The MacBook we’re offering today is Factory Reconditioned. Not quite the same as a refurb, in that you can still purchase an Apple Care plan with our offering. Hope this helps clarify a little bit. Additionally, ours comes with a 1yr Apple warranty, as opposed to the NewEgg 90-Day warranty.
What’s the Difference Between “Reconditioned” and “Refurbished”?
The terms “factory-reconditioned,” “reconditioned,” and “refurbished” are largely interchangeable–they’ll sometimes vary depending on the manufacturer and the product line. Rest assured that all such products on our site meet the same factory-reconditioned standards outlined above.
Factory reconditioned for us means that the manufacturer or a certified partner was responsible for the device, in this case a MacBook. Refurbished means a third party took care of it. As for the warranty, it’s a matter of preference to have a manufacturer warranty or not.
My first Apple laptop was a 540C; I still have my Pismo. I have owned a half-dozen Apple laptops (and several desktops including a PowerMax if anyone cares) since then, and bought more for family members. I have purchased Applecare on every Apple laptop where it was offered … when it was $99, when it was $149, and so on … it’s the ONLY thing I have ever purchased added-value insurance on EVER EVER. I used it a couple times and the truly awesome, treat-you-like-a-king-we’ll-take-care-of-it-immediately thing was pretty awesome.
But, [$1300] from Newegg vs. [$1500 + $350 Applecare for the same model] here equals $550 more for that level of confidence – that’s an undeniably massive 42% more for insurance.
These laptops are still repairable, unlike the newest ones that feature glued-in batteries, RAM soldered to the motherboard and screens that can’t be removed.
I think my early 2008 15" MBP is ready to replace, and I have been watching and waiting for these to come down more on Woot! … but $550 is too much — WAY too much — to pay for peace of mind on a machine that, if it is like the dozen+ others I have been responsible for maintaining, is responsibly over-engineered and pretty rock-solid.
Warranty is literally just that. If the hardware breaks, they fix it. Applecare adds tech support, and trust me, it makes a huge difference. Unless it’s something obvious like the whole computer won’t turn on or the screen has no backlight, you need phone support to figure out why it’s doing what and if you don’t have that (90 days of phone tech support comes with the computer), you have to pay $19 to get to tech support or buy Applecare before that one year hardware warranty’s over.
All is True/Henry VIII and Two Noble Kinsmen are widely considered collaborations between Shakespeare and Fletcher. Both are printed in standard academic anthologies (including the Norton) with that caveat.
Both plays are at least more Shakespeare than a macbook pro is not an overpriced toy from a crap company, though.
I bought this the last time it was up and its not working right and woot is making it impossible for me to return it by not replying to my messages! Are they waiting for the grace period to expire??? NOT COOL.
These models can have some serious hardware issues with the AMD Radeon HD 6750M graphics processors - many users have had freezes, trouble booting, display errors, etc. when that discrete GPU is fired up. Many of these issues have cropped up after 2 years of ownership/use (as these are early 2011 MacBook Pro models). I own a 15" version from the same era and it has terrible problems, spent $500+ at the Genius Bar for a new logic board… the new logic board had the same issues, as did a second replacement! That’s when I found this thread on the Apple Support Communities with nearly 2,000 comments discussing very similar issues (and there are two additional threads about this on that forum alone).
I’m a lifetime Apple user, but I’d be incredibly wary of these particular models because of the growing number of people with GPU issues. It’s not a great deal if you end up sinking hundreds of dollars into repairs!
This why Apple Care is offered on ALL Apple Products. I have a 10+ year old version of this laptop and bought Apple Care when I purchased it. Not a problem until earlier this year, the motherboard finally went. Brought it to my Apple Certified repair place and they told me that since I had Apple Care on the thing (which was obviously expired by now), Apple has a program where for $350.00 they will fix ANYTHING and EVERYTHING!!! They gave me a new motherboard AND I asked them to replace the Airport Card. Not a bad deal!!!
I’m a big proponent of AppleCare, but when there’s an intrinsic hardware issue like this, even the replacement logic boards (which are often refurbs themselves) are likely to have the same problems down the line. I’m on logic board #3, some others are on logic board #4 or more. Something’s just very wrong with that discrete GPU, and even terrific AppleCare coverage can’t offset the frustration of a computer that breaks and breaks. Every time I have to take my laptop in for another diagnosis and repair, it’s another week out of my hands. And when my current warranty ends… am I looking at another $350-500+ for more repairs?
I love my 2010 MacBook Pro, but my 2011 has been a lemon… and the fact that bunches of other users have had the exact same experience with this particular processor/GPU combo just doesn’t make this seem like the greatest deal.
