Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Refurbished MacBook Pro?

aaronhead14

aaronhead14

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 9, 2009
1,259
5,381
Hey guys, so I've been wanting to buy a MacBook Pro from Apple's online refurb store, and I've heard that they're just as good quality wise as the brand new ones. Is this really true? Has anyone had bad experiences with buying refurbished products from Apple? Thanks
 
Same warranty as new ones and you can save a few hundred dollars. No reason to not buy a refurbished as far as I'm concerned.
 
aaronhead14 said:
Has anyone had bad experiences with buying refurbished products from Apple?
Click to expand...

I have purchased many computers from Apple — four new and five refurbished. I always believed wholeheartedly in the refurbished product, they always looked and performed as new and had the same one-year warranty.

Late in 2009, though, I decided I wanted a 15-inch MBP with the 7-hour battery. I purchased one equivalent to the late 2008 15-inch MBP I had with the removable battery. It immediately failed (refused to boot) and I returned it for another one just like it. Other than the hassle of getting my software licenses for Quark and Photoshop fixed (since you cannot deauthorize them on a crashed computer), the return was simple.

The second unit's battery didn't remotely last as long as 7 hours. After a few calls to the service center (to determine that the battery was indeed bad) I returned the second one for a complete refund and stuck to my 2008 MBP with the old-style battery.

Apple was responsive and accepted the returns with no problem. Only then did I notice that they sometimes had 30 configurations of MBP available in the Apple Store refurbished area. It is my thought that they had some quality issues at the moment.

Terrie
 
I just bought new MBP refurbished.
i have heard that they are just as good as new or better.
They can be better than new because apple checks everything. As new, they are made on Assembly line then packaged so something could have been bad. so no checking.

i would recomend getting one.
 
Bought a refurbished 13" MBP about a month ago. Looks and acts brand new even though it is a mid 2009 model. Very happy so far and as right now I plan on buying refurbished again in the future.
 
Yeah I personally would've bought refurb if they didn't have the iPod Touch and Printer deal.
 
Chances are high you'll think it's brand new. They pretty much replace and test everything that is broken. The only reason its sold as refurbished is because they cant sell it as new, even if everything is replaced.
 
My 15" MBP was an 09 refurb and it looked and functioned like new. :D

cheers
JohnG
 
Got mine refurbed a year ago - LOVE IT! Not a single issue, runs GREAT!

In the future, I'll always shop refurb first - it's a heck of a way to save money on a - basically - brand new machine with FULL warranty.
 
I bought an airport extreme refurbished and was surprised to see how well packaged and how good it looked. Certainly looked down to the power cords
 
Identity Fraud said:
No reason to not buy a refurbished as far as I'm concerned.
Click to expand...

  • Packaging (I'm not a fan of plain brown boxes. Call me superficial, but it hurts the resale value if I'm not coming with everything pristine.)
  • The fact that local Apple Stores don't carry refurb models. If they did I'd be more inclined to get one, because I HATE paying shipping (Thanks Amazon) fees. Also I'm a hands-on kind of guy; if I'm buying refurb I need to actually use the thing to make absolutely sure it meets MY strict requirements. Call me nitpicky.
  • Some prices aren't that much better than the new version. Like you could get a Core 2 Duo at a good price well after the Core i-line came out, but it was only a few hundred dollars saved on the Core i5. Ironically enough Amazon was selling the exact same model NEW for the price Apple wanted refurbished.

Don't get me wrong. I'm sure for some it's a great deal. But in some cases it's really not. Take my 17" for instance.

Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Apple-MacBook...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1281404297&sr=8-1
$2,110 + no tax + $4 overnight shipping (Amazon Prime) = $2114 out of pocket, return with no restock fee, and if I order before 2pm it's on my doorstop by 5pm the next day, brand spanking new.

Apple Store:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC024LL/A?mco=MTgwOTc3MTc
$1,949 + $16 CA Recycle Fee (ugh) + $172.90 tax (ugh) + $27 overnight shipping = $2164.90 out of pocket and it might be 2 -4 days before I get it (ships 1-3 business days) AND it's not new. If I return it, I get nailed with a restock fee, most likely (don't know for sure).

So...do I save $50 by buying it NEW from Amazon, or pay $50 to get a refurb that doesn't have all of the original boxing and materials? Same warranty either way,

For some consumers maybe it makes sense to just buy direct from Apple. It's what my colleague did. For me, the choice is obvious.
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Major thumbs up on the refurb. I bought one in June and it even came in a white box!(not that it really matters). No problems with it what so ever. Refurb is the way to go.
 
revelated, there can always be better deals. I think MicroPC or some site has good deals on Macs sometimes even better than the refurbished store. You can sometimes save $300 off a unit compared to it being brand new. I'm saving the packing for mine incase I do sell it someday to upgrade to next gen unit personally the small resale loss isn't a concern for me as the $300 I saved can be put towards applecare before my one year is up.

As for your other points, I wish they sold refurbished units in store but I guess it wouldn't be practical.
 
I've bought the 17 inch 2.93 C2D uni body refurbished for the wife as well as a 20 inch iMac for the father in law as a replacement for his Windows machine since all he did was download viruses.

Haven't had any issues with the refurbs. They came out of the box looking new.

I also purchased a new 17 inch i7 MBP and frankly, I should have purchased a refurbished 3.06 17 inch C2D and saved myself 300 beans.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back