I think you should just turn it on a see what it's like, it might be a perfectly good one.
I've just had a similar problem, I received my 27" i7 refurb yesterday, it's the first refurb I've bought and I won't be buying another one.
The box arrived really tatty, the handle was broken, the box was dented and it had a big gouge in it that almost went through the cardboard, I did not worry to much when I received it as I assumed it would be double boxed, and was surprised to see when I peeled of the small amount of tape the iMac was directly inside the grubby damaged box.
I was worried that the iMac might have to dented or the screen broken but was happily surprised when i took it out, all looked well, I gave it a good look over and the only problem I could see was a small scuff on the foot, not a problem, I'm not obsessed about 100% perfection, I just want a functional machine, so for me, the scuff was a small price to pay for the discount I received for buying a refurb.
When I turned it on I was pleased to see it did not seem in any way damaged by it's ordeal and seemed to work perfectly, however, it has significant yellow coloration on the lower part of the screen, the lower right hand side seems the worst. As I said before I'm prepared to accept less than perfection, but it really seems to be intrusive and noticeable, however, I played with it for an hour or so in the hope that I would get used to it and it would not seem so bad after a while, however, I found it hard to ignore so I packed it up again, and arranged for it to be returned.
At that point I started reading up about the yellow screen problem, and it seemed like most, if not all screens have it in some form or another, I haven't got the patience to go through the rigmarole of returning lots of imacs in the hope of getting a good one, so I considered just keeping the one I'd got. I decided to go to my nearest Apple store and have a look at the new ones to see if they seemed to have the issue, so I drove 30 miles to Meadowhall and played with the two 27" they had, they had the yellow problem, but they were nowhere near as bad as mine.
Anyway, I decided that maybe I was being too picky, so I unpacked mine and tried using it again, I made myself use it for a couple of hours, but the yellow problem just got more and more annoying, so I've packed it up again and it's going back.
Now I'm not sure what to do, I might try a new iMac, it will have to be a lower model as I can't afford a new i7, I think I'd actually be happy just sticking with my 24" now, but a friend wants to buy it off me, they have a G4 iMac and are desperate for an upgrade, so they are really excited about getting my old iMac, and i don't want to let them down.
I"ve just checked my serial number, and mine in a Week 22,
Julie
