Refurbished Macs - Bargain or Hell in Shiny White Box?
Psstt, there's a secret for getting cheap Macs. Apple has had up on their website for a while now, refurbished computers that are either the same specification, or slightly less than the machines currently on offer, but with great discounts. A Mac Pro for example, is only $3350, where as new, it is $4000 - for the exact same machine.
Apple also offers these to resellers. What happens is that all the eligible resellers enter an online auction site run by Apple, who list all the stock they have to sell with a reserve price. All the resellers bid on the items in a blind auction and the shop that bids the most for it wins. The stock is then shipped out to them and the reseller sells it with their margin on top.
All the machines marked as refurbished come from Apple's selection of DOA computers. A DOA computer is one that was returned to Apple by a customer who had issues with the machine within the first 14 days from it's purchase. The Mac may have failed to boot up, could have had no sound, could have kernel panicked every 10 minutes, it's USB ports could have failed, the list goes on. If there's anything wrong with a Mac within 14 days, the customer can get a new one, no questions asked. This collection of returned Macs make up the bulk of refurbished stock. Sometimes they are ex-demo machines from resellers, as well as superseded models.
Those computers do end up somewhere, as just throwing them in the bin would be a waste. Someone at Apple takes a look at the computer, checks out what is wrong with it, fixes it, tests it and gets it ready to sell again via the refurb system.
A full 12 month warranty is applied to these refurbished Macs, but they do not come with any phone support (a brand new Mac has 90 days phone support). You can however purchase AppleCare, and receive an extra 2 years warranty (bumping it up to 3 years total) and a full compliment of phone support (3 years in total from purchase date). You don't need to purchase the AppleCare at the time of purchase however, although this used to be the case.
iPods are also included in this, and there are some serious bargains to be had. $44 for an iPod Shuffle (512mb, first generation), 20GB click-wheel iPods for $149, 30gb iPod Video for $279 - very cheap stuff! The same stuff as the Macs applies to iPods. They're ex-faulty units Apple has repaired and resold. A 1 year warranty is also included (as well as the option to get AppleCare for your iPod to bump it up to 2 years warranty).
In my experience, I haven't seen many problems with refurbished machines, as the main problem with them has been rectified by Apple and tested by a human, so chances are it will be working out of the box with little surprises. Sometimes they are not in perfect cosmetic condition, as they have been handled by a few people (the person who bought the machine in the first place, and a couple of techs who fixed it), but most of the time, they look just like new.
If you're after a Mac or an iPod on the cheap, but good as new, take a look at the refurbished products - whatever you may think of buying a resurrected iPod or Mac, you can't deny the value for money.
Where to Shop for Refurb Gear: Frequency, Computers Now, NextByte, Official Apple Online Store (that's all I know of - post in the comments if you know of any more!)
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