Advice on Applecare for MacBook Pro?

[mattniles007]

My situation is this. A 15" MBP was bought for me by the VA yesterday at Best Buy. My representative insisted on buying the BB 3yr warranty, I politely disagreed and suggested several times AppleCare. It was no use since the BB worker and he both insisted. I had no choice, since he was buying it for me. I know how terrible extended warranties are, and they kept saying "BB is better than Apple because it cover accidents" It cost the government $399 What a joke huh. Now my question is this do you think I should still buy the AppleCare with my own money?

 

[P90Xfit]

Man! you REALLY should have went with the BB deal. It's true you drop you laptop, spill water or soda on it. They got you covered, apple care only covers hardware failures and if it has a dent, some will try to worm out of fixing it because you MIGHT have dropped it. Go back and buy the BB care, with these MBP and the dam screen and graphics card problem, you would be stupid not to!

 

[MikhailT]

Man! you REALLY should have went with the BB deal. It's true you drop you laptop, spill water or soda on it. They got you covered, apple care only covers hardware failures and if it has a dent, some will try to worm out of fixing it because you MIGHT have dropped it. Go back and buy the BB care, with these MBP and the dam screen and graphics card problem, you would be stupid not to!

What the hell are you talking about?

Those bestbuy warranty are scams. Too many people get rejected for claims for no reason. I know a buddy who did this and a year after, he could only get a replacement of a lower quality crappy model because of "similar specs". Sighs.


Anyway, don't bother with any of those stores. Just get it covered by Apple and try your best not to drop the laptop.

 

[jsw]

My understanding is that you already have the BB warranty, right?

You're asking if you should also get AppleCare, yes?

Keep in mind that you have a year to get it (well, it has to be registered within a year, so leave yourself a buffer of a few days) and that you can buy it from a number of non-Apple sources. Unless you're really jonesing for the phone support after 90 days, you can wait a while to make this decision.

 

[NickM]

My understanding is that you already have the BB warranty, right?

You're asking if you should also get AppleCare, yes?

Keep in mind that you have a year to get it (well, it has to be registered within a year, so leave yourself a buffer of a few days) and that you can buy it from a number of non-Apple sources. Unless you're really jonesing for the phone support after 90 days, you can wait a while to make this decision.

Not to derail this thread, but what's the deal with Apple and their phone support? Are they really stingy with talking to their users???
I just got my first Mac today, but recently read something about them having some really strict phone support rules or something...
That's kinda lame. What's the reason for that?

 

[iLog.Genius]

Not to derail this thread, but what's the deal with Apple and their phone support? Are they really stingy with talking to their users???
I just got my first Mac today, but recently read something about them having some really strict phone support rules or something...
That's kinda lame. What's the reason for that?

It's just a business and with a business you make money. Like all services, you need to pay for them. I agree that 90 days is a little too short since competing companies have a year.

Shouldn't really say this but I still help people who are over their 90 days, heck, I still help people that have previous gen hardware.

If you problem is easy, I'll do it, if it requires me to go through my resources extensively, you're paying or I'm not helping!

 

[mattniles007]

Seems I may have caused some confusion. The VA bought the BB warranty for me, against my wishes, although beggars can not be choosers. I am asking should I buy Applecare on top of what I got, is it worth it? Or am I doubling up on warranty?

 

[drichards]

You can't take your Mac to the Apple store and have their real techs fix it next year if you have just that Best Buy warranty. But you can have a Best Buy 17 year old know it all punk **** around and break it worse.

 

[mattniles007]

You can't take your Mac to the Apple store and have their real techs fix it next year if you have just that Best Buy warranty. But you can have a Best Buy 17 year old know it all punk **** around and break it worse.

I agree. Thats why I tried (in vain) to explain how crappy BB warranty is. It cost the VA 400 for the warranty I was shocked. I knew how terrible BB was with extended warranties, but the cost was unbelievable. I put on a sales presentation at BB, I pulled up Apple's website and tried to teach about a dozen people how much better and CHEAPER Applecare was, the salesperson was not amused. But my rep. and the salesperson squashed me, they kept saying Apple doesnt cover accidents.

 

[Eddyisgreat]

I know a guy who buys a brand new laptop, from best buy, for his tour in Iraq with the extended warranty and brings it back covered in sand and dust. Apparently they've already exchanged two models for him after about a year and a half each. For some reason I would have felt better with Apple's warranty but I don't really drop my machines and I quite frankly baby them, since its one of the few possessions I own (and need).

Call up or see exactly what the bb warranty covers. If you can take it back for anything, accidental spills, non working keyboard, messed up power supply etc etc, AND they will give you a unit of the same model/brand/specification, then it should be an OK deal and you don't have to double up. That last part is extremely important, because they may try to sneak in that "like or comparable spec model" bs which means you'll bring in your apple and walk out with a dell.