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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Notebooks > To refurb or not?

To refurb or not?
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charlespsu
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Oct 3, 2006, 08:38 PM
 
What's the thought about purchasing a refurbed Macbook from Apple online?

I just purchased one and checked and it's a week 30. So far works great, but I wondered what are the downsides to refurbed?

Take for instance the macbook ram fiasco. Most people are getting new macbooks...if I take mine to genius bar will I get less service since it's refurbed?

Thanks!
     
brokenjago
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Oct 3, 2006, 09:43 PM
 
From what I've heard, refurbished Apple products are of pretty much the exact same quality as brand new ones. (as in: excellent.)

You will not get any less service for buying a refurb.
Linkinus is king.
     
Elektrix
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Oct 3, 2006, 10:37 PM
 
To some degree I think I'd almost trust a refurb more than a new unit...... I like the idea that it's gone through a thorough refurbishment process and check, frankly.

Although from what I've heard, some "refurb" units are actually literally brand new; apparently sometimes there are things where a box was missing a particular item or something and it gets put back in but they have to sell it as a refurb, that kind of thing.
     
breakbeat46
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Oct 3, 2006, 11:44 PM
 
My Macbook Refrub work and looks fine. the only thing that i didnt get was the white box, it came in a plain brown box.
     
boomerdang
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Oct 4, 2006, 02:51 AM
 
I got a "refreshed" macbook from the apple store-- which I believe is the exact same thing as refurbished except that it comes with the original box too. it was $980 and tax. it's a week 33 and works great.
     
cruisereg
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Oct 4, 2006, 01:55 PM
 
Something else to keep in mind is if you plan on using the free warranty feature of your credit card to extend your warranty, you generally need to purchase new stock. I've used this feature a few times of my American Express and they pay fairly quickly (the purchase price of the item). Just an FYI...
2GHz MacBook w/2Gb RAM & 120Gb disk
     
scoot
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Oct 4, 2006, 02:48 PM
 
Originally Posted by boomerdang
I got a "refreshed" macbook from the apple store-- which I believe is the exact same thing as refurbished except that it comes with the original box too. it was $980 and tax. it's a week 33 and works great.
Nope, a refreshed MacBook is not a refurbished MacBook. A refreshed unit was returned for non-technical reasons to the Apple Retail Store from which it was purchased. Refreshing it simply involves making sure all the accessories are there, and wiping/restoring the hard drive. If a Mac is returned to the ARS because it has hardware issues, it gets returned to the mothership to go through the refurbishment process (or bravely give up its parts so that others may live).

Of course, not all refreshed Macs are actually refreshed. I bought my refresh from one of the Portland area stores. I didn't bother to check if the drive had been restored, since I planned on doing so myself anyway. Sure enough, I opened it up to find someone's cartoon monkey desktop, along with all their personal files and such. Whoops.
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zerroeffect
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Oct 4, 2006, 03:22 PM
 
My refurb Macbook Pro works fine, though I had to repair the disk after I wondered why things were not very snappy compared to my aging XP box. Turned out there was a lot to fix. After that, everything worked fine.

Some annoying cosmetic issues such as the tilted keys, buckling of the aluminum above the latch button, and paint chipping on the bevel under the lower keys of the keyboard. All were fixed under warranty by the Apple Store, including replacing the entire top case. It has since chipped again, which I put down to extremely poor design, not used product.

Refurb and save money.
     
barang
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Oct 6, 2006, 03:48 PM
 
I've always been a big fan of refurbs. I've bought at least three, probably closer to four refurbished Apple computers with no problems at all. This last time I was not so fortunant, though. I got a refurb iBook (cheapest Mac laptop you can get right now--750$ or so) and it arrived with a bad logic board or something. All I know is that it randomly freezes with wierd colors on the screen every couple of minutes. So I took it to CompUSA for fixing, and have not yet heard back from them. It's been 3 weeks (several days longer than the promised 7 to 14 days) and my iBook still isn't fixed. I had hoped that refurbs wouldn't have problems like this, due to their careful refurbishing, but I guess I was wrong. And now its been over a month since I ordered the computer and still nothing to use for college. .

It's an isolated incedent, I know, I just had to have the cathartic experience of telling people about it.
"But the beauty of Grace is that it makes life not fair."

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