Apple Refurbished Products: Should You Buy Them?

Where can I buy them from and how can I ship them to Nigeria for sale. I need a place to buy them on discounted rates and resell them.
 
Did anyone face any kind of malfunction or flaws in their refurbished devices? Planning to buy an iPhone x (refurbished one) at a low price, despite having a curiosity as I'm getting no warranty over it. Also, what necessary elements are to be checked before buying. Need suggestions.
 
johnware said:
Did anyone face any kind of malfunction or flaws in their refurbished devices? Planning to buy an iPhone x (refurbished one) at a low price, despite having a curiosity as I'm getting no warranty over it. Also, what necessary elements are to be checked before buying. Need suggestions.
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Apple Certified Refurbished units are fine. As noted in the guide, at minimum, they get a new case, and battery, and are handed out by the multitudes every day at Apple Stores as "white box" service replacement phones.

Apple's standards for its refurbished products are high, but that's not necessarily the case for anyone else, so there's more risk involved.

However, one thing that the guide doesn't note, and is worth mentioning, is that for the extended warranty benefits that many credit cards offer, some exclude refurbished items.

So if you're counting on your card's extended warranty in lieu of ponying up for AppleCare, double check the terms for your card.

One that doesn't have that exclusion is AMEX, but any warranty on the refurb has to come from the original manufacturer, not a third-party, so Apple's refurbs are fine.
 
I personally believe that new is the way to go. You never know in some cases what a refurbished item has been through or if it had a problem.
 
It should be noted that currently, as of mid-October, the elimination of credit card benefits like extended warranties and other forms of insurance or purchase protections is in full effect. If you're planning your purchase around having such coverage, check the current terms of your card(s).

Citi has already slashed its benefits last month, and as of 2020, AMEX is also cutting them for many of its cards, including the extended warranty. Some of their premium fee-based cards will retain it, but reduced to a blanket maximum of one year (it used to double original coverage, with limits). Purchases made between now and the end of 2019 should still be grandfathered in.
 
Mac Rumors needs to update this article! It's incredibly helpful, but it has one potentially glaring error in it.

"Every refurbished iPad, iPhone, Mac, Apple TV, or Apple accessory Apple sells goes through a certification process that ensures full functionality, and with iOS devices, each one gets a new outer shell and a fresh battery."

If you read Apple's description of their refurbished Macs, it says NOTHING about their putting in a fresh battery into Macs! In contrast, for iPhone and iPads, it does! Now, they may routinely put in a new battery into Macs but, technically or legally, given their blurb, they do not have to.
 
Saturn007 said:
"Every refurbished iPad, iPhone, Mac, Apple TV, or Apple accessory Apple sells goes through a certification process that ensures full functionality, and with iOS devices, each one gets a new outer shell and a fresh battery."

If you read Apple's description of their refurbished Macs, it says NOTHING about their putting in a fresh battery into Macs! In contrast, for iPhone and iPads, it does! Now, they may routinely put in a new battery into Macs but, technically or legally, given their blurb, they do not have to.
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Um, you’re reading that wrong. It does NOT say Macs get the new batteries. MacRumors said just the iOS devices get the new outer shell and batteries. Macs are not iOS devices.

“...and with iOS devices, each one gets a new outer shell and a fresh battery."
 
I've been hunting for the 2019 MacBook Pro 64gb/4tb on the 8gb M video ram configuration ... one finally surfaced on apples refurbished website several days ago ... however, the price was only $30 less than the non-refurbished price ... I really want that 15% max off price ... not the $30 off ...

I guess I'll just wait, keep looking, and be patient ...
 
i just now bought the MacBook Air M1 (base model 8/256) Apple store refurb for 899$ (Includes tax). Amazon was 899 (not including tax) just a few days ago but that got sold out quick. Amazon is now 949 w/o tax but with a sizable wait time except gold color(no gold for me). Not a big savings going refurb but it’s enough. I used Amex (instead of Apple Pay) to get the extra warranty year. I’ll post the results when it arrives.

I worked the Apple refurb dept.(Santa Clara) wayyyy back in the day. It was not the factory(Fremont) build and test process for sure. We cannibalized cosmetic parts but no doubt the units we sent out for sale (including internally to other employees) were done with good main parts with a solid burn in. They looked good and worked when they shipped out. My own home was awash in refurbed Apple stuff (pre iPod days — I owned a Newton! Lol) and can’t remember a single failure. Imho don’t hesitate to buy refurb from the Apple store. But when you get it, put the spurs to it. Make sure everything feels comfortably functional. If Anything! doesn’t feel right in that first ten days? send it back and keep looking for a deal. Bottom line: The full 1 year warranty and no questions asked 15 day return policy makes refurb a sure money saving while just as good as new slam dunk IMHO. Waiting on refurb AppleTv 4K 2nd gens to come (October?)
 
A tip if you're ever buying from Apple direct, but want a discount and aren't worried about credit card extended warranties.

Use your Amazon credit card to buy Apple gift cards at Amazon. That gets you 5%. The other drawback is if you're not 100 percent sure you'll want the item or if you end up returning it, if there's nothing else you want to use the gift cards on for some time, you're stuck.

