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HELP! Refurbished Mac's - Good or bad idea!
- Thread starter Kimberley
- Start date
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Refurbished is a great idea. It costs less and comes with the warranty of the new products. I would recomend getting refurbised comuter from the apple online store.
I agree with latergator116.
As long as it has been refurbished by Apple and they're giving you the same warranty as a new product, you have nothing to lose.
As with Nikon and many other manufacturers, sometimes the refurbished ones are just demo units from stores and shows. Sometimes trade-ins. Either way, they check them out and make sure that they're up to spec before selling them.
in the off chance ur get a lemon refurb product, since its like new warranty you can return it, but their quality control is pretty good, a few slips here and there, but overall the refurbs are indistinguisable from the brand new stuff, save of course the price you pay
a refurb can even be better than new, or more precisely, a refurb can be what "new" should have been in the first place.
examples: video problems on early eMacs (some cable tended to be bad, so Apple replaced it on a LOT of eMacs) and the white spots on many PowerBooks.
you get the same warranty as new, you have the option of extending it with AppleCare, and you save a bunch of money.
examples: video problems on early eMacs (some cable tended to be bad, so Apple replaced it on a LOT of eMacs) and the white spots on many PowerBooks.
you get the same warranty as new, you have the option of extending it with AppleCare, and you save a bunch of money.
Great idea. You get the same product for a lower price. Both my Sony monitor and Xbox are referbs. I bought that monitor with my Revision A B&W G3 and it works just as well as the day I bought it.
I would recommend NOT getting a refurb Sony portable CD player from an outlet store. But that wasn't your question, so purchase away 
I've gotten over the past couple of years where all I buy is refurbished machines form the Apple Special Deals page. The only exception has been our first round of G5s (not available as refurbs, at first). But our latest G5s hav, again, started coming from the Apple refurb page. Many times, the units seem untouched/brand new. Few problems, and with the same warranty as new machines. Highly recommended.
It sounds like from what I have read in this post that you thinking about getting a refurbished Mac. I think you should do it. I have had two seperate and very different apple refurbished experiences. My first computer was a refurbished iMac 400 DV SE. It crashed about every hour due to a bad keyboard they didn't discover until three months after my purchase. It was no fun.
I just bought a new 12 inch 867 powerbook refurbished from the apple store. It is awesome. The best part is that the book came with an extra 20 GB's in the hard drive. It also came with the ram maxxed out! Sweet. I got more than I ordered.
Thanks apple.
I just bought a new 12 inch 867 powerbook refurbished from the apple store. It is awesome. The best part is that the book came with an extra 20 GB's in the hard drive. It also came with the ram maxxed out! Sweet. I got more than I ordered.
Thanks apple.
Refurbished Macs--No
I recently purchased a refurb G5 from the Apple Store (the 1st refurb I have bought during 20 years of Mac'ing).
G5 worked well for two days, but when I shut it down for Christmas break, it wouldn't restart. Apple support could not help, and so I had to take it to the local Apple Store. 10 days later, new logic board fixed it (I hope).
My 1st, and only experience was negative.
I recently purchased a refurb G5 from the Apple Store (the 1st refurb I have bought during 20 years of Mac'ing).
G5 worked well for two days, but when I shut it down for Christmas break, it wouldn't restart. Apple support could not help, and so I had to take it to the local Apple Store. 10 days later, new logic board fixed it (I hope).
My 1st, and only experience was negative.
Things are more clear as to what model you're getting and the specs these days. I had a terrible experience with my beige G3. It was catch 22 situtation too, I'd be kicking myself even if I'd got a B & W G3 only to see the G4 come out later in the year.
There was never a 300Mhz Beige Desktop in the UK officially until the 3rd revision of the logic board. I bought a refurb Beige G3 instead of a blue & White G3 because it was supposed to handle slave support on the hard drives, have an ATI Rage Pro+ (which I spent extra on maxing out the VRAM), a 1Mb L2 cache and be able to use go up to 768Mb of RAM.
