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AndrewP · Aug 21, 2004, 04:40 PM

Hi All,

I'm considering the purchase of a refurbished (now "Apple Certified") 12" PB/Combo from the Apple Website. This will be a second laptop for the times that I want to carry a truly portable mac. How is the quality of the refurbished PowerBooks? I recently took delivery of a refurb G5 and am very happy with it, but am concerned that some of the common 12" PB issues would be more common in a refurb unit. I'm especially worried about the warped case problem...

Does anyone out there have some positive or negative experiences to share regarding refurbished powerbooks from the apple store?

Given the current price @ amazon, shipping, and sales tax I'm looking at an $85 difference between the refurbished unit and a brand new one.

Thanks!
-Andrew

spatterson · Aug 21, 2004, 11:11 PM

Originally posted by AndrewP:
Hi All,

I'm considering the purchase of a refurbished (now "Apple Certified") 12" PB/Combo from the Apple Website. This will be a second laptop for the times that I want to carry a truly portable mac. How is the quality of the refurbished PowerBooks? I recently took delivery of a refurb G5 and am very happy with it, but am concerned that some of the common 12" PB issues would be more common in a refurb unit. I'm especially worried about the warped case problem...

Does anyone out there have some positive or negative experiences to share regarding refurbished powerbooks from the apple store?

Given the current price @ amazon, shipping, and sales tax I'm looking at an $85 difference between the refurbished unit and a brand new one.

Thanks!
-Andrew

Personally at 85 bucks, I would go get the new one!

shatten22 · Aug 21, 2004, 11:33 PM

refrubished is good for saving you money, and 85 bucks could get you a memory upgrade.

but (and this being completely off topic here) I would get an new 12inch ibook. The money you save is pretty substantial and the performance difference is negligable. price it yourself with all the upgrades, you'll find you are paying quite a bit for a silver case, fw800 and .33 megahertz bump.

g

AndrewP · Aug 22, 2004, 12:41 AM

Originally posted by shatten22:
refrubished is good for saving you money, and 85 bucks could get you a memory upgrade.

but (and this being completely off topic here) I would get an new 12inch ibook. The money you save is pretty substantial and the performance difference is negligable. price it yourself with all the upgrades, you'll find you are paying quite a bit for a silver case, fw800 and .33 megahertz bump.

g

Both systems are the current Rev C (1.33GHz) model. So it really comes down to an issue of reliability....

MrForgetable · Aug 22, 2004, 12:47 AM

The 12" iBook only comes in 1GHz

AndrewP · Aug 22, 2004, 12:55 AM

Originally posted by MrForgetable:
The 12" iBook only comes in 1GHz

Yes... but I'm talking about a 12" Rev C refurb powerbook from Apple or a new 12" Rev C from amazon. The question is... is it worth it to save $85 and get a refurb or spend the extra and get a new one...

Thanks,
-Andrew

siflippant · Aug 22, 2004, 09:58 AM

Originally posted by AndrewP:
Yes... but I'm talking about a 12" Rev C refurb powerbook from Apple or a new 12" Rev C from amazon. The question is... is it worth it to save $85 and get a refurb or spend the extra and get a new one...

Thanks,
-Andrew

It's a no-brainer... get the new PB

StevenWRX · Aug 22, 2004, 11:51 AM

get the new one for a $85 dollar savings..

duh!

tungtied07 · Aug 22, 2004, 12:32 PM

Originally posted by StevenWRX:
get the new one for a $85 dollar savings..

duh!

But wouldn't a refurb one have a higher chance of not being DOA or have any issues? Because I think refurbs have already been used by someone and got returned for a problem. Then Apple fixes it and tests it over again.
I thought a "new" one has never been used (duh), but there is a higher chance of failure beacuse it hasn't really been tested and "used" before...

Personally, I would get a new one, because I rather take the chance than getting a refub. If the refurb was a big chance in savings, I would get it, but only $85? I would think about it more.

StevenWRX · Aug 22, 2004, 12:39 PM

to me its kinda like buying a car from a hail damage sale.

you save money, but something was messed up on it, and not something minor.

but im just a paranoid person.

good luck

russellh1961 · Aug 22, 2004, 12:44 PM

After reading positive experiences with refurbed equipment from Apple I purchased a refurbed 15" PB from Apple. Unfortunately the one I recieved was more like a demo unit. It had several scratches on the bottom, the screen was durty, and you could see the palm rest was used quite a bit. The unit worked just fine but cosmetically more like a demo unit.

I called apple care and asked if this was ok for a refurb unit and he said definately not. I returned the unit (at Apple's expense) and purchased a brand new unit.

StevenWRX · Aug 22, 2004, 12:57 PM

that was nice of apple to take care of you like that.

Good luck with your new 15" pb purchase.

MrForgetable · Aug 22, 2004, 01:05 PM

Originally posted by AndrewP:
Yes... but I'm talking about a 12" Rev C refurb powerbook from Apple or a new 12" Rev C from amazon. The question is... is it worth it to save $85 and get a refurb or spend the extra and get a new one...

Thanks,
-Andrew

just letting you know what the guy before you was talking about.

