Could it get any worse,

Hazzastar · Jun 21, 2008

I recently bought a Macbook off ebay for £400.

I was really pleased that i got it for this, it wasnt the highest spec but it was what i needed. So anyway, i waited for weeks and it still didnt come, i emailed the seller numerous times and got no reply. So eventually we reported it too paypal. Turns out the sellers done a runner with the money. Even though we payed via paypal we only got £150 back.

Im 15 years old, i can't find a job because im too young and it took me 1 year, 4 months, 2 weeks and 3 days exactlet to make that amount of money.

Now im ticked off and ive been put off buying a mac altogether.

Any ideas on what to spend my crappy £150 on?

iMac-Knight · Jun 21, 2008

Mac wasn't the problem. Ebay has those that scam people. Don't let that detour you from getting a mac. You can look at a reseller for a used one. Paypal use in the sell was suppose to protect you. They usually don't let go of the money until the shipment has been confirmed.

calenerd · Jun 21, 2008

Yea, keep saving and hang in there. Get a lil more money and possibly get a used or refurbished mac. Like what iMac-Knight said, don't let that detour you from getting a mac. Sorry to hear bout your case though.

krisshayes · Jun 21, 2008

I was looking to buy off eBay a few months back, but luckily a friend from my dad's work place had this Black MacBook I'm on at the moment going.

It is annoying, and truly heartbreaking when something like this happens to a new Mac owner, however, as the other guys have said, keep saving up, the Mac is worth every effort.

The Vindicat3d · Jun 21, 2008

Save your money man.

schweb · Jun 21, 2008

Hazzastar said:
and ive been put off buying a mac altogether.

I feel bad for what happened, but to be honest, that's a completely ridiculous reason not to want to buy a Mac any longer.

Hazzastar · Jun 21, 2008

schweb said:
I feel bad for what happened, but to be honest, that's a completely ridiculous reason not to want to buy a Mac any longer.

Its not just that, its the fact to buy a mac i'd have to save up for another year at least, were as i could just save for a couple of months and get a normal notebook.

krisshayes · Jun 21, 2008

Hazzastar said:
Its not just that, its the fact to buy a mac i'd have to save up for another year at least, were as i could just save for a couple of months and get a normal notebook.

But a Mac isn't just any old Notebook. If you brought something Windows based, in that year of owning it, you are sure to have 16billion viruses, 545billion bits of spyware and whatever else you would get these days from surfing the web. Needless to say it would become slow, unreliable and just generally junk.

Hazzastar · Jun 21, 2008

krisshayes said:
But a Mac isn't just any old Notebook. If you brought something Windows based, in that year of owning it, you are sure to have 16billion viruses, 545billion bits of spyware and whatever else you would get these days from surfing the web. Needless to say it would become slow, unreliable and just generally junk.

maybe so but i need something quick.

The Vindicat3d · Jun 21, 2008

Let's stop pushing him towards a Mac and pushing bias upon him, he just had something horrible happen to him let him be.

fleurya · Jun 21, 2008

I can't believe they only paid you 150 back. I thought Paypal would completely reimburse for fraud cases like this.

hugtheslug · Jun 21, 2008

That's bad, I don't know why PayPal sometimes only give protection up to £150 in some cases and £500 in others.

I would buy a laptop and put up with Windows for a while (how about installing Linux as a dual boot?), just so you can get something to use.

Alternatively, you can get an iBook G3 for about that much - I'm on a 900mhz one at the moment and it's great for almost everything - 600mhz or faster will be fine (the 500 is a bit slow these days, my wife had one and we've just changed to a faster machine).

Whatever you buy, I would definitely wait until a suitable laptop comes up within collection distance, then you can see it working, pay and walk away with it without that long wait.

Cheers

Hugh

Hazzastar · Jun 21, 2008

The Vindicat3d said:
Let's stop pushing him towards a Mac and pushing bias upon him, he just had something horrible happen to him let him be.

Haha cheers, but im a she so yeh...

Hazzastar · Jun 21, 2008

hugtheslug said:
That's bad, I don't know why PayPal sometimes only give protection up to £150 in some cases and £500 in others.

I would buy a laptop and put up with Windows for a while (how about installing Linux as a dual boot?), just so you can get something to use.

Alternatively, you can get an iBook G3 for about that much - I'm on a 900mhz one at the moment and it's great for almost everything - 600mhz or faster will be fine (the 500 is a bit slow these days, my wife had one and we've just changed to a faster machine).

Whatever you buy, I would definitely wait until a suitable laptop comes up within collection distance, then you can see it working, pay and walk away with it without that long wait.

