Any reason to buy at MBP at apple store, versus BestBuy *warranty issues*

[siurpeeman]

Hmmm... computer from BestBuy and BB extended warranty...

And the on again/off again Apple/BestBuy relationship...

Two years from now you could find your "uneconomical to repair" MBP replaced at no charge with an "equivalent" Gateway.

that would never happen. if best buy's relationship with apple ever soured to the point of best buy dropping apple's product line, you'd get your money back before being offered a "comparable" gateway trade. or at least i would hope. 😕

 

[texfire]

Hmmm... computer from BestBuy and BB extended warranty...

And the on again/off again Apple/BestBuy relationship...

Two years from now you could find your "uneconomical to repair" MBP replaced at no charge with an "equivalent" Gateway.

That's an excellent point. I need to check to see what replacement would be and maybe get it in writing.... Mac for Mac, OS for OS, etc.... I do not want to get a PC in exchange, rendering all my software useless!

I talked to a computer friend, recommended a mom and pop computer shop. They repair motherboards at a component level for a fixed fee... apparently my friend's had good experience with them. My laptop is there now being evaluated...can't fix it, no charge. Can, $195. We'll see 🙂

Chris

 

[Tshapi]

When it comes to accidental damage warranties, be very careful, Remember you purchased a very expensive machine. I recently read consumer reports from bestbuy regaurding different types of warranties.

since I am sure, they know that people will do this stuff to the computer on purpose, they may possibly be very difficult about honoring the warranties... I read one report where since they replace it on the fourth break or if the computer is dead. they didn't count one or two of the person's fixes toward the warranty.

since we are dealing with expensive electronics, people tend to become sneaky, because a lot of people try to replace the computer.

I have also read about people being sold accidental damage warranties, only when it comes time, to find out the warranty doesn't cover what it said it covered.
Becareful with the warranty at non apple stores.

 

[Ilovemygeek]

I had a bad computer Best Buy experience. I had gotten an HP laptop about 4 years ago..out of the box it had dead pixels. I took it back THAT day and they didn't have anymore and wouldn't fix it, they said I could either get a Toshiba which I was against b/c I had one of those a couple years ago and it was a freaking nightmare or they could order me one off the HP website, this was back in my poorer days right out of college so I financed on their card. The new computer got held up in customs so I was making payments on it for 4 months before I got the replacement. So yeah they do try to put you in a different brand if they're out of the brand you bought.

 

[majordude]

15% restocking fee on computers.

That's to cut down on the "I'm missing a mouse button" PC switchers. The Genius will say, "That'll be $405 to return your MBP or you can go to Staples and get a $20 Logitech mouse. Next customer, please!" 😛

 

[MrMaverick]

Best Buy warranty sucks

Listen everyone, Best Buy does NOT cover accidental damage nor does it cover water damage!!!!! This guy has no idea what he is talking about. Either someone at the store mislead him or he mis-interpreted what was said. I am 100% certain of this.

 

[sal]

So AppleCare is a waste of money because they don't cover accidental damage which they never claim to, and even go so far as to explicitly say they do not cover. 😛

logic seems to be a bit backwards. Most extended warranties out there do not cover accidental damage. If you are so worried over accidental spills on your next laptop, why don't you just keep away all liquids away from your computer?

I say go with what feels right. If you think paying extra money for the extended warranty and not receiving an edu discount is worth it, then go for it. but I agree with the above posters and get it all in writing. Read the coverage and make sure it covers accidental damage.

I had a bad experience with compUSA(and as a result I discourage everyone I know from purchasing anything from that store) in that I bought the extended warranty for a toshiba laptop. The machine was faulty, and it received a lot of repairs, so much that I feel it was costing compUSA too much money to make the repairs. On the last time I took it, they refused to repair it. They said it had liquid damage.

Now I am 100% sure this not the case. I take extreme care with ALL of my machines and I don't allow anytype of liquid within a 10 foot radius of my machine. It's my word against theirs. For all I know, some idiot at the store dropped some water on it.

needless to say, I contacted everyone at compusa, including the business branch, the department that takes care of the extended warranties, the repair facilities and did not fix anything. I also reported them to the better business bureau. So far there is no solution.

moral of the story. Pay close attention to the warranty and I wouldn't be surprised if a company(like compUSA) refuses to make repairs when they feel it's costing them too much money.

 

[mattwe]

Listen everyone, Best Buy does NOT cover accidental damage nor does it cover water damage!!!!! This guy has no idea what he is talking about. Either someone at the store mislead him or he mis-interpreted what was said. I am 100% certain of this.

