I've seen a few Rossman streams with officially "refurbished" macbooks that were absolutely foul inside. Boards that looked like they had been left on a preheater over lunch, rubber wedges to "cure" a cracked joint, all sorts of awful shit. The leaked stories from the sweatshop that did the work were 100% consistent with the awful quality.

Admittedly this was a few years ago. Has apple mended their ways or are they still on the "used car salesman" grindset?

Are these Apple refurbished, or bought from a third party like Best Buy or Amazon? I’ve bought plenty of Apple refurbished products (directly from Apple) over the years and they always look like new (including 100% battery health).

Third parties and resellers though I’m convinced just call their returns/open box units that appear to be in decent condition “refurbished.”

It makes me uncomfortable. No particular rational reason, I just don't like it.

Thanks. That is fair. Your truth, and I respect that.

The problem is no-fault-found returns.

You have a phone with a real, but subtle fault. Something not caught by the normal set of tests. You return it for repair, get sent a new one, they replace the battery in your old one and put into stock as 'reconditioned'.

My phone is perfect, save for a worn out battery. I send it in for battery replacement, they send me yours. Now I've swapped my perfect phone for your faulty phone - and paid $70 to do so.