Apple Certified Refurbished? Would You?

[Catoogie]

How do you feel about the Apple Certified Refurbished stuff? Seems like a good way to save some cash.

[blacklodge ed]

thumbs up. i've purchased a handful of refurbished computers, a couple refurbished ipods and a couple refurbished displays from apple over the years and, aside from a few minor cosmetic flaws, cannot complain. for me, refurbs are the only way to go. happy shopping.

[horacesqueeze]

I got my G5 from this program and she has worked wonderfully for me for over a year now. Plus I saved a good amount of cash.

[pscottm]

refurbs are great. full warranty. if you think about it, usually when something breaks it happens immediately. but w refurbs these probs have been fixed already so you don't have to return it the 2nd day you have it.. one way to look at it.

i know 3 people w refurb'd powerbooks and their machines all look and work like new.

[wszalva]

I bought several Apple computers as refurbs and have not had any problems. What I usually do is buy a refurb as well as the Apple Care extended warranty and it is still well under the cost of a new Mac.

[62junior]

I saved alot on my dual G4 a couple of years ago and it was well worth it, but I always advise AppleCare. I had no problems running OS9 the first year (it's dual boot) but when I finally got around to getting an Ipod I needed to use OSX and it turned out that I had a bad processor and OSX just wouldn't work even though OS9 was fine. I suspect that it had a bad processor from day one but I was already over the 1 year mark. Thank god I had AppleCare, they replaced the Dual Processor in a couple of days and it didn't cost me a penny. I still think I have almost another year of AppleCare too.

Good luck!

ks

[antonlamont45]

i always buy refurbed. i used to beleive that the refubed computers were more thouroughly tested than the new ones until my last dual g5 came DOA. wouldn't even turn on. they replaced it, but it was a PITA. i think it was just bad luck. i would still buy refurbed-can't pass up the good savings.

always get the applecare! there are many things that can go wrong with a computer.

[vibrationlander]

what sources do y'all use? what retailer or outlet sells refurbished macs?

[antonlamont45]

buy from the apple store, special deals section (red tag on the right of the window). thats where you find the refurbed stuff.
here ya go
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/W ... 1.0?101,74

[JES]

another "yes" vote on the Apple refurbs.

[wenzel.hellgren]

refurbs undergo stricter quality control. I dont think anyone is checking every freaking computer that comes off the line, but you can be sure every refurb has been checked out.


or at least, in an ideal world.....

[insta-fame]

i bought a 1.8 single g5 referb. no go from day one. i think perhaps a power supply issue. they replaced almost everything else and it still didn't work right. a bunch of runaround. they eventually took it back. may be isolated case. i put out the extra cash to get a new dual 2.o and have had no problems.

[space_ryerson]

the 1.8 single g5 has had a lot of problems until recently. Apple released a firware update for that model which seems to have cleared up all of the problems associated with that model (for me at least).

[tinycat]

(I also had the G5 1.8ghz SP. I could not wait for the recent firmware fix and sold it to upgrade. But I digress....)

Since refurbs are fully warrantied you can feel pretty confident in purchasing one. Having said that I have had more bad luck with refurbs than I have had with new machines. I had a refurb Titanium Powerbook 800mhz that suffered from a faulty logic board. The machine was replaced by apple with another refurb that had the same problem. That was in turn replaced with a third faulty refurb. I was finally given a new machine. I had similar problems with a refurb ibook. A friend of mine had similar problems with the generation of powerbooks immediately preceding this one.

The amount of time spent, energy, spent, and work lost from dealing with tech support and customer relations was not worth the savings for me. I am no longer confident that I am going to get a quality product if I purchase a refurb. I think there is some risk involved. But you <b>are</b> covered by warranty.