Buying Refurbished

[Zazoh]

Excuse my ignorance. I see many posts talking about buying refurbished. Are these computers that were returned to Apple for some reason?

Is there really that high of a failure rate? I've been on the PC side since DOS 4.2, but want to make the switch to MAC for many reasons, just curious on where all the refurbs come from?

 

[bizzle]

The quality really varies. Most open-box non-DOA returns probably get turned into refurbished models, so a large chunk of them are most likely brand new internals. They have the same warranty if that means anything to you.

 

[rust.puppet]

The quality really varies. Most open-box non-DOA returns probably get turned into refurbished models, so a large chunk of them are most likely brand new internals. They have the same warranty if that means anything to you.

plus if anything went wrong with a new one in a week because of quality control.... your apple care is going to give you a referb back anyways... so its smarter to buy referb.

 

[TrapOx]

Refurb is a new machine that Apple can't legally sell as new anymore. Either open box returns or repaired after a hardware failure (Even if its the hard drive or a ram stick).

 

[Drudkh]

I just bought a refurbished 24" iMac last week and it looked just like a brand new one. The packaging was very nicely done. The screen looked perfect and no scratches at all. Paying much less for a refurbished iMac was much more worthy for the old hardwares.

 

[NightStorm]

I just bought a refurbished 24" iMac last week and it looked just like a brand new one. The packaging was very nicely done. The screen looked perfect and no scratches at all. Paying much less for a refurbished iMac was much more worthy for the old hardwares.

I echo these statements... just finished unboxing/setting up my new 24" iMac refurb and there wasn't a scratch or any sign that it was ever taken out of the box before. Well worth the savings IMO.

 

[Hrududu]

I've had both a refurbished Mac Mini and MacBook Pro. Both came in excellent brand new condition and have worked great. You get the same warranty with the refurbs, so that should give you peace of mind. I'm a big fan of refurbished Apple products.

 

[Yamcha]

Def go for refurbished, I checked online about this too and tons of people who do buy refurbished have said that its basically brand new, no scratches or anything like that, just like brand new.