Not necessarily true. Depends on what warranty you get (yes they have different ones, or at least did 1.5 years ago when I bought my laptop). I paid the extra $99 to get one that covered accidental damage - when I shattered a screen, it was covered. When I knocked the computer off a desk and grabbed the ethernet cable (which ripped the ethernet cable out and caused it not to 'click' in anymore), it was covered.

Don't know about the water damage - but I seriously doubt that it covers that. Then all someone has to do is pour some water on their comp to get a new one.

 

[canadagrad]

My partner works at best buy PT, in Canada, and their warrently is really good because you can do anything to the computer and they'll still replace it/fix it.

If they're taking forever to fix the problem, or its an expensive fix, they'll just give you a new one on the spot.

AND, if youre a student, tell them that the Apple website offers a 10% discount to you--Best Buy MUST beat all other advertised prices by 10 percent.

I'll probaby be getting mine from there (it helps that my boyfriend gets cost plus 10% off the warrenty 🙂

 

[canadagrad]

that would never happen. if best buy's relationship with apple ever soured to the point of best buy dropping apple's product line, you'd get your money back before being offered a "comparable" gateway trade. or at least i would hope. 😕

Yes, exactally: you would get the exact same ccomputer or, if it was no longer being made, they would give you the next grade up of the same brand.

BB would NOT force you to have a crappy Gateway or anything else if you had originally bought a Mac.

Dude: Just go to the BB and ask to speak to a computer department manager (so that you bypass all of the teenagers who work there part time and dont know what theyre talking about).

 

[thechidz]

AND, if youre a student, tell them that the Apple website offers a 10% discount to you--Best Buy MUST beat all other advertised prices by 10 percent.

this is interesting... I wonder if they do this in the states😕

it would be just as good as the ADC discount then...

 

[CashGap]

that would never happen. if best buy's relationship with apple ever soured to the point of best buy dropping apple's product line, you'd get your money back before being offered a "comparable" gateway trade. or at least i would hope. 😕

To quote a friend of mine... "Hope is not a strategy".

 

[texfire]

Listen everyone, Best Buy does NOT cover accidental damage nor does it cover water damage!!!!! This guy has no idea what he is talking about. Either someone at the store mislead him or he mis-interpreted what was said. I am 100% certain of this.

Well, you are the clueless one. I suggest you go ask them for the documentation of notebook warranties, and you look at the ADH part. Covers accidents and spills. Not fire however...

Just to update, I ended up calling the 1-800BESTbuy number and spoke to customer relations, spoke to store manager, all about perchance getting a PC as a replacement. They all emphatically denied it, saying that the OS is part of equally performing computer...

So, I bought a bestbuy apple. Not leopard preinstalled, but installed it, imported settings via timemachine and everything is working fine.
I'll certainly update this thread in the next 3 years if I have a service need 🙂

 

[queshy]

Hi,

As my MBP was 'liquid damaged', I'm looking for a new one.
AppleCare wouldn't fix my computer at all. Waste of money.
At Best Buy, they have a 3 yr warranty for $70 bucks more than AppleCare that also covers accidental drops and spills.
What reasons should I not buy my MBP at BestBuy and have greater peace of mind with a better warranty?

Bestbuy may not give me an education discount.
Bestbuy (hopefully) wouldn't fix my MBP in their store, they apparently ship it to apple, so I'd be out of the computer a bit longer than I would have if it was worked on directly in my local apple store...
I can tolerate that better than buying a whole new laptop which is what I'm having to do now..

Thanks,
chris

BB warranty doesn't cover accidental. It's just something they tell you to get you to buy it...the BB warranty is a ripoff. Applecare, imo, can be also, but not NEARLY as much as the BB warranty. Even with applecare, there are a ton of cases where they will refuse to fix your machine (hence why I aid it can be a waste of $).

 

[mattwe]

Well, you are the clueless one. I suggest you go ask them for the documentation of notebook warranties, and you look at the ADH part. Covers accidents and spills. Not fire however...

Just to update, I ended up calling the 1-800BESTbuy number and spoke to customer relations, spoke to store manager, all about perchance getting a PC as a replacement. They all emphatically denied it, saying that the OS is part of equally performing computer...

So, I bought a bestbuy apple. Not leopard preinstalled, but installed it, imported settings via timemachine and everything is working fine.
I'll certainly update this thread in the next 3 years if I have a service need 🙂

I have to give the conclusion to my previous posted problems with my laptop. Yesterday BB called to tell me that I would be getting a replacement. Went to the store, swapped it out for the White Macbook - they DID hassle me about the OS being different. Also, this store didn't carry Macs, they just had this one in as a customer return/open box (as a result it is a non-SR, but will be going to my wife when I get a MBP). I talked to the Geek Squad about them hassling me (I am pretty good friends with the guys at our local store from having so many repairs) and they took care of it.

