Whats your experience with Refurbished Macs?

Hi guys, I have been wading around this forum the last couple weeks. You all are a wealth of information for us people coming from PC.
I am EXTREMELY close to buying my first Mac, a MacBook. For those of you that have purchased refurbs from Apple, I'd like to know if yo have had any bad experiences that would keep you from doing refurbished again. I went to the apple store last weekend and the gentlemen helping me flat out said NO, don' do it, to getting a refurbished.
I am not hurting for money, so I could easily buy a brand new MacBook, but I also can't throw away the idea of saving $200+. That money could go to upgrades or whatever.

Thanks Guys...and Gals :black:

my uncle's refurb mac book pro was perfect, hope this helps

Mine's a refurb, and I've had it now for almost 2 months. I've been programming for over 30 years, 17 years in the Unix world, 13 years in the Windows world, 10 in Linux. I used a 1st Gen Macintosh in the 80s at work. My goal in buying the MacBook was to try the Mac with the aim to simplify my life and eliminate Windows and Linux.

I bought a new Mac mini last September, and discovered my peripherals were incompatible with it. I returned the little box without ever having booted it. I was still interested in a Mac, and I thought a MacBook would make a suitable stand-alone machine.

Was the refurb worth it? Yes. I saved some money on what I considered to be a gamble. I have absolutely no tolerance for things that don't work. I hate wasting time and money, but will lavish both when approriate. I didn't know if the Mac would work for me. The refurb softened the monetary risk.

Gawd I love my Mac. I bought it with a 60G drive and 512M RAM. As you can see in the description under my avatar, I've already upgraded to a 120G drive and 1G RAM, essential for what I need. I also converted a secondary 250G drive from my PC as an external backup drive for my Mac.

Problems are few with the refurb, but they're not non-existent. The physical problem was that the track pad was delaminated from one corner. It had actually scraped the screen, removing a little of the coating. Had it been brand new I'd have shipped it back to Apple. I still could have done that, but the track pad otherwise worked fine, and I wanted to see if this was just a superficial blemish or just one symptom of worse problems. A little superglue fixed the track pad; the screen blemish is as a mole on a supermodel. I've had no other problems with it.

One minor compromise is that this is a Core Duo machine, NOT Core 2 Duo, 32 bit versus 64 bit. In other words, this is a prior generation MacBook. Comparison with a current MacBook wrt price isn't exactly appropriate. Still, it's a fast little machine, and is quite capable of doing everything I need.

Would I buy another refurb? If that was the only way to get my next Mac, I'd do it. Otherwise I'd buy new. I have no regrets whatsoever in having a refurb. It's a great little machine, and I love it. Now I'd buy new because I know the Mac is probably for me.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the posts guys! Can you return a refurbished Mac, if you don't like the "blemsihes" that came with it?

zeroz52 said:

Thanks for the posts guys! Can you return a refurbished Mac, if you don't like the "blemsihes" that came with it?

Click to expand...

Yes, but the term "refurbished" implies that any blemishes have been repaired. My refurbished MacBook Pro was absolutely perfect with no discernable difference from new.

My refurbished MacBook was perfect, the only way you'd ever be able to tell it's refurbished is by looking at the box it came in!

I'd buy refurbished again for sure! Infact i'm busy looking for a refurbished 24" iMac but think it's better to wait until i can get one with Leopard

:mac: bumpity

My MBP was not perfect - but I do believe I'm in the minority. There are many happy customers out there who bought refurbs. Mine had a few light marks on the lid - no biggie - but the case was warped, which made the dvd rom not run smoothly. That's why I sent mine back and went with a new one.

If you decide to go the refurb route, I would try to do so at an apple store or authorized reseller - where you can actually see the machine and inspect it in person. I purchased mine online.

:bone:

I am a switcher an got a refurb macbook last month. I had some issues with the display and had to send it to the repair depot:blind: However I am happy to report that I had the mcabook back here on Maui in 3 days and it works perfectly. I would buy refurb from Apple again and use the money I saved to buy more memory, software, accessories for my new Macbook.

My refurb mac is perfect, infact i could have believed it was new if it didnt say refurb on the box. My power supply and remote came brand new with all the protective plactic coverings (screen protector style stuff) which also makes me think i actually have some left over brand new core duo stock.

I personally have not had any experience with refurbished products from Apple (I like to unwrap my brand new toys, it's worth the extra $$$ to me). However, two friends of mine recently purchased refurbished MacBooks. One of them was a BlackBook, the other a 17" MacBook Pro. The BlackBook had no problems whatsoever, and looked like a brand new machine. The MacBook Pro had a speaker hissing issue that was fixed by a quick diagnostics at the local Apple retail store.

Hope this helps, and welcome to the Mac world.

I ordered a refurb iBook, but after a couple weeks it still hadn't shipped so I canceled the order. My currently MacBook Pro is a refurb, it looks and works perfectly.

Thanks for the Welcome Snoslicer.
Thanks to everyone for posting replies, I do really appreciate it. :black:

I've had good experiences with both refurbished Macs and refurbished iPods. I always try to buy new whenever I can, but for things like my Mac Mini Mod projects there's no sense in buying new when I'm just going to tear it apart. So far, so good - I would buy refurbished again!

My macbook is a refurb that I bought right after Christmas. It is flawless. I wouldnt have known it was refurb if the box hadn't said it all over it......

It's a core duo rather than core 2 but it screams! I saved almost $400 over the cost of a new one.

Heck yeah i'd do it again!!!

Thanks for all the feedback! I purchased my Refurbished MacBook yesterday morning. Thank you all for posting thus far, it helped make my decision easier. I will reply and put my thoughts in when I get mine. I'm trying not to think about it right now, just makes waiting harder. :bomb:

Congrats on the refurb. Mine is also a refurb and is awesome. I took mine into the Genius bar a few days ago due to a superdrive problem though. There was a disk stuck in it. Turned out it wasn't my mac that was the problem, but the disk I had put was cracked and had gotten jammed. Luckily Apple geniuses got it out. When I told the guy there it was a refurb, he said "no its not" I said yes it is. He had run the serial number for applecare and told me that on refurbs, they replace the serial number with a new "refurb" serial number. Apple NEVER sells the same serial twice. He told me that mine had the original serial number and that it wasn't a refurb, but a "leftover" from the switch to core "2" duo from core duo. Turns out that there are quite a few being sold as refurbs that are actually new ones, maybe you got one too jenic. I asked and there is no way to "request a leftover" when oredring. Sometimes, you just get lucky. Good luck with your book. If you love it even half as much as I love mine you will be in heaven!

if it mechanically works, who cares about blemishes, especially with laptops.

i bought new and it took like a month for it to look weathered and worn. cats jump off it and leave marks on the lid, the bottom wears, knicks here, knicks there...

i'm going to buy another MacBook (black this time) and an iMac refurbed cuz i like saving $$$

Well I just ordered a MacBook Pro refurb yesterday, so we'll see how it goes. I'm counting the days till it arrives
This is my first major step to moving away from Windows as this laptop will be replacing my very old desktop and my 3 year old Dell Laptop as my primary PC.