Applecare payoff!

[mauka]

Short story, not very exciting, but buying Applecare paid off for me. My 2010 27" iMac always worked until didn't. It started running slow, then really slow. Apps would take a minutes to open. Data transfers were moving in kilobytes per second.

Called Applecare, no hard drive errors, no funny sounds, they had me reinstall ML which took 3 hours. It was good for three days then started slowing down again. Decided to take it into the Apple Store. Made appointment, in and out within 20 minutes.

Apple replaced both the hard drive and the motherboard. They had to order the motherboard which added a week to the repair, two week total turnaround. Came back to me with just ML installed, connected it to my network, pointed to my Time Machine backup on a Synology NAS. Two and half hours later everything is back the way it was, and the only thing I had to do was re-enter the MS Office key.

Pleased with the service and hassle free experience. YMMV

[lexvo]

It payed off for me too. I will always buy AppleCare. The sevice is great too.

[thejadedmonkey]

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

[Mr. McMac]

From my experience, Apple Care never paid off. That said, I'll never buy it again.......

[mauka]

My iMac was purchased as refurb with 2.93GHz i7 and video upgrade, so I wasn't surprised when they didn't have a spare motherboard handy in Honolulu.

Could the turnaround have been quicker? - maybe, but I have other computers to use so time was not a big factor for me.

What impresses me about Apple is how they don't waste my time when I'm in the store, and if you have Applecare, just how much it covers. My wife dropped and smashed the touchscreen on her brand new iPad3 the first week. She had Applecare Plus, made an appointment and walked out with a new iPad3 within 15 minutes.

Like I said, your mileage may vary....

[charlieegan3]

I buy applecare at the moment but in future will just take out laptop insurance that covers everything (theft, damage...)

[DisMyMac]

They should service all macs the same, not gouge and reward gamblers.

[alk-3]

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.

[zoffdino]

Originally Posted by thejadedmonkey

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

Act like adult and be reasonable in your demands. When you live in the middle of the ocean, it's gonna take time to get your spare parts, assemble them and send the whole computer back to you. Two weeks is very good turn around time indeed. For comparison, head over to the Dell's, HP's, Sony's, etc support forums and hear their horror stories of multiple trips to the service center. The best part about the whole experience is the OP got out of the Apple Store in 20 minutes. To him, that's the only effort on his part.

AppleCare is consumer-level service. If you want technicians to come to your house, take the machine away, and drop you a replacement, expect to pay (and pay decently) for that. If a computer is so important to your work, sign a support contract like that and/or get multiple computers.

[vladfein]

Originally Posted by mauka

Short story, not very exciting, but buying Applecare paid off for me.

don't by life insurance, or you might get lucky again.

[Swordylove]

If I get AppleCare, I would hope something will go totally wrong with the product within the 3rd year so that I can get a brand new replacement with the latest model.

[binaryspiral]

I'm pleased with my purchase of AC on three laptops and two iPhones. I've never had anything but good luck having things repaired. My daughter is rough on her MB, and it's had the case replaced twice without question. A screen was done on one of the trips - again, not a single waiver about treatment or whatever... all within 24 hour turnaround and once was dropped off on December 23rd in the late afternoon - we had it in our hands before Christmas Eve dinner.

The Apple Store Geniuses have the ultimate say in if they'll replace a shattered iPad or iPhone based on their own judgements if the unit is not covered under AppleCare. I spoke with one at length while assessing AppleCare options for an enterprise deployment of iPhones. I thought that was a bit odd... and explained to him that those kind of freedoms are great for consumers (which apple is geared towards) but sucks for enterprise that need to have things in black and white.

[Orlandoech.com]

Originally Posted by zoffdino

. When you live in the middle of the ocean,

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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Originally Posted by vladfein

don't by life insurance, or you might get lucky again.

Nah insurance companies deny 99% of claims since 9/11. It's just too much money for them to payout.

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Insurance to me is "in case **** happens" coverage, but of **** doesn't happen, I should get my money back.

[Fairfax]

I never needed apple care, when my macbook pro's fans and DVD drive started to malfunction I relied on the extended warranty provided for free by Visa.

[VPrime]

I am going on almost a month and a half with a computer repair...
After a month of Them not being able to fix it, then them refusing to touch it again. then 6hr total in the phone with apple.. Then an email to Tim cook. They decided to replace it.

Now I am waiting over 2 weeks for the replacement as it is a BTO iMac and had to order it... It is now lost or something as no one at apple knows where it is or why it is taking so long.
let's see if tomorrow ( Monday) they can give me some good news.

I will never buy apple care again.

[Torrijos]

On my part I recommend Apple care if only to make sure that you amortize the investment over 3 years the least any computer should last.

I too had some difficulties with the service though...
I bought a first generation Intel MBPro that started making fan noises a couples of months before the end of the 3 years Applecare.
I send it for repair and it came back with non-functioning RAM (WTF right?).
The thing is Apple retailers (no true Apple store back then), get a malus if they service a machine and if said machine is returned for further repairs before 30 days, so those retailers tend to send you elsewhere after a botch repair (and they certainly lost my business that day).
The second repair brought me back a working machine... that started making the strange fan noise after a couple of weeks at which point I send an e-mail to Apple that exchange me that laptop for the current model.

