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Advice - Purchase open-box 15" Retina from Best Buy?

Z

zosobao5150

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 7, 2010
65
24
Central Ohio
Yesterday at Best Buy I was speaking with an employee who mentioned they received a 15" Macbook Pro Retina. I was told the price, around $1650, without tax. It was the base model, so i7, 2.3, 8GB RAM, 256 SSD. Upon looking at the laptop, it had a mark on the top aluminum cover and the screen looked like it had been wiped with something that caused a lot of smear marks. I declined. I was thinking, Apple may decide to provide warranty start in June or July of last year, since I am not original purchaser, no iLife, and was worried about how the original owner treated the laptop, since they had no issue returning it with a dirty screen.

I have been looking for the Retina i7, 2.6, 16GB RAM, 256 SSD to become available from the Apple refurb store for around $2130 or so.

I do use Photoshop and Premiere Pro to edit video.

Any advice? Stay away or go for it?

Thanks.
 
robvas

robvas

macrumors 68040
Mar 29, 2009
3,240
629
USA
I have bought open-box from Best Buy before, and just got a 13" open-box Retina yesterday from them. They have the 10% off coupon going right now.

You always have 14 or 30 days to return it, so you'll have plenty of time to test it out. I say go for it.
 
C

Crzyrio

macrumors 68000
Jul 6, 2010
1,587
1,110
You can even run the serial number online to check the warranty status.

There is also a 50$ off best buy coupon floating around
 
D

DayVe3000

macrumors member
Jun 28, 2012
95
0
England
Apple will honor the warranty from its original purchase date, regardless of whether you are the original owner.

I purchased my rMBP via ebay - It was brand new, but I had concerns over the warranty so contacted Apple to be sure. They advised me I'd be fine to purchase the Mac and advised me to register it as soon as I got it. They were even happy to sell me AppleCare although I advised I'd wait until my next pay day! ;)
 
B

Bear

macrumors G3
Jul 23, 2002
8,088
5
Sol III - Terra
The problem with an open box item is you don't know why it has been returned. Was something wrong with it or did the person just decide they didn't like it?

You also don't know if the software it came with (iPhoto, iMovie, etc) has already been licensed to some other person, preventing you grom getting the license. This only really matters if you care about the software in question or if you don't already have licenses for the latest versions. Usually you can explain to Apple you bought an open box machine and they will help with the licenses.

And finally no matter what you do, you will want to do a clean install of the OS on an open box machine as you have no clue what the previous purchaser did to it.
 
Z

zosobao5150

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 7, 2010
65
24
Central Ohio
So I found another Best Buy offering one. Called and talked to a great salesperson. He said they had one and it still had all the plastic on it. I went to see it and sure enough, I don't think its ever been turned on. I did a check with the serial number on Apples website and it doesnt appear that its ever been registered. So, we will see. I bought it, but won't be able to update the thread till later. Got 10% off open box price of $1811. The $50 off $100 or more Mastercard offer could not be applied.
 
Bubba Satori

Bubba Satori

Suspended
Feb 15, 2008
4,726
3,756
B'ham
BB wants to get rid of that worse than a case of herpes.
Make a low ball offer. You might be pleasantly surprised.
Don't ask me how I know.
Good luck.
 
C

Ccrew

macrumors 68020
Feb 28, 2011
2,035
3
Bubba Satori said:
BB wants to get rid of that worse than a case of herpes.
Make a low ball offer. You might be pleasantly surprised.
Don't ask me how I know.
Good luck.
Click to expand...

Interesting, I've never had any luck getting BB to discount an open box, even when missing things like discs, etc. And I have gotten bad open box items - my wife's iMac being a standout. And even with the 10% they were giving a refurb this week was still less than BB's machine *with* the open box + 10% discount - I was looking at that 10% to get a MBA for the wife.

That said, I've never had an issue getting Apple to reset the warranty on any, although I've always had to email a scan of the receipt as proof.
 
