OK that's scary. I was under the impression from reading so many of these refurb threads that any part with the slightest possible cosmetic damage was replaced by Apple before putting the refurbished unit up for sale.
It is correct that they do a thorough check internally and externally but when you think about the smudges and small scratches people anal about like crazy ( which they are right IMO), can cause issues like that.
Besides the checks, the machine is still refurbished, which means its not brand new. You agree on the price and the possibility of some nicks externally when you go refurbished. This doesnt mean its perfect though. For some people, 4000$ machine must be pristibe out of the box without a microscopic scratch. And some people dont really care about the small smudges. The ones that care, return it and we get them as refurbished back into the market.
Even thouh you are in the market for one, I suggest you to wait till Monday to see what Apple have for us. Maybe they figured out the manufacturing problems and we will never a thread like that. Keep an eye!!
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I got a 15" 455 Touchbar from the Apple Store and the speaker grill on one side looked like it was swiped with a wire brush or sandpaper. My 15" 460 Touchbar was near perfect.
I think it's cool that my 2016 refurb came in a box like the retail version, not a plain cardboard box like in the old days.
That's awesome that you got lucky. I have seen some users here that they returned their products like 5 times because of speaker grill problems.
I didn't know that they changed the boxing in refurbished, I thought, like you said it was white plain box with Apple Refurbished written on the bottom.