Applecare worth it NOW?

[ano0oj]

Had a 2010 MBP 15" and bought apple care, which expired this past April. However, this past month my computers been acting up so I took it to apple and turns out the logic board needed to get replaced. It was $310, but out of persistence on my end, apple is taking care of it seeing that I've never used apple care.

Now, I'm selling it and thinking about buying the new 15" retina.
with the new improvements in processors, graphics cars, SSDs, is the likelihood of these machines to go down? or should I go ahead and get apple care if some of you have already experienced some parts with the latest ones


Thanks for your feedback
aj

 

[glenthompson]

I personally like having AppleCare for notebooks. With the newer ones being harder to repair, it's become more important. If you don't want to spend the money up front, you can wait and buy before the one year expires.

 

[Kashsystems]

I have been using squaretrade. They are cheaper and they cover accidental damage plus spills. Main reason why I went to them for my macbook 13 rmbp

 

[carlyinoz]

I had a 2010 MBP as well that had numerous issues and ended up with three new logic boards before they finally conceded that a replacement was warranted (poor thing started kernel panicking the morning after I picked up up with full assurances that it was fine).

Absolutely no doubt that I'm going to get Applecare for the replacement as well. Sure there are other options & in Australia people rant about consumer protection etc and that Applecare is a waste of money. For me, the best thing about Applecare is the promptness and ease of customer service. I can drop it to my local apple store 15 minutes away and they're going to deal with it as quickly as possible and cause me minimal fuss & bother.

I seriously doubt that I would have managed to get a brand new (2012) replacement MBP with the option to upgrade to replace my faulty 2010 refurb if it wasn't for AppleCare. Hopefully I won't need it for the new one, but I'm not going to take the risk! lol

 

[Ricanlegend]

I had a 2010 MBP as well that had numerous issues and ended up with three new logic boards before they finally conceded that a replacement was warranted (poor thing started kernel panicking the morning after I picked up up with full assurances that it was fine).

Absolutely no doubt that I'm going to get Applecare for the replacement as well. Sure there are other options & in Australia people rant about consumer protection etc and that Applecare is a waste of money. For me, the best thing about Applecare is the promptness and ease of customer service. I can drop it to my local apple store 15 minutes away and they're going to deal with it as quickly as possible and cause me minimal fuss & bother.

I seriously doubt that I would have managed to get a brand new (2012) replacement MBP with the option to upgrade to replace my faulty 2010 refurb if it wasn't for AppleCare. Hopefully I won't need it for the new one, but I'm not going to take the risk! lol

I love having the peace of mind if anything happen apple with fix it

 

[carlyinoz]

I love having the peace of mind if anything happen apple with fix it

120%. And some may say it's a lot of $$ for peace of mind, but I'd rather pay that now as an insurance policy than have to worry about what to do if my macbook crashed at a time critical point! I have received excellent service from Apple so far and I feel it's a relatively small price to pay for the knowledge that any problems will be resolved in a timely manner

 

[takeshi74]

Applecare worth it NOW?

It's the same as it has always been. It's up to each to determine its worth. As with any subject, worth is highly subjective. Asking others isn't the way to determine if it's worth it to you or not.

 

[aristobrat]

I'm a believer in AppleCare for laptops. I'm an even bigger believer in AppleCare for any first generation design.

The immediate incident that pops into mind are the first-gen Time Capsules failing en masse at the 19th month mark (well outside of the included one-year warranty), but there are others. I guess the point I'm going after is that even if the retinas aren't having any incidents now, who knows what the track record will be when the first-purchased ones are between 2-3 years old?

 

[Vanilla35]

I personally would never buy apple care. I am not one to usually buy warranties and I do not have problems with my electronics. I once had a laptop where the LCD died on me about 3 weeks into use. But it had a 1 year warranty from purchase and was replaced within a few days (they sent a guy to my house). Imo, if a computer is designed well, it's not going to have something break after 1 year. And by then if something goes wrong, it's well beyond apple care's range anyway.

