Apple Care

[Ambrosia7177]

1.) Why would you want to buy Apple Care when buying a new Mac?

2.) What does it cover exactly?

3.) Can you buy Apple Care if you buy a new Mac from somewhere like B&H?

 

[tjwilliams25]

This explains it the best: http://www.apple.com/support/products/mac.html. As for it being worth it, you would have to be the one to decide. I've never had it on any of my Macs, and so far I've been lucky, but it is sometimes nice to have that peace of mind. Also, it's a stand-alone purchase, so you can add it to a Mac not purchased through Apple.

 

[chscag]

3.) Can you buy Apple Care if you buy a new Mac from somewhere like B&H?

Yes. As a matter of fact, B&H will sell you Apple Care discounted. If you buy a Mac from them, just add Apple Care to your purchase. I've purchased Apple Care several times from B&H and probably saved at least $150.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

Yes. As a matter of fact, B&H will sell you Apple Care discounted. If you buy a Mac from them, just add Apple Care to your purchase. I've purchased Apple Care several times from B&H and probably saved at least $150.

The reason I never bought this in the past is because I won't turn over any computer with my data on it.

Let's say I had an issue with my MBP and was going to use the warranty or Apple Care, what would happen if I swapped out my SSD with data on it for another Apple SSD?

They might claim it was no longer the original MBP, but I could counter with, "Sorry, but my original SSD failed and so I replaced it."

Would that work? Especially if the warranty issue was on something like a bad monitor?

 

[Spink10]

The reason I never bought this in the past is because I won't turn over any computer with my data on it.

Let's say I had an issue with my MBP and was going to use the warranty or Apple Care, what would happen if I swapped out my SSD with data on it for another Apple SSD?

They might claim it was no longer the original MBP, but I could counter with, "Sorry, but my original SSD failed and so I replaced it."

Would that work? Especially if the warranty issue was on something like a bad monitor?

Just clone the drive and erase the SSD if it needs service. That is what I do.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

The reason I never bought this in the past is because I won't turn over any computer with my data on it.

Let's say I had an issue with my MBP and was going to use the warranty or Apple Care, what would happen if I swapped out my SSD with data on it for another Apple SSD?

They might claim it was no longer the original MBP, but I could counter with, "Sorry, but my original SSD failed and so I replaced it."

Would that work? Especially if the warranty issue was on something like a bad monitor?

If you have AppleCare, then if the original SSD failed, you would have brought it to Apple for replacement - failure of major components is one of the key reasons to have AppleCare. So, no, Apple wouldn't consider, "It failed so I replaced it" to be a convincing or logical explanation. You might as well say, "I don't trust you with my data, so I swapped it out." Whatever reason you give, it doesn't matter - you've confessed to making an unauthorized repair. By doing that, you may have voided the warranty.

The thing is, how does Apple know that the display was bad before you swapped the SSD? The display could have gone bad because you screwed up while swapping the SSD (static discharge, for example).

You may also have made it impossible to perform a proper diagnosis. Problems with computers are often due to what's on the HDD/SSD - erase it or replace it, and there may be no point to bringing the thing in for repair.

If you can perform an undetectable repair, great. If you're that good, then don't waste money on AppleCare, just bookmark ifixit.com

The thing about repair shops (or seeing a physician) is that the customer/patient is not expected to know what's wrong. "It doesn't work when I turn it on." "It hurts when I move my arm this way." You describe the symptoms, and let the expert perform the diagnosis.

Apple will not repair damage done during the course of an unauthorized repair... well, they might, but they'll charge you for it, it won't be covered by AppleCare. They may also insist that a Mac be restored to its factory configuration before performing service on it - the warranty covers the factory configuration, not your customizations. They'll fix defects in their workmanship, and their materials, not yours.

As has already been noted, there are less invasive methods for protecting your data. Your data should all be in your user login account(s). Copy those, and leave the rest of the SSD's contents intact. Create a new, clean Admin user account so that Apple has something to work with, and delete your User account(s) from the machine. Restore them to the machine after Apple is done.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP asks:
"Can you buy Apple Care if you buy a new Mac from somewhere like B&H?"

Yes.
BUT -- BE SURE to buy only "a sealed box" with the paperwork inside.
Not many mail order places sell these at discount.
It will be up to your own "due diligence" to find them.

Do not, DO NOT consider buying "AppleCare on ebay", where all you receive is an emailed code number. The vast majority of these sales are SCAMS -- you are not receiving a genuine AppleCare code, but a "false code" in most cases generated by a bogus app.

