Applecare for a Macbook Pro purchased on eBay

[kingcutt]

Hi all,

I was wondering if anybody could give me a bit of advice. I'm looking at purchasing a 15" Macbook pro on ebay for a decent price. I've done the standard 'checks', the seller has 100% positive feedback and has sold a good number of items.

However, I would like to purchase the applecare plan if I were to successfully win the auction and I was just wondering how this would work. I asked the seller when the MBP was purchased and if he had the receipt, as I assume this is necessary to register the applecare plan? The item description claims it was given to him as a gift but he wanted an alienware laptop and thus, is selling it on to fund that purchase.
His response to my query was that he does not have the receipt because of this and could not ask for it because he doesn't want his mum to know he has sold it - though he believes it was purchased in August though.

Now, this all sounds a bit suspect to me (but maybe i've just got one of those warey minds) and I was just wondering if I were to buy the MBP from him and everything he says is true, would I be able/eligible to purchase AppleCare direct from the applestore without the relevant receipt for the MBP?

I hope that makes sense!

Thanks all
K

 

[tardman91]

I'm pretty sure Apple would have record of when the laptop was sold by the serial number. As long as it's been less than a year you should have no problem getting AppleCare. My only concern would be that it might be stolen. His excuse sounds fishy. Why not just return it if it wasn't what he wanted?

 

[RKO]

+1 smells fishy. I could be wrong but if you think there is something suspect, don't chance it on ebay.

 

[Dmich116]

You are taking a chance, but most people I know that bought it off of eBay had no problems.

 

[iLog.Genius]

Try to get as much information you can and ask the seller to take a picture of the serial number on the box and at the About This Mac screen (if already opened).

Take that serial number and call up AppleCare. If it's not opened it won't be registered. If it is opened and seller is saying otherwise, chances are that it will be registered to a user. If you can't or don't want to do it yourself, you can 3-way AppleCare and confirm it to make sure.

 

[molala]

If you ask for the serial number, you can find out through the apple.com/support website if it has warranty and until when.

If it were me, I wouldn't buy the laptop. Another +1 for finding the excuse fishy.

Does Apple do a stolen laptop registry? Maybe you can find out from the serial number.

 

[kingcutt]

Thanks for all the responses everyone. I've emailed the seller asking for the serial number details, but i'm inclined to agree with you, and my better judgement, which I don't think trusts ebay with anything like a macbook fullstop.

Thanks again everyone