Did you buy a refurbished computer?

[SteveC]

I've been considering the idea of buying a Mac mini or eMac as a third computer, and someone told me I can get a refurbished eMac G4 1.25 for $649 through Apple.

I asked for the definition of a refurb machine and found out it can include a machine that has been returned to Apple from a customer.

That leads me to ask: How many of you have bought, or currently own, a refurbished Mac? Did it arrive in good condition when you got it? I want to make sure I wouldn't order a machine that would come in scratched, damaged, or otherwise mistreated.

$150 is a nice savings, but not at the expense of quality.

Please share your experience. :)

[mactropy]

I bought a refurb iBook and a refurb 3G 15 GB iPod. Both of them were in perfect cosmetic quality. No scratches, no nothing. The iBook had the logic board issue but Apple took care of it.
I would buy refurb again.

[stubeeef]

Yes, bought my dual 450G4 jan 2001-got it refurb then bought the 3 yr protection. ended up cheaper than the non-refurb with original warr.

It hasn't missed a tick since the day I plugged it in.

I recommned refurb with apple care, you get 3 years of warranty!

Good luck, remember lots of people get non-refurbs with problems too!

[pdpfilms]

my current dp 2 ghz g5 is a refurb, as is my mother's 1.25ghz imac. Both work superbly, i would highly recommend taking advantage of the discount.

[HiRez]

That leads me to ask: How many of you have bought, or currently own, a refurbished Mac? Did it arrive in good condition when you got it? I want to make sure I wouldn't order a machine that would come in scratched, damaged, or otherwise mistreated.I've had my PowerMac dual 2.0 G5 for a few months now and it's cosmetically and operationally perfect, no complaints at all. Even came with Panther and iLife '04. Of course your experience isn't guaranteed to be perfect, but from my perspective it's been all positive.

[virividox]

apple has a great refurb policy i would go for it, if your nto happy u can always return it anyway and they will replace it with a unit that makes you happy (of course only i fthere are real problems, but minute cosmetic ones i doubt)

[Jigglelicious]

Refurb eMac here, purchased back in March 2004. Works perfectly, even after all the "tinkering" that i've subjected it to :)

About the only thing that would have led me to believe that it was not a new machine was some residue from tape that was across the face of the eMac. But it quickly wiped off, and looks perfect.

[SteveC]

Excellent. Thanks for all the helpful posts so far. :)

I'm looking at a refurb eMac 1.25 for $629 right now. Great price... but could it be like 9 months old? Cuz that model came out 200+ days ago.

One more question: There's no doubt the eMac line will be updated soon, either with speedbumps or a price drop. Do you think we might see a $699 NEW eMac soon? If so, I'm wondering if I'm better to buy it new to get iLife '05 along with it.

[agentphish]

for the price you're looking at, why not a new mac mini?

[blackfox]

This is, of course, jumping the gun, but I wonder about the pricing of refurbished MiniMacs in the future. Even cheaper than $499...$399?...$449?...could be an even better deal for an eagle-eyed shopper.

[SteveC]

for the price you're looking at, why not a new mac mini?
The RAM issue. :( I'd have to go with 512 (too little) or 1 GB (too much $).
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=104455

[Sabbath]

Excellent. Thanks for all the helpful posts so far. :)

I'm looking at a refurb eMac 1.25 for $629 right now. Great price... but could it be like 9 months old? Cuz that model came out 200+ days ago.

One more question: There's no doubt the eMac line will be updated soon, either with speedbumps or a price drop. Do you think we might see a $699 NEW eMac soon? If so, I'm wondering if I'm better to buy it new to get iLife '05 along with it.

I would definitely recommend the refurbs as I said in your other thread. I would expect you to get iLife '05 with a refurb or I would at least expect Apple to give it to you if ask before you order. I bought a rev. b 12" PB that had Panther disks included in the box, even though it shipped with Jaguar initially. I wouldn't worry about the computer being so old it still has the same warranty and will probably look brand new.

I expect the eMac will receive a little boost soon (especially with their being a 1.42GHz mac mini), maybe it will happen when the PBs are updated. So the price may drop even more for that particular computer. It just depends if you are willing to wait really.

[mkaake]

refurb emac.

was delivered in 2 days. see if you can do that new :)

it's perfect. not a single problem with it at all. upon taking it out of the box, you would never know that it had even been touched before. and coming with all software completely up to date is nice too...

[flyfish29]

I bought iMac flatscreen refurb. Had a bad one at first that didn't get refurb. but apple luckily replaced it with another one. I love it and saved $500 at the time.

I personally think the eMac is done very soon. I think the minimac will replace it for a bunch of reasons. It is as fast, smaller and it provides school with the ability to opt for a flatscreen or CRt as well as using existing screens which schools often have on hand. Their screens usually don't go, it is the cpu's. I predict in four months there will be no eMac as it is designed for Edu and the minimac fits this niche much better than the emac. I know personally I am going to try to covert my entire school which I am principal of with all minimacs and use the existing CRT monitors and keyboard and mouse. If I can do it for at lest $500 a pop or less in bulk then I am probably in business! this IS the real reason they made the minimac (I know, it is Mac mini- but miniMac just rolls off the tongue better) if you ask me.


This shoudl be the product that defines a turning point in Apple and market share!

[danmoo]

Are you allowed to get refurbished computers BTO?

I want to get a Powermac G5 with additional RAM and maybe Bluetooth module. I think I read somewhere that you can't install bluetooth yourself? Is that true?
Thanks

[topgunn]

Anytime a computer leaves Apple's docks and later returns, it can no longer be sold as new. Even if the customer refused the shipment and it goes straight back to Apple, it has to be resold as a refurbished computer. Most, I believe, are computers people have sent back after they have changed their mind about what they are looking for in a computer. The nice thing about refurbs is that each one is throughly checked. That is something that cannot be said of new computers where spot checks are the norm.

In the past, I have purchased a 1.6GHz PowerMac G5, 1GHz eMac, 1.25GHz eMac, and most recently a 1.6GHz iMac G5, all refurbished. I have not a single problem with any of them. In fact the PowerMac, which was supposed to ship with 256MB RAM, had 1GB of RAM installed. Curiosity got the best of me so I called Apple to find out how that happened. I was told that when a custom configured Mac is returned, the BTO parts are sometimes left in place and then resold with the refurb. So, there appears to be a small chance that you will get more than you bargained for.

If I am in the market for a new computer, the first place I look is Apple's list of available refurbished computers. And like someone said before, it arrives so much faster since it is shipped from a domestic warehouse as opposed to an oversees location. The only downside I see to buying refurbished is the inability to build-to-order. But, I usually do all of my upgrades myself because I can use the parts I have hand picked.

[phreakout13]

I just got a refurbed Powerbook. I ended up saving like, $400, and it's like new. If they have the one you want in stock as a refurbed computer, you'd have no reason not to get it.