-E5520-E5530-E6520-E6530-BACKLIT-UK-KEYBOARD-7T433-/151221810735
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Original-New-UK-Black-backlit-keyboard-for-Dell-Latitude-E5520-E6520-/151847369596
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DELL-LATITUDE-E5520-E5530-E6520-E6530-M6600-BACKLIT-KEYBOARD-UK-07T433-F120-/221957455763
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Genuine-Dell-Latitude-0HG3G3-E6520-E6530-M4600-M6700-Keyboard-UK-backlit-kbd-/310861145601

It didn't take me long.