If you want to know more, I suggest you read this ENTIRE thread:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/dont-buy-applecare-on-ebay.690859/

 

[Ambrosia7177]

As has already been noted, there are less invasive methods for protecting your data. Your data should all be in your user login account(s). Copy those, and leave the rest of the SSD's contents intact. Create a new, clean Admin user account so that Apple has something to work with, and delete your User account(s) from the machine. Restore them to the machine after Apple is done.

There are some problems with your suggestion...

First, I don't know about SSD, but data can be recovered from a HDD after it has been formatted. The only way to protect data on a HDD is to destroy it.

Second, computers store data in places you don't even know that exists. Take TextEdit for example. So it isn't as easy as removing data from your Home directory.

Third, if data is encrypted, there are always keys that can be found and hacked.

After the NSA hacked Google and some of the smartest people in IT, it is smart to assume that anything can be hacked.

Does Apple have a reason to snoop in my data? No. But I think it could easily happen, so why risk it?

Based on your response, I am convinced that I would never get Apple Care or even let someone at the Genius Bar touch my Mac.

Thank God that when my Macs have died out it have been far enough into the purchase to just end up replacing it, which is what I am doing right now.

BTW, this is another reason I hate Apple making computer not updatable. With my current MBP, to alleviate this issue, I swapped out my factory HDD with a larger HDD, and had I ever need to warranty it, I would have popped the factory HDD back in, shipped it off to Apple with none of my data on it, and they would have been none the wiser.

If I want an Apple 1TB SSD, then I guess that trick would be harder to do, since I would need two facotry SSD from Apple.

 

[jimrichardson90]

There are some problems with your suggestion...

First, I don't know about SSD, but data can be recovered from a HDD after it has been formatted. The only way to protect data on a HDD is to destroy it.

Second, computers store data in places you don't even know that exists. Take TextEdit for example. So it isn't as easy as removing data from your Home directory.

Third, if data is encrypted, there are always keys that can be found and hacked.

After the NSA hacked Google and some of the smartest people in IT, it is smart to assume that anything can be hacked.

Does Apple have a reason to snoop in my data? No. But I think it could easily happen, so why risk it?

Based on your response, I am convinced that I would never get Apple Care or even let someone at the Genius Bar touch my Mac.

Thank God that when my Macs have died out it have been far enough into the purchase to just end up replacing it, which is what I am doing right now.

BTW, this is another reason I hate Apple making computer not updatable. With my current MBP, to alleviate this issue, I swapped out my factory HDD with a larger HDD, and had I ever need to warranty it, I would have popped the factory HDD back in, shipped it off to Apple with none of my data on it, and they would have been none the wiser.

If I want an Apple 1TB SSD, then I guess that trick would be harder to do, since I would need two facotry SSD from Apple.

Former Genius here. We had customers wipe their drives all the time before giving the machine to us to service. Apple doesn't have any data recovery tools, nor do we care about any of your data. If there's a blank user account on the machine, and the problem is 100% hardware related- bad logic board so it won't power on/go past the white screen, GPU issue, liquid damage etc, then having your data isn't an issue. But if you come to us with no data and you're having something weird happening that's probably software related, we can't exactly diagnose it with a wiped machine. At that point, if there's no way to replicate it in the store, there's not a lot we can do. However, If you're this concerned with data, then absolutely, don't buy AppleCare and don't go to the Genius Bar.

Also, just a word of caution if you swap SSDs- it's insanely easy to tell if someone's been in a machine before, so just be careful with that in terms of Apple refusing service if you do decide to go to the Genius Bar.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

Former Genius here. We had customers wipe their drives all the time before giving the machine to us to service. Apple doesn't have any data recovery tools, nor do we care about any of your data. If there's a blank user account on the machine, and the problem is 100% hardware related- bad logic board so it won't power on/go past the white screen, GPU issue, liquid damage etc, then having your data isn't an issue. But if you come to us with no data and you're having something weird happening that's probably software related, we can't exactly diagnose it with a wiped machine. At that point, if there's no way to replicate it in the store, there's not a lot we can do. However, If you're this concerned with data, then absolutely, don't buy AppleCare and don't go to the Genius Bar.

Also, just a word of caution if you swap SSDs- it's insanely easy to tell if someone's been in a machine before, so just be careful with that in terms of Apple refusing service if you do decide to go to the Genius Bar.

Thank you for your thoughts.

I guess I don't trust that wiping data off any drive is entirely safe - I know that data can be recovered off of HDDs if you have the right tools even after doing thorough writing to zeros.

In the past I have read some things that say it is harder to erase data on flash drives.

Its a shame Apple wouldn't warranty a computer with a non-drive issue if the drive was swapped out.

I guess data security is more important to me than following Apple's stringent warranty rules.

Thanks.