AppleCare for High School Retina MacBook Pros

[erthquake]

Is it worth it to get AppleCare for 55 13" Retina MacBook Pros purchased to be used by high school staff and students? Fifteen would be for staff, the rest for students. The laptops would stay on campus. I would max them with 16GB of RAM and hope to get six years out of them.

Education pricing for AppleCare is $183. If I forego AppleCare, I could get six more laptops as replacements. That would assume 11% or less of the 55 machines would have an issue inside of three years.

Downtime isn't a big issue since everyone uses a network account, so they could use one of our iMacs or older MacBooks in a pinch while we wait for an AppleCare repair.

 

[Dave245]

Don't students get AppleCare free anyway? i'm a student in the UK and when i brought my iMac i got AppleCare included. I think if your buying 55 MacBooks you get a bigger discount anyway because your buying in bulk.

 

[The Mercurian]

Don't students get AppleCare free anyway? i'm a student in the UK and when i brought my iMac i got AppleCare included. I think if your buying 55 MacBooks you get a bigger discount anyway because your buying in bulk.

Thats a UK only thing - you don't know how lucky ye are....

 

[maflynn]

Why are you maxing out the ram for machines? You didn't communicate the usage but you may not need to spend the money.

As for AppleCare, why not talk with the education specialists at apple. I think there's a division within apple dedicated to selling to schools.

 

[Dave245]

Thats a UK only thing - you don't know how lucky ye are....

I didn't know it was a UK only thing, thought it was a general Apple policy for students and teachers.

 

[AppleFanatic10]

Don't students get AppleCare free anyway? i'm a student in the UK and when i brought my iMac i got AppleCare included. I think if your buying 55 MacBooks you get a bigger discount anyway because your buying in bulk.

When I bought my MacBook I never got AppleCare for free, just the standard 1 year warranty.

 

[MCAsan]

Also you can get refurbed units with full warranty for much better prices than the modest Ed discount. For example the Ed discount on the top of the line rMBP is around $200 off. Yet on the refurb page the same unit is $500 off.

I would be doing some serious negotiating with Apple on an institutual price at well below the retail Ed discount. You school/city/county purchasing agent should be helping you with the negations and POs.

 

[The Mercurian]

I didn't know it was a UK only thing, thought it was a general Apple policy for students and teachers.

Nope. A few years back some higher education authority type folks in the UK negotiated a special deal with Apple. Doesn't apply anywhere else.
More details here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1103022/

 

[Dave245]

Nope. A few years back some higher education authority type folks in the UK negotiated a special deal with Apple. Doesn't apply anywhere else.
More details here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1103022/

Thank you for providing the link i didn't know about this and i'm a full time student, i knew that we get discounts because thats how i brought my 2013 iMac. I also didn't know that we get 3 years, i just thought it was 12 months warranty.

With the recent Macbook Air drop in prices, it now brings the entry 13" Macbook air to £729.60 which is very tempting.

 

[The Mercurian]

Thank you for providing the link i didn't know about this and i'm a full time student, i knew that we get discounts because thats how i brought my 2013 iMac. I also didn't know that we get 3 years, i just thought it was 12 months warranty.

With the recent Macbook Air drop in prices, it now brings the entry 13" Macbook air to £729.60 which is very tempting.

Applecare you get depends on how/where you bought it!

 

[Dave245]

Applecare you get depends on how/where you bought it!

I've brought my Mac's online, thank you for the info, I've learned something i didn't know

 

[erthquake]

Why are you maxing out the ram for machines? You didn't communicate the usage but you may not need to spend the money.

As for AppleCare, why not talk with the education specialists at apple. I think there's a division within apple dedicated to selling to schools.

I'm maxing out the RAM because there's no ability to upgrade it in the future. Currently we use mid-2009 white MacBooks with 2GB of RAM, and that's the primary performance bottleneck. I can upgrade the RAM in those and maybe get a couple more years out of them with our middle school students.

By the time the laptops are four years old, I don't want them struggling because I wasn't prudent enough to put enough RAM in them.

As for use, students do use iMovie and Garageband. Since we now have 3D printers and a laser cutter, they'll also be using 3D design software like Fusion 360.

 

[Barney63]

I've brought my Mac's online, thank you for the info, I've learned something i didn't know

Phone AppleCare up and tell them you bought it online with the edu discount but AC hasn't been added. They should put it on for you.
Have you checked the service coverage on it? They may have added it but not notified you.


Barney

 

[erthquake]

Also you can get refurbed units with full warranty for much better prices than the modest Ed discount. For example the Ed discount on the top of the line rMBP is around $200 off. Yet on the refurb page the same unit is $500 off.

I would be doing some serious negotiating with Apple on an institutual price at well below the retail Ed discount. You school/city/county purchasing agent should be helping you with the negations and POs.

Yeah, the refurb route is a good possibility. Thanks. I'll have to have a chat with our rep. When we bought 100 or so MacBooks back in 2009, the AppleCare service plan we had covered accidental issues. I didn't think they did that anymore, but I'll have to check.

 

[SavMBP15]

Thats a UK only thing - you don't know how lucky ye are....

They pay for it in the end with the insanely high tax rates on everything.

----------

Also you can get refurbed units with full warranty for much better prices than the modest Ed discount. For example the Ed discount on the top of the line rMBP is around $200 off. Yet on the refurb page the same unit is $500 off.

I would be doing some serious negotiating with Apple on an institutual price at well below the retail Ed discount. You school/city/county purchasing agent should be helping you with the negations and POs.

It would be moderately difficult to get 55 refurbished MBP with the exact same specs.

 

[BR3W]

I'm maxing out the RAM because there's no ability to upgrade it in the future. Currently we use mid-2009 white MacBooks with 2GB of RAM, and that's the primary performance bottleneck. I can upgrade the RAM in those and maybe get a couple more years out of them with our middle school students.

By the time the laptops are four years old, I don't want them struggling because I wasn't prudent enough to put enough RAM in them.

As for use, students do use iMovie and Garageband. Since we now have 3D printers and a laser cutter, they'll also be using 3D design software like Fusion 360.

I understand your logic on this but would still point out that the machines will probably break before they become unusable due to RAM limitations (with 8GB). The current trend in development is to make apps more energy and memory efficient and I don't see that reversing in the foreseeable future.

 

[chrfr]

Yeah, the refurb route is a good possibility. Thanks. I'll have to have a chat with our rep. When we bought 100 or so MacBooks back in 2009, the AppleCare service plan we had covered accidental issues. I didn't think they did that anymore, but I'll have to check.

Apple will negotiate if you are buying 55, if your rep is any good.

 

[The Mercurian]

They pay for it in the end with the insanely high tax rates on everything.

Plenty of other places with high taxes and no special student discounts! Oh and they also get an amazing free health service that's way better than most. How much does healthcare cost where you are then ?

 

[NukeIT]

Apple will negotiate if you are buying 55, if your rep is any good.

I was thinking the same thing. They must have an institutional contact point for mass orders of hardware, software and AppleCare.

 

[chrfr]

I was thinking the same thing. They must have an institutional contact point for mass orders of hardware, software and AppleCare.

Right. If I'm buying one or two computers, I go through the institutional Apple Store and pay list. If it's 10, I email the rep for a quote. 55, and they'll definitely take money off. I can get a discount on 10.