The worst thing was the CDR of OS 8 it came with, I expected OS 8.6 like the Beige G3 shipped with at the time. It really put me off Maczone for life after that. They were bought out by Cancom so I guess they're a good company to buy stuff from again now but I was so annoyed when I found out I'd got a model from 1997!!!
It was a Rev A model, I was gutted. Being my first powermac and a lot more useful to me than the Atari STE it replaced, I just bared with it. I wasn't even aware I had an older model until I got online and found out about the full spec of the system from sites like Xlr8yourmac. By then there was no way I could have returned it. I'm sure the fact it was in full working order made it impossible to return anyway. It wasn't broken.
The Diamondscan 70 monitor I got with it blew up about 2 months ago, the CD ROM packed up over 2 years ago and I had to completely reformat the internal system drive once because it couldn't see it on start up. Overall, my Mac experience has been VERY expensive and VERY disappointing.
Especially seeing as if I want to continue to use the fairly expensive hardware I've bought for it, I absolutely have to get a dual G4 for my next mac because I simply can't afford to replace PCI cards with firewire or USB equivelents just because apple havn't had the sense to put standard PCI slots on the G5 for backwards compatability. I can't even try OS X till then either because my Mac isn't supported.
There was never a 300Mhz Beige Desktop in the UK officially until the 3rd revision of the logic board. I bought a refurb Beige G3 instead of a blue & White G3 because it was supposed to handle slave support on the hard drives, have an ATI Rage Pro+ (which I spent extra on maxing out the VRAM), a 1Mb L2 cache and be able to use go up to 768Mb of RAM.
The worst thing was the CDR of OS 8 it came with, I expected OS 8.6 like the Beige G3 shipped with at the time. It really put me off Maczone for life after that. They were bought out by Cancom so I guess they're a good company to buy stuff from again now but I was so annoyed when I found out I'd got a model from 1997!!!
It was a Rev A model, I was gutted. Being my first powermac and a lot more useful to me than the Atari STE it replaced, I just bared with it. I wasn't even aware I had an older model until I got online and found out about the full spec of the system from sites like Xlr8yourmac. By then there was no way I could have returned it. I'm sure the fact it was in full working order made it impossible to return anyway. It wasn't broken.
The Diamondscan 70 monitor I got with it blew up about 2 months ago, the CD ROM packed up over 2 years ago and I had to completely reformat the internal system drive once because it couldn't see it on start up. Overall, my Mac experience has been VERY expensive and VERY disappointing.
Especially seeing as if I want to continue to use the fairly expensive hardware I've bought for it, I absolutely have to get a dual G4 for my next mac because I simply can't afford to replace PCI cards with firewire or USB equivelents just because apple havn't had the sense to put standard PCI slots on the G5 for backwards compatability. I can't even try OS X till then either because my Mac isn't supported.
On a 300MHz G3? yeah, you could run Jag, but slowly. I have yet to install Panther on my 400MHz Beige, but I'll let you know how it goes, since I have to use XPostfacto.
RE: Refurbished Macs
Thanx for your replies.
I feel a bit more confident about getting a refurb, even though there has been some bad experiences. ( If I only got a reply from Barkmonster the whole refurb idea would be out the window with pleasure!)
Barkmonster if you do decide to get another refurb hope it works out for you!
By the way, I'm thinking of getting a PMac G5, preferably a dual as I want to use Graphic programs.
Only seen 1.6 and 1.8 single (LOOKING FOR A DUAL 1.8 at reasonable price) and dual 2.0Ghz(Prices on 2GHz - thought I may as well buy a new model for that price).
Single 1.8 = 1200. pounds (pound sign gone on keyboard)
Dual 2.0 = 1998. pounds
I've been looking on Cancom but will try apple as everyone has no/minor problems with them.
Was unaware that you could applecare with refurbs at apple, Cancom only gives max. of 12mths warranty - and HAS to be covered by their company NOT Apple.
I'm also waiting on PMac updates and getting very FRUSTRATED! as this maybe another option.
Thanx for your replies.
I feel a bit more confident about getting a refurb, even though there has been some bad experiences. ( If I only got a reply from Barkmonster the whole refurb idea would be out the window with pleasure!)
