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macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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30,848



Over the past three days, numerous MacRumors readers have noted that Apple's online store for refurbished products has been completely empty, with the store pages simply noting "Sorry there are no products available, please check back later."

apple_refurb_store_empty.jpg



The outage affects all Mac, iPad, and iPod models, as well as clearance products, and appears to extend to Apple's online stores for every country in which direct sales are available. Individual pages for refurbished models simply list the products as "out of stock".

The reason for the complete absence of any refurbished products through Apple's online store remains unknown, and it is unclear when that status might change. But with the outage now in its third day, increasing numbers of customers hoping to take advantage of discounted pricing are finding themselves out of luck.

We've contacted Apple to inquire about the status of refurbished products, but have yet to receive a response.

Update: A number of MacRumors readers report being able to see stock in the refurbished store, while others viewing the same pages are seeing no results.

Article Link: Apple's Online Refurb Store Outage Reaches Third Day [Updated]
 

Lebannen

macrumors newbie
Mar 31, 2003
22
0
The outage affects all Mac, iPad, and iPod models, as well as clearance products, and appears to extend to Apple's online stores for every country in which direct sales are available.

The UK store was working yesterday, and still appears to be working today - for example, see http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/specialdeals/mac.

Edit: In fact, if I try the US store and the .au stores included in the MacRumors links, I'm seeing content as well. Perhaps only some people are being affected? Or are certain IP addresses getting blocked?

us_refurbs.png
 

cRuNcHiE

macrumors 6502a
Jan 2, 2007
778
46
The UK store was working yesterday, and still appears to be working today - for example, see http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/specialdeals/mac.

Edit: In fact, if I try the US store and the .au stores included in the MacRumors links, I'm seeing content as well. Perhaps only some people are being affected? Or are certain IP addresses getting blocked?

Yep I can view all the content on the US store as well.
 

3282868

macrumors 603
Jan 8, 2009
5,281
0
The UK store was working yesterday, and still appears to be working today - for example, see http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/specialdeals/mac.

Edit: In fact, if I try the US store and the .au stores included in the MacRumors links, I'm seeing content as well. Perhaps only some people are being affected? Or are certain IP addresses getting blocked?

Image

£399 for a refurbished iPad 2?! That's $615 US, I knew the pricing was much higher for Apple products overseas but c'mon, that's ridiculous!

Yeah, it's working but it's been changed since last I saw:

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals
 

cRuNcHiE

macrumors 6502a
Jan 2, 2007
778
46
The US and UK stores are empty for me. Strange that some people can see stuff and some can't.

I can view it on puffin browser too on my iPad which is a virtual browser located in the USA and it still loads fine.

Have you tried browsing in an incognito browser/private browsing mode?
 

charlituna

macrumors G3
Jun 11, 2008
9,636
816
Los Angeles, CA
IF the store is empty it isn't that big of a mystery.

Refurbs are from customer returns. Either no one is returning stuff cause they like what they got or the rate of returns is slower than the rate folks were buying up the refurbs. Basic retail math.
 

Peace

Cancelled
Apr 1, 2005
19,546
4,556
Space The Only Frontier
IF the store is empty it isn't that big of a mystery.

Refurbs are from customer returns. Either no one is returning stuff cause they like what they got or the rate of returns is slower than the rate folks were buying up the refurbs. Basic retail math.

Read the above posts man. The refurb store isn't out of stock.

It's a problem with cookies. Imho.
 

Diode

macrumors 68020
Apr 15, 2004
2,443
125
Washington DC
IF the store is empty it isn't that big of a mystery.

Refurbs are from customer returns. Either no one is returning stuff cause they like what they got or the rate of returns is slower than the rate folks were buying up the refurbs. Basic retail math.

But the entire store being empty is a sign of a problem.

I had to login to the store to see stock. Somethings wrong on Apple's end.
 

cfedu

Suspended
Mar 8, 2009
1,166
1,566
Toronto
The US and Canadian where down for me yesterday at one point.

Does anyone know where I can find an a list of prices for the refurbished macs even when they are out of stock? It's nice to be able to compare when I'm buying used from Craigslist.
 

DraziGuy

macrumors member
Oct 20, 2009
81
1
IF the store is empty it isn't that big of a mystery.

Refurbs are from customer returns. Either no one is returning stuff cause they like what they got or the rate of returns is slower than the rate folks were buying up the refurbs. Basic retail math.

Perhaps, but in all the years I have been looking at the refurb store, I have never seen it out of EVERYTHING at once. That includes Airports, Macs, AppleTVs. It seems unlikely that everything would suddenly be out when that has never happened before. More likely, there is some sort of technical error. Right now, I see nothing in the store, but when I was at an Apple store last night (Burlington, Canada), all of the regular stuff was there. So it is either a location based problem or an intermittent problem or a cookie problem.
 
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