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secretpact

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 24, 2007
271
0
I'm thinking of buying a refurb to save money. What's your experience on refurbished iMacs? Do you still have the problem of gradience on the 24" iMacs refurbed?
 

~Wibble~

macrumors member
Mar 28, 2007
60
0
England
i have a 24" imac, and its completely fine, even had that lovely 'new mac smell' that hasn't changed since the 80's

~Wibble~
 

fohawk17

macrumors regular
Oct 17, 2008
102
0
i have a 24" imac, and its completely fine, even had that lovely 'new mac smell' that hasn't changed since the 80's

~Wibble~

same here. it really works, because the only reason they cant sell it at the retail price is it was used.
 

QUiKSR20

macrumors member
Oct 12, 2008
66
0
Neptune, NJ
Both my iMac & Mac Mini are refurbished. Not one problem and both carried full Apple Warranties.

I would say, Go for it! Save some money and still get a brand new product. ( basically ) you can not tell outside of the box it shipped in that this is a refurbl=.

Not 1 scratch!
 

durija

macrumors 6502
Jan 16, 2008
260
0
Seattle
We have two refurb iMacs where I work. One is about two years old. The other is almost a year old now. Both are running Tiger. We have had no problems. In retrospect, I wish I had bought a refurb for my personal machine at home. My thought is that if there were any problems with a unit, they would have been fixed in the refurb process.
 

jbrooksga

macrumors newbie
Oct 23, 2008
18
0
Just bought my first Mac 2 weeks ago, which is a 24" iMac refurb.

Smelled just like a new one...could have fooled me. So far I am very happy with my purchase. Just added another 2GB of RAM yesterday, which was sorely needed for running my photo apps.
 

goughbradley

macrumors newbie
Oct 22, 2008
25
0
Calgary, Alberta
Not a great experience for me...

I bought my refurb. 24 inch iMac in April 2008. So far I have had the logic board replaced and it is in for a new Hard-Drive right now. I suppose these problems could also happen to someone with a new machine, but this iMac has just been generally unstable. There are also 3 small 'dings' around the display, where the glass and aluminum meet. No dice on getting that fixed/replaced because it's cosmetic (that's what the apple rep told me). This was my first refurbished unit and it has really left a bad taste in my mouth. At lease it came with the new mac smell... I'll probably stick to new from now on.

On the other hand, two of my sisters both bought refurbished MacBooks last year, and they have never had a problem.
 

Spiffey

macrumors newbie
Oct 23, 2008
15
0
I bought my MBP as a refurb (and actually got a better spec machine for less money - more RAM and bigger hard drive) and I can't fault it. It's got the same warranty as a shop-bought one and costs around 20% less.

My work iMac is also a refurb (that also had more RAM than advertised), as is my dad's iMac and my father-in-law's MBP (I converted them to Macs from PCs :D) - none of them have any issues and have performed faultlessly.

I would say the only downside is you're limited on choice, and if you want a specific model you have to check daily to find the one you want.

I'd always consider a refurb.:cool:
 

sravana

macrumors regular
Sep 14, 2008
142
0
Texas
I just got my 17" white refurb yesterday, and I'm pretty happy with it thus far. Physically it's in quite good condition - as new, I'd say. Nothing has blown up or broken yet! :)

I was unhappy to get the previous gen keyboard (the one with the clear casing and the clover leaf on the command key) at first, but I'm rather liking it now.
 

petermcphee

macrumors 6502a
Aug 20, 2008
631
0
Last month, I bought a refurbed 24" iMac. It arrived flawless. It has been a great addition to our home, and I will buy more refurbed Apple products in the future because of it.
 

motoxpress

macrumors 6502
Mar 8, 2006
326
0
I have found refurbs to be completely safe. They get the same warranty as the new machines and if there is a faulty component, you are most likely to have it fail in the first 90 days anyway.

-mx
 

bstadnik

macrumors newbie
Oct 28, 2008
2
0
Small problem, but great after

Bought a 24" refurbished iMac last week. When I plugged it in there was a very thin purple line that ran horizontally down the monitor. It basically ran the entire length of the monitor from top to bottom directly in the center of the screen. Once I saw I couldn't take my eyes off it, well I called Apple and they sent me a new refurbished system that is FLAWLESS. Looks exactly like the store bought one.

So overall, I would recommend buying refurbished. I think mine was an isolated case or possible damage during shipping. Apple responded quickly and I had my new system in 1 day.
 
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