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Would you buy a refurbished mac?

C

cmm

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 30, 2006
842
36
NYC
Would you? Personally, all my Macs have been refurbed (iMac G5, iPod), and I love them. Cheaper price, good warranty, and I got lucky on my iMac (they gave me extra ram and a much bigger HDD).

What do you think? I'm thinking about getting a MBP or MB in January refurbed.
 
Refurb

I purchased a 14" iBook for my Brother In Law as a wedding gift as a refurb and saved several hundred dollars on it. It took him two weeks to even find a scratch on it, and it's been flawless for him ever since.

I'd recommend them.

For myself, I get an employee discount on new, but not used, so buying new actually works out to be cheaper in some cases than new.
 
Cool! I am glad you had a positive experience with the laptops!
 
cmm said:
What do you think? I'm thinking about getting a MBP or MB in January refurbed.
Click to expand...


January! you plan ahead.

Well I brought Ipods before Refurb ,but they came in a retail box then. Depends on how much you save, since they come in a plain cardboard box now. (i can be wrong, mac mini did)

So if you plan to resell at anytime it might be worth buying one with a company that offers a rebate. Since you will also save tax + rebate it will be close to refurb. You will also get a retail box, which will increase the value of the laptop if you ever have to sell it.
 
My iPod and iMac came in regular boxes. Weird because you say they are in carboard boxes. :S That's a disappointment.
 
Refurbished macs are analogous to used cars. You pay a big premium for a brand new mac. And if you don't mind getting an "almost new" computer, you can save a lot of money.

That being said, there are a lot of people who want specific specs on their new machine, and there are no refurbished units that have the BTO options they want. I bought my powerbook last summer as a refurb and saved over $300 dollars. If you don't mind not getting a fancy box, then the refurbs are a great way to go.
 
Here in the UK, I purchased 2 refurb macs relatively recently (both in proper packaging). A 12" Powerbook and a 14" iBook. Both had substantial savings, when bought together we saved around £650. However initially both were duff. The powerbook did not have tiger installed properly (a situation I was able to resolve myself), the iBook required a return as it was DOA (harddrive failure).

This was not good as it was my mum's new computer, after persauding her for years to get a mac she finally crumbled. Not a great start for it to die within 2 minutes of turning it on.

However when the iBook returned it had 20gb more hardrive (100gb) and 512mb more RAM (1gb) then ordered, so I was well chuffed.

Mum is also thrilled with the mac, cannot recommend enough getting your parents onto OSX, much easier for her to manage than windows.

I would deffo buy refurb again.

I love my 12" Powerbook BTW, which I use everywhere and at home with an external screen (brilliant way to go about things!). My wife now uses my older 17" Powerbook and she loves it too.

Gotta love switching people! We all have .mac family as well, which is proving pretty cool.

Ramble over!
Kev
 
The first Mac I ever bought for myself was a Rev B. Bondi Blue iMac that was a refurb. Worked for me for six years before it died. My current Mini is not a refurb, but I would not hesitate to buy another.
 
Never done it, but definitely would. My current Mac came from eBay so a refurb would be a much better bet. Especially if it was a virtually unused unwanted return. Wouldn't be so keen if it had had problems and been repaired.
 
Jay42 said:
Refurbished macs are analogous to used cars. You pay a big premium for a brand new mac.
Click to expand...
Hm, whenever I've looked, the refurb prices are comparable to the educational discount prices. When I'm no longer eligible to purchase using my education discount (assuming I'll still want Apple hardware), I'll probably go for refurbs.
 
Question.. when you buy a refirb, do they include the latest OS? I too am thinking about picking up a MacBook, or MacBook Pro once Leapord is out, and I was just wondering if I could buy refirb right away with Leapord, or if I'd have to wait another few months for the Leapord refirbs to come in.
 
I wouldn't...but that's because the prices are the same as the Educational Discount (which you don't get on refurbs...)...so why buy old when I can buy new?
 
I bought an Intel iMac 2.0 for my Dad and it came with a one gig stick already inside. We had already ordered another one gig stick before it arrived, but having two gigs right from the start was a real plus. I was pretty happy.
 
thejadedmonkey said:
Question.. when you buy a refirb, do they include the latest OS? I too am thinking about picking up a MacBook, or MacBook Pro once Leapord is out, and I was just wondering if I could buy refirb right away with Leapord, or if I'd have to wait another few months for the Leapord refirbs to come in.
Click to expand...

I'm curious about this too...are refurbs eligible for the Up-to-Date program?
 
I have a friend who used to work for Apple, and he revealed to me some pretty horrible refub practices. Some people get lucky (they get a machine someone returned for no reason) some get shafted. The people apple uses to refurb merely format the system, and see if the HD will mount. Nothing more.

I would advise against getting a refurbed mac, mostly because you can get them nearly as cheap thru amazon.
 
I would if Amazon didn't have such a good deal with the rebates as my iMac ended up being cheaper than using the EDU discount or waiting for a refurb. Still, I would look at Amazon first even if it was a $25 difference more just because it comes new. Now if you need it BTO then both Amazon nor refurb will help unless the refurb store has something close to what you want and you can live with that.
 
I'd do it in a second. For example, a stock MBP costs 1800 for me. I can get it for 3000 cheaper refurb, with just a minor speed decrease. I can save almost $20 by buying a refurb shuffle 512MB instead of the regular. I can get older ipod models which are harder to find for great discounts.
 
plutnicki said:
For myself, I get an employee discount on new, but not used, so buying new actually works out to be cheaper in some cases than new.
Click to expand...

you dont get employee discount on used. a friend of mine is an apple employee and he was able to get a reduced friends/family discount on refurb of 8%. so i was able to get a 20" refurb imac for $1380 after 5% GA tax which was only $20 more than the retail 17" imac. was a no brainer for me.

i will add applecare with the same discount and feel pretty comfortable with the product/price.
 
My next Mac might very well be refurbished. If I can get a 20" iMac from the Apple Refurb store, I'll jump on it. You're right. Cheaper price. Great warranty. Apple certification. And the possibility of the "magic upgrade". :)
 
Some of Apple's refurbs really aren't any better than you can get with the Edu discount or from Amazon. Others, on occasion, can be a REALLY good buy if you don't mind previous-gen closeout hardware (note that Apple sells both "refurbished" hardware and "old new" stuff when they've changed models--I believe it specifices which on the site).

I've helped three people buy refurbs from Apple so far, and all were good buys and solid machines. In one case a 12" PB (which cost about as much as a comperable iBook thanks to the refurb) had the optical drive die after a bit, but it was covered under warranty so there was really no issue.

The way I look at it is even if Apple were to ship you a computer that fell apart a week after you got it, you're going to get whatever's wrong replaced under warranty anyway (and probably with new parts), so you're really only out time and hassle. Sometimes worth it to save money, and again the refurbs I've had experience with were largely solid anyway.
 
I've bought, in my life, 4 refurbished or used Macs and three brand new ones. No major problems with any of them (at least that wasn't my fault ;) ).
 
I would always buy new if it was for me, because I just need to know that it's brand new and mine. I don't like knowing it was used by someone else.

If I were buying as a gift for someone else, I would look at refurbished to save money. Call me selfish. :p
 
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