Cheers

Hugh

Thats some good advice. I've actually just found a ibook G4 i can afford.
What you think of the specs?

800mhz
30 Gb Hard Drive
384 mb Ram

Running tiger. With ilife + microsoft office for £180. And i've checked there feedback there a powerseller so im pretty confident.

Oh and i managed too get £30 outta my uni fund, after a load of persuading to the parents.

Hannah

Derek McNelly · Jun 21, 2008

Hazzastar said:
Thats some good advice. I've actually just found a ibook G4 i can afford.
What you think of the specs?

800mhz
30 Gb Hard Drive
384 mb Ram

Running tiger. With ilife + microsoft office for £180. And i've checked there feedback there a powerseller so im pretty confident.

Oh and i managed too get £30 outta my uni fund, after a load of persuading to the parents.

Hannah

That's actually not too bad. It's not the most modern machine in the world, but it's definitely not a bad machine, and, if I converted £ to $ right (£1 being worth about $15,000,000 US dollars

) that's somewhere in the neighborhood of $450 US, which for that computer is quite good.

A good deal, indeed. It'll do pretty much everything you want it to do.

hugtheslug · Jun 21, 2008

Can't see it on E Bay, the price seems too good to be true if it's Buy it Now, I would do a search for iBook G4 800mhz and compare.

They seem to be going for about £300, except for the one at £169.95 which has possible damaged graphics and may not last too long.

I bought mine from the States at much less than you can get them in the UK, even shipping was not much more (so many sellers here try to make you pay £20 to post a laptop and pocket the difference), but you have to be prepared to pay Customs duty if caught out. I was lucky, mine got through

Cheers,

Hugh

The Vindicat3d · Jun 21, 2008

Hazzastar said:
Haha cheers, but im a she so yeh...

Ah haha, my apologies.

Hazzastar · Jun 21, 2008

hugtheslug said:
Can't see it on E Bay, the price seems too good to be true if it's Buy it Now, I would do a search for iBook G4 800mhz and compare.

They seem to be going for about £300, except for the one at £169.95 which has possible damaged graphics and may not last too long.

I bought mine from the States at much less than you can get them in the UK, even shipping was not much more (so many sellers here try to make you pay £20 to post a laptop and pocket the difference), but you have to be prepared to pay Customs duty if caught out. I was lucky, mine got through

Cheers,

Hugh

It was actually the one for £169.95.....

Theres also a 550mhz powerbook titanium on for £155 but its it pretty bad shape, works and everything just cosmetic damage. I'll have to see, something else may come up and i can;t be picking and choosing with the budget i have.

hugtheslug · Jun 21, 2008

This one? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Apple-Mac-iBook-G4-800MHz-30GB-OSX-Airport-Ready_W0QQitemZ200233224898QQihZ010QQcategoryZ4606QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Amazingly I actually sold this very person an iBook G3 500mhz last week

He paid straight away and seemed quite pleasant and chatty in his messages, but that's not to say he is a good and honest seller. In his favour all the latest buyer feedback is very good.

I'm not that experienced with Apple hardware, repaired dozens of PC laptops but I'm new to iBooks this year - I would wait and see what the gurus on this forum think about it and the chances of it breaking, then if they think it's OK jump in and Buy it Now. Bear in mind there is no wireless card included if you need one, and the battery is 'untested' which usually means dead.

You don't have to take anyone's advice of course

Cheers

Hugh

Hazzastar · Jun 21, 2008

hugtheslug said:
This one? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Apple-Mac-iBook-G4-800MHz-30GB-OSX-Airport-Ready_W0QQitemZ200233224898QQihZ010QQcategoryZ4606QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Amazingly I actually sold this very person an iBook G3 500mhz last week
He paid straight away and seemed quite pleasant and chatty in his messages, but that's not to say he is a good and honest seller. In his favour all the latest buyer feedback is very good.

I'm not that experienced with Apple hardware, repaired dozens of PC laptops but I'm new to iBooks this year - I would wait and see what the gurus on this forum think about it and the chances of it breaking, then if they think it's OK jump in and Buy it Now. Bear in mind there is no wireless card included if you need one, and the battery is 'untested' which usually means dead.

You don't have to take anyone's advice of course

Cheers

Hugh

Yeh that one, well it says "This model comes with OSX 10.4.11 installed
The iBook is Airport ready and with an Aiport extreme card installed it will happily run wireless internet connectivity" does that not mean it can run wireless outta the box??

And as for the battery i could always buy a new one.