What's up with the Refurb Store

[Sirolway]

Is it just me, or is there almost no activity on the refurb store (www.refurb-store.com) at the moment. I'm in the UK & usually you see a fairly steady flow of items appearing. At the moment there have been no changes (only about 3 Airs on there) for some time.

What's up?

 

[OllyW]

Why don't you use the UK refurb store?

 

[Sirolway]

OK now I'm confused - what's the difference between that & http://www.refurb-store.com/en/ ?

I've bought stuff from refurb-store.com & it's definitely official Apple, but it's currently showing almost no stock, whereas yours is.

I prefer refurb-store.com as it allows you to select which products to watch, send alerts by email etc, but if it's not showing all the stock it's no good ..

 

[niuniu]

OK now I'm confused - what's the difference between that & http://www.refurb-store.com/en/ ?

I've bought stuff from refurb-store.com & it's definitely official Apple, but it's currently showing almost no stock, whereas yours is.

I prefer refurb-store.com as it allows you to select which products to watch, send alerts by email etc, but if it's not showing all the stock it's no good ..

Doesn't the refurb-store.com just redirect you to the official Apple site anyway?It's not actually a retailer afaik..

 

[All Taken]

From the refurb-store

What is refurb-store.com?
Refurb-Store.com is an independant site unrelated to Apple Inc. Its purpose is to monitor Apple's refurbished section for new products in order to alert you when the product that you want becomes available. You set the products you are interested in when you create your personal alert.

 

[melchior]

From the refurb-store

What is refurb-store.com?
Refurb-Store.com is an independant site unrelated to Apple Inc. Its purpose is to monitor Apple's refurbished section for new products in order to alert you when the product that you want becomes available. You set the products you are interested in when you create your personal alert.

confound you people knowing how to read!

 

[cyclotron451]

micropayments?

Doesn't the refurb-store.com just redirect you to the official Apple site anyway?It's not actually a retailer afaik..

Yes, I think they must try and earn some micropayment via click-thru; after clicking on a refurb-store MacBook Air, (which was NOT in stock when I was transported to the Apple refurb store UK!)
I found that I had a new apple cookie cid=OAS-EMEA-AFF related to some marketing campaign?

When I directly visited the Apple refurb store UK, I found a list of stock that was actually in stock, and starting from cheaper prices than that listed at refurb-store.com (Apple had a macbook for £659 whilst refurb-store.com's cheapest laptop was £899.

AVOID, or at least, COMPARE! and delete your cookies!!!
The big question, is when will the iPad 32GB show up on the refurb store???
version 1 will blow-out as soon as the iSight model is released in Oct or Nov 2010??

 

[Sirolway]

A-ha!
Thanks for doing that tricky reading stuff for me - really must learn how to do that myself ...

 

[RedTomato]

I remember when that website refurb-store.com opened. Seemed like a good idea at the time, and much faster than checking the apple store itself. Good to have alerts too.

Now I just looked at it again, and you're right, what they list is very different to what the Apple refurb store actually lists.

Their credibility is shot to hell and back.

EDIT I just looked at the source code for the refurb-store.com webpage. I'm no hotshot at reading code, but it looks like there is no attempt whatsoever to automatically monitor the Apple webpages. It looks like there is a simple list of items and prices, hard-coded into the page, and *possibly* updated by hand on an ad hoc basis.

I'm willing to be corrected on this if (highly likely) my code-reading is incorrect.

 

[duky]

It looks like there is a simple list of items and prices, hard-coded into the page, and *possibly* updated by hand on an ad hoc basis.

You're likely just reading the static HTML that is generated upon page load. The php/JavaScript code (which I'm sure they use to monitor Apple's site) won't show up by viewing the source code so you can't see that.

 

[RedTomato]

You're likely just reading the static HTML that is generated upon page load. The php/JavaScript code (which I'm sure they use to monitor Apple's site) won't show up by viewing the source code so you can't see that.

Fair enough, but then how come their list doesn't match the Apple refurb store?

http://www.refurb-store.com/en/

MBA £1169 offered by refurb-store.com - > out of stock on apple store

Apple store offers white MB refurb - > not visible on refurb-store.com

 

[duky]

Fair enough, but then how come their list doesn't match the Apple refurb store?

You've got me there. Maybe Apple's page structure has changed which has rendered their code unable to catch new content somehow. Or maybe it never worked so well? No clue. I usually just check the refurb store every now and then.

I do know of this site: http://www.refurb.me/. Not sure if it's doing any better..

 

[GGJstudios]

Fair enough, but then how come their list doesn't match the Apple refurb store?

Because it's not an Apple site. It's not a legit Apple Refurbished site. It's not related to Apple in any way. Apple only sells their refurbished products through their own site.