Applecare payoff!

sukai said:

Wait I don't get it, I thought apple care was only for faulty issues within the device and not caused by an outside source. I didn't know it also covered someone dropping their device and cracking their screen

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I'm not sure what apple care covers, as I do not have it. That's what's so amazing, they did all that without even purchasing apple care to begin with.

thejadedmonkey said:

I don't get it, you were without a computer for 2 weeks and that was good customer service?

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you should explain how its not ? 2 weeks seems very reasonable for any electronic repair , and he lives in the middle of the Pacific to boot .

FreemanW said:

AppleCare is insurance coverage for everything short of fire and theft, because those two losses are usually covered by other insurance.

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I'm not sure where you heard that, but it's 100% wrong. AppleCare only covers defects caused by manufacturing issues, not accidental warranty. AppleCare+, which you can buy with iPhones, is more comprehensive, but it has a limit too (2 replacements I think?).

mushroomtip said:

you should explain how its not ? 2 weeks seems very reasonable for any electronic repair , and he lives in the middle of the Pacific to boot .

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I didn't see where s/he said they live in the middle of the Pacific, however:

2 weeks is very unreasonable when your competition [Dell] offers next-day service. As I explained in an earlier post, the longest I've ever been without a computer was 5 days, and that included a wrong part being sent out and a weekend in between.

Instead of trying to spell it out for you, I'll let Dell

The Dell International Services Program offers the security of knowing you can receive service and support when you travel with your Dell laptop outside your home country...

...The call center that you contact will perform a problem diagnosis. If repair is needed, the phone technician will arrange for service by contacting the Dell call center in the country where the customer is located. A dispatcher will contact the customer and arrange for service.

Click to expand...

alk-3 said:

my wife also dropped her iPad and smashed it.. the difference was hers was over a year old, and she had no apple care. she took it to apple, 15 minutes later she walked out with a brand new iPad. glad we didn't go for the added cost of applecare, but very happy apple is customer oriented company!
by the way, the same thing happened with an iPod, and an iPhone, they broke, and were replaced without hassle without applecare.

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let me get this straight, without Apple Care your wife dropped and smashed her 1 year old ipad and it was replaced for free with a new one?


I find that hard to believe

Aluminum213 said:

let me get this straight, without Apple Care your wife dropped and smashed her 1 year old ipad and it was replaced for free with a new one?

I find that hard to believe

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Probably because they don't have the regular AppleCare but AppleCare+. They might have gotten the $49 fee waived.

(http://store.apple.com/us/product/S4689LL/A/applecare-for-ipad)

ATC said:

From just my own experience, I would never buy an Apple product without AC.

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Exactly - Apple has only showered me with blessings. Fixed my problem and gave me $400 worth of Apple Store products because it took several extra days and a separate trip to Apple Store.

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Aluminum213 said:

let me get this straight, without Apple Care your wife dropped and smashed her 1 year old ipad and it was replaced for free with a new one?


I find that hard to believe

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Happens all the time (well often).

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Lunfai said:

Probably because they don't have the regular AppleCare but AppleCare+. They might have gotten the $49 fee waived.

(http://store.apple.com/us/product/S4689LL/A/applecare-for-ipad)

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If something happens to my Apple products I will send my wife to Apple - she is so sweet they cant say no!

Wish we had real apple store here without it, apple care is worth nothing here

AppleCare has been good to me! I hope I don't have to use AppleCare+, but I have it now.

We don't have apple stores in my country an apple care is nearly pointless because eu regulations forces apple to have a certain better warranty. But I bought it anyway. I think it's easier to sell the machine in a couple of years if I have a paper from apple stating another year of warranty. ...if I want to sell it that soon that is. And apple care on an iMac is cheap.

AppleCare is a reason to buy a Mac, frankly. Just superb value.

And I'm reflexively against any other extended warranty... they tend to be pure profit for the providers. Not so AppleCare.

thejadedmonkey said:

Instead of trying to spell it out for you, I'll let Dell

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I read, then re-read Dell's ISP statement to make certain I didn't miss anything. The verbiage doesn't look much different than that of any other high-end service contract.

thejadedmonkey said:

the longest I've ever been without a computer was 5 days, and that included a wrong part being sent out and a weekend in between.

