Lower prices on the UK Refurb store compared with yesterday

[nomad01]

As the machine got hotter the more it warped!

That's scary! I thought they'd sorted the warping problem long ago.

The refurb store had sold out of all Powerbooks apart from the 12" the other day. Hopefully when it reopens again... whenever that is... they'll have a slightly replenished inventory. I called Apple to ask if they had any left and he said that on Wednesday they were just "flying off the shelves". Seems odd that they'd been there for so long and suddenly disappeared.

My PowerMac seems okay so far. The mouse that came with it was well used and a scratched though and it seems there was a loose connection in the lead. So they're sending a replacement. No big deal. Would have though they'd have replaced the mouse with a new one as the keyboard was brand new. Unless they no longer have any stocks of the mouse?

Anyway, fingers crossed that you get your PB sorted.

 

[NATO]

My keyboard and mouse were new, as was everything else by the looks of things except for the Power Mac itself, which was obviously Refurb.

One thing however which I wanted to check with anyone who's recently purchased a Refurb Power Mac is whether your system makes a high-frequency 'clicky' sound whenever anything graphics-intensive is being done. Best way to check this is to run the RSS Screensaver and listen, its fairly obvious in a quiet-ish room. I did a lot of reading about and found that by installing the CHUD Developer tools from the install disc, you can disable CPU 'Napping' which got rid of that issue immediately. Seems to be a hardware/software thing, but seems well known on all the forums etc. I'm certainly not unhappy with my machine, just wanted to see if any other people's Power Macs do the same thing

 

[nomad01]

My keyboard and mouse were new, as was everything else by the looks of things except for the Power Mac itself, which was obviously Refurb.

That's interesting. My keyboard was new but the mouse was very obviously used and wasn't even bagged. The install disks were opened too but the disks themselves look fine.

Maybe it depends what state the refurbs come back in. If the accessories are a mess, perhaps it's up to the individual "refurber" whether they replace things.

Anyway, I did a fresh install from the disks and so I know they work. I already had a keyboard so I've flogged the new one on eBay and I should be getting a new mouse shortly!

Although they did take my credit card number off me so they might just say the wear and tear was caused by me in the space of one day and charge me for it!

I've not noticed a chirping noise yet and I do use the RSS screensaver but the Powermac isn't that close to me at the moment and a noisy Dell machine is so I'll have a listen when I get home.

 

[markoibook]

My keyboard and mouse were new, as was everything else by the looks of things except for the Power Mac itself, which was obviously Refurb.

One thing however which I wanted to check with anyone who's recently purchased a Refurb Power Mac is whether your system makes a high-frequency 'clicky' sound whenever anything graphics-intensive is being done. Best way to check this is to run the RSS Screensaver and listen, its fairly obvious in a quiet-ish room. I did a lot of reading about and found that by installing the CHUD Developer tools from the install disc, you can disable CPU 'Napping' which got rid of that issue immediately. Seems to be a hardware/software thing, but seems well known on all the forums etc. I'm certainly not unhappy with my machine, just wanted to see if any other people's Power Macs do the same thing

yeah, same here - though I believe it is a very common problem. I haven't tried unchecking NAP yet, but I will - though I would like to know why Apple don't recommend it. Of interest is that it also seems to be an issue that occured from Tiger onwards.

 

[drlunanerd]

yeah, same here - though I believe it is a very common problem. I haven't tried unchecking NAP yet, but I will - though I would like to know why Apple don't recommend it. Of interest is that it also seems to be an issue that occured from Tiger onwards.

It's not a problem that's arisen since Tiger; it's been there from the start of the PM G5s. I believe Apple don't recommend using nap because it raises the operating temperature of the CPUs. They will replace noisy power supplies for the older revision models, but not the later ones as they're supposed to be quieter by design.

 

[NATO]

I've got NAP disabled and I intend to keep it that way. The lack of high-frequency sound is a welcome relief!

I spoke to Apple last night and the guy was totally fine with me leaving NAP off 24/7. He even spoke to his supervisor who is more knowledgeable about Power Macs and he was fine also. I even gave them a web address of a page listing the problem and the fix etc, and he was reading through it and again had no problem.

The temperature of the CPUs does increase by about 10 degrees (oC), but even under full load, the temperature doesn't increase much, if any about that, and Apple have said 63-65 degrees is fine.

 

[Whyapple]

As the machine got hotter the more it warped!

