AppleCare - The Poll

Better to have and have no problems, than not to have and have problems. Have never been without it on any of my Apple products. The one time I did need it, it paid for itself 10 times over. I would be sitting on a $3,500 iMac that was a bad one from the start and took Apple 21 months before they replaced it.

I have repair bills that would have cost me a couple of thousand dollars out of pocket had it not been for Applecare. Only time I ever had to use it on any device but was so very happy to have had it. Plus the peace of mind knowing that if something goes wrong in the first 3 years that I am covered is so worth it.

If you do not use all your Applecare you have a couple of options when selling the MBA. Sell it with it or you can have Apple prorate it and reimburse you for the difference in the amount you did not use.

The poll questions don't work for me. While those are certainly some of the possibilities, it hardly covers all of them.

AppleCare has several components. Yes, it does extend the warranty, but it also gives you AppleCare tech support for the term of the agreement. Maybe you need the hardware coverage, maybe you need the tech support, maybe you need both, or neither.

That's the nature of insurance. I pay for auto and life insurance every month. I don't feel either is a waste, despite the fact that I'm accident-free and I'm still alive. It's a gamble. And when we buy insurance, we're betting something will go wrong, and the insurance company is betting that it won't go wrong (all that often).

If you can afford to self-insure (pay for repairs if you need them, pay for tech support if you need it), then AppleCare isn't for you. If you have a history of needing tech support and/or can't afford to replace the main logic board if it goes bad... then AppleCare seems a decent bet.

I’ve used the AppleCare on two different MacBooks.

First was the white 2010 MacBook. After about 2-1/2 years, the case cracking was so bad that is cause the charging port to short out. Apple replaced the charging port and the entire upper and lower case under AppleCare.

The second time, it was with my 2010 retina MacBook Pro. After about 15 months, I started seeing the image retention issue. Apple replaced the screen under AppleCare.

Buying AppleCare is a small price to pay for peace of mind - especially at the Education price.

I have never had an issue on any Mac or Apple product but my parents had a couple of new Apple products go bad during warranty period. I have heard more about Apple stuff breaking down in recent years but it's either that build quality has gone down, or just because more people have Apple stuff, or both.

My instincts tell me, especially being a tech, that the growing demand for Apple has caused them to rush production and put out less than stellar products. When we were a boutique company, it made sense to put money into R and D and great quality, and live off of that. But now we are more like Microsoft and Dell where it's about keeping with impossible deadlines. Any product that is forced to be made too quickly, or developed too quickly will result in more lemons. Gone are the days where you will meet lifelong Apple fans who have zero stories of problematic gear and/or software.

All this has made me lose excitement in the new products they release knowing that while they are still near the top, they are not the lone, great company they used to be. While people may say it's because Steve Jobs is gone, that's not entirely accurate as I have noticed Apple quality dropping while he was still CEO. As brilliant as he was, there's no way you can grow that fast and still be the same. I will miss the great days of iMac, iBook, OS X Jaguar and first exciting release of iPod, but those days of industry leading innovation are gone and we are just another high tech company. From the late-90s through the mid-2000s we simply did not have any competition (iirc, they had beige PC towers running Windows 98 and giant cellphones) but now we see copycats who put out stuff as good as us, maybe better.

That being said, while we will never be the same with the tech world holding it breath at every Apple release, Tim Cook and company will continue on with great success and succeed much more like a Microsoft or Dell and live to please stockholders and be just good enough to stay in the game.

100% thrilled I bought AppleCare on my MBP. I have a 2011 model, which is full of problems as we know. I've replaced the Logic Board, other GPU issues, countless chargers, and more. I can see myself purchasing it for every big-budget apple purchase from now on. Highly recommend it.

63dot said:

My instincts tell me, especially being a tech, that the growing demand for Apple has caused them to rush production and put out less than stellar products. When we were a boutique company, it made sense to put money into R and D and great quality, and live off of that. But now we are more like Microsoft and Dell where it's about keeping with impossible deadlines. Any product that is forced to be made too quickly, or developed too quickly will result in more lemons. Gone are the days where you will meet lifelong Apple fans who have zero stories of problematic gear and/or software.

Click to expand...

What you say is true - we well not see many "lifelong Apple fans who have zero stories of problematic gear", but we will always have, IMO, stories of excellent customer service and quick problem resolution when the issues do appear.

And AppleCare will be a part of that customer service, albeit at an added cost above the purchase price of the tech gear.

Poll doesn't work for me either:

At less than 10% of the cost of my son's BTO iMac I consider it a great purchase even though the iMac has been perfect since day one and we haven't needed tech support. I consider it insurance. The cost of replacing his computer would be painful and I am sure even simple replacements (eg HDD) would be expensive.