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That said, I'm glad Dell took care of you.

I had occasion to use AppleCare on my late 2006 24" iMac. With three months remaining on the plan, my drive started going south. I had a technician at my home within 24 hours. Bought it with my new 27" iMac as well. With the education discount, it was a no-brainer.

sjinsjca said:

AppleCare is a reason to buy a Mac, frankly. Just superb value.

And I'm reflexively against any other extended warranty... they tend to be pure profit for the providers. Not so AppleCare.

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Honestly, how can you possibly define Apple Care as superb value?

I am by all means an Apple fan, and i am an AppleCare buyer, but the only reason i buy it is because Apple standard guarantee of 1 year is plain simply ridiculous.

They pride themselves as being the ones who build the best devices in the world, but don't trust their devices to last more than one year.

Having to pay in order to have my premium priced mac replaced if it fails after one year and a half is not something i would call superb value.

vannibombonato said:

Honestly, how can you possibly define Apple Care as superb value?

I am by all means an Apple fan, and i am an AppleCare buyer, but the only reason i buy it is because Apple standard guarantee of 1 year is plain simply ridiculous.

They pride themselves as being the ones who build the best devices in the world, but don't trust their devices to last more than one year.

Having to pay in order to have my premium priced mac replaced if it fails after one year and a half is not something i would call superb value.

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That makes a lot of sense. Only wish it came with a two year warranty.

Companies make a lot of money selling extended warranties. I had FIVE (5) iPhone 5's that had combo platters of hardware/software/cosmetic issues. After the third replacement, the Senior iOS Adviser did his damnedest to sell me AppleCare +. Since the phone was free I bit, but proffered that maybe Apple needs to work on their QC

sjinsjca said:

AppleCare is a reason to buy a Mac, frankly. Just superb value.

And I'm reflexively against any other extended warranty... they tend to be pure profit for the providers. Not so AppleCare.

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Its not superb value at all. It's one of the more expensive extended warranties for what you actually get from it. Most of the time with other oems, if the warranty is expensive, they include at home service. For some of us, dropping things off at the Apple Store is more convenient. A matter of weeks isn't good though. There's no reason they couldn't ship a part overnight or as quickly as possible for what it costs. It's also not a good idea to compare against electronics in general. The comparison should be against similar devices such as notebooks from other brands.

hamiltonrrwatch said:

I read, then re-read Dell's ISP statement to make certain I didn't miss anything. The verbiage doesn't look much different than that of any other high-end service contract.

That said, I'm glad Dell took care of you.

I had occasion to use AppleCare on my late 2006 24" iMac. With three months remaining on the plan, my drive started going south. I had a technician at my home within 24 hours. Bought it with my new 27" iMac as well. With the education discount, it was a no-brainer.

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I just looked at Dell's website. It's included in their small business laptops, specifically a $600 ultrabook. For ~$200 I get 3 years of on-site service.

What AppleCare plan offers on-site service?

thejadedmonkey said:

What AppleCare plan offers on-site service?

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For the sake of clarity, in the footnote for Onsite Repair, Apple states; "Availability of each option depends on country in which service is requested and location of Apple Authorized Service Provider. Apple may also request that the customer replace components with readily installable parts."

Again, the drive in my late 2006 24" iMac was replaced within one business day in my home. (On my kitchen table, to be exact)

I'm very pleased with AppleCare and I would recommend it to anyone purchasing a desktop Mac, based upon my experience.

thekev said:

Its not superb value at all. It's one of the more expensive extended warranties for what you actually get from it. Most of the time with other oems, if the warranty is expensive, they include at home service. For some of us, dropping things off at the Apple Store is more convenient. A matter of weeks isn't good though. There's no reason they couldn't ship a part overnight or as quickly as possible for what it costs. It's also not a good idea to compare against electronics in general. The comparison should be against similar devices such as notebooks from other brands.

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Really?

You're paying about $7 a month to have any component replaced should it fail.

Yea, that's brutal...