What is even more warped is the tech support guy asked me to put credit cards under the warped edge (to check the stabilty of the machine & possibly my finances). I got 3 cards under one edge to stabilise it.

3 hours on the phone i finally got a return number (they really were hesitant to return this) - I have to return & reorder except where's the refurb store - Is it October 3rd already? Good god do apple know their arse from their ear these days??!! Advertise One thing - do another - great strategy...


.... anyway it's being picked up today by TNT .......
Overall this is my best Apple purchase over the years - works straight out of the box (ie no 3rd party ram etc) - All for £900!!

2.
If anyone is in the market for a Powerbook then I can thoroughly recommend considering the Refurb store (+ Egg card).

Is this one of the 2 new PB's you kept from the refurb store Alexei? Many sympathies, so where do you stand now as to getting a replacement as the Refurb store temporarily (at least) has no more 15" PB's on offer?

Are you still recommending point 2 as being a good move in the light of your experiences so far?

 

[alexeismertin]

New is the way forward

The warped PB is the second machine (with Egg discount), the first machine was collected by the same TNT courier when the second machine was delivered.

Apple said I had 2 options - keep it warped or return & re-order. I returned it but now the Apple Refurb store is out of stock - not a problem though.

I plan on getting a new PB when a new one is released, which I think is coming in the very near future (within a month). I was reading Hardmac & now Appleinsider & they mentioned low stocks & upcoming hardware so I thought I would investigate this a bit.

Online at John Lewis, Dabs & PC World you will be hard pushed to find one in stock, I am in Bristol this weekend so popped into the main Apple retailer (western computers) situated just as you come out of the train station - they haven't seen a powerbook in weeks!! I texted a friend working for PC World and they have nothing in stock at their branch and nothing in any of the other Bristol branches. I checked Pricerunner and found the odd retailer with a 17" or 12". In other words STOCKS ARE LOOOWWWW..

Another thing, with the Egg card you have a limit of £200 worth of discount, i don't know whether the refund would reset that limit for me or whether i will be over it. So I got my sister to apply for an Egg card just to be on the safe side.
I secretly think the PB prices will go down by £100 (as did the refurb prices but only showed 20% discount - if you work in reverse the base 15" PB would have to be approx £1250 to begin with to allow a 20% discount to give a final price of £1003) but even if they don't I will get the Egg discount & just buy new.

It doesn't matter whether you buy regular, education or refurb it still shows as 'Apple Computer INTL Internet' on your credit card statement. Thats how my education store discount purchases appear & thats how my refurb store purchase appeared. Egg will just give you that 10% on top of the education discount.

I am not expecting any ground breaking upgrades just the next processor up (1.5>1.67 / 1.67>1.8), possibly 128mb graphics as standard & 20gb on the hard drive. I can accept a slightly faster PB for the extra money (compared with the refurb).

To summarise, there is no such thing as an Apple bargain - just take advantage of the Egg card (edu discount if applicable) & any other e-coupon apple send you & buy NEW.

PS. make sure you apply for the 'Egg Money' card and NOT the 'Egg' card.

 

[drlunanerd]

Another thing, with the Egg card you have a limit of £200 worth of discount, i don't know whether the refund would reset that limit for me or whether i will be over it. So I got my sister to apply for an Egg card just to be on the safe side.

It doesn't matter whether you buy regular, education or refurb it still shows as 'Apple Computer INTL Internet' on your credit card statement. Thats how my education store discount purchases appear & thats how my refurb store purchase appeared. Egg will just give you that 10% on top of the education discount.

To summarise, there is no such thing as an Apple bargain - just take advantage of the Egg card (edu discount if applicable) & any other e-coupon apple send you & buy NEW.

Thanks for the update alexei. I can confirm that the Egg instant cashback applies whether you order via the Egg web link or not, so that's good.

However just to correct you, the instant cashback has no maximum limit. Only the normal 1% cashback has the £200 annual limit.

Buying refurb comes with a risk that you won't get a pristine fault-free item, just as when buying new. However in my experience those that say in buying refurb you're less likely to have problems are wrong. However it's still worth a try in my opinion - if you subsequently have grounds to reject the item then Apple will refund you without too much hassle.

Got a Power Mac winging its way to me at the moment. I've waited a long time to get one at what I think is a decent price, so am hoping very much there are no problems with it. As I mentioned before I bought a refurb 2.5GHz machine earlier in the year and was disappointed. Please Apple no encores this time!

