Apple Refurbished products?

ive had a couple of their products. go for it!

If there's a refurb on the shelf, I'll always go for it as apposed to a "new" one.

After all, most refurbs were all shipped as "new" at one time and returned due to some flaw and repaired, so "new" doesn't always equal dependable.

My 2 cents.

Formerly being involved with Apple, I can tell you a lot of those "refurbs" are actually just machines that had the boxes opened or were sent to people who returned them when they realized they couldn't afford them. They're brand new machines, but Apple can't sell them as "new". That said, I never recommend buying older models - if you're going with a refurb, try to get a model they are currently selling or were selling in the past year - not one from 2 years back or something. Generally Apple doesn't sell the real old ones, but 3rd party outlets like MacMall do.

Don't do it! I have purchased two in the last 18 months and had serious issues with both. BOTH WERE PURCHASED DIRECTLY FROM APPLE.
(1) I bought a REFURB MacBook Air in March, 2009. Seemed to work ok, but got really hot and the fan sounded bad. To shorten this story up, I sold my MacBook PRO, forcing me to use the Air for presentations. Hooked it up to a VGA projector and nothing. I had purchased the Apple Care so the MacBook Air ended up going to Apple's Houston facility TWICE. They sent it back the first time without even contacting me as they said it was ok... Ended up getting a logic board and a few other parts (fan and something else).
(2) Bought an iMac in May of this year. Never quite worked right out of the box. Contacted support and was told it was a software problem. I am quite competent and had already done an erase/partition and reinstall of OS X. Ended up doing this three times. Finally got them to send a FedEx label and shipped it to the Apple store (closest one is 4.5 hours away). Sure enough, bad hard drive (just as I'd told them from the start). No Apple Care on this one, but I held their feet to the fire as a new computer should work and they advertise a one year warranty.
SO, that is my experience with refurbs. I'll never buy another one. Yes, I saved $200 on the iMac, but easily spent 30-40 hours on the phone, reinstalling, rebooting when it would slowly freeze up, etc. REFURBS ARE NOT WORTH IT! The Apple tech support is not that good, and they'll run simple diagnostics and pronounce the unit good. Both of the issues I encountered were buried a little deeper, and some users may not have even known that the problems existed. Trouble is things usually get worse.
I love Apple products, but will not buy refurbished again. AND NEVER, NEVER BUY A REFURB FROM A NON-MFR STORE OR WEBSITE - THEY GET THE JUNK!

ya know, its funny. i find that some people have a way of making computer problems for themselves.

either through too much noodling around, bad life (or past life) karma or maybe their bodies produce anomalous magnetic energy. but there are two people i know that every computer they buy goes a little wonky sooner or... sooner.

When it comes to Apple products, I think most problems are either incredibly minor or users who don't know what they're doing. Outside of one drive going bad in my powerbook, I've never had any problems with a Mac. When I worked for an Apple dealer, the biggest service "problem" was customers who poured coffee in their keyboard.

BTW, I just bought my new machine this afternoon. The rep gave me a break on a new one that brought the cost down to basically the same price as the refurb I was considering - except my new one has maxed out RAM, a faster hard drive and the antiglare monitor (approx $600 worth of extras). Just a heads-up before you go the refurb route - you might want to talk directly to an actual sales person first and see what they'll do for you.

I bought a refurbished iMac 24" a couple years ago and it's overall been a great machine. My only beef with it is it's Airport connection seems to have become progressively worse. I really can't put my finger on why it's been behaving so bad, but, well, yeah.

It's definitely the Airport connection on the iMac... I tested a wireless connection with my old PowerBook G4 and it was lightning fast sitting on the same desk as my choppy-connection iMac. Weird.

In any case, I've since arranged a direct connection through ethernet with my router, so no more internet connectivity problems.

But as far as how the rest of the machine operates, it's just fine. I love it and would probably purchase another refurb again in the future. I honestly never thought that some refurbs could be opened, yet unused new returns.

Wow, some folks seem to know everything and how everyone ought to do it!
1) The MacBook Air is a great computer IF the priority is portability. I personally DO NOT want to carry around a 17" MBP. A MBA was not meant to be your only computer.
2) The inference that every problem on a MAC is from a stupid user or is minor is ludicrous and ignorant. First off, if the computer is not working perfectly, it has a problem! Also, I am an experienced user and my two MAC refurb purchases had a) BAD LOGIC BOARD and COOLING FAN - major problems, and b) bad HARD DRIVE out of the box. This is the crux of the issue with a refurb - the Apple diagnostics DID NOT catch any of these defects. It is illogical to say that refurbs are better than new purchases, as I've heard some say. I'll increase my odds of trouble-free computing by purchasing new ones from now on.

TO Monkey1979 -- yeah, sounds like your dad didn't know how to raise a respectful CHILD either. If you live long enough, maybe you'll garner some social skills and humility.

Isnt it strange how a computer company that sells "THEE" top of the line, never crash, never break, highest quality computers in the world sells refurbished computers? Talk to the Apple people!
ookisa

i bought my G4 powerbook refurbished. it only cost me $500 and since i didn't really need the latest and greatest laptop, it was a perfect solution for me. i have only had it a year, so no, nothing has gone wrong with it so far. (knock on wood)

i find that some people have a way of making computer problems for themselves.

I bought a refurb 13" Macbook Pro from Apple site. Same warranty as new. Works great no problems.