I guess a good way to think about it is: Do you buy a warranty for your phone? (let's exclude those who drop their phones in the toilet) If not, then why buy one for your laptop? That's my 2 cents

 

[HarryPot]

I have a 15" MBP (2011), and haven't had a single problem so far. No AppleCare.

I was going to buy it, but since the MBP didn't gave me any problems in the first year, I took that as a good indicator that nothing else would probably go wrong. So far, that has come true.

But, as many people here say, it's a great peace of mind having the assurance that no matter what happens, Apple will take care of it.

 

[Vanilla35]

Just a question. Let's say you don't have apple care. And then something mechanical breaks or malfunctions on your laptop. Apple care is ~$400 but the repair would have been $600. What stops you from buying apple care on the spot, and bringing it in a week later saying it just broke

 

[ElectricBrain]

Just a question. Let's say you don't have apple care. And then something mechanical breaks or malfunctions on your laptop. Apple care is ~$400 but the repair would have been $600. What stops you from buying apple care on the spot, and bringing it in a week later saying it just broke

They inspect your hardware first if you don't buy Applecare new with your laptop.

 

[Vanilla35]

They inspect your hardware first if you don't buy Applecare new with your laptop.

Ohh gots it. So can't buy it online? What if you buy it for a 1.5 year old computer?

 

[cambookpro]

They inspect your hardware first if you don't buy Applecare new with your laptop.

I'm pretty sure they don't. It's for hardware failures, not for accidental damage so that doesn't matter. They inspect your iPhone if you buy AppleCare+, but that doesn't apply here as Apple doesn't offer AC+ for their computers. You also can only buy it within the first year which prevents that situation where it breaks then you buy it.

Ohh gots it. So can't buy it online? What if you buy it for a 1.5 year old computer?

You can buy it online from Apple, but your computer has to be one year old or newer.


BTW, if you live in the UK (and the rest of the EU I presume) your consumer rights cover you. Not really any need for AC.

 

[Mr Rabbit]

Now, I'm selling it and thinking about buying the new 15" retina.
with the new improvements in processors, graphics cars, SSDs, is the likelihood of these machines to go down? or should I go ahead and get apple care if some of you have already experienced some parts with the latest ones

It's not so much "What's the likelihood of something breaking" but more about the cost of repair should something fail. An SSD replacement from Apple can easily upwards of $500, probably a lot more but I'm not digging around for a quote. If the LCD fails you are looking at similar costs in the upper hundreds to a thousand range. If the keyboard fails you are looking at a few hundred dollars since it's part of the top case. I could go on. $349 seems like a high amount but for the peace of mind and ease of repair through Apple that it offers I rarely forgo it. You can always wait and purchase it 6 months down the road, up to a year from purchase, if money is tight at the moment but more available later on.

Third party insurance isn't a bad idea either. My only experience with them though has been from the technician side, I've never had it on my own equipment. Typically it seems like things do end up getting covered, costs are reimbursed, etc but the process seems drastically longer than a repair through AppleCare.

 

[ZipZap]

They inspect your hardware first if you don't buy Applecare new with your laptop.

Not true.

I paid less than $190 for my 3 year RMBP Applecare.

 

[Quu]

Personally if I'm buying a notebook from Apple I always get Apple Care but I wait until the last moment to get it just before the warranty runs out.

 

[sholzer]

If I spent over $2000 on a computer, I'm definitely going to get applecare/some sort of insurance on it that's for sure. If I were to get applecare though, I would do what a lot of people do and wait until the last moment the buy applecare to "offset" some of the cost of buying it with the computer.

 

[ano0oj]

Ya AppleCare is $240 with student discount, and good point with buying it within a year I forgot about that

 

[Geckotek]

Not true.

I paid less than $190 for my 3 year RMBP Applecare.

How'd you get such a great deal?

 

[StockDC2]

How'd you get such a great deal?

Thread Necromancer.

Anywho, Applecare is definitely worth it now that individual components are not removable from the logic board.

 

[Geckotek]

Thread Necromancer.

Anywho, Applecare is definitely worth it now that individual components are not removable from the logic board.

It wasn't THAT old.