The whole concept of buying a machine just for a muck about and then returning it is morally wrong in my books. The number of people who do this on this site blows me away. If you want it, buy it, otherwise you're just making it worse for everybody else. No wonder times are out to 4-5 weeks. Return it if you got problems, that's fine, but everything else is just selfish.
Meh. I test drove the first gen Macbook 12" for a month before taking it back right before the return window closed at Best Buy. I really wanted to like it, because I travel half of the year and being able to shrink one more aspect of my carryon would have been a boon for me. But at the end of 30 days I just couldn't deal with a single USB port that also served as the only charging port, and I noticed the processor chugging way too hard on relatively mundane tasks to not have concerns regarding the robustness of that over the 4-5 years I generally hold onto a computer before upgrading.
When I took it back it was restored to factory with a fresh OS install, the unit itself was wiped down before being returned and in the original packaging, looking flawless. The agent who processed the return asked if I'd even used the thing.
At the end of the day, Apple and third party retailers don't lose a dime on resale of open box items. Apple in particular has set the gold standard for the Refurb market.
As to your notion that returning an item that starts at around a thousand dollars if it doesn't complete fit your needs and expectations is somehow selfish, well I don't even know what to say to that. Do you honestly think any retailer, Apple included, puts anything other than their bottom line at the very top of their list of priorities each day and every transaction? We don't owe Apple a darn thing, period.
