Bought a 27" iMac Refurb, nothing but issues

[Shark5150]

Florida has really low/no state income tax though right? How do they compensate?

No state or local income taxes. Tourism funds most things.

 

[Lankyman]

As far as I'm concerned Apple has ruled itself out of my future buying options, refurb or new in the UK. They are just too expensive period. You can blame it on the value of the pound, Apple's greed or the phases of the moon, it really doesn't matter.

For the average user, having Windows 10 or MacOS really makes no difference. When you can now purchase a really good PC for less than two thirds of what Apple are offering, I'm afraid fashion or prettiness no longer applies, especially for what is in effect old tech.

 

[kazmac]

OP it's generally accepted that you won't get your shipping costs back; however you could email Tim Cook politely and perhaps have a chance of getting your shipping costs refunded as well.

I know many folks champion refurbs, but I had similar problems with the refurb iMacs I purchased. I will give a thumbs up to B&H Photo though. I purchased a new 2013 27" iMac (built in 2015) almost a year ago from them. Runs like a champ. Stock configurations have been perfect for me for these last two iMacs.

 

[blueeggs]

I have purchased two refurbished Macs and never had a problem with either. I took the plunge because of the positive things most folks say about buying refurbs. However, as your case indicates, they are not a sure thing just like you can get a defective unit when purchasing new.

I purchased a refurbished new mac pro late 2013 shortly after it was released and i had gpu issues from day one. Took it back to my local apple store and paid the difference for a new unit and have had zero issues with it. But i do hear a lot of good things about the apple refurbs.

 

[dogslobber]

I've bought a bunch of Apple Macs as refurbs now and not had any problems. I usually do the ship to store for free so that I can pick it up in a tax free state nearby. It takes a week to get there but paying for shipping doesn't make any sense to me given I can wait a week for delivery. Time Machine is a thing I simply avoid as I use CCC for machine backups.
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As far as I'm concerned Apple has ruled itself out of my future buying options, refurb or new in the UK. They are just too expensive period. You can blame it on the value of the pound, Apple's greed or the phases of the moon, it really doesn't matter.

For the average user, having Windows 10 or MacOS really makes no difference. When you can now purchase a really good PC for less than two thirds of what Apple are offering, I'm afraid fashion or prettiness no longer applies, especially for what is in effect old tech.

Apple computers were always expensive in England so much so I can't really understand why people would waste their money. Then you have brexit which caused the pound to plunge relative to the USD. Suddenly Apple Macs are much cheaper to buy in England compared to everywhere else so that can't go on for anything more than a short period. There is no greed from Apple here as the English pound is simply devalued against the USD. Your prices must rise to restore parity but ultimately it's the fault for those who voted for brexit, not Apple.

 

[TinHead88]

hmm... are you sure about that. Then please explain to me why brand new Macs give you the option to restore from time machine backup. There can't be a backup from that machine, it's brand new

Do they give you the option to restore from a time machine backup or to migrate your data from a time machine backup?
What happens when your old TM backup is from a machine running an OS that is not even supported on the new machine? I'm guessing (I have not done this in quite a while as I often like to start with a clean OS and migrate data) it will either say that the restore is not possible or it will ask if you want to do a migration instead.

In any case, in some circumstance you may get away with a complete restore from one machine to another, but it certainly invites the possibility of issues. I stand by my statement that TM backups are meant to be restored only to the original machine they came from. Otherwise just use the migration service.