Apple's Online Refurb Store Outage Reaches Third Day [Updated]

Thursday July 12, 2012 10:06 am PDT by Eric Slivka

Over the past three days, numerous MacRumors readers have noted that Apple's online store for refurbished products has been completely empty, with the store pages simply noting "Sorry there are no products available, please check back later."

apple refurb store empty
The outage affects all Mac, iPad, and iPod models, as well as clearance products, and appears to extend to Apple's online stores for every country in which direct sales are available. Individual pages for refurbished models simply list the products as "out of stock".

The reason for the complete absence of any refurbished products through Apple's online store remains unknown, and it is unclear when that status might change. But with the outage now in its third day, increasing numbers of customers hoping to take advantage of discounted pricing are finding themselves out of luck.

We've contacted Apple to inquire about the status of refurbished products, but have yet to receive a response.

Update: A number of MacRumors readers report being able to see stock in the refurbished store, while others viewing the same pages are seeing no results.

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Top Rated Comments

3282868

178 months ago

The UK store was working yesterday, and still appears to be working today - for example, see http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/specialdeals/mac.

Edit: In fact, if I try the US store and the .au stores included in the MacRumors links, I'm seeing content as well. Perhaps only some people are being affected? Or are certain IP addresses getting blocked?

Image (http://beent.je/us_refurbs.png)

£399 for a refurbished iPad 2?! That's $615 US, I knew the pricing was much higher for Apple products overseas but c'mon, that's ridiculous!

Yeah, it's working but it's been changed since last I saw:

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals

Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)

3282868

178 months ago

The £399 includes a 20% VAT (effectively sales tax). Welcome to Europe, don't go to Hungary VAT is 27% there.

Then you add the cost of transportation ($8+ per gallon of gas), "free" healthcare, 6 weeks of vacation benefits, etc. I'd say £399 is actually "cheaper" than in the US.

Free to recipient != free of cost

I grew up in London when my father worked for Bear Stearns in Investment Banking. I miss it something bad.

...and you're spot on about everything else, concepts yet to be understood in the U.S. As a diabetic in perfect health since 12 - now 35 - I still pay $1k/mo to Blue Cross Blue Shield Excellus and still have to fight them for included coverage as they want to wear you down. I'd take the taxes that go to healthcare, education and other aspects that actually IMPROVE our way of live and make us a better country than this left/right rhetoric that is tearing us apart. God, I want to move back! Adopt me! lol

Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Slovak

178 months ago

£399 for a refurbished iPad 2?! That's $615 US, I knew the pricing was much higher for Apple products overseas but c'mon, that's ridiculous!

The £399 includes a 20% VAT (effectively sales tax). Welcome to Europe, don't go to Hungary VAT is 27% there.

Then you add the cost of transportation ($8+ per gallon of gas), "free" healthcare, 6 weeks of vacation benefits, etc. I'd say £399 is actually "cheaper" than in the US.

Free to recipient != free of cost

Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)

troop231

178 months ago

I'm in the U.S. and this is what I get:

Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)

DraziGuy

178 months ago

IF the store is empty it isn't that big of a mystery.

Refurbs are from customer returns. Either no one is returning stuff cause they like what they got or the rate of returns is slower than the rate folks were buying up the refurbs. Basic retail math.

Perhaps, but in all the years I have been looking at the refurb store, I have never seen it out of EVERYTHING at once. That includes Airports, Macs, AppleTVs. It seems unlikely that everything would suddenly be out when that has never happened before. More likely, there is some sort of technical error. Right now, I see nothing in the store, but when I was at an Apple store last night (Burlington, Canada), all of the regular stuff was there. So it is either a location based problem or an intermittent problem or a cookie problem.

Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)