At more than 25% of the cost of my daughter's refurb base model 13' MacBook Air I consider the price too steep. Given the cost of the computer, this is a case where I am willing to "self insure". Furthermore, my credit card gives me a second year of warranty for free.

For the OP: It boils down to whether or not you can afford to not have AppleCare. Also, I understand that the manufacturer's warranty is longer in some European countries than it is here in Canada or USA; if this is your situation and the MacBook is not maxed out I would be inclined to forego the AppleCare.

Best of luck.

Cheers

Two months before my AppleCare ran out my 2011 MacBook Pro broke down. It needed $1500 in repairs, all covered. A month later it broke again and they replaced with a 2013 Retina model.

Get AppleCare

Well worth the money for my son's MBP that he carried off to college. The abuse a laptop takes makes them much more prone to having problems. AppleCare covered a replacement trackpad, a replacement battery, replaced power cord, and hinge adjustments (tightening) well after the original warranty would have expired.

Desktop machines don't get the physical abuse of a laptop but the all-in-one design of the iMacs makes any repair a major issue, too.

This is from someone who NEVER purchases an extended warranty on any other appliance... but the support, service, and repairs offered by Applecare seems to make it worthwhile in my opinion.

I voted on behalf of a friend. His iMac had an issue that couldn't be fixed. It was still under AppleCare. Apple agreed to give him an in-store credit, so he got a brand new updated and upgraded iMac for like $600. So if your product ends up breaking, it's definitely worth it for the cheap upgrade you can get.

AppleCare - The Poll

AppleCare on a MBP or iMac? Yes. On an iPhone or iPad? No.

Bought AC years ago once

I bought Apple Care with my first Mac portable. I consider it a waste of money due to the way my issue was resolved. There was a problem with the keyboard. Needed to be changed. I called AC they mailed me the part. Said I had to do my own install. I was not comfortable with that. I wanted to have the keyboard installed at the Apple store in this community. AC said no. My responsibility. I called the Apple store and asked to bring the part in and have the install done there. They refused, said I had to do it myself.

Never bought Apple Car again. Money in my pocket to repair or replace if there are issues that present after Apple warranty and the extended automatically by the credit card the purchase was charged.

Supplying parts but not labor is a hella warranty. Great way to make certain the customer does not buy it again.

Same deal with One to One training. Make appointments unavailable as the fee has already been collected. No reason to actually provide the training.

After the parts no labor AC incident my next two portables were Windows units. That keyboard form AC is still in the shipping box.

Maybe I'll take the iBook and the part there one day and ask again.

I never got it but would recommend it just in case.

Never got it, never will. After owning several apple products I've never been in the situation where something failed after the initial warranty and before AppleCare would have expired. My MacBook has been going for 7 years strong (besides a hard drive failure) Two years into my mac mini it has been flawless along with my ipad/iphone.

The way I see it, Apple has to AppleCare to make a profit on an "average" customer. So in the long run over several products it makes sense to take my chances and I'll end up paying less in repairs. If I bought AppleCare for all my Apple products I'd have spent over $650 that I would have never recouped. I've been fortunate and you can always find people with horror stories, but so far it has worked for me.

It might make more sense for higher end MBP's and Mac Pro's. IMO it only makes sense to insure products that you can't afford to replace if something goes wrong.

I only skipped on the AppleCare once, my first iMac back in 2006 which had a logic board failure 6 weeks out of the one year warranty. I had it fixed out of pocket for $550 and sold the machine.

I've purchased AppleCare for every Mac I've owned since and used it quite a bit. I've had LCD panels replaced numerous times for various issues, most recently on my Late 2013 iMac. I'd hate to have to pay for that myself.

I got the AppleCare for my current machine used, meaning it was in a box that had been damaged, for $90. You can get it for not much more than that at LA Computer anytime.

It also increases the resale value of a Mac if you are selling it within the AppleCare coverage period. It's a no-brainer.

If you read Consumer Reports and the like they'll almost always recommend against extended warranties as a bad investment. You are betting your Mac will break in such a way that it can be fixed under warranty (remember, dogs eating it, toilet drops, spills, theft aren't covered). Apple is betting you won't need it. House wins, since they set the price (and, if you're a cynic, the odds).

Further, some futzing with your credit card can easily get you an extra year free.

Or self insure. The mantra in business is to buy insurance only for what you can't cover yourself. All the warranty money I saved over the decade or more I've been buying Apple would buy me a coupla nMPs right now. Even if it wasn't invested.

And prioritize. Your data is worth way more than the computer. It's more important that be backed up adequately. And consider loss of use; if you have to send something to Apple (or anywhere) down time can be more costly than the hardware itself. Do you have a second computer to use? Maybe that's a better way to spend your money.

You have a single incident and it pays for itself. You have a second incident and you technically make money. At worst, for the MacBook Air and 13" MacBook Pro, at least, you waste $183. Sounds like a good idea to me.