Randman · Aug 22, 2004, 01:20 PM

I agree with the poster who said iBook. There's nothing to sneeze about a G4 iBook running 1Ghz. Get a 512 or 1GB stick of ram and you'll be doing well, especially (as the original poster) said, the new book would a secondary Mac and be for portable usage.
The extra battery time and the iBook being pretty rugged are also worth considering.

jewing80 · Aug 22, 2004, 02:31 PM

After reading many positive experiences I purchased a refurbished 1.25 GHz 15" Powerbook in February. Upon initial inspection the exterior appear to be in good enough shape, the bottom case had a couple scratches and the battery seemed to sit a bit incorrectly; all in all it seemed acceptable. That all changed when I opened the screen.

I immediately noticed the right palm rest had sprung up and there was a 2 mm gap between the palm rest and the bottom case. I hoped that pushing the palm rest down would cause the plastic latches to engage and correct the problem. Unfortunately it did nothing, in fact I could actually lift the entire right side of the top plate up enough to look at the superdrive. It was obvious the person who put this machine back together, and more importantly the "final inspection" either didn't care or just plain didn't notice this obvious defect.

I called Apple and was told I would have to send the unit in for service, at that point I was leery of their quality and asked for a replacement, I was told that was not an option. I then asked for a refund and was told that would be impossible, I could return it but I would have to pay the restocking fee. One strongly worded letter and two days latter there was a DHL driver at my house to pick up the Powerbook; fortunately I was refunded the entire amount and received a fairly nice apology letter from Apple.

Is my experience indicative of the overall refurbish program? Absolutely not. But I think it is illustrative of issues that you might run into. Even at a couple hundred dollars savings I personally would steer clear. For some one who is on an extremely tight budget, and is either lucky or very patient refurbs always have potential to be a very good value. One piece of advice for anyone who can wait: refurbished Powerbook prices always get a lot more lucrative just before a new revision is released. In February there were even reports of several people getting new, retail boxed units (no refurbished serial number) as Apple was trying to clear out stock before the 1.5 push.

Hope this helps!
Jacob

AndrewP · Aug 22, 2004, 05:43 PM

Originally posted by MrForgetable:
just letting you know what the guy before you was talking about.

Duh... me read good...

thanks for pointing that out. The original post went right over my head

AndrewP · Aug 22, 2004, 05:50 PM

Originally posted by Randman:
I agree with the poster who said iBook. There's nothing to sneeze about a G4 iBook running 1Ghz. Get a 512 or 1GB stick of ram and you'll be doing well, especially (as the original poster) said, the new book would a secondary Mac and be for portable usage.
The extra battery time and the iBook being pretty rugged are also worth considering.

Yeah, I took a long, hard look at the iBook... Unfortunately the addition of a larger drive, an Airport card and bluetooth capabilities pushed it into the $1300 range. At that point the 12" isn't much further off. I'm still kicking around the idea as I did really like my G3 icebook...

Voch · Aug 22, 2004, 06:15 PM

I'm still using my refurb TiBook 667 DVI, purchased February 2003 from the Apple Store, as my main machine and it's still great. The only repair work I've ever had was the loose power connector...Apple fixed it with 3 days of total turnaround. About 6 months into ownership I got AppleCare for it. My Athlon is just for MAME and overnight downloads.

Voch

shatten22 · Aug 23, 2004, 01:13 AM

Originally posted by AndrewP:
Yeah, I took a long, hard look at the iBook... Unfortunately the addition of a larger drive, an Airport card and bluetooth capabilities pushed it into the $1300 range. At that point the 12" isn't much further off. I'm still kicking around the idea as I did really like my G3 icebook...

wait... you were originally talking about saving $85. The difference between an ibook loaded and a powerbook 12" is $300! That's $300 that you can put towards memory, an external hard drive, a sandwich, anything.

And the only difference is a video card and .33 in megahertz.

Look again. If this is a second computer, I think the ibook will do you much better performance to price-wise and the battery life is pretty killer. And, IMHO, it looks better and stronger than the mini powerbooks.

-g

AndrewP · Aug 23, 2004, 01:27 AM

Originally posted by shatten22:
wait... you were originally talking about saving $85. The difference between an ibook loaded and a powerbook 12" is $300! That's $300 that you can put towards memory, an external hard drive, a sandwich, anything.

And the only difference is a video card and .33 in megahertz.

Look again. If this is a second computer, I think the ibook will do you much better performance to price-wise and the battery life is pretty killer. And, IMHO, it looks better and stronger than the mini powerbooks.

-g

ibook (BTO) $1300 + tax + shipping = 1430
PB $1519 + shipping = 1540

Difference between ibook and refurb PB = $25
Difference between ibook and new PB = $110
Difference between refurb PB and new PB = $85

I qualify for an EDU discount, but have already purchased under the program this year (G5). According to apple store I can now only purchase one system per year (portable or desktop) whereas I could get one of each in the past. I'm considering entering the order to see what happens... It doesn't make much difference on the PB since the deal through amazon is still better. On a BTO ibook (60GB, AE, BT), however, I'll save about $340 once tax and shipping are taken into account