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patankar · Oct 28, 2004, 08:51 PM

Hi All,
Newbie and yet-to-be macster here. As part of my switch, I would (urgently!) like a few questions answered! I was thinking of purchasing a refurbished 15"PB.
1. I would like to know if any of you fellow members own refurbs..if so...any comments/likes/dislikes?
2. Do they come with cosmetic blemishes? The apple site says"fully functional" (which I am sure is true) but nothing about the cosmetics.
3. Also, I read on this forum that one member got more than he/she expected (better HD, 128MB VRAM etc). Is this more the exception than the rule?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!!! Thanks!

lAwrencex · Oct 28, 2004, 08:58 PM

i've never had anything but a good experience by buying refurbished. the prices are all significantly lower than new and they still come with the one year warranty. there can be blemishes but nothing you'd really notice or wouldn't have done to it yourself in a few weeks or so anyway. in fact, i just ordered a refurb 15 inch. i should have it in a few days. good luck with your decision.

drmcnutt · Oct 29, 2004, 01:02 PM

Originally posted by patankar:
Hi All,
Newbie and yet-to-be macster here. As part of my switch, I would (urgently!) like a few questions answered! I was thinking of purchasing a refurbished 15"PB.
1. I would like to know if any of you fellow members own refurbs..if so...any comments/likes/dislikes?
2. Do they come with cosmetic blemishes? The apple site says"fully functional" (which I am sure is true) but nothing about the cosmetics.
3. Also, I read on this forum that one member got more than he/she expected (better HD, 128MB VRAM etc). Is this more the exception than the rule?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!!! Thanks!

I just got one from Apple last week and it was in mint condition. It was advertised as 17% off, but the computer came with upgrades everywhere and I don't think the math was correct (512 Memory on one chip, 128 Vram, 5400 80GB hard drive). I am extremely pleased with the computer so far.

Voch · Oct 29, 2004, 03:10 PM

Buy. I know I say this every time a refurbished PowerBook topic comes up but I'll say it again: still chuggin' along with my refurb Tibook 667/DVI I bought back in February 2003.

Voch

DeathToWindows · Oct 29, 2004, 04:23 PM

Buy it. New PB here & Refurb g5... perfect!

ism · Oct 29, 2004, 04:40 PM

12" rev B powerbook. Very happy. Not even a scratch, no dead pixels. The only problem I had was with the power adaptor which was iffy and stopped working after two days. Got it replaced under warranty though.

I'd do it again, some great bargains to be had.

jman · Oct 29, 2004, 04:43 PM

I bought a 15 inch 1.5GHz Refurb and when i recieved it the metal above the slot loading cd/dvd drive looked like a car ran over it. A CD would not load without touching the metal of the computer case. Apple said that i would have to return it for a repair. They shipped me a broken computer and want me to send it back to them and it would take 2-4 week to repar. WTF I finally got them to take it back as a return and they were to send me a new one. After three days pass i called Apple and asked were my account stood and they said my credit card was to be credited and no computer was being sent out. They have some major problem at the apple store. I would buy a laptop from a third party seller that offers an extended warrenty where you can return the product with no questions like target or bestbuy or amazon.

just so you know i have had Macs for 10 years now and i would never use a PEECEE. But Apple service SUCKS

nedlohs · Oct 29, 2004, 05:02 PM

I have purchased two refurbs from Apple. An eMac for my kids and a G5 2GHZ this last summer. The eMac is now 2 years old and running fine. The G5 was quoted with a 160GB hard drive, and 512mb of RAM. I got a 150GB drive and 1GB of RAM! Needless to say, I was happy!

The G5 did not work out of the box, but it was just the fact that the video card was not seated properly (I noticed it and just made sure it was properly seated). I don't know if my experience (extra stuff!) is common or not with only a sample size of 2! Hope this helps.

SteveTech · Oct 29, 2004, 06:03 PM

At the beginning of the month I got a refurbished 14" ibook 1.2GHz from Apple. After it arrived I was pleasantly surprised to find that it came with a superdrive and not the combo drive as advertised. So far so good, no issues, no problems.