Total cost to get into a macbook from a sub-1 GHZ processor and 512 of ram on my last computer? $7.00 Since it was an 'upgrade' I only had to pay the price difference even though it is a FAR better computer.

As many problems that I had, you really can't beat that - I am going to try the price match for the BB Warranty today.

EDIT:

BB does cover accidental. Being a law student I read all the fine print - and it is in there. As long as it doesn't look intentional, they will repair it, and if they say it is intentional fight them on it and they will usually repair it.

 

[emac82]

Hmmm... computer from BestBuy and BB extended warranty...

And the on again/off again Apple/BestBuy relationship...

Two years from now you could find your "uneconomical to repair" MBP replaced at no charge with an "equivalent" Gateway.

They would replace it with another Apple, unless of course, the customer didn't want another Mac....

 

[texfire]

EDIT:

BB does cover accidental. Being a law student I read all the fine print - and it is in there. As long as it doesn't look intentional, they will repair it, and if they say it is intentional fight them on it and they will usually repair it.

Just to be completely accurate, if you look/puchase online, it's not clear to me what warranty you are buying. There's only one choice. If you go to the store, there were several options : 2 years or 3 years with/without accidental damage or 1 year of just accidental damage. So, the accidental damage part, Called ADH (Accidental damage from handling) is extra and adds to the cost of the warranty. In fact, the warranty for 3 years with ADH for $2000+ computer is $479.

And for those who still refuse to believe, the warranty reads as such:
"ADH Coverage. This coverage option provides coverage for product failures due to an unexpected and unintentional external event (drop or liquid spill) that arises from your normal daily usage of the product."
and later under exclusions to the general policy...
"This plan does not cover repairs due to damage caused by accidental damage (unless ADH coverage has been purchased), intentional physical damage, external condensation/humidity, fire, flood, war, viruses, loss or damage to stored data, or computer hardware that is added after the originial purchase, spilled liquids (unless ADH coverage had been purchased), insect infestation, rodents, misuse, abuse, altered or missing serial numbers, rust or damage caused by non-authorized repair personnel."

So, it clearly covers spills, just not intentional ones. I find it interesting that fire/flood not covered, as those are accidental...but an act of god I guess...

Chris

 

[ZiggyPastorius]

DAMN. So if god sends an insect infestation at my laptop while we're at war with Iraq, I'm TRIPLE not covered? *cry*

 

[thechidz]

My partner works at best buy PT, in Canada, and their warrently is really good because you can do anything to the computer and they'll still replace it/fix it.

If they're taking forever to fix the problem, or its an expensive fix, they'll just give you a new one on the spot.

AND, if youre a student, tell them that the Apple website offers a 10% discount to you--Best Buy MUST beat all other advertised prices by 10 percent.

I'll probaby be getting mine from there (it helps that my boyfriend gets cost plus 10% off the warrenty 🙂

just to clarify, does this mean you get %20 off from retail?

 

[canadagrad]

just to clarify, does this mean you get %20 off from retail?

What I (via he) gets as BB is anything in the store at cost PLUS 10%.

Unfortunately, this does not include computers since the store makes virtually no money off of them.

But I DO get the cost plus10% off of peripherals and everything else in the store including the warranty.

So, for me, buying from BB does make sense.

Also: because the store makes no money on computer sales, they really try to shove warranties down your throat because that's where their money comes from. FYI.

 

[queshy]

What I (via he) gets as BB is anything in the store at cost PLUS 10%.

Unfortunately, this does not include computers since the store makes virtually no money off of them.

But I DO get the cost plus10% off of peripherals and everything else in the store including the warranty.

So, for me, buying from BB does make sense.

Also: because the store makes no money on computer sales, they really try to shove warranties down your throat because that's where their money comes from. FYI.

All true. At Future Shop where I worked at (sister company of BB), we got 50% off the warranties.

 

[ivan1234]

I would get it from best buy, the only reason I would buy direct from apple is for the student discount.

 

[whoops]

More than the Apple student discount

Right now you can also get up to $99 off on a printer too, so that makes the base MBP and printer $1799. I doubt BestBuy will honor that.

If you buy a computer on a credit card, don't you usually get a double warranty? Maybe that's an American Express?

 

[thechidz]

Unfortunately, this does not include computers since the store makes virtually no money off of them.

thats a dealbreaker for me, I'm getting %20 off a mbp with my adc discount