I bought a refurbished Mac Pro and it looked new to me. Has worked well so far and I never could tell the difference between a brand new and the refurbished one. Saved almost $400 compared to a brand new one. I say go for a refurbished one.

Apple replaces the outer shell during the refurb process. Every Apple refurb I've ever seen was cosmetically perfect - these are the same units they use for warranty replacements.

I have never bought any. But colleagues swear they are "like new".

I've purchased two certified refurbished Macs, a MacBook Air in 2012 and a Retina MacBook Pro in 2015. Both were cosmetically new.

I've been using a "refurb" Macbook Air 13 for the last 3.5 years. It was scuff-free when I bought it and it's been great so far. I've started running into some issues now such as battery health and the fan going on for extended periods of time since the last OS update.

I bought a refurbished MacBook Pro over 6 years ago now. It was in perfect condition. My 2010 model is still going strong. When I bought it they had upgraded for free the RAM to 8GB and gave me the 7200 RPM drive as a nice surprise.

I got my 2014 13" rMBP refurbished and saved about $200 that way, and it looks identical to my brother's new model he got a few months later.

Mine was pristine. I'm pretty sure they replace the battery and the case (if need be), so it always appears new.

Usually not, most come from Apple's 2 week free open box return window