Apple Refurbished Computers?

[JCG]

Good or bad experiences with Apple refirbished computers, specifically the iMacs? Please reply with your opinions.

[akheron01]

Originally posted by JCG
Please reply with your opinions.

Aw shoot, and here I was going to reply with someone ELSES opinions

Personally I've had phenomenal experiences with refurbished Apple hardware, I think I've only bought a new machine once.

[JCG]

Well, someone elses opinions would be welcome as well. I'm really itching to get ahold of a new computer, my 450 Cube is really showing its age, but I'm bulking at paying full price on a 20" iMac due to other financial obligations.

[satchmo]

Well, I'm 2 for 3 on refurbished stuff.

1) Way way way back I picked up a 5gb iPod which was absolutely perfect.

2) Last year I picked up a G5 iMac 20" which had two nicks on the edge of the casing plus parts of the exterior had quite a few swirl scratches. Not entirely noticible, but bothersome to me. So, I returned it.

3) Picked up an Intel Core Duo iMac 20" last week at the local Apple Store. It was a returned item. Fortunately I was able to open the box to inspect it. It was perfect and has been running smoothly since day one.

Not sure if this is the norm, but I got an extra 2 year warranty thrown in because the product was a refurbished item.

[Guartho]

I'm posting this from a refurb 1.9 iMac G5. It's the heart of my newly birthed video company. I've done lots of editing and DVD burning on it for about 2 months now and it's been perfect.

[SHAPIRO2]

I've got a 1 month old PowerBook 1.67GHz (hi-res version, build Nov. 05) & this thing rocks! I just switched over to Mac & this was a "cheaper" option than getting a new product. Got it for $1,599 (however I've added $600 worth of goodies & RAM) on Apple's site & very pleased. Absolutely nothing wrong with how it looks or operates. Came w/ a new battery, too (verified w/ Coconut Battery). I've owned 11 PC laptops & this refurbed PB is as if it were brand spankin' new!

[Xool]

If you want a refurb/open-box item I do suggest getting it at an Apple Retail Store so that if it's defective you have a physical place to take it. I don't know about you, but dealing with AppleCare by mail or shipping computers is a pain.

I haven't personally purchased any refurbs, but when I worked at UC Berkeley's computer store we took very good care of our in-store demo machines and you could get a good deal by purchasing one of those. That said, I personally wouldn't want one. But I have other ways of getting deals and I like new, BTO gear.

[chris v]

My last three Macs have all been refurbs. The first, a Powerbook 1.25 had the "white spot" problem with the display out of the box, and a month later, the video card went bad. I suspect that this machine wasn't actually a refurb, but was overstock, as it didn't ship in a plain brown box, and it was a few weeks before a refresh. Apple turned the repairs in three days, flat.

My G5 dual 2.0 (rev a) has been flawless, as has been my daughter's iBook.

[turbo]

Originally posted by Xool
If you want a refurb/open-box item I do suggest getting it at an Apple Retail Store so that if it's defective you have a physical place to take it. I don't know about you, but dealing with AppleCare by mail or shipping computers is a pain.

I haven't personally purchased any refurbs, but when I worked at UC Berkeley's computer store we took very good care of our in-store demo machines and you could get a good deal by purchasing one of those. That said, I personally wouldn't want one. But I have other ways of getting deals and I like new, BTO gear.

Whoa whoa whoa...
I was under the impression if I bought it from applestore.com and I ever needed a service call I could just take it to my nearest Apple store. If this isn't possible this is a big problem for me. If I buy online I get a ed discount and I can upgrade the vram, can't do that in store.

*Edit* I now see that you were most likely only referring to refurb or open box items. I spoke with apple.com and confirmed that I could take my purchase into my nearest apple store. I was scared for a minute.

[Baron von Smiley]

I was contemplating buying a refurbished intel iMac from the Apple Store but was a little hesitant. After reading this post, I decided to go ahead and risk it. I am so glad that I did. The unit I got was obviously a BTO iMac that was returned because it has a stuck pixel. So for $200 less than retail, I got a computer with an upgraded hard drive and 1g of memory. Oh, and the stuck pixel went away after a couple of days. So so far the refurbished route has been the way to go. The only downside is that it doesn't come in the actual imac box. It was shipped to me in a boring old brown box. It kind of took away from that first opening experience, but then when I saw a 250g hard drive and the ram, I just didn't care about the box anymore.
Thanks for the info.

[jccbin]

I just got a dual 1.8 G5 refurb that has a nasty problem. 2 of the 4 memory slots don't work.

Was going to add 2 GB to the orig 256 MB RAM, but the outer slots gave a POST error when booting the Hardware Test Disk.

Will be sending this unit back for replacement.

[Xool]

Originally posted by turbo
Whoa whoa whoa...
I was under the impression if I bought it from applestore.com and I ever needed a service call I could just take it to my nearest Apple store. If this isn't possible this is a big problem for me. If I buy online I get a ed discount and I can upgrade the vram, can't do that in store.

*Edit* I now see that you were most likely only referring to refurb or open box items. I spoke with apple.com and confirmed that I could take my purchase into my nearest apple store. I was scared for a minute.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure you can take your online orders to a physical Apple store for return. My main point was, if you have to do a return or something, it is far easier to do it at a physical location rather than shipping stuff around again.

This rule applies to Apple Care to some extent too. When I dealt with getting my iPod mini's battery replaced I was without the unit for at least a week and I don't think I received it back in any better condition. At the Apple retail stores however, a Genius replaced the unit immediately and I was able to walk out with a new unit, only having to wait to talk to the Genius. When I have problems I'm always going to deal with it in person from now on, except maybe for laptops if the retail store is just going to ship it off anyhow.

[JeffDM]

I've done pretty well, I bought an iMac G5 and a PowerMac G5. The iMac had some odd small marks on the bottom back radius of the stand's curve, not too noticible, but otherwise in fine shape. Aside from some USB troubles that I think were the fault of Tiger (now fixed), the PowerMac G5 works fine.

I have a refurbished base model MacBook Pro coming in a couple days, we'll see how that goes. I'm surprised that Apple is pushing them out so quickly after initial release, it seems they usually don't have refurbs of a new model for six months or sometimes not until after it's been discontinued.

[JCG]

Well, I went ahead and did it. I bought a refurbished 20" 2 Ghz after carefully comparing it to the new Core 2 Duo's. I'm quite pleased with the purchase. I need to get more memory for it, but the $1199 price for the 20" was hard to beat. The only thing that I have to say that could be considered negative is that the adhesive on the plastic used to protect the aluminum base left a lot of residue. I would defiantly suggest this to someone as a way to save money.

[AllBrain]

No experience on the iMac, but just bought a refurbished 15" 2.16GHz MBP last week (ordered Thursday arrived Friday) from the online Apple store. Aside from not having the actual fancy box, rather a little brown cardboard number the thing has been absolutely perfect, not even a dead pixel on the screen (unlike the Intel iMac I got brand new in January!).

Overall, I'm extremely impressed with the whole business. I'd certainly consider doing it in the future...

[sandau]

I have no problems buying refurb from apple, have done so several times. I'll be doing it again tonight for a macbook pro and happily pay $300-$400 less. Core 2 duo would be nicer but the current model is quite sufficient for my needs and price point.