BUYING A REFURBISHED MACBOOK MAC
We mentioned earlier that buying a refurbished Mac laptop gets you a different box from when you buy one new at the store, but that’s about the only difference. The best part of buying a refurbished MacBook? It’s nearly indistinguishable from buying a new Apple product. New MacBook vs Refurbished MacBook: what’s the difference? There is little stopping companies from getting their hands on used Macs, fixing them (or not), and selling them as refurbished Mac laptops. While you might save some cash, you probably won’t get the same quality (most refurbished MacBooks have new cases, etc) – and more importantly, you won’t get anything like an official Apple warranty. One thing to watch out for is the selling of refurbished MacBooks and other Apple products by retailers other than Apple. If you see a setup at a price you like, you should go ahead and buy it: once something is bought out from the refurb store, you might not see it again. Once inside of the section, you’ll see there are discrete areas for refurbished Macs, refurbished iOS devices – you get the idea. You’ll see a listing for Refurbished click on that, and you’ll be taken to Apple’s refurbished section. To get there, go to and scroll down to the bottom of the page. You’ll need to order them from ’s special refurbished section. Like a custom order, you won’t be able to walk into an Apple retail store and pick up one of these boxes instead, they’re kept at Apple’s warehouses. Where do you buy a refurbished Mac laptop?īy and large, there’s only a single place you should be buying refurbished Mac laptops and iMacs: that’s from Apple themselves.
BUYING A REFURBISHED MACBOOK SERIAL NUMBERS
That means that you’ll probably want to check for software updates, first thing.įinally, refurbished MacBooks are given completely new part numbers (for any replaced or repaired parts) as well as new serial numbers that identify them as refurbished products. They also usually come with whatever version of OS X (or iOS) was current when the device was originally manufactured. These products do get all new cables and manuals, though.
Refurbished products are repackaged – usually not original packaging Apple spends a penny on those fancy white boxes, so refurbs get sturdy, plain cardboard most of the time. Next, the MacBook, desktop, or mobile device (iPads and iPods will also show up on Apple’s refurbished store, but iPhones are kept separate) undergoes a pretty strict cleaning process. A product that is repaired has any relevant parts replaced as part of its refurbishing. Instead, they go through a process to become Apple Certified Refurbished Products.Ī returned product may not have anything wrong with it, and goes through the refurbishment process without much effort, aside from testing. When a product gets returned to Apple, or swapped out at a Genius Bar instead of being repaired, these products can’t be sold as new, even if they haven’t really been used.
There is another option – and this one offers both good discounts and a guaranteed warranty: Apple’s officially refurbished products.
So what’s a person to do? Aside from trolling the flyers for fifty bucks off of a MacBook around Black Friday, buyers have turned to sites like eBay and Craigslist in an attempt to score a good deal – but buying used carries its own risks, like getting scammed, dealing with invisible problems, and paying for out-of-warranty MacBook repairs. You’ll see fifty bucks off here and there, especially when there’s a new model coming out, but it’s hard to do any better. To make matters worse, sales on Apple products are nearly nonexistent. While Apple might be known for some of the best designed products in tech, they’re also known for carrying a hefty price premium. Here’s what you need to know about Apple’s refurbished program. Looking for a cheap MacBook? One of the best places to get deals on Apple laptops is, surprisingly, from Apple themselves.
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