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Certified Refurbished -- Your Experiences

S

sjparkinson

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 29, 2014
2
0
Hey all,

I'm looking at an 11" MBA with i7, 8GB RAM and 512GB SSD and I have been considering getting one from the refurb store but I am apprehensive. Can I have some comments from people with experience of the refurb store? Was it in a good condition when it arrived? Any scratches or signs of wear? Any problems afterwards? Would really be appreciated, thank you.
 
Just purchased 2 Macbook Pro Retina machines from the refurb store. Both look and operate as if brand new. I have also purchased an iPad refurb and same thing, like brand new.
 
sjparkinson said:
Hey all,

I'm looking at an 11" MBA with i7, 8GB RAM and 512GB SSD and I have been considering getting one from the refurb store but I am apprehensive. Can I have some comments from people with experience of the refurb store? Was it in a good condition when it arrived? Any scratches or signs of wear? Any problems afterwards? Would really be appreciated, thank you.
Click to expand...

Every refurb I've ever had from Apple has been good as new. Two points to note:

- If you do get a scratched/marked/dodgy refurb, you can return it no problems.
- If you know a student, refurb discounts are normally about the same as student discounts, and they get a 3 year warranty for free too.
 
Refurb is the way to go

I have purchased most of my Apple products from the refurb store. 2011 MBP, 2013 MBA, iPad2, iPod5, etc. and all arrived like new with the same warranty as new. The money saved with the refurbs can go toward applecare. B&H Photo sell applecare at quite a discount but can't ship to Florida so I get mine from
http://www.lacomputercompany.com/cgi-bin/rpcart/featured.cgi?group=appcare
They are an Apple reseller that is licensed to sell warranty in FL.
Charly
 
My last two rMBP purchases - a mid-2012 2.6/512GB (new) and a late 2.6/1TB (refurb). My new rMBP came from MacMall, and was "last year's" Mac. My "refurb" came directly from Apple. Both showed up two days after the order, looked brand new, have Samsung LCD panels, had 1-year Apple warranties with a 2-year AppleCare warranty option, and had $500 cost reductions - the only difference was the box they shipped in. My "new" rMBP had 3 battery cycles, my "refurb" had 5 battery cycles.

With the refurb, I got current tech with closeout pricing. I've bought refurbs before, and it'll be my first choice again.
 
I purchased a refurbished 1.8 single cpu Mac Pro back in the day. It looked perfect out of the box but I noticed that on occasion my mouse and keyboard would cease to function. They would completely lock up even though everything on the screen was visible. I tried different mice and keyboards but the result was always the same.

I surmised that the usb controller was bad and took it to the Apple store for servicing. Unfortunately the store was 90 minutes away. Despite a detailed explanation of how to reproduce the issue, they powered it on once, saw that the keyboard and mouse were functioning, and then told me to come pick it up. Sure enough I drove home and reproduced the issue within an hour. I ended up returning it for a full refund but it was a huge hassle.

All that said, that was just one experience and a defect that I could see slipping through the refurbishment process. The vast majority of Apple-refurb experiences I've read about have been positive.
 
Just to add to the comments above.... most of my Macs have been from the refurbished pages. They come 'as good as new' and in one case where there was an issue (intermittent bad power brick on a Cinema Display) they shipped a new power brick to me before I needed to ship the old one back.
 
Last week I received a refurb 13" i7 8GB/512GB Air the day after ordering it. Couldn't be happier with the purchase, cosmetically it is perfect and (of course) it works. It is the 2013 model but saved me £290 on the new cost.
 
I've bought about five refurbished macs over the years, each of them came out of the box looking perfectly new and worked just that way. Bought AppleCare for most of them but didn't really need to use it. Really amazing way to save a little money, and get the same exact experience as new.
 
My first two Apples; a MacMini and a MacBook were both refurbs. They were as good as new. I used the MacBook from 2009 until earlier this year.

The refurb store is a great way to get into the Mac environment. I recommend it highly!
 
Bought my daughter a refurb 13" MacBook Air from the refurb store last December and it has been perfect; the savings were enough to make the switch from Windows worthwhile (she didn't think she could afford a Mac and I chipped in the difference between a Windows laptop and the Air to save myself the grief of dealing with Windows)!

