Best place to buy a Mac?

[adventure_woman]

So, after yet another virus on our PC, DH wants to get a Mac (and he is an IT guy on PCs!!). So, I have never been Mac shopping....can you get any deals on them? I would love to get a laptop. Hints, advice, etc? Is it best to buy from Apple? Can't you buy them at Best Buy now?

 

[toomanycars]

So, after yet another virus on our PC, DH wants to get a Mac (and he is an IT guy on PCs!!). So, I have never been Mac shopping....can you get any deals on them? I would love to get a laptop. Hints, advice, etc? Is it best to buy from Apple? Can't you buy them at Best Buy now?

Amazon has them, also you may want to look at Refurbished from Apple.

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac?mco=MTM3NTA4MzQ

 

[mariacj]

Second vote for looking for refurbished. I love ours!


My cousin actually got his brand spanking new off of Craigslist. It came from a company that sold computers but this one had a missing pixel on the screen and thus they sold it off at half price.

Look around ebay... The only concern I have about Craigslist and eBay is return policy and authenticity of the product. I would run a diagnostics on the computers as soon as you get them home to see that they really come with all the features... my refurbised came with snow leapord, 2X2 Gb ram, 500 GB of storage and a video card I cant think off.

The nice thing about refurbished straight from apple.. comes with all the new gear ( I paid 929 for the computer, 99 for printer (Free after rebate) and 100 some thing for the three year warranty) total 1300ish. Dont forget to check out the deals they have.

 

[vicki_c]

We saved a *little* bit by ordering through Amazon, not much though.

 

[PatMcDuck]

On the Apple website, go thru the Education Store. Look up your local schools, there are so many on there. If you do not see the primary, middle or high school on there, look for you local community college.

When you access the site thru this way, the prices are discounted, a little.

I switched 14 months ago, and all I can say, is NO MORE PROBLEMS! this is WAY worth the higher initial cost. I have just a basic white MacBook, no upgrades.

 

[jgreco]

On the Apple website, go thru the Education Store. Look up your local schools, there are so many on there. If you do not see the primary, middle or high school on there, look for you local community college.

When you access the site thru this way, the prices are discounted, a little.

FYI, that is for a student discount and they will ask for a college ID if you go into the physical store to purchase, not sure about how it works online.

 

[mickeygirl14]

I made the switch to Macs in Nov 2009 - and I've had NO problems since! I'll never go back to a PC again. We bought from the Apple Store (we have one locally), because at the time, we were not eligible for any of the education discounts or anything. That way, I got to take it home that day. If you have a local store, you can also get things like the One-to-One program that offer classes and one-on-One instruction on how to best use you new Mac, how to move your files, everything. They offer a lot of support. Good luck - hope you enjoy!

 

[4orm]

Apple also sells refurbish directly. The only difference really is the box they come in - plain. They carry the same warranties as the regular prices machines.

 

[4orm]

We have to have a few machines for what we do. When we've purchased a few we went through a website that gives us points for buying through their site and used a credit card that offers points. Apple offers free shipping. So I got a bunch of points extra than I would have if I had just gone into the local Apple store.

 

[gacompguy]

MacMall is another good place to start. If you're also looking for a printer or something like Parallels to go with your new Mac, the discounts/rebates that MacMall offers on those accessories/software usually ends up making the price better than the academic discount.

 

[mommy23]

FYI, that is for a student discount and they will ask for a college ID if you go into the physical store to purchase, not sure about how it works online.

You can also get the discount if you are employed by a school. I just had to show my paystub.

 

[dismom301930]

I was also going to suggest going through Macmall, which is also on ebates so you can get a small percentage back there as well.

 

[Green Tea]

On the Apple website, go thru the Education Store. Look up your local schools, there are so many on there. If you do not see the primary, middle or high school on there, look for you local community college.

When you access the site thru this way, the prices are discounted, a little.

I switched 14 months ago, and all I can say, is NO MORE PROBLEMS! this is WAY worth the higher initial cost. I have just a basic white MacBook, no upgrades.

Unless a buyer actually has an affiliation with the school, isn't that fraud?

The refurbs offer a lower price to everyone. And if you go to your local college bookstore they will likely be able to offer you their price.

Great decision to go with a Mac, OP. So much better!!

 

[Green Tea]

I was also going to suggest going through Macmall, which is also on ebates so you can get a small percentage back there as well.

Macmall is good. I got some amount back thru upromise, and a very slight decrease in price on the item. They have a lot of things.

 

[DMOMof3]

I purchased ours through the apple website

We have 3 macbook pros, 3 college students, ouch.

We bought our first two fall of '09 and third fall '10

have had absolutely no issues at all, the kids love them, they have the microsoft office product for word, excell & powerpoint thats made for macs

didn't require proof of school attendance, just entered college they were attending for discount

PLUS we purchased when they were offering free IPODs and $100 rebate off printers(so free also)

 

[SookieStackhouse]

I got mine at apple.com. There is the possibility of the education discount too. Also, like around the first of June they might run that promo again where you get a free iPod touch with the purchase of a MacBook. (Not sure they will do it again, but they have the past couple years). I sold the iPod on eBay to offset part of the cost of the computer.

 

[csharpwv]

IF you would like to take advantage of Best Buy's GREAT ZERO% Finance Offers - it might be well worth it to buy from Best Buy and forgo a discount - because Best Buy offers 0% deals all the time - and why pay our of pocket when you can pay a little each month get exactly the computer you want - or get a little better/bigger one - and let it ride on Best Buy's dime.

We LOVE Zero % offers - nearly everything we own with the exception of our home and our car has been bought on 0% Finance offers from Sears, Best Buy, Sam's and others.

It is a GREAT way to learn to budget - and what we have learned is that once that item is paid off at $50 or $75 a month- don't stop setting that much aside each much - put that much into savings each month!

For young couples - young people - as long as you are 100% confident that you can afford the minimum monthly payment - take advantage of true Zero % Offers. (True meaning to fees for the use of 0% offers - those exist - beware!) That way you not only get what you want - but it also teaches you to save - and provides extra incentive to work a little harder, knowing that once it's paid off - you can start saving that much each month.
$75 X 60 Months equals $4,500 - in 5 years you can save $4,500 by just saving $75 a month. $100 a month = $6,000

It's a great way to think about saving!

Sorry to get off topic - we just LOVE 0% Finance offers!

 

[jsmith]

Sooo-if your husband is an IT guy-why spend the money on a MAC? why doesnt he just get a copy of Fedora or Ubuntu, strip Windows off the machine and load the linux. The GUI'S in Ubuntu are not hugely different from Windows 7 and open office documents can be read by Mircosoft products. SE linux is more secure than either Windows or MAC and Fedora is free.
Its the operating system that gets viruses not the hardware.