After struggling on with my aged 8200/120 with OS 8.1 and various incarnations of Windoze, my (new) refurbished 15 PowerBook arrived from The Apple Store UK yesterday. I just though I would share my buying experience, for the benefit of anyone considering buying refurb.
The UK Apple Store is only open from 10am Wednesdays and most of the good stuff goes within 2 hours. If you are looking for a bargain, get there on the dot of 10am. I have been looking for a few months but only really got around to making the commitment to buy last week. I was looking at a new 14 1.2GHz iBook +SD+BT, but I thought that I would check the refurb store first.
I found a refurbished 1.25Ghz 15 PB with SuperDrive for £1300 only £50 more than the iBook would have cost me so decided to go for it and placed my order.
The order lead-time said 8 days plus 3-5 days shipping. I prepared myself for the wait. Two days after I placed the order, I got an e-mail to say it had shipped. It arrived yesterday, a total of 3 working days after I placed the order.
It was shipped in a brown box with Apple Refurbished tape on it but, as far as I know, the box contents were identical to a new unit. The brushed aluminium case is immaculate, not a mark on it. The screen also is perfect, no sign of any visual defects / dead pixels. I have powered up, configure mail, internet etc., started to install my software and, so-far (crosses fingers, touches wood), everything is fine.
After using OS 8.1 all these years, OS X 10.3 seems hugely advanced. I feel a bit like in one of those films where the guy goes to sleep for six years and wakes up in a very different future. But as usual with an Apple operating system, everything is intuitive. Just as well really as there is no manual. I keep smiling to myself as I do things in Panther and think "oh yes! this is why I wanted to buy Apple and not a PC."
Overall I am extremely pleased with my purchase, and would recommend anyone buying from the Refurb Store in the future. Just get there early.
The UK Apple Store is only open from 10am Wednesdays and most of the good stuff goes within 2 hours. If you are looking for a bargain, get there on the dot of 10am. I have been looking for a few months but only really got around to making the commitment to buy last week. I was looking at a new 14 1.2GHz iBook +SD+BT, but I thought that I would check the refurb store first.
I found a refurbished 1.25Ghz 15 PB with SuperDrive for £1300 only £50 more than the iBook would have cost me so decided to go for it and placed my order.
The order lead-time said 8 days plus 3-5 days shipping. I prepared myself for the wait. Two days after I placed the order, I got an e-mail to say it had shipped. It arrived yesterday, a total of 3 working days after I placed the order.
It was shipped in a brown box with Apple Refurbished tape on it but, as far as I know, the box contents were identical to a new unit. The brushed aluminium case is immaculate, not a mark on it. The screen also is perfect, no sign of any visual defects / dead pixels. I have powered up, configure mail, internet etc., started to install my software and, so-far (crosses fingers, touches wood), everything is fine.
After using OS 8.1 all these years, OS X 10.3 seems hugely advanced. I feel a bit like in one of those films where the guy goes to sleep for six years and wakes up in a very different future. But as usual with an Apple operating system, everything is intuitive. Just as well really as there is no manual. I keep smiling to myself as I do things in Panther and think "oh yes! this is why I wanted to buy Apple and not a PC."
Overall I am extremely pleased with my purchase, and would recommend anyone buying from the Refurb Store in the future. Just get there early.
