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Are refurbs worth buying ?
- Thread starter Washac
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They're cheaper and identical quality to the rest of Apple's products. Other than the packaging there's no difference.
Yes. I have bought a few refurbs, (an iPad mini last year, and an 11" MBA) and generally have found them to be excellent.
They are the exact same as a brand new model, apart from the fact that they are usually a fair bit cheaper (and perhaps a generation, or half a generation older) than the current model, and come in different packaging.
However, the refurb model will have been individually tested and tried; moreover, it will also come with all of Apple's warranties and guarantees, the exact same as a brand new model.
all the iPad's and apple tv refurbs I got were perfect. All the iMac refurbs I got had issues with yellow screen tint at the bottom - I returned them all and never looked back. I am determined to get mac mini, but at this point I am loosing patience waiting for an upgrade.
Buying a refurb from Apple is a great way to save some cash. My refurbished 2010 Mac Mini is still going strong and has never had any issues. I added an SSD and ram to make it faster, and it's still a great little machine. 
I've purchased 2 refurbs so far, a baseline 13 inch from around 2011, and the 1st gen rMBP. Both honestly felt brand new, only difference being they didn't come with the beautiful outside box, just a regular shipping box. For a few hundred bucks off tho, that's the only difference I saw.
Never seen the point in refurbs, even more so today, waste of money, have not got one, do not want one.
Why? How can they be a "waste of money" when they are at least as good as a new machine and cheaper?
Where you can get a better deal is checking out open box items from Best Buy.
Both my Macs purchased that way.
There is a higher chance that a system was returned because it had some problems. People seldom return things that just work fine for them. Some thing are harder to diagnose and fix, so there is a chance that refurbished products might suffer from more random unexplainable issues than a brand new counterpart.
Like I mentioned previously, I was very lucky with my refurbished iPad's, but very unlucky with 27" iMac's. YMMV
You obviously have no faith in Apple or no nothing about their refurbished products, they are fully tested and certified before they are put up for sale and come with the same 1 year warranty as their new products. Contrary to your contention that 'there is a chance that refurbished products might suffer from more random unexplainable issues than a brand new counterpart' this is simply untrue. There is no more luck involved in buying a refurbished Apple product that is problem free then there is buying a brand new one.
This assumes that products are piped back into the refurbished stream for sale without having their issues diagnosed and fixed, which is not necessarily a sound assumption. It is more likely that products without resolvable issues are culled or at least kept out of the sales stream. As many others have said over the years, refurbished models have usually been through more QC testing than normal off-the-shelf items.
For the record, my only experience with refurb stuff is a 2013 MBA, and it was a hell of deal, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.
After getting three refurbished iMac's in the row with random screen defects, you are correct, I lost faith in Apple refurbished iMac's and would never consider one anymore.