Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

$249 Apple Care, debating...

K

ks-man

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 25, 2007
742
15
I'm leaning towards getting the base 13" MBA upgrade to 4GB ram. This would bring the price to $1399. AppleCare @ $249 an 18% cost, pretty pricey for a warranty, although not as bad as the 25% cost of the base 11.6". I typically get AppleCare for my new Macs (got it for my iMac and my original MBA) and haven't needed it yet. Both of those had issues but the issues happened during the first year and after thereafter were fine.

I realize AppleCare is a personal issue where individuals must evaluate cost vs. piece of mind, but with this MBA it doesn't seem like there have been any major changes so am I correct that I may be a little safer passing on AppleCare this time around? I figure any faulty parts would likely rear their heads in the first 12months.

Thoughts?
 
Get it, eventually...

The advice I've gotten in regards to Apple Care is that it makes sense for a laptop, and not so much for an iMac. You also have a year to get it, so it doesn't have to be right now.

For my MBP, I waited and bought Apple Care on eBay for 1/2 the price. Got the code, registered, and a repair was honored by Apple so it is legit. I will probably do the same with my MBA.
 
Usually I do if it's a laptop or over a couple grand, like my macpro.
 
You can get it for around 180$ or less on the internet from Apple Resellers.
 
You have up to a year to buy Applecare. The only benefit the first year is phone support for software problems. But any hardware issue is covered.
 
tigres said:
Lost me there. Bought 5 over the years at a min of 50% discount. What are you saying?
Click to expand...

Give you a couple examples:

1. Someone with APPLECARE with 8 months left probably only outsell my 2 years old macbook by $50 tops - all else equal.

2. Potential willingness to pay
- up to 1 year old/ 2 years left on applecare (you probably have to slash $50 to $100 of fair market value of applecare)
- 2 years old / 1 year left on applecare (half of the value is say $125, you can probably get $50 value-added
- approaching 3 years old (the last few months of applecare probably will be worth only $10 if any as the warranty approaches expiration).

So to sum it up, unless applecare is to protect yourself, it is like a computer, the "value-added" is not 100% of what it costed you, any "extras" including the warranty will suffer "discounting" when you try to sell it to a 3rd party.
 
Squaretrade?

I have Applecare for my iMac and for my wife's MacMini as well, but agree that 18% for Applecare for the 13.3" is a little steep. Anyone have experience with Squaretrade warranties on Apple notebooks? Their price would be $159-199 depending on teh final cost of the MBA.

???
 
Poochi said:
Give you a couple examples:

1. Someone with APPLECARE with 8 months left probably only outsell my 2 years old macbook by $50 tops - all else equal.

2. Potential willingness to pay
- up to 1 year old/ 2 years left on applecare (you probably have to slash $50 to $100 of fair market value of applecare)
- 2 years old / 1 year left on applecare (half of the value is say $125, you can probably get $50 value-added
- approaching 3 years old (the last few months of applecare probably will be worth only $10 if any as the warranty approaches expiration).

So to sum it up, unless applecare is to protect yourself, it is like a computer, the "value-added" is not 100% of what it costed you, any "extras" including the warranty will suffer "discounting" when you try to sell it to a 3rd party.
Click to expand...

Well, I understand now. But I just sold my Rev B on Ebay, and received a pretty good sale w/1 year apple care remaining on it. I think the apple care put the deal on the table personally, as well as it is in mint condition.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

I'd buy AppleCare if u want to sell it later...as there is a better chance to sell. You don't make more money but it is helpful.

With the price of the MBA, I don't know if it is worth it to buy. Now piece of mind helps me know that 2 days after the 1 yr regular warranty ends, my machine won't have a motherboard meltdown (which happened once). But then again for the price, I might believe the money toasted a new machine might be better.

I agree that you can wait till 1 yr is almost up and decide then. It makes better sense to access how much longer you plan to keep and if it retained it's value in the market.
 
I never consdiered Ebay for AppleCare. Are you essentially buying a sealed box where the serial number was never used? Does that mean you don't need an official receipt from Apple for the purchase?
 
ks-man said:
I never consdiered Ebay for AppleCare. Are you essentially buying a sealed box where the serial number was never used? Does that mean you don't need an official receipt from Apple for the purchase?
Click to expand...
They'll usually send you an e-mail with the Applecare serial to enter into Apple's support page alongside your computer/device's serial number.
 
tigres said:
Well, I understand now. But I just sold my Rev B on Ebay, and received a pretty good sale w/1 year apple care remaining on it. I think the apple care put the deal on the table personally, as well as it is in mint condition.
Click to expand...

Sold my Rev B too, five days ago, on Craigslist. Got $1,000 and has a battery with 750 cycles and 70% capacity. Bought it 11/08 with no AppleCare. How much did you get?
 
Wow $249...I am usually a big fan of AppleCare as it replaced a lot of stuff for free in my 1st gen macbook, but this costs 1/4 of the machines price.

I wonder if it is because pretty much all MBA problems will result in them having to replace the logic board...
 
If you have the right kind of credit card then you can get your one year warranty doubled to two years. It's not as convenient as Applecare but much cheaper.

Greg
 
jclardy said:
Wow $249...I am usually a big fan of AppleCare as it replaced a lot of stuff for free in my 1st gen macbook, but this costs 1/4 of the machines price.

I wonder if it is because pretty much all MBA problems will result in them having to replace the logic board...
Click to expand...
Wow, I got mine for $149 when it was $199 at retail. It's in line with the price of other 3-year manufacturer warranties now. That's scary since it used to be a killer deal otherwise on a notebook.

I'll have to look into SquareTrade as well now instead of AppleCare.
 
Its also a very good idea if you plan to sell down the line. I'm pretty sure I'll want the updated MBA and buyers will like the extra warranty for a used laptop.

I also purchase close to the end of the year. No real logic behind it, just makes me feel better not dropping the extra cash on the day of purchase lol
 
BEWARE OF EBAY!!

Apple is cracking down on these - they are needing the original sales receipt from the person you buy from on eBay.

Apple is even going so far as retroactively inactivating AppleCare on machines registered with eBay purchased AppleCare!!!! - They do not even notify you that this has happened - so I would double check the status if you did go this route - I will be talking to the Customer Relation person tomorrow to fix this big slimy problem.
 
We have purchased 4 MB/MBP's in the previous 2+ years. None with applecare and non have given us one peep of problems. I don't plan on purchasing AC as I feel Apple's products are sound enough. I also don't think the small difference in resale value is a big issue.

YMMV ~~~~~~~~ :p
Johng
 
musicpenguy said:
BEWARE OF EBAY!!

Apple is cracking down on these - they are needing the original sales receipt from the person you buy from on eBay.

Apple is even going so far as retroactively inactivating AppleCare on machines registered with eBay purchased AppleCare!!!! - They do not even notify you that this has happened - so I would double check the status if you did go this route - I will be talking to the Customer Relation person tomorrow to fix this big slimy problem.
Click to expand...

What "big slimy problem" are you referring too?

thanks

JohnG
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back