Question: Buying a Refurbished MacBook

[CrimsonProf]

My wife needs a new laptop and she's found a refurbished MacBook Air on Groupon. Price is solid but a little unsure of the source.

Any thoughts on this?

Her main need for the computer is online apps - she is a realtor.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[chanson78]

My wife needs a new laptop and she's found a refurbished MacBook Air on Groupon. Price is solid but a little unsure of the source.

Any thoughts on this?

Her main need for the computer is online apps - she is a realtor.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

To be frank, I would only trust a refurb from the apple store. Unless you can give the companies name. Lots of companies like https://buy.gazelle.com/buy/used/catalog/macbooks buy phones and stuff that comes off contract (I have sold multiple phones to them) but I have no clue as to what they do to "refurb" a computer. With the groupon, I am even less sure because I don't know what that company may do to actually "refurb" it.

I know apple has a rigorous process, does a pretty good job of actually refurbishing a machine. Not to mention they have a massive incentive to ensure that their customers are happy. Other companies may not take it as seriously, but I know that Apple really goes the extra mile. I remember a story about a refurb for a friend not working out and the Apple store replacing with a new model because they had bought apple care. Now this is not to say that you would receive the same treatment, just anecdotal evidence. (Granted the model they had bought was only one or two years off and there were no like in kind replacements available.)

You can buy refurb from Apple here. https://www.apple.com/us/shop/goto/special_deals They are busy updating the store since WWDC keynote is today, however it might be a great time to buy a refurb as they just did a refresh on the MBP.

Edit
One last thing: Are you sure that your wife can't do everything she needs on an iPad? Many sites are tablet friendly now. I would get an ipad and try out all the sites she needs access to to ensure that there is some stuff she absolutely cannot do without a mouse and keyboard.

 

[IMALOYAL1]

Never used one but the all day battery life sounds very appealing. I've had problems buying batteries on line, but I usually go for the least expensive OEM. My personal experience from purchasing things on "EBay" has been very good. I always buy from the gold/yellow star sellers that will do almost anything for you to keep from getting a bad review.
I once was sent the wrong item. I was immediately refunded my money and told to keep the item free of charge as long as I didn't give them a bad review.

 

[2003TIDE]

If I were buying a mac, I'd get an older 2012 model or earlier MacBook pro that has a replaceable hard drive and budget for an SSD replacement drive. Some of the air's have 64GB drives which isn't a lot of space and the drive are soldered (ie not replaceable)

 

[CrimsonProf]

Could we still use a detachable hard drive?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[2003TIDE]

Could we still use a detachable hard drive?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You can. I'd do that or one of the MyClouds or something similar so you can wirelessly save file to something running RAID-1.

 

[chanson78]

Could we still use a detachable hard drive?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I bought a 2016 15" MBP. Lowest model but I maxed out the ram. So the 128GB SSD was a bit rough. I just bought one of these and it has helped immensely for keeping stuff I don't use all the time on it.

https://www.amazon.com/Transcend-JetDrive-Storage-Expansion-TS128GJDL130/dp/B00WGARJIS?th=1