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AppleCare Protection Plan worth the money?

I

inlimbo

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Hi,

If the well rumored speed-bumped Powerbook G4 comes out on Tuesday Im going to buy it (Whoo-hoo!). Im new to the mac world and wondered if the AppleCare Protection Plan and a .Mac subscription is worth the dosh? the APP will cost me $579AUD and a .Mac subscription will cost me $158AUD. Seems like a lot of money, especially to a poor student like myself. Are either of them necessary. I have read on the official Apple website's discussion forums of people having various problems with their powerbook/iBooks such as keys sticking in the keyboard and screen problems etc... So do u think I should extend my warrenty just in case something like that happens? What has been your experience?

Cheers
inlimbo...
 
You can buy apple care anytime in the first year (i.e. before the 1-year manufacturer's warranty runs out), so I wouldn't bother with it straight off.

.Mac is really cool. Not sure it's totally worth the money if you're a student, but it does offer a lot - free backup and virus software, homepage to publish your photos on the web, and of course mail. If you think you'll use more than a couple of these things, I say go for it....
 
I would definitely recommend Applecare for a laptop, If it goes wrong out of warranty it can be very expensive to fix. However as Gee suggests you can do this anytime in the first year.

As far as .Mac is concerned it's value depends on how much you use the various facilities. Not everyone thinks that it is worth it, but I do. I suggest you take the free 60 day when you get your Mac.

http://www.mac.com/WebObjects/Welcome?aff=consumer&cty=US&lang=en

As you are a student don't forget to check out the special student pricing on hardware and software, if you haven't already.
 
AppleCare for your powerbook is a definite must but I'd wait 10-11 months before buying it. Not sure if the price you quoted ($579AUD) takes into consideration your education discount.

My rule of thumb (a shaky rule of thumb no less), is if the AppleCare costs less than 20-25% of the total purchase I'd buy it.

I have a 1GHz TiBook with AppleCare, a G3 iBook without it, a 20GB 2G iPod with it and an Ipod Mini with it. For the latter, I added it yesterday because my mini just succumbed to static problems and went to mini heaven (less than 1 month before the warranty expires).
 
Wait until the warranty is almost up to see how reliable the laptop is before you spend money on the AppleCare extended warranty.

My personal experience has been good with AppleCare. I purchased it for an iMac DV and had the hard drive and motherboard replaced (due to a faulty ethernet port). My 3G iPod has been replaced 3 times for faulty hard drives in the first year I owned it. I just purchased the extended warranty because I have no faith it will last another year without breaking. I also have a rev.A 12" powerbook that I did not purchase the AppleCare warranty for, and it has had no problems whatsoever in the 2 years I have dragged it around the globe. I have dropped it off desks and tables and it refuses to die.

Also, it may sound negative, but if the laptop is stolen or stepped on, will AppleCare replace it? No.

Good luck with your laptop, I love mine.
 
Please, please, pretty please, learn to use the search facility. This gets asked every couple of weeks with near identical answers. You'll get the answer you want quicker if you search.
 
Thanks guys!!!! I wil take ur advice and wait about a year before I buy it and I will try the 60 free trial of .Mac. Thanks again your help is much appreciated.

inlimbo....
 
I also highly recommend AppleCare. The disadvantage to not purchasing immediately is that after 90 days you will no longer be able to use the phone support option. With the AppleCare it will be available the full three years. I find this to be very important feature also.
 
inlimbo said:
a .Mac subscription will cost me $158AUD. Seems like a lot of money, especially to a poor student like myself.
Click to expand...

Personally, I would definitely get the Apple Care, but forgo the .Mac subscription.

Recently everybody's iDisk folders showed that they were empty, then they were full, then they wouldn't synchronize etc etc. And just to make matters worse, whenever there is a problem with the Apple servers that affects their .Mac subscribers, Apple are very unresponsive and ignore all emails and requests from their subscribers who rightfully want to know what's going on.

From the problems that Apple seems to be having with .Mac, I'd say that the program is still in Beta, or should be in order to get all the bugs out first.
 
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