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Reasons not to buy refurb Mac?

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 George Fisher 19 Apr 2016
I'm not talking about the choice of machine or spec but is there a good reason not to buy a refurb MacBook from Apple and save £200?

It comes with 1 year warranty. Should I buy from John Lewis (or somewhere else) pay full price and get something more for my money. 3 year warranty from JL?

Current MacBook has done 10 years and still works pretty well and will continue to play music in the workshop. I don't intend on changing the new one every couple of years so want to do this once and do it right.

Cheers
 Oujmik 19 Apr 2016
In reply to George Fisher:

No good reason that I'm aware of - lots of seasoned mac users buy refurb. The main reason not to is that some of the newer or more sought-after configurations are like gold dust. If they've got the model you want then go for it.
 Indy 19 Apr 2016
In reply to George Fisher:
> I'm not talking about the choice of machine or spec but is there a good reason not to buy a refurb MacBook from Apple and save £200?

I've never bought phone insurance and saved myself a fortune because I would never have had to make a claim. A colleague smashed his insured phone taking it out of the box. For him insurance has been a very worth while investment over the years.

The same goes for your Mac purchase. You might never need to make a claim and so save £200 but if you do you need to make one it'll be horrifically expensive. The MacBook Pro I'm typing this on has had the screen replaced twice, the logic board and a charging cable also twice all under warranty. Other Mac hardware has been fine.

Personally I'd spend the extra £200 but thats me.
Post edited at 17:11
1
OP George Fisher 19 Apr 2016
In reply to Indy:

I'd be buying refurb from Apple not a 3rd party. I think it comes with the same warranty as non-refurb. I'll check that.

I'm a non phone insurer too. Happy with that gamble as history would suggest I'm not a breaker or loser of things.
 Indy 19 Apr 2016
In reply to George Fisher:

The warranty is 1 year on Apple refurb kit. If John Lewis is offering a 3 year warranty for an extra £200 i.e £100/year it's surely got to be a no-brainer IMHO.

My replaced motherboard was £800ish, the screens £550 each. All of it was replaced after 1 year and due to hardware failures not user damage/neglect.
 Sam W 19 Apr 2016
In reply to George Fisher:

Bought a refurbed Macbook about 9 years ago, and the screen was always a bit dodgy, brightness flickers up and down from time to time. Took it in to get fixed (warranty), but it was an intermittent problem and was inevitably fine all the time they had it, so never got fixed. Suspect the reason this was the reason it was originally returned, so if you go down this route, make sure the one you've got works properly from the off.

If you know anyone who works at a uni they'll get a discount which makes a brand new Mac about the same as a refurbed one.
 tehmarks 19 Apr 2016
In reply to George Fisher:
Another option is to wait until summer; the new Macbook being released may well see prices of the older model drop a fair bit.
Post edited at 20:34
In reply to George Fisher:

Whatever you do, get one with a SSD hard drive.
OP George Fisher 19 Apr 2016
In reply to tehmarks:

More specifically it's a MB pro not a MB I'm looking at.

Yes it will be SSD.

Thanks for opinions.

 Martin W 19 Apr 2016
In reply to George Fisher:

I'm on my second refurnished iMac. My other half now has the first one. At two years and five years old they're both doing fine. The first one had an HDD fault which caused the fans to go in to overdrive but that was fixed under warranty (it was down to a batch of HDDs with faulty temperature sensors). My current one actually turned up with a higher spec (faster processor) than it said on the Apple web site.

And yes, SSD (or, as in the case of my iMac, hybrid) is definitely the way to go.
 ben b 20 Apr 2016
In reply to George Fisher:

Retina screen or not?

Hard to go back to Mrs B's 2011 MBA after using my 2015 rMBP. If you haven't used a retina screen, keep it that way for as long as possible non-retina MBPs are relatively cheap.

Beware new MBPs have soldered RAM, so get a minimum of 8Gb rather than 4Gb if possible. If the SSD is smaller it isn't the end of the world as they can easily be replaced in new MBAs and MBPs.

Even better, get someone who can get educational discount to get it via the HE store on the Apple website, as this gives the equivalent cover to AppleCare for free i.e. 3 years parts and labour. Purchases through the HE store get this automatically so crazy to pay an extra 150-200 for AppleCare, plus base price is cheaper anyway. You just need to either be involved in some way with teaching (do you have an apprentice or similar?) or know someone with a school or uni affiliation (family / friends?).

Cheers

b

PS even 2006 MBs (was it the white Intel model?) are still worth 3 figure sums, which also helps ease the pain of a new one...
 Neil Williams 20 Apr 2016
In reply to George Fisher:

I did and it was fine.
 climber david 20 Apr 2016
In reply to ben b:

Anyone with a student card can get between 10 and 15% off. I always found it easier to go in to a store and do that though if it's possible
OP George Fisher 20 Apr 2016
In reply to ben b:

It's inevitable that these threads end up discussing spec I suppose.

MBP retina 13"
8gb ram
256 gb SSD ( ive used 140 on my current machine in 5 years)

Compared to MBA 13" (my initial choice) without retina and less ram and older trackpad technology it seems a better deal for £150 more.

As a refurb its £1040. (£1199 new).

 ben b 20 Apr 2016
In reply to George Fisher:

I'd go for the MBP not the MBA for that price - better screen, processor etc. Unless you need a lighter weight (and it isn't a huge saving) the MBP is the 'better' machine.

b

(writing this on a 13' rMBP, but 512Gb/16Gb - I went through exactly this process a year ago and have no regrets moving up from the MBA)
OP George Fisher 20 Apr 2016
In reply to ben b:

Good to know.

My current machine has 2 gb ram and 2.0 MHz. So mbp should be a good step up. I don't really take digital pics and work stuff is moving to Dropbox more and more so data storage isn't paramount.


 Dax H 20 Apr 2016
In reply to George Fisher:

> I'm a non phone insurer too. Happy with that gamble as history would suggest I'm not a breaker or loser of things.

Never lost a phone and until last year I have never broken one.
But last year I had one phone get drenched when the cat knocked over a full cup of tea and it died and broke 3 screens.
Insurance certainly paid off.

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