Apple mac air 13.3

loulou41

Need some advice whether to buy at full price at John Lewis at £899 with 3 yrs guaranteed or buy refurbished at apple saving £160. Thanks

zarf2007

loulou41 wrote: »

Need some advice whether to buy at full price at John Lewis at £899 with 3 yrs guaranteed or buy refurbished at apple saving £160. Thanks

I would recommend AppleCare if you didn't go for the John Lewis one as it's very expensive to repair if they go wrong, you can buy it on refurbs and it may still work out cheaper than JL

theonlywayisup

Typing from my 5 year old Air now. It's on it's last legs with the battery - over 1000 cycles which is the time to change. But we've had no problems with it at all. This was from Apple direct (not refurb). Our MacBook Pro developed a hard drive fault at 4 years and although out of warranty Apple repaired it free of charge.

If you can buy new from Apple for a similar price I would. If John Lewis is a bargain and has the 3 year, buy there. Personally I wouldn't buy a refurb unless it had a 3 year warranty.

Of course, the other option would be buying through the education programme, if you know someone at Uni?

zarf2007

theonlywayisup wrote: »

Typing from my 5 year old Air now. It's on it's last legs with the battery - over 1000 cycles which is the time to change. But we've had no problems with it at all. This was from Apple direct (not refurb). Our MacBook Pro developed a hard drive fault at 4 years and although out of warranty Apple repaired it free of charge.

If you can buy new from Apple for a similar price I would. If John Lewis is a bargain and has the 3 year, buy there. Personally I wouldn't buy a refurb unless it had a 3 year warranty.

Of course, the other option would be buying through the education programme, if you know someone at Uni?

Refurbs are from Apple directly and are brand new laptops that have been returned (usually due to buyers remorse) and are fully tested and covered by a 1 year warranty (extendable with AppleCare). They are called refurb as apple legally cannot call them new as they are technically second hand but do not confuse these with refurb products on eBay etc as those products are inferior.

The only difference between an apple refurb and buying from the Apple Store (other than the discount) is the refurbs are provided in a plain brown box.

securityguy

I have a five year old Macbook 13" AIr as my main laptop, which I did a computer science PhD on and (aside from needing a fairly firm shove on the T key which probably needs lifting and cleaning) is as new. It's had a new battery a year or so ago. I've had access to the Apple HE discount via assorted routes for eight years now, so most of our machines had had three years AppleCare free, which rather changes the cost equation.

My nervousness about John Lewis is precisely what resources they have to back their warranty. I've had jobs done under Apple Care (in total a disk drive, a screen and a logic board, spread over about eight machines) and it's always been same day or at most next day, because my local Apple Store does all the work there and has substantial parts holdings. Quite how John Lewis do repairs two years in is something of a mystery: does anyone know?

agrinnall

securityguy wrote: »

Quite how John Lewis do repairs two years in is something of a mystery: does anyone know?

I wouldn't be in the slightest bit surprised if they simply send it back to Apple, I'm sure they sell enough products to be able to swing a deal with Apple that works for both of them.