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I've purchased AC for every Apple product I've ever owned. Should you live in a large city w/ good proximity to an Apple Store, it is one of the single best investments you can buy.

Case in point, I was staying in Chicago last weekend and the trackpad went screwy on my mid 09' MBP at about 9pm Saturday night. Hoped on a train to the Applestore in the morning, walked in and they swapped out in 15 minutes.

I've done the same in another city with the battery on the same MBP. In and out in less then an hour.

For $7 a month.

Apple Care = PAID OFF

When the Apple care was about to expire on my 24" 2007 iMac I began to get HDD fail symptoms.

I took it to the Apple Store and they confirmed a failing HDD.

Left it with them.

One week later they called me to come and pick up the machine.

The repair ticket was a shocker .....

New HDD
New Logic Board
New Display Panel

Basically walked out with a new machine and today that machine is running full strength.

My current 2011 / 27" iMac has Apple Care.


Yeah Apple Care is a real waste of money! :roll eyes:


I guess if you buy it and never use it, it could be seen as such however .....

What if you don't buy it and a little while out of warranty something goes wrong?

Any idea what it costs to replace a logic board?

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thekev said:

Most of the time with other oems, if the warranty is expensive, they include at home service.

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Extended Warranty - YES ( Best Buy )

Other Brand - Samsung

In Home - YES

Called Best Buy to request service. They gave me an appointment one week out.

Tech calls to discuss symptoms so he can preorder the part.

Tech arrives with part 7 days after service call.

Tech installs part.

Problem is still there.

OOPS .... Need a different part.

Tech orders part and will set an appointment to come back when part arrives.

Tech calls and says part is on BACK ORDER

THREE WEEKS LATER tech arrives with part.

OOPS ... still no function.

Tech says " Well this is now too expensive to repair so a replacement is needed.

FIVE AND A HALF WEEKS AFTER I called for service I get the approval to go to Best Buy for a replacement.


SCREW THAT ...........

From the start I offered to take the item in for repair.

They would not allow it.


At least with Apple and Apple Care I can take it in, drop it off and pick it up when it is DONE!

harcosparky said:

Apple Care = PAID OFF

When the Apple care was about to expire on my 24" 2007 iMac I began to get HDD fail symptoms.

I took it to the Apple Store and they confirmed a failing HDD.

Left it with them.

One week later they called me to come and pick up the machine.

The repair ticket was a shocker .....

New HDD
New Logic Board
New Display Panel

Basically walked out with a new machine and today that machine is running full strength.

My current 2011 / 27" iMac has Apple Care.


Yeah Apple Care is a real waste of money! :roll eyes:


I guess if you buy it and never use it, it could be seen as such however .....

What if you don't buy it and a little while out of warranty something goes wrong?

Any idea what it costs to replace a logic board?

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whether or not some of you guys think the peace of mind works for you, I won't argue with that. But to roll your eyes when somebody has the common sense to understand why it can't, by definition, be a good investment 'in average'....

I don't want to be insulting by teaching you 1+1=2, but anyway: if in average, Apple was paying out more than $1 in repair for each $1 of income it gets from Apple Care, it just wouldn't work for them.

Now if Apple pays out 50 or 70 cents for each dollar it receives, wouldn't it mean that 'in average' the customer would lose 30-50 cents for each dollar spent in Apple Care? (The answer is yes)

Sure you can find some examples of people spending $200 on Apple Care and get $800 worth of repairs done at some point, but that's not something you can predict in advance. The same way you can find people that benefited from investing with Maddoff, doesn't mean it was a 'good investment', it just worked out for them.

If you ever bought only one product with one insurance, it may have been worth it, it may not. But if you've bought 10 Apple products and Apple Care 10 times, would you seriously say you got more value in all the repairs than the 10 Apple care you bought?

I have had 5 different iPhones, 3 differents iPads, 2 iMacs and 1 Macbook Pro, 1 airport extreme, 1 iPod classic... NEVER bought any apple care. The only "problem" I have had was to replace the battery on my macbook pro, it was after 3 years anyway, it cost me $80. That's the total of ALL the repairs I needed on my devices. Half of those items are more than 3 years old right now, and Apple care on them would have been wasted.
Sure, one time I am going to end up with a broken iPhone or iPad (hopefully this post won't jinx me), and it's going to cost me $400 to replace. Still, it will be much less than all the Apple Care I could have bought.

