I purchased a refurbished 2010 Mac Pro, base model from Apple, with Applecare. Unit arrived fine, did a little testing (Apple Hardware tests), and some memory, disk testing, booted fine.
I loaded my 3rd party memory, hard disks, an SSD, etc, used the Migration Assistant to get all my stuff over. Then, every 1-2 days, the keyboard or mouse would not wake the Mac Pro. This was consistent, but impossible to reproduce at will.
I called Apple support, was escalated up a level or two. The guy was very good, and found the exact problem in the "Kernel Logs" in less than 1/2 an hour. (the CPU was asking the USB controller for it's configuration descriptor, and USB controller was failing to return it, therefore nothing on the USB bus would work after that point). The technical guy declared the unit Dead on Arrival, as it was plain as day in the logs. This was within the 14 return period after the initial purchase. I didn't want a repair, I wanted a non DOA unit.
Then the run around in the sales department. There were no equivalent refurbs available. First they wanted to charge me $350 extra for a new one, then $200, then $99. I insisted that they owed me a working base Mac Pro, refurb or not, for the price I paid, $2119. After 3 hours on the phone (!), they finally agree to just ship me a new base model Mac Pro. It didn't make any difference to me whether it was new or a refurb, since the warranties are the same.
To Apple's credit, not 15 minutes after I get off the 3 hour marathon phone call, Apple calls me back, profusely apologizing for the run around in the Sales Dept.
I get the new Mac Pro (I now had 2 in house, for the price of one!), perform the same basic checks on the new unit. I simply moved my memory, disks, etc into the new unit, and ship the DOA unit back. I was careful to ship the DOA unit back with same hardware it came with. Apple paid for all shipping, and at 50 lbs a pop, it can be expensive.
A week or two later, all seems well. Am pretty satisfied with Apple's response to a DOA unit, especially with a problem that is nearly impossible to reproduce. I ended up with a new Mac Pro for the price of a refurb, but I'm not sure it was worth the hassle.
I loaded my 3rd party memory, hard disks, an SSD, etc, used the Migration Assistant to get all my stuff over. Then, every 1-2 days, the keyboard or mouse would not wake the Mac Pro. This was consistent, but impossible to reproduce at will.
I called Apple support, was escalated up a level or two. The guy was very good, and found the exact problem in the "Kernel Logs" in less than 1/2 an hour. (the CPU was asking the USB controller for it's configuration descriptor, and USB controller was failing to return it, therefore nothing on the USB bus would work after that point). The technical guy declared the unit Dead on Arrival, as it was plain as day in the logs. This was within the 14 return period after the initial purchase. I didn't want a repair, I wanted a non DOA unit.
Then the run around in the sales department. There were no equivalent refurbs available. First they wanted to charge me $350 extra for a new one, then $200, then $99. I insisted that they owed me a working base Mac Pro, refurb or not, for the price I paid, $2119. After 3 hours on the phone (!), they finally agree to just ship me a new base model Mac Pro. It didn't make any difference to me whether it was new or a refurb, since the warranties are the same.
To Apple's credit, not 15 minutes after I get off the 3 hour marathon phone call, Apple calls me back, profusely apologizing for the run around in the Sales Dept.
I get the new Mac Pro (I now had 2 in house, for the price of one!), perform the same basic checks on the new unit. I simply moved my memory, disks, etc into the new unit, and ship the DOA unit back. I was careful to ship the DOA unit back with same hardware it came with. Apple paid for all shipping, and at 50 lbs a pop, it can be expensive.
A week or two later, all seems well. Am pretty satisfied with Apple's response to a DOA unit, especially with a problem that is nearly impossible to reproduce. I ended up with a new Mac Pro for the price of a refurb, but I'm not sure it was worth the hassle.
