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Apple Care, is it worth it?

theBB said:
Of course, there is the peace of mind aspect of it, which is hard to price.
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I've always wondered about the "peace of mind" thing. Personally, I would not get any peace of mind out of knowing that I'd already paid for repairs to my Mac without having any idea about whether I'd ever actually need any repairs to my Mac. In fact, paying for something you may never get seems like an antidote to peace of mind, to me.
 
One thing that's often suggested as an alternative to buying extended warranties like Applecare is to setup a bank account and put all the money you would have put into an extended warranty into this account. Then, when you need the money for a repair, you tap into this account.

I figure by now I probably have thousands saved from declining extended warranties since I haven't yet actually required servicing on anything after the warranty period.
 
I agree with drake's idea of putting all of your would-be warranty money into an account and essentially having a personal item insurance setup. In theory, this approach is best, although in practice few people have the discipline to do it.
Apple obviously makes money off of applecare, so they average damage cost per computer is going to be less than the price of the care. So it really seems to me that the average person should actually not buy it. If you are a 'tech-savvy' user and feel comfortable with the hardware and software, this seems to be a poor purchase. But if you often have problems with your laptops (from say, neglect) and you don't like fixing things on your own, you may consider it.
 
A question about keyboards and mice.

AppleCare policy states:
(i)... An Apple-branded mouse and keyboard are also covered under APP if included with the Covered Equipment .

I take that to mean if the keyboard/mouse are included in the box. This is the only mention of keyboard/mouse in the policy.

I'd like to buy a stock 2.4/24" iMac (with included wired keyboard and mouse) AND a wireless keyboard.

So my question is, does anyone have experience getting keyboards and mice that were purchased separately covered under AppleCare? Even if they were purchased on the same day?
 
Not counting that one Apple IIe, I've been a regular Mac Owner and user since Jan 2002. I think Applecare is worth it only on portables, perhaps only on a high end portable (MBP.. before, PowerBook), and I think only worth it if you can get it cheap. People are saying ebay here - how do the prices compare to student discount? I am a student right now.

I've always had some sort of random problem with my Powerbooks or MBPs and Applecare has come in handy (display stopped working, a charge stopped going to the battery, etc). If I didn't have Applecare, in terms of Apple's prices, it would have probably cost me a lot, but perhaps I could have shopped aroudn to soften the blow. I've also noticed apple has done nice things for me here and there. Back when I had the Titanium Powerbook and towards year 3 when all the paint was chipping, they replaced my cover for me on a random send in for some other problem. I also would slip in my wear-and-teared AC Adaptor on my previous laptops and they would send me a new one. I believe Applecare at the student discount level is like $200ish and at the price of $2kish for the laptops I bought, I have found it to be worth it.

The key thing is when you get it, try to get your money's worth. One of the things that annoyed me was when they would always try to get me to go in the store whenever I called with a problem. For a while, there was no store immediately nearby, but now there is, but even then, I still would rather them send a box and save me the time. So that's my complaint about them. If I'm shelling out a couple hundred, I want the convenience of the repair.

Other than applecare, I'm pretty anti-extended warranty. If you decide not to get applecare, I don't think you should lose sleep at night. I think at the end of the day, the odds are in your favor.

Oh, I saw homeowners insurance tossed around a bit, and when I cracked the screen of my MBP late last year, I looked into that but the deductible was $500 and the screen repair was $436 w/ my student discount so that wasn't a smart option.
 
I don't think it's worth it on any machine. Then again, I also don't think it's worth paying more than $2000 for anything Apple (or any other manufacturer) sells. Technology moves too quickly.
 
tiredhorses said:
Buy it off eBay. I think it's completely covered for repairs and replacements (under the terms of the contract), but I've not had to use mine yet.

I'd definately say it's worth buying for peace of mind though.
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Since your buying a laptop, it is more than important than a desktop, and is far cheaper than not having Apple Care.

eBay is a good choice for purchasing and so is L. A. Computing. Paid only $99.00 for my AppleCare for my new iMac 24".
 
DesignerOnMac said:
Since your buying a laptop, it is more than important than a desktop, and is far cheaper than not having Apple Care.

eBay is a good choice for purchasing and so is L. A. Computing. Paid only $99.00 for my AppleCare for my new iMac 24".
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Word...i got apple care for $107 shipped for my new 24" iMac off of eBay..activated it without a hitch.
 
Applecare, or just about any other extended warranty is NOT worth it.

sure, you hear the glorious stories of how people had problems with their macs *just* after the 1 year periods and oh thank heaven for applecare! But those are the only stories you will hear.

You won't, for instance, see threads titled "hey! my mac is 2 years old now and works perfectly...thank god i didn't get that applecare!"

I hope you catch my drift and not buy into this dogma.

is it a risk? maybe...a slight one i suppose. does it justify the cost? nah...not at all.

besides, you have a one year warranty standard.


I consider extended warranties to be no different than scams...but its really up to you. I am reminded of the simpsons episode where homer realizes he is dumb because he has a crayon lodged in his brain.

"EXTENDED WARRANTY!?!? HOW CAN I LOSE?"
 
I've bought dozens of Macs over the years since 1985 or so. Currently have five (four iMacs (3 Intel) and one MacBook. If I had bought AppleCare for all those machines it would have cost me a fortune. And in the over two-dozen machines and twenty-two years I have had only TWO problems!!! A video board on a Strawberry iMac (cost me about $150 as I recall) and a hard drive failure on the MacBook (I replaced it myself for about $75). I'm so thankful I didn't buy AppleCare on all (or any) of those machines.

Best thing is to put the money you would have spent on AppleCare in a savings account. Second best thing is... I also like the idea of replacing machines just about annually, as they do hold their value well in resale if fairly recent... and you can benefit from the latest technology and software for relatively little money - hardly much more than Apple Care would have cost you for keeping the old machine around for another two years. Exceptions would be when you have a fleet of machines (like I do) that are all performing just as you need them to perform... in that state, it may be better to get two to three years out of each one. And to NOT buy AppleCare on all of them.
 
my 2 cents

You'll have to decide yourself if you want to buy Applecare, but I personally wouldn't buy a new Mac without it. Here's my story:

I bought an ibook G4 3 years ago, and Applecare. It was lemon from the start: 2 logic boards and a new topcase later, the logic board went again 2 weeks ago - THREE DAYS from when my Applecare was set to expire. Apple replaced my 3-year old ibook with a BRAND NEW Macbook for free, (sooo pretty...) and overnighted it to my house.

It was definitely worth 249$

Of course, for every story like mine, there is a story where someone bought it and nothing ever went wrong. So good luck deciding!:D
 
Rizvi1 said:
...I think Applecare is worth it only on portables, perhaps only on a high end portable (MBP.. before, PowerBook)...
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I talked a bit earlier about my thoughts on Applecare being worth it. Since that post, I dropped watermelon juice into my 15" 2.2ghz MBP's keyboard and the 'S' key stopped working. Applecare fixed that for me (I called in - if I took it into the store, I think they probably would have noticed since my keys were sticking). Also, shortly later my hard drive failed and Applecare fixed that. Been a busy couple months for my Applecare.
 
If you're in the UK, it's worth looking at John Lewis. They offer a free 2 year warranty on any laptop or desktop purchased from them.
 
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