time to switch back

[andy van der raadt]

hello, world!

I'm new to the list, here. I've been lurking for a little over a week now. 
I'm looking
to "switch"-- though I'm beginning to despise the term. I'm not switching, 
so much
as "switching back!"-- 17 years of apple affiliation meant little when I 
finished high
school, moved out, and hit a fairly restrictive budget-- which meant home-built
PC clones, for me. A few years passed and now I'm ready to re-join the 
brethren.
(Hopefully that ought to differentiate me from the majority of the MS lusers!)

Anyway, introductions taken care of-- I was wondering if anyone has had any
experience purchasing from PowerMax, before. I'm looking at a refurbed ibook
800/12" (I can't get past how poorly the case on the 700/12" looks-- what 
happened,
apple?) as the discount and lack of tax more than makes up for the shipping
to Canada, still leaving some spare change over what I'd get from my student
discount, here at the University. However, in reading the fine print, I found
the following disclaimer:

"Note: we do not pay return freight to us on any new or refurbished 
warranty issue!"

Would I be limited to having PowerMax take care of any "warranty issue" or 
would
I be able to exercise the option of taking it to my local Apple 
Specialist/Service centre
for repair? (westworld.ca or mymacdealer.com) The prospect of spending 
another 100$
CDN on return freight over a DOA ibook worries me, as I'm having difficulty 
coming up
with the funds for purchase in the first place. (I almost gave in and 
bought a Vaio r505
or a toshiba!)

The customer testimony on the site maintains some rather glowing reviews 
(and of
course it would-- why post negative comments?), but what do you guys think 
about
them?






My apologies for the length, and TIA for any advice,


     andy van der raadt

        letterspackages at telus.net
        avand6511 at mymrc.ca
        calgary, ab