Whats your experience with Refurbished Macs?

Odin_aa said:

Well, mine arrived today DOA. No video at all, which does not bode well for their quality control.

Returning it and they are sending me a new one, non-refurb...so I had to vote No, I would not buy refurb again.

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See if this happened to me sure I'd be mad and angry I had to wait....but a brand new one for refurb price? Can't beat that.

No, it will cost me an additional 200. they did give me a bit of a discount but not the refurb price.

I was a bit upset, and thought of just driving 40 minutes to the MAC store for a new one but really don't have the time right now. I do wonder how a machine thats video was faulty left the shop.

Odin_aa said:

No, it will cost me an additional 200. they did give me a bit of a discount but not the refurb price.

I was a bit upset, and thought of just driving 40 minutes to the MAC store for a new one but really don't have the time right now. I do wonder how a machine thats video was faulty left the shop.

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Mine too was Doa. i too sent it back and getting new. just 100 dollars more for the 1299 macbook with the student discount so im pretty happy to go new. at first i didnt care but you really should get something new when you spend so much money, atleast for me since i dont have alot of it

http://www.apple-discuss.com/viewthread.php?tid=3087&extra=page=1
here is another!!

My 2 year old eMac still runs like I got it yesterday. When I pulled it out of thhe box, there was ABSLOUTELY nothing wrong with it.

After apple refunded me for my refurbished macbook i paid the difference on a new one. i must say, its the best way to go. i was only 100 dollars with the student dicount and if you also included that you can get a free printer after rebate of 100 dollars it evens out. just my 2 cents.

I did not see the printer rebate until after my re-order...otherwise I would have gotten one that ended up being free to sell.

I would never buy refurbished components, but wouldn't refrain from buying a refurbished notebook, monitor, or peripheral.

Refurbished components are invariably the ones of a lower quality which were returned.

With notebooks, the "odds" of getting a *trouble-free* machine buying new is considerably higher than refurbished, especially considering most refurbished were problematic (even some lemons) ones returned to Apple. The odds are considerably higher of getting a trouble free experience when buying new.

However, if you get lucky, can't beat the bang for the buck for the refurbed notebook that was returned as an open box, or unaccepted delivery, or a never paid pre-configured one.

There's only one risk buying new. While the odds of receiving a DOA new is astronomically slim, every new notebook (any new computer component with chips) may "die" during the burning in period. With a new one, when the chips have burned in completely after about 3 to 5 days without issues, it'll basically run forever.

Odin_aa said:

I did not see the printer rebate until after my re-order...otherwise I would have gotten one that ended up being free to sell.

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call apple, they might be able to help you out, just tell them what happened.

Prise said:

I would never buy refurbished components, but wouldn't refrain from buying a refurbished notebook, monitor, or peripheral.

Refurbished components are invariably the ones of a lower quality which were returned.

With notebooks, the "odds" of getting a trouble machine buying new is considerably higher than refurbished, especially considering most refurbished were problematic (even some lemons) ones returned to Apple. The odds are considerably higher of getting a trouble free experience when buying new.

However, if you get lucky, can't beat the bang for the buck for the refurbed notebook that was returned as an open box, or unaccepted delivery, or a never paid pre-configured one.

There's only one risk buying new. While the odds of receiving a DOA new is astronomically slim, every new notebook (any new computer component with chips) may "die" during the burning in period. With a new one, when the chips have burned in completely after about 3 to 5 days without issues, it'll basically run forever.

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you are right, i am not against all refurs. i have an ipod that is refurbished and works great, but i learned my lesson that when it comes to something with so many components, just get new

DRAGONGUY83 said:

...but i learned my lesson that when it comes to something with so many components, just get new

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Me too!

Much easier to trouble shoot when buying new.

I got my refurb. macbook pro core2 15.4" on Monday, and it is awesome! No problems with it at all except that I should have done the research before I purchased an extra 2 gigs of ram (2 sims) thinking I could upgrade to 3.
There are only two sim slots so now I have an extra gig of ram I need to sell.

I guess I will post it up on ebay this week.

siniik said:

I got my refurb. macbook pro core2 15.4" on Monday, and it is awesome! No problems with it at all except that I should have done the research before I purchased an extra 2 gigs of ram (2 sims) thinking I could upgrade to 3.
There are only two sim slots so now I have an extra gig of ram I need to sell.

I guess I will post it up on ebay this week.

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Huh, I'd have been stung by that as well - never looked into it - just assumed the MBP had 3 RAM slots - well you learn something new everyday


Last night was the first time I turned my MacBook off in 12 days 6 hours and so many minutes (think it was 17 if anyone is counting ) My MacBook is a refurb and barring some light scratches to the top that can only be seen in some lights - there is nothing what-so-ever wrong with it. I love my MacBook and I'm glad I went for the refurb - initially I had considered the saving to be a good contribution to my purchase of Leopard - but I ended up adding the saving to some gift money and buying an iPod and some accessories