Still, not a bad strategy for an extra 5 percent, at least in some cases. I recently combined this strategy with starting my shopping at American Airline's shopping mall. Therefore, I got 5 percent, plus some air miles out of my purchase.
 
powerbook911 said:
A tip if you're ever buying from Apple direct, but want a discount and aren't worried about credit card extended warranties.

Use your Amazon credit card to buy Apple gift cards at Amazon. That gets you 5%. The other drawback is if you're not 100 percent sure you'll want the item or if you end up returning it, if there's nothing else you want to use the gift cards on for some time, you're stuck.

Still, not a bad strategy for an extra 5 percent, at least in some cases. I recently combined this strategy with starting my shopping at American Airline's shopping mall. Therefore, I got 5 percent, plus some air miles out of my purchase.
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Great tip PowerBook911. I’m always looking for max value return on purchases. That’s a home run at 5% (plus I’m guessing a fair signup bonus if you don’t already own one).
 
One2Grift said:
i just now bought the MacBook Air M1 (base model 8/256) Apple store refurb for 899$ (Includes tax). Amazon was 899 (not including tax) just a few days ago but that got sold out quick. Amazon is now 949 w/o tax but with a sizable wait time except gold color(no gold for me). Not a big savings going refurb but it’s enough. I used Amex (instead of Apple Pay) to get the extra warranty year. I’ll post the results when it arrives.

I worked the Apple refurb dept.(Santa Clara) wayyyy back in the day. It was not the factory(Fremont) build and test process for sure. We cannibalized cosmetic parts but no doubt the units we sent out for sale (including internally to other employees) were done with good main parts with a solid burn in. They looked good and worked when they shipped out. My own home was awash in refurbed Apple stuff (pre iPod days — I owned a Newton! Lol) and can’t remember a single failure. Imho don’t hesitate to buy refurb from the Apple store. But when you get it, put the spurs to it. Make sure everything feels comfortably functional. If Anything! doesn’t feel right in that first ten days? send it back and keep looking for a deal. Bottom line: The full 1 year warranty and no questions asked 15 day return policy makes refurb a sure money saving while just as good as new slam dunk IMHO. Waiting on refurb AppleTv 4K 2nd gens to come (October?)
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received my MacBook Air M1 today. I doubt anyone could tell it was refurb vs new. Pristine from box to accessories to device.

obviously this is a new product with a very short refurb beginning. I can’t speak for older products that have a far longer lifespan of refurbishing. I can say IME these new M1s are looking like a free 15% discount for a device that is indistinguishable from full price.
 
I just bought a Mac Min 512 GB SSD and 16GB RAM refurbished. Saved 15% AND got it much faster than had I ordered it new.(like one day. I paid the $8 for one day shipping) compared to 2-3 weeks for a new device
 
reiichiroh said:
What about SSD lifespan on refurbs?
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It varies. Some "refurbs" are just opened new products. Someone opened it and decided they didn't want it so sent it back virtually never used.

I have bought refurbs with zero issues. The good thing is that Apple gives you the same 1 year warranty on them as new items, and you still have the standard 14-day return window with no questions asked as well.
 
reiichiroh said:
What about SSD lifespan on refurbs?
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I have a 2018 Mini with a 256GB SSD that I bought new in 2019 on Amazon. I use it everyday for the basics. I recently ran a disk health check and I lost 1% of its lifespan, in just three years. I had posted my results in another thread and another user replied that he’s had his 2018 Mini since launch and has punished his drive with lost of writes and he reported that he lost 3-4% of the drives lifespan.

My suggestion if you go the refurbed route is to download a free program and check the drives health. If you are not happy, you can always send it back either for a refund or replacement.
 
Heat_Fan89 said:
I have a 2018 Mini with a 256GB SSD that I bought new in 2019 on Amazon. I use it everyday for the basics. I recently ran a disk health check and I lost 1% of its lifespan, in just three years. I had posted my results in another thread and another user replied that he’s had his 2018 Mini since launch and has punished his drive with lost of writes and he reported that he lost 3-4% of the drives lifespan.

My suggestion if you go the refurbed route is to download a free program and check the drives health. If you are not happy, you can always send it back either for a refund or replacement.
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I second that.
Although we do have to realize that Apple has not only the capacity to reset to zero battery charge count and residual capacity, but can also reset SSD lifespan/errors to zero as well.

The only solid way of checking the SSD would be to run an exhaustive testing cycle lasting hours, even days, with bigger drives. This way, you can see if any r/w errors would show.
But possibility of defect is very low, as all refurbished products are 14 days returns, which could not possibly have accumulated a lot of time. I would say refurbs are "better than new" as they went through "burn in" cycle.

Although I do disapprove Apple practice of setting batteries charge/discharge and remaining capacity to zero hours.
It's simply just not possible that batteries are being replaced with new if they were used only for only a dozen of hours and cost of assembling/ disassembling of the product will add too much to the profit margin.

I find it simply impossible that every refurbished product with zero hours battery has "new" instead of "slightly worn" battery, a lot more likely is that the counter has been artificially reset not reflecting actual usage of likely only couple of hours.
Plus, I never saw claims by Apple that batteries have been replaced with new in refurbished products.
 
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