Any Reservations About Buying A Refurbished Macbook?
I bought a refurb MacBook maybe seven years ago, and it did great for five years. Then it died one day, beyond any hope of resuscitation, and the guys at the Genius Bar kind of laughed when I asked if they could do anything for it. That was a little disappointing, but otherwise it was just fine.
I've bought many computers, and I've bought many refurbs. I've never had a problem with a refurb'ed machine. It's the way to go for cheapskates like me.
No experience with Mac refurbs though - if anything you have less to worry about.
Hell. I just bought a lightweight refurb'ed Dell laptop with touch screen and fold-away keyboard for $300 bucks.
We've bought several Apple refurbs and never had a problem (well never any problems that we haven't had with new Apples).
My current laptop is an Apple Cerified refurb. By buying the refurb, I got the upgraded graphics card and twice the drive capacity for approx. $20 more than what was, at that time, the entry-level new machine. The processor speed is one generation older than what I would have gotten on the newer model, but it's faster than me in any event, so....
I will almost certainly never buy brand new again.
I think Apple refurbs are okay. We looked at several over the years. In the end we bought new as I was sending kids off to school/college with them and did to want further hassle for at least 4 years. In my experience, apple genius bar laughs at you if you have anything except this weeks model. That is my only pet peeve about Apple at all and I guess that marketing technique of humiliation coupled with planned obsolescence works. I think I may be the only one without an annual line item on my budget for replacement of electronics, phones and televisions.
onceinawhile said:
In my experience, apple genius bar laughs at you if you have anything except this weeks model. That is my only pet peeve about Apple at all and I guess that marketing technique of humiliation coupled with planned obsolescence works.
I've seen these kinds of comments a lot, but that has never been my experience. I have a 2004 iBook that I've taken in a number of times and they have never been anything other than completely professional. Maybe I've just been lucky.
EDITED TO CLARIFY: The 2004 iBook is not the refurb I mentioned above. My refurb is a 2011 13" MacBook Air (which, so far, I have never had to take in for a Genius appointment).
I got so fed up with the smug attitude of the "genius" bar that I said never again and switched to Apple Certified repair shops. Much more pleasant. Will never go back to the Apple shop again.
You can still purchase the extended 2 year AppleCare warranty on a refurbished model, so I say go for it. You can purchase AppleCare anytime before the 1 year warranty is up, so no need to do it all at once if cost is a concern. I think it is around $180-240, but worth it. I had my original MacBook replaced under AppleCare and made it last from 2006 until I purchased a new one this weekend.
Son is thinking about buying this item. I've never bought a refurbished machine. Any reservations about making such a purchase? Thanks in advance.
Originally released March 201513.3-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen display with support for millions of colors 4GB of 1600MHz LPDDR3 onboard memory 256GB PCIe-based flash storage1 720p FaceTime HD Camera Intel HD Graphics 6000
Apple Certified Refurbished Products- Quality products at great prices- Rigorous refurbishment process prior to sale- Covered by Apple's one-year limited warranty- Covered by Apple's 14-day returns policy- AppleCare Protection Plan can be purchased- Supplies are limited