 

[nomad01]

Got a Power Mac winging its way to me at the moment. I've waited a long time to get one at what I think is a decent price, so am hoping very much there are no problems with it. As I mentioned before I bought a refurb 2.5GHz machine earlier in the year and was disappointed. Please Apple no encores this time!

Well my refurb Power Mac has been up and runnning for a few days and unless anything goes terribly wrong, I'm very happy. I was prepared to buy new but knowing that I'll probably want to get in on the Intel machines in the not too distant future, the refurb price made more sense.

I'm very happy. I agree though, you're not any more or less likely to get a duff machine through the Refurb store. Everything I seem to buy new has problems so I come to expect it but so far so good with this. In fact, my Apple purchases on the whole have been good over the years.

 

[bollard]

Very sorry to hear of your Powerbook problems alexei. I've just got my refund on my Egg account from my first returned refurb PB. Egg also took back my first cashback payment which is far too efficient of them !!!
As for my refurb,so far I'm very happy with it. Not that I would notice with my computing needs but my girlfriend was very happy with the extra 1.5gb of memory. Also it looks like there is Microsoft office installed on there which again is a nice bonus. So to sum up I would definately go with the refurb option again. The lower price for a current machine ( for a little longer maybe ) , the Egg discount and the fact that you can get lucky with Extras that have been installed previously, means that you can get a great computer at a great price. If it hadn't been for the discount I would probably have gone for an iBook as I wasn't prepared to stretch to £1,575 for a new model Powerbook.

 

[Whyapple]

Very sorry to hear of your Powerbook problems alexei. I've just got my refund on my Egg account from my first returned refurb PB. Egg also took back my first cashback payment which is far too efficient of them !!!
As for my refurb,so far I'm very happy with it. Not that I would notice with my computing needs but my girlfriend was very happy with the extra 1.5gb of memory. Also it looks like there is Microsoft office installed on there which again is a nice bonus. So to sum up I would definately go with the refurb option again. The lower price for a current machine ( for a little longer maybe ) , the Egg discount and the fact that you can get lucky with Extras that have been installed previously, means that you can get a great computer at a great price. If it hadn't been for the discount I would probably have gone for an iBook as I wasn't prepared to stretch to £1,575 for a new model Powerbook.

Thankyou Bollard, that's very useful info after Alexei's bad experience, reassuring. Now all we need is for more 15" PB's to appear in the Refurb store?? Your G/F's machine sounds fab value!!

 

[jeraiya]

I know this is a really old thread but if alexeismertin could get in touch with me, my email is emir_shelesh@yahoo.co.uk, i'd be really greatful.

I need some help with merging my shopping cart over from the apple education site with the 10% Egg promotional apple store.

If anyone else can help with doing that i'd also be very greatful.

cheers

 

[drlunanerd]

I know this is a really old thread but if alexeismertin could get in touch with me, my email is emir_shelesh@yahoo.co.uk, i'd be really greatful.

I need some help with merging my shopping cart over from the apple education site with the 10% Egg promotional apple store.

If anyone else can help with doing that i'd also be very greatful.

cheers

You don't need to use the Egg link - this has been confirmed in this thread. Just order using your Egg Money card. Also, check out the Apple promo codes sticky thread for more savings...

 

[jeraiya]

Thanks so much for the info. That's saved me alot of hassel

will check out the sticky thanks.

 

[al3000]

Does the egg offer only apply to the apple store online?

 

[drlunanerd]

Does the egg offer only apply to the apple store online?

No, phone orders too - it says so on the Egg page:

 

[im_to_hyper]

Dual 2.0 PowerMac showing up as £979! Good god that's a good saving.

Wow! The same refurb from the US store is $1799... which today is £1025.28

 

[al3000]

Does anyone know if it is possible to get the egg card discount with student discount?

 

[drlunanerd]

Does anyone know if it is possible to get the egg card discount with student discount?

Yes you can, this has been confirmed in this thread a few times already...

 

[DJ1UK]

How can I get the Egg cashback with the student discount? I take it, its using the Egg Money card.

In Eggs Terms and Conditions it says links on their site must be used to get the cashback. Clicking the link leads you to the apple store site, but there is no option to then go the educational prices?!?

Anyone done this already who can talk me through it?

Cheers

DJ

 

[sreedy]

In Eggs Terms and Conditions it says links on their site must be used to get the cashback. Clicking the link leads you to the apple store site, but there is no option to then go the educational prices?!?

In previous threads on the forum people have said that just buying from Apple online is enough to get the cash back, there is no need to follow the links. This is only what I have previously read.......