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Apple Certified Refurbished iMac (Aluminum) -- soon?
- Thread starter bitty417
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Yeah i noticed this as well. Been eyeing a new iMac lately. Would be a nice upgrade to my sold Mac mini. 
You'd think that all those people who returned an Alum iMac with a bad display or freezing issue would be fixed than be put up for sale on the refurbished site. Maybe fixing/replacing the lcd panel is too costly...
Fixing the problem (panel or other) is precisely how they would end up in the refurbished section.
Maybe they can't risk selling ALU refurbs yet. Many companies have a strict "once only" policy for refurbs -- the second time it comes back, it goes to the crusher. If so, Apple will wait until they can actually fix the gradient and freezing problems (i.e., the ones AppleCare "never heard of before").
...OTOH, Steve said aluminum and glass are wonderful materials for recyclers,
LK
Between freezing and display issues, it's pretty clear that Apple is seeing significant returns of new iMacs.
I'm betting that some school districts will be getting some great deals on refurbished iMac's in a couple of months.
Why do you say that? Mine works fine, no problems at all.
Perhaps the perception exists that it has problems due to the messages here. I'm willing to bet that there are more happy users of the Alu iMac here, but you just won't see as much message traffic about how great it is.
As has been posted many times, people have a problem, do a little research, and end up here to complain, not to rave about their problem-free Mac. The postings regarding Aluminum imac problem are out of proportion to anything in the last few years. Based on the number of posters who have had their new imacs replaced, this is a return rate that (far) exceeds what is normal for Apple. They can only sell so many refurbished iMac's through retail channels so it's reasonable to conclude that Apple may offer schools or other organizations a good deal on refurbished mac's.
Refurbished iMac 20-inch 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
20-inch glossy widescreen display
1GB memory
320GB hard drive
8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB memory
Built-in iSight Camera
Original price: $1,499.00
Your price: $1,299.00
That's a good deal for the computer. However, I just picked up a 17" iMac Core 2 Duo for $906 (with tax) and feel I just got a kick ass deal. Don't want to put up with potential problems of a new Al iMac, plus 17" is a perfect size for my desk. With the extra money I saved I'm upgrading RAM to 3GB and buying a wireless keyboard and mouse