You can now order that same computer (refurbished) for $200 less then what I paid for it four weeks ago.

-Steve

rezEdit · Oct 29, 2004, 08:04 PM

I purchased a refurbished 15" PowerBook 80GB/512MB/SuperDrive just a couple of weeks ago, and aside from the ugly brown box it came in I am very happy with the machine. There is only one problem: just above the latch release switch on the front of the machine the aluminum is separated a bit from the body of the machine. A minor annoyance.

Upon hearing of my good fortune, a friend of mine purchased a refurbished 17" PowerBook and while his arrived in much worse condition (a few scratches, and lots of blemishes that mostly rubbed out) he is mostly pleased with the machine. He complains constantly about how the lids don't latch tight to the lower part of the body and wobble though. This is more of an issue on the 17" but it happens on all models as far as I can tell. It doesn't bother me but it drives him crazy.

All in all I would say the discount is probably worth any potential problems you might have with the machine once you get it.

iREZ · Oct 29, 2004, 08:14 PM

Hey.....another Rez!!!

deckard97 · Oct 29, 2004, 09:38 PM

anybody know if there's an apple refurb store for canada?

patankar · Oct 29, 2004, 10:17 PM

Hi All,

Thanks so much for your replies. After having thought long and hard about it, I decided not to buy the 15" refurb that Apple is selling for 2099.I know this is a great deal. However, I decided to buy the 1.25 15" model from a private party for 1700(USD) plus shipping and escrow. I think I will be happy with that. I did not realize that with tax (around 8%), the refurb is another 167 dollars! I thank you all once again for your inputs. The good news is that when I do get my PB, I will be a switcher...finally!!

Scoo · Oct 29, 2004, 10:32 PM

I bought a refurb 15 AlBook 1.25 Ghz in March of this year. Aside from one dead pixel (which I have to look hard to find) it is flawless. It's wonderful, I love my PowerBook and saved US$500 too.

Crusoe · Oct 30, 2004, 01:24 AM

Bought a Rev A 17", came in perfect condition, no apparent use. My next mac will be a refurb from the Apple store, can't beat the savings with a 1 year Apple warranty.

The only problem is the battery would drop from 31 to 0 and not allow it to go to sleep properly. After using it 6 months like that I had the battery replaced for free under warranty.

rezEdit · Oct 30, 2004, 01:39 AM

Originally posted by patankar:
Hi All,

Thanks so much for your replies. After having thought long and hard about it, I decided not to buy the 15" refurb that Apple is selling for 2099.I know this is a great deal. However, I decided to buy the 1.25 15" model from a private party for 1700(USD) plus shipping and escrow. I think I will be happy with that. I did not realize that with tax (around 8%), the refurb is another 167 dollars! I thank you all once again for your inputs. The good news is that when I do get my PB, I will be a switcher...finally!!

I hope this is not from Amazon.com! There is a guy there who is a scammer and he usually has about 3-6 listings under that 'book (I know, because I started to buy from him and regularly watched for activity from him after finding out he was a scammer). He lists some with reasonable prices and lately he has been listing some at VERY low prices. Too good to be true.

He always uses weird yahoo email addresses (or other web-based email addresses) and usually asks that you bypass the Amazon Marketplace and deal with a different company (and eventually he will send an email appearing to be from that company, which asks you to pay by Western Union, something the actual website for the service says you should never do, and should report to them, which I did). He also uses very poor English, and while the postings suggest it will ship from within the US, he later tells you it's shipping from Europe or somewhere else.

One of his somewhat reasonable (believable) prices is $1699 ($1700) which is why I posted regarding this. Buyer beware!

patankar · Oct 30, 2004, 01:52 PM

No, this guy seems fine. I have spoken with him over the phone. We are going thru escrow. Seems genuine! Thanks for the heads up though ...u guys are great.

Robertk2012 · Oct 31, 2004, 06:50 PM

Let me know how it goes. I turned him in to amazon multiple times. Finally amazon told me to quit bothering them even though his post were removed everytime I turned him in. He uses multiple names a emails so something is fishy.