Arnezie

Arnezie

macrumors 65816
Oct 10, 2011
1,317
115
Bubba Satori said:
BB wants to get rid of that worse than a case of herpes.
Make a low ball offer. You might be pleasantly surprised.
Don't ask me how I know.
Good luck.
Click to expand...
Ive actually low balled a store employee once and they did a price adjustment and sold me the item at almost half off , not a macbook but you can bargain with them a bit.
 
Spink10

Spink10

Suspended
Nov 3, 2011
4,261
1,020
Oklahoma
BB has never allowed me to bargin on open box items - maybe because there was a special on open box items going on each time.
 
M

maxosx

macrumors 68020
Dec 13, 2012
2,385
1
Southern California
If you enjoy the pain of a rattlesnake bite, you'll love BB open box specials.

Me? I don't have the time or patience to gamble...

Don't ask me how I know :D
 
Handsome Bacon

Handsome Bacon

macrumors regular
Apr 10, 2012
178
112
Location: Location!
ARRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHH! Damn it! I bought an open box GoPro Hero3 on Friday (the 18th). :mad::mad::mad: :eek::eek::eek:

Works fine, these are rugged little cameras. Not a scratch, just missing the USB cable and the box wasn't in the best shape.

But thanks for the coupon!
 
C

Ccrew

macrumors 68020
Feb 28, 2011
2,035
3
Handsome Bacon said:
ARRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHH! Damn it! I bought an open box GoPro Hero3 on Friday (the 18th). :mad::mad::mad: :eek::eek::eek:

Works fine, these are rugged little cameras. Not a scratch, just missing the USB cable and the box wasn't in the best shape.

But thanks for the coupon!
Click to expand...

Take the coupon in and price match it. My experience is they'll do it.
 
Y

yangnome

macrumors newbie
Jan 21, 2013
2
0
Thanks for the info. On a whim, I decided to check local BB to see if they'd have one similarly priced & they did, minor scratch on the cover, but that takes away the pain of the first scratch. With the 10% off coupon, I walked away with it for 1480+ tax. Got home & found out it is missing iLife, but hopefully will be able to resolve that with Apple tomorrow.
 
G

GiRARDsays

macrumors member
Nov 29, 2009
75
2
San Diego, CA
Handsome Bacon said:
ARRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHH! Damn it! I bought an open box GoPro Hero3 on Friday (the 18th). :mad::mad::mad: :eek::eek::eek:

Works fine, these are rugged little cameras. Not a scratch, just missing the USB cable and the box wasn't in the best shape.

But thanks for the coupon!
Click to expand...

Price match it in-store. That's what I did today for the open box mbp I bought last Wednesday.
 
Z

zosobao5150

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 7, 2010
65
24
Central Ohio
So...turned it on when I got home. Everything went smooth. I don't think it had ever been used as all registrations went off without any intervention and iLife was on the computer. I checked the status of serial # on Apple's website and it shows the one-year warranty ending 1/20/14. I think I lucked out.
 
N

nickftw8686

macrumors regular
Oct 6, 2011
151
8
I picked up an open box retina macbook pro today, in amazing condition and no problems at all. Used the 10 percent off coupon as well and got a great deal.
 
U

utekineir

macrumors 6502
Feb 20, 2008
327
1
bought an open box mini at best buy last week (pre open box coupon), was missing the hdmi-dvi adaptor and the ilife had been redeemed on the app store.

not exactly worth the 10% discount when apple sells refurb minis for about 15% off without those issues.

they gave me a cord to replace the missing one as that was noticed in the parking lot, its an hour away so havent checked about the ilife and what they will do there.

i'm all for open box/scratch dent/refurb items, but clearly best buy doesn't exactly go over things with a fine tooth comb,
 
N

nickftw8686

macrumors regular
Oct 6, 2011
151
8
I didnt do this but I bet they will let you open the box and look inside, my box just had a tiny stick on it sealing it. If your worried about missing stuff I would ask them to open it for you, worst thing they could do is say no lol.
 
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