In the case of my son, he took advantage of student pricing on a BTO iMac with savings being comparable to the refurb store. Warranty was one year (not three as someone else mentioned) and he purchased Applecare separately.
 
sjparkinson said:
Hey all,

I'm looking at an 11" MBA with i7, 8GB RAM and 512GB SSD and I have been considering getting one from the refurb store but I am apprehensive. Can I have some comments from people with experience of the refurb store? Was it in a good condition when it arrived? Any scratches or signs of wear? Any problems afterwards? Would really be appreciated, thank you.
Click to expand...
Apple refurbished products are considered by most to be a very good deal, as they're pretty much like buying a new Mac, except for the box.
Apple Certified Refurbished Products are pre-owned Apple products that undergo Apple's stringent refurbishment process prior to being offered for sale. While only some units are returned due to technical issues, all units undergo Apple's stringent quality refurbishment process.
Click to expand...
Click the link in that quote for more details on the refurbishment process.
  • Apple Certified Refurbished Products are available online from the Apple Refurb Store and are not sold in local Apple stores
  • Educational discounts do not apply to refurb products.
  • Refurb products come with the same warranty as new products, and qualify for AppleCare
  • Refurb products have a changed serial number that identifies them as refurbished
  • Refurb products come with whatever OS version and software they originally shipped with as new
  • Refurb products come with the same items in the box as new products, only the box is a plain one, not the new box.
  • A refurb product could have some cosmetic signs of prior use, but rarely do
  • A refurb Mac notebook may have some cycles on the battery, but not a significant enough amount to affect usable life
  • The refurb store inventory changes frequently, sometimes several times a day, and doesn't have any direct relation to upcoming product releases. What's available in the refurb store is determined by what has been returned to Apple.
  • If you're looking for a particular item, refurb.me can alert you when it becomes available.
 
Thank you so much to everyone who has replied, I'll be ordering as soon as I can! And I hope this thread is useful to anyone in the same situation as I was
 
I got refurb retina last year. Brand new like. Totally worth it. Trust me they are good.

----------
sjparkinson said:
Thank you so much to everyone who has replied, I'll be ordering as soon as I can! And I hope this thread is useful to anyone in the same situation as I was
Click to expand...


 
I ordered a 27" iMac from the refurb store, it was configured with a 2GB Nvidia video card but I got a bumped spec to the 4GB model I guess because they didnt have stock of the 2GB model, it was as brand new out of the box as you can get. Would definitely recommend the refurb store, for sure!!!
 
GGJstudios said:
  • Apple Certified Refurbished Products are available online from the Apple Refurb Store and are not sold in local Apple stores
Click to expand...
True, however you *can* order online for in-store pickup if you wish. This is handy if you may not be able to be home to sign for delivery and don't wish to deliver to work for whatever reason. In my experience with several different refurb items the quoted availability dates are very conservative; in every case I received the "ready for pick up" notice days earlier than what was displayed when I ordered.

Also - if you have a Discover credit card, start from shopdiscover.com to get to store.apple.com and get 5% cash back on your order. :D
 
I bought a refurb early 2008 iMac in August 2008, followed by a Time Machine a year or so later. No complaints. If I were going to buy another Mac, I would look in the refurb store first.

If you see a product you like, don't dawdle. Stuff can disappear in minutes, especially when it has a deep (20% or more) discount, has great specs or both. Bookmark the refurb store and visit hourly. When you see what you want at a price you're willing to pay, pull the trigger.

Good luck.
 
If you can find the configuration you want I'd go refurbished all the time. Never had a problem. Purchased iMac, AppleTV and Airport Extreme except the main packaging (sometimes) they were all brand new, no issues. My next will be a refurb also.
 
sjparkinson said:
Hey all,

I'm looking at an 11" MBA with i7, 8GB RAM and 512GB SSD and I have been considering getting one from the refurb store but I am apprehensive. Can I have some comments from people with experience of the refurb store? Was it in a good condition when it arrived? Any scratches or signs of wear? Any problems afterwards? Would really be appreciated, thank you.
Click to expand...

I literally bought 2 of this exact MBA in March. Both were in perfect condition.
 
All my Macs were purchased from the Apple refurb store. Never had a problem. I only purchased one MBP from the retail site as I was working for Apple at that time and got a healthy discount.
 
No probs and I've bought a ton.

Note that if you rely on an extended warranty through your credit card odds are it won't apply to a refurb. I don't buy AppleCare, but there are other threads on that.

Indeed, sometimes I think the refurbs are inspected more closely than the original products...but I can't swear that's the case. Unlike with some other products I've never received an Apple refurb that had ANY signs of use that I could find.

The only downside is if you want build to spec, and I notice that sometimes good deals with SSDs in the iMacs and Minis are harder to find.
 
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