Buying piece of mind is one thing, and I can understand how it brings some value and I wouldn't criticize any of you for buying that peace of mind, but please don't think that it's a 'great investment', in the sense that the return expectation is, BY DEFINITION OF AN INSURANCE, negative.

sukai said:

Wait I don't get it, I thought apple care was only for faulty issues within the device and not caused by an outside source. I didn't know it also covered someone dropping their device and cracking their screen

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some apple care covers breakage

I have bought loads of Apple products and have never taken out Apple Care. I did have a bit of a problem with my 2009 iMac with grey blotches on the screen. When my iMac was recalled under the Hard Drive Replacement scheme I mentioned it and they replaced it free of charge.

The iPhone apple care in the UK last for 2 years from time of purchase, yet UK consumer law covers the two year period as well. So really not much point in taking out iPhone Applecare.

I did think about it for my new iMac 27 but left it for the moment as I don't have to take it out until near the end of its first year. Will see how this generation of iMacs fair first.

UK Consumer Law would still give me cover for 2-3 years as a product should last a reasonable length of time, especially a computer costing over £2,000. Just might be a bit more hassle with Apple without an extended warranty, though quite confident I would get any problems resolved without purchasing Applecare.

From Consumer website

The law doesn't say exactly how long goods should last. The general rule is that goods should last for a reasonable time and in reasonable condition. For example, a new car should last for several years in a reasonable condition but you may need to replace some of its parts over time.

If goods don't last as long as they should, they probably weren't of satisfactory quality when you bought them. For example, if the sole on a shoe comes away after a few weeks of normal wear, this suggests that it was never of satisfactory quality.

You may need an expert's opinion on how long a particular item can normally be expected to last.

thejadedmonkey said:

I'm not sure where you heard that, but it's 100% wrong. AppleCare only covers defects caused by manufacturing issues, not accidental warranty. AppleCare+, which you can buy with iPhones, is more comprehensive, but it has a limit too (2 replacements I think?).



I didn't see where s/he said they live in the middle of the Pacific, however:

2 weeks is very unreasonable when your competition [Dell] offers next-day service. As I explained in an earlier post, the longest I've ever been without a computer was 5 days, and that included a wrong part being sent out and a weekend in between.

Instead of trying to spell it out for you, I'll let Dell

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you should spell it out to yourself ,that next day service link applies to laptops not the 27 inch desktop the OP is talking about.

ihaveneverknown said:

Really?

You're paying about $7 a month to have any component replaced should it fail.

Yea, that's brutal...

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I have it on mine. It depends on where you purchase it. Anyway it's not the kind of thing you should really have to use on every machine you ever own. Depending on the configuration and machine, it can be a significant percentage of the cost to extend it from one to three years. Going off Apple's listed price for an additional 2 years on a 15" macbook pro, that is not $7/month.

harcosparky said:

From the start I offered to take the item in for repair.

They would not allow it.


At least with Apple and Apple Care I can take it in, drop it off and pick it up when it is DONE!

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I actually have it on mine due to a need for minimal downtime which precludes depot repair if offered, and I will take it in directly if anything goes wrong. Not everyone has 2 Apple Stores within a 20 minute drive. Anyway I wasn't thinking of Best Buy there. I was thinking specifically of OEMs.

Orlandoech.com said:

You live in the middle of the ocean? Like on a boat or ship that's in the ocean or you magically just live in the middle of the ocean like a mermaid?

Two weeks is not good service IMO as well.

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The OP's name is mauka, which is a Hawaiian word for "towards the mountain / inland", which I only know from living in Hawaii. I doubt many who haven't spent a lot of time there would ever know that.

To complete this week's lesson in Hawaiian, "makai" is the opposite, and means "toward the sea." These terms are useful for when you're wondering which side of the road a place is located... for example, "Matsumoto's Shave Ice (grocery) shop is on the makai side of the road in Hale'iwa.