What people have to realize is that powerful laptop tend to have a malfunction rate around 20% after 3 years. Premium laptops fairing better than medium laptop and netbooks.

The 3 years malfunction rate noted in a 2010 study gave Asus (15.6%) < Toshiba < Sony < Apple (17.4%) < Dell < Lenovo < Acer < Gateway < HP (25.6%).

I don't know for the others but Apple's design have improved a lot since 2007, but still when I buy something as expensive as an Apple computer I take the Apple care because over 3 years (where it usually still handles itself pretty well) the price become acceptable.

[thejadedmonkey]

Originally Posted by zoffdino

Act like adult and be reasonable in your demands. When you live in the middle of the ocean, it's gonna take time to get your spare parts, assemble them and send the whole computer back to you. Two weeks is very good turn around time indeed. For comparison, head over to the Dell's, HP's, Sony's, etc support forums and hear their horror stories of multiple trips to the service center. The best part about the whole experience is the OP got out of the Apple Store in 20 minutes. To him, that's the only effort on his part.

AppleCare is consumer-level service. If you want technicians to come to your house, take the machine away, and drop you a replacement, expect to pay (and pay decently) for that. If a computer is so important to your work, sign a support contract like that and/or get multiple computers.

If I have a problem with my Dell, I can call someone up and have a tech at my house or workplace the following day to fix it for me. If they screw up, or don't have the correct part (which has happened before), they come back the following day. The longest downtime I've ever had from Dell has been 5 days, and that's because they sent the wrong part out and it was over a weekend. Usually it's less than 24 hours though.

2 weeks is just crap service wrapped up in Apple's spit-shine.

[comatory]

Originally Posted by thejadedmonkey

If I have a problem with my Dell, I can call someone up and have a tech at my house or workplace the following day to fix it for me. If they screw up, or don't have the correct part (which has happened before), they come back the following day. The longest downtime I've ever had from Dell has been 5 days, and that's because they sent the wrong part out and it was over a weekend. Usually it's less than 24 hours though.

2 weeks is just crap service wrapped up in Apple's spit-shine.

But AppleCare is consumer-level protection,not like Dell's NBD which are usually included with more expensive hardware etc. For iMac its pretty cheap IMhO.

[thejadedmonkey]

Originally Posted by comatory

But AppleCare is consumer-level protection,not like Dell's NBD which are usually included with more expensive hardware etc. For iMac its pretty cheap IMhO.

It used to be that way, but Dell's default warranty for home users these days even include in-home service!

[comatory]

Originally Posted by thejadedmonkey

It used to be that way, but Dell's default warranty for home users these days even include in-home service!

Image

Cool didnt know that. I used to own Dell Vostro that came with NBD. It was quite expensive because of it.

Do they charge more or less as Apple?

[sukai]

Originally Posted by alk-3

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.

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 o.O

[thejadedmonkey]

Originally Posted by comatory

Cool didnt know that. I used to own Dell Vostro that came with NBD. It was quite expensive because of it.

Do they charge more or less as Apple?

I got my 14" Vostro laptop for a little under a grand, with a 2 year on site warranty and a 6630m graphics card. My sister's Dell was $700-something with a 2 year warranty and a 6630m too.

I'm not sure exactly how the computer/warranty costs breakdown. I think it's somewhere like $300/3 years or $200/2 years maybe? but overall it's far far cheaper to get a Dell. Of course if you get a Dell the battery only lasts for 4 hours vs 7 from Apple, and the computer's a few 10th of an inch thicker, but I find the more "pro" options such as ports and warranty service far outpace anything Apple currently offers.

It's funny because 6 years ago, the Macbook Pro was truly "pro", with more ports than your typical Dell and a better warranty overall, but as Dell's products got better, Apple's stagnated as they started relying on their tablet monopoly more.

[Adonnan]

AppleCare paid off for me with a 2.88ghz i7 27" late 2009 iMac . They replaced the logic board and videocard in less than a week. With only two months of the warranty left to boot.

Sadly it messed up again 48 hours after the repair, so now I am waiting again.. but this time on a brand new replacement machine at no cost.

[ATC]

AppleCare will only be as good as the service you'll receive at a particular Apple Store which can be unfortunate at some locations.

Having said that, AppleCare has always paid off for me. My most recent experience was when my 09' 24" iMac's LCD started to darken in the lower left quadrant:



With only a week left before my AC expired, I took it into my Apple Store and before I finished explaining the issue the genius knew exactly what I was talking about, ran the diagnostics and proceeded to order me a new LCD. The new screen was even better than the original; perfectly uniform, no light leakage, zero dead pixels and super bright. Total cost of the repair was just over $600 of which I paid zero.

My iPhone was replaced 3 times in 2 years due to home button becoming erratic, every time I walked in and out with a new iPhone.

I can't tell you how many phone support incidents I've had over the years and they've all resolved the issue although on a few occasions it had to be escalated to engineering level due to complexity of issue which can take some time.

The only time I never used my Apple Care was on my 2008 MBP which I sold with 1 year left of AC. The guy who bought it told me he paid my full asking price primarily because of how well I took care of the machine (it was flawless) and the fact that it had AC still on it.

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

[FreemanW]

Originally Posted by sukai

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 o.O

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

I would imagine that if Apple made a determination that the damage was deliberate and/or biological (let your mind connect the dots there) they could point to fine print that I do not know of and exclude warranty standing.
.