Best place to buy a mac?

[WhiteNoiseMaker]

I only plan on ever buying them directly from Apple. It's the only place you can customize them, and other companies make you pay more in order to earn a profit.

I would buy from John Lewis, you'll get a 2 year guarantee as standard (apple charge extra for 3 years Apple Care). If you want to customize it by upgrading the memory or hard drive, it is much cheaper to do it yourself. Apples prices for memory upgrades are a joke.

 

[iRock]

For anyone in Ireland (if there is anyone).... the best place to buy at the moment is 3G stores.

They have limited stock of the iMac 17" 1.83Ghz C2D model for 889Euro
O2 Stores have the same model for 919euro (thats 100euro off the regular price), plus a free Shuffle (89euro usually).

 

[cxjr25]

if you're buying a mac book, i would avoid a refurb, but that's just my opinion. apple's prices tend to be pretty even across the board, but local stores tend to have deals like someone mentioned.

a year or two ago, if you bought an ibook/mac book, you got a free ipod, this year it was a printer....i'm not sure if it's the same promotion across the country, but it was the same within orange county, ca.

with apple, the price equates quality so don't think it's a waste of money if you can't find a deal. if you can wait until mac world (i think in januar) you can probabl get a decent deal as the company will try and liquidate older products with massive price breaks or you can pick up something cooler at mac world.

macmall.com has a few deals, but if you're ansy to get it, and refurbs bother you, get a new one from the apple store or online, the transaction is smooth, shipping is fast, pick up the warranty and you wont have to worry about a computer for the next 3-4 years unless you NEED to upgrade.

and that's my two cents

I would disagree with this user. I purchased a refurb. Macbook and have had absolutely no problems (except deciding what to do with the money i saved). Right now you can find the 2nd generations for very cheap. You get the same exact warranty as buying a new one...

 

[Willem]

I always buy through the Apple store online or the actual Apple store we have in this area. I like buying from a place where I can ask questions and get intelligent answers.

 

[Ryan13]

Just go to the apple store.

 

[Abra]

If you're in NY area walk into Tekserve - altough their prices are rather usual and the facility lacks that shine and schik of your local Apple Store... but you get premium service from REAL experts in the field of Macs, not just sales people. If you buy a computer from them, they take all the resposibilty and would fix it in house if something happens. No need to ship to Apple and wait for a week.

I just cannot recommend them enough. I'm sure anyone who went there has only good words to say.