Barkmonster if you do decide to get another refurb hope it works out for you!
By the way, I'm thinking of getting a PMac G5, preferably a dual as I want to use Graphic programs.
Only seen 1.6 and 1.8 single (LOOKING FOR A DUAL 1.8 at reasonable price) and dual 2.0Ghz(Prices on 2GHz - thought I may as well buy a new model for that price).
Single 1.8 = 1200. pounds (pound sign gone on keyboard)
Dual 2.0 = 1998. pounds
I've been looking on Cancom but will try apple as everyone has no/minor problems with them.
Was unaware that you could applecare with refurbs at apple, Cancom only gives max. of 12mths warranty - and HAS to be covered by their company NOT Apple.
I'm also waiting on PMac updates and getting very FRUSTRATED! as this maybe another option.
there is a reason they are called refurbished, damaged,not payed for,used etc. I myself wouldnt get a refurb because you have no idea who had it,what they did to it, if they dropped it etc. Apple says they are brought back up to spec but i have heard stories of people getting banged up stuff. my 2 cents. a better word for refurbished is used. you going to spend big bucks might as well get it new.
Re: RE: Refurbished Macs
If Apple doesn't announce any updates by the end of the month, then I wouldn't worry about it too much.
Why?
Because you can count on things being updated at least once every 6 months, be they software or hardware updates.
So if waiting for the latest updates becomes your most important criteria of when to buy, you never will.
Good luck whatever you decide
Originally posted by Kimberley
I'm also waiting on PMac updates and getting very FRUSTRATED! as this maybe another option.
If Apple doesn't announce any updates by the end of the month, then I wouldn't worry about it too much.
Why?
Because you can count on things being updated at least once every 6 months, be they software or hardware updates.
So if waiting for the latest updates becomes your most important criteria of when to buy, you never will.
Good luck whatever you decide
On the contrary to DHM's comment, refurbs are product returns or DOA's and other warranty issues that get replaced instead of fixed. The problem is then fixed and tested more than any new ones are and sold. The only thing that isn't guaranteed is the physical condition, ie there oculd be some scratches to the case, anything that doesn't affect its use.
As long as the case isn't to damaged I wouldn't worry about it. The iBook scratches easily and is bound to get get scrathes anyway. On mine, they actually replaced the whole top case because there was not one mark on it.
Buy Apple Care Protection or forget it.
I bought a iMac tear shaped as
a re-furbished and lots of problems
my apple care protection problem
got me a new iMac. If you don't
buy the apple care plan forget
it.
I bought a iMac tear shaped as
a re-furbished and lots of problems
my apple care protection problem
got me a new iMac. If you don't
buy the apple care plan forget
it.
I've bought (for other people--not myself) two refurbed iBooks, one G4 iMac, one 12" PB G4, as well as a small pile of older used Macs from other stores. So far the sum total of issues has been a noisy Combo drive in the Powerbook (direct from the Apple store), which Apple replaced free (and quickly) under warranty.
I'd probably get AppleCare if it were me, although the 1 year hardware warranty Apple gives standard is probably enough to catch any significant hardware issues that relate to the computer being refurbished--my theory is that if it's going to go wrong, it's mostly likely to happen right out of the gate.
Good luck either way.
I'd probably get AppleCare if it were me, although the 1 year hardware warranty Apple gives standard is probably enough to catch any significant hardware issues that relate to the computer being refurbished--my theory is that if it's going to go wrong, it's mostly likely to happen right out of the gate.
Good luck either way.
I wholeheartedly agree with you.
Not my theory, but based on my experience when I sold high-end stereo equipment for a number of years. If an electronic product is going to fail, it usually does so within the first three months. The only proviso being that you actually use it and not just leave it lying around.
In all my years of selling hi-fi, the only time I had a product fail after three months, was when the customer used his $3,000 speakers for a party. He wanted to know how come the tweeters blew out after two hours of disco level music in a large room with over a hundred people!?!?? - The company still sent me a replacement pair for him at no charge