So if you purchase your refurbished Apple product somewhere other than the Apple Store, you’re not going to be able to take it back to Apple for repairs - your warranty will be tied with the store where you bought it, and that’s where you’ll have to take it if anything goes wrong.Īnd then there’s the messy issue of open-box sales. Whereas most companies that refurbish Macs (think Mac Connection, B&H, Best Buy and Abt Electronics) offer only a 90-day warranty and charge you for a longer one, Apple offers a one-year warranty that is the same as the warranty offered on its regular products, and gives refurb customers the option to purchase Apple Care as well. BUT - it depends on where you buy them. Refurbished electronics have a reputation for being buggy, broken or without any kind of meaningful warranty, but when you buy an Apple Certified refurbished item, it’s guaranteed to be just as good as something brand new - as long as you buy it directly from the Apple Certified Refurbished section of Apple’s website. Apple Certified Refurb items aren’t going to be drastically cheaper than buying new (discounts hover around the 15 percent mark) but it still pays to go straight to the source for a few big reasons. We get a lot of reader questions like: “Are refurbished Apple products worth it?” or “Can I trust refurbished Apple devices?” The answer to these questions is, in a word, yes. What does “refurbished” mean in this context? If you want to learn absolutely everything there is to know about refurbished Apple products and learn a few hacks that will save you some serious cash, keep reading. Always double-check the refurb model number against that of its new counterpart.Trading in old electronics could save you big time on a new Mac.Apple Certified refurbs sell out quickly.Open box and refurbished are not the same thing.If you want the best warranty on a refurbished Apple device, go with Apple Certified products.Are refurbished Apple products good? Yes.Here’s a quick summary of what we’re about to cover, the links will jump you down to more detail on each topic: How? One word: Refurbished.Ī word of warning: we’re going to get really deep into the weeds here.

We’ve written before about why buying a Mac at the Apple store is a waste of money, but just because the brick-and-mortar store doesn’t offer many (read: any) discounts on its gadgets, doesn’t mean you can’t find a deal on an iPhone, MacBook or iPad directly from Apple. So why doesn’t everyone have one? Blame the price tag, because quality doesn’t come cheap.

There’s a reason Apple products boast such an outspoken and devoted following: they’re pretty, they’re user-friendly, and they’ve topped the American Consumer Satisfaction Index’s annual consumer satisfaction survey for the past 12 years and counting.

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