PLEASE HELP!! Bought Open Box Mac, Want to Reset Warranty

Flapjacks · Mar 16, 2013

I purchased a open box macbook pro retina today from best buy. Condition is great! Wanted to purchase brand new but unfortunately did not have the money to buy brand new.

I read countless stories on macrumors about how people bought open boxes and all they had to do was call apple and they would reset the warranty.

Well i tried that today. I told the apple service rep that I purchased the laptop today from best buy (authorized retailer) open box because I had budget constraints (warranty is till Nov 2013). I told him that I was hoping that he could reset my warranty period to start today and that i could provide all the proof of purchase he needed.

He put me on hold a bit and came back and said "sorry. The warranty started when the original owner registered it. you're welcome to buy applecare though"

Usually i would accept this but i find it unfair that many of my peers were able to get their open box purchases reset when it comes to warranty. Please advise me on what to do guys!

GGJstudios · Mar 16, 2013

Flapjacks said:
He put me on hold a bit and came back and said "sorry. The warranty started when the original owner registered it. you're welcome to buy applecare though"

That's exactly how it works. Warranty starts when a Mac is first sold. It cannot be reset, unless you're buying a refurbished Mac from Apple.

Brian Y · Mar 16, 2013

Flapjacks said:
I purchased a open box macbook pro retina today from best buy. Condition is great! Wanted to purchase brand new but unfortunately did not have the money to buy brand new.

I read countless stories on macrumors about how people bought open boxes and all they had to do was call apple and they would reset the warranty.

Well i tried that today. I told the apple service rep that I purchased the laptop today from best buy (authorized retailer) open box because I had budget constraints (warranty is till Nov 2013). I told him that I was hoping that he could reset my warranty period to start today and that i could provide all the proof of purchase he needed.

He put me on hold a bit and came back and said "sorry. The warranty started when the original owner registered it. you're welcome to buy applecare though"

Usually i would accept this but i find it unfair that many of my peers were able to get their open box purchases reset when it comes to warranty. Please advise me on what to do guys!

They may have made an exception to others, but they're right - the warranty starts when the computer is first sold. You can buy AppleCare, though.

swerve147 · Mar 16, 2013

GGJstudios said:
That's exactly how it works. Warranty starts when a Mac is first sold. It cannot be reset, unless you're buying a refurbished Mac from Apple.

Right. A refurbished Mac from Apple gets a new serial number, which would explain why the warranty is reset on them.

Best Buy refurbs, on the other hand, retain the same serial number as the original purchase and thus are not reset on resale.

jmxp69 · Mar 16, 2013

You're obviously not hearing what you want to hear in the responses, so consider this: Your remaining warranty will get you well past infant mortality. Run it like you stole it for a few weeks to flush out any issues.

If it makes you feel any better: In my own experience with Apple products (not to say everybody has this experience) I have yet to incur a hardware failure. Plenty of software oriented glitches, but no outright hardware failures across 7 MacBooks, 1 Mac Mini, 8 iPads, 7 iPhones and a number of iPods/Nanos.

glenthompson · Mar 16, 2013

Save up your money before Nov and buy AppleCare. You're covered until then and it gets you 2 more years. You don't have to buy it now.

coolbreeze · Mar 16, 2013

GGJstudios said:
That's exactly how it works. Warranty starts when a Mac is first sold. It cannot be reset, unless you're buying a refurbished Mac from Apple.

You are incorrect. I bought an open box 11" Air from Best Buy. I emailed Apple and requested the Apple Care be reset to my purchase date. They replied and asked for my proof of purchase.

Scanned in the receipt, emailed over, and was done. Full one year applied from date of purchase. I ended up selling it, but the warranty reset can be done quite easily simply by providing the purchase receipt.

Here is the email from Apple support backing up what I just posted:

gmikesell · Mar 17, 2013

I had the same issue as the OP. Bought an open box 15" MBPc about mid-Feb. Registration showed to have been originally completed end of Dec. I contacted Apple on the phone, requesting a registration reset and after a small hold time, they came back stating that their policies had changed in January and they no longer had that option available but that I can purchase Apple Care. I wasn't very concerned about it and eventually (almost a month later) exchanged it for a 15" MBPr-June, 2012 model anyway. All's well that ends well in my case.

Flapjacks · Mar 17, 2013

gmikesell said:
I had the same issue as the OP. Bought an open box 15" MBPc about mid-Feb. Registration showed to have been originally completed end of Dec. I contacted Apple on the phone, requesting a registration reset and after a small hold time, they came back stating that their policies had changed in January and they no longer had that option available but that I can purchase Apple Care. I wasn't very concerned about it and eventually (almost a month later) exchanged it for a 15" MBPr-June, 2012 model anyway. All's well that ends well in my case.

Bleh. I think thats what happened to me. I emailed them my receipt and also a explanation on why its unfair but i think I might get my request rejected.

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PLEASE HELP!! Bought Open Box Mac, Want to Reset Warranty

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glenthompson

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