MacBook bought as new could potentially be a refurbished older model In mid-2014, Wife bought a new MacBook directly from apple.com . Said laptop has been acting in some weird ways, like freezing and rebooting itself for no reason, or taking in the order of a full minute or two to start reacting when she opened it in the morning. She attributed it the OS the laptop came with (Maverick) being an inferior version. Now the laptop stopped working altogether ---as in, it won't boot, and it won't allow a fresh reinstall of the OS (either Maverick or other). We are putting our money on a hard drive failure. When she called Apple Support to have it taken care of, the conversation went like this:

Apple: can we have your laptop's serial number?
Wife: yes, it is [serial number]
Apple: oh, so our system says that your laptop is a 2012 refurbished model.
Wife: beg your pardon?
Apple: excuse me, I was digressing, have you thought of upgrading to El Capitán?


Wife is mildly disturbed by this, and so am I. For one, she paid the amount of money that a new machine costs! The questions at this point are:


Can we independently check the origin of the laptop via the serial number?
Has Apple sold refurbished stuff as new before, either by mistake or on purpose?
If we confirm Apple sold Wife a refurbished machine, are we entitled to any type of compensation?
Click on Apple Menu -> About this Mac...
It should tell you exactly which hardware version you're using -- e.g. mine says "MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)"

If you want even more detail, there's a free app called MacTracker https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mactracker/id430255202?mt=12 on the App Store that will provide even more info.

As to the second and third questions...shrug