Pros and Cons of buying refurbished?

Hi Matt,

While personal experiences with refurbs may differ, there are several distinct advantages. Namely, much lower price, the ability to obtain full AppleCare, and the fact that the refurb has been looked-over an additional time with troublesome parts replaced.

And, yes, I'm a happy owner of a refurb.

Cheers.

I doubt the failure rate of refurbished is any worse. It has to do with what "refurbished" means. Machines can be returned to Apple for reasons having nothing to do with parts failure. Sometimes they are just open-box items. They can literally be "good as new." In addition, they go through Apple quality control a second time before being resold, which is actually one more quality check than a "new" product gets.

I would feel comfortable buying refurbished. The only data point I have is my friend who bought a refurbished PowerBook over a year ago. It's still running and she has had no issues, so in that case the success rate is 100%.

I too deabted on buying a MacBook Pro or a PB15 and opted for the PB15 mainly due to my use of Adobe Creative Suite and Final Cut Pro Studio. I did not want to spend the extra cash for upgrades and tinker with a first generation laptop.

On the day I was about to place the order I was shocked to see that the PB15's were missing from the store! At first I thought it was a cruel joke being placed on by a higher being but realized it was true.

It was at this point I took the plunge to buy into a refurb'ed PB15/hi res model for $1599. I felt the $500 savings from buying a newer one would be incentive enough. I've now had my new PB...oops refurb'ed PB for a few days now and I could'nt be happier.

Cosmetically the PB looked new (I've owned a PB12 new previously) and I was very pleasently surprised to find that Apple had upgraded the HD from 80 to 100gb for me and instead of a preinstalled 512 mb or ram I had 1gb! I just now installed an additonal 1gb of Samsung ram purchased on ebay for $95!

Point being...buy into the PB15, refurb'ed or not and enjoy it's capabilities until you actually max them out...I know I have'nt.

NEF

I ordered a refurb 15" PB today from the UK Apple site.
Dont know what the difference is compared to some of the others but my one will take 8 days to ship as opposed to 24hrs for some of the others.
Anybody any idea why this would be.

Cheers
Dave

Hi Did you buy direct from apple refurbished?
I am thinking of getting a laptop but need to run windows programs. Is it wishful thinking to hope they will have an Intel inside already so I can dual boot?
If wishes were apples I would have an orchard by now!
Shirley

Bought a refurb about 4 days ago got it the next day! (that was very fast). Anyways it came in pristine condition and there was no way you could tell it was a refurb if i showed it to you. Apple even upgraded my Hard Drive from the advertised 80GB to a 100GB 7.2RPM drive!.

However mine had the infamous line issue of which i had to send it in for repairs and now its back without the lines....a totally new screen!. I couldn't be happier considering the price i paid for it was HALF of that of my MBP (which i'm in the process of getting rid of).

I don't think you would be dissapinted with a refurb plus you have the standard 14-day return policy to thoroughly test it out.

HI! El presidente, Yes I knew about the BootCamp, but was wondering if it was wishful thinking to hope for a Mac with intel to be in refurbished already. I will keep an eye on the Refurbished site.
thanks

I am guessing you got it through the Apple site, not 2nd chance or similar?
Is that the best way to go! the other site said they had only 6 month guarantee! I was worried by that.
Warm dishes
Shirley

Actually a week ago there were several MacBook Pros & Intel iMacs available for sale as refurbs from my local store (regent street) it was funny as they were virtually flying off shelves.

Yes there are already refurb intel macs available so keep an eye out

I will have to keep an eye out at Bluewater, though I have yet to see any refurbs there.
I can't get to Regent street. 😟
I will just have to be patient I think.
I like the battery life on ibooks but hUbby runs windows and his pocket may not stretch to the newest Ibook even at discount.......BooHoo. I don't know what to do!!!!!

I too opted for a refurb 15" 1.67 DL. Bought mine from an online vendor in order to avoid paying tax. Mine has a just perceptible horizontal line issue in the upper left corner only. You have to load one of the test images to see it clearly. I am trying to make up my mind whether to return to vendor or get Apple to place the screen.

Other than this the unit arrived flawless. None of the other gremlins have popped up, the wireless is 100%, no freezes, wakes from sleep instantly and the battery so far reports more than 100% capacity. This is the second refurb Mac and numerous refurb iPods I have purchased and they have all been perfect.

15" 1.67ghz G4 DL Powerbook, 12" 1.33ghz G4 Powerbook, 20" 1.8ghz G5 iMac Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Apple is still required to stand behind and service their products regardless of buying direct or through one of their authorized vendors. Since the horizontal lines is a known problem and the part number to repair it is pretty well known, you should be able to request the same service regardless of where you purchased it.

15" 1.67ghz G4 DL Powerbook, 12" 1.33ghz G4 Powerbook, 20" 1.8ghz G5 iMac Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Mine also had the line issue, i was deciding whether to keep it over the MBP so i made a deal, if apple successfully repaired the line issue...i'd get rid of the MBP in a heartbeat.

To my surprise, apple actually fixed my line issue and the MBP was taken off me the next day on eBay and now i have the machine i've always wanted, pristine and with no issues so far....i am happy.

El Presidente: Could you give me your thought process of keeping the PB vs the MBP. I love the PB but some of the more recent developments with Boot Camp etc. have been giving me second thoughts about keeping current with the Intel machine. Although my more recent thoughts have been that I would keep the PB for straight OSX and upgrade my iMac to the Intel version where the hard-drive is more practical for a double partition.

15" 1.67ghz G4 DL Powerbook, 12" 1.33ghz G4 Powerbook, 20" 1.8ghz G5 iMac Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Its up to you. You have two systems so i think your decision should be easier. I only have one and personally i'm just not ready for the MBP or intel transition yet. I need everything to work without hoping all my apps are universal or anything like that. Plus i hated the fact that i had to launch a mirror widget to curtail my MBP's whining (My GF whines enough as it is).

There were several issues for me, such as, the MBP lacked Dual Layer/8X burning, the screen on my hi-res PB i found was even better than my MBP (which was a lil dim and yellowish) and battery life was subpar to my PB

The only issue my PB had was the line issue and since it was fixed...it was a no brainer so i got rid of the MBP and decided i'll wait till future revisions.....basically i'm waiting till leopard and iLife 07 are shipping on machines. When that time comes i'll be more than glad to get a MBP preferrably a 17" version. Also i get to hold on to a historical machine...believe it or not the PB is now a classic.

However, if you absolutely have to get an intel machine now...the iMac would be a wiser choice, because you get a faster/more spacious drive and a real superdrive. Plus it's a desktop, so there is a better sense of "freedom and peace of mind as its less prone to problems and apparently you can even upgrade processors from say a 1.83 or 2.0 to the high end 2.16 processor as it is socket based.