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The last thing I would ever do is purchase a warranty from best buy. I'm sorry but the competency level at best buy is one of the lowest i've seen,heard of. Just google it and you'll find all sorts of complaints.

I had no problem with best buy, they replaced my old laptop to a Macbook pro. So, It depends on situation and on the person. I was one day over the warranty and they accepted it.:)
 
If You Have The Money

if you have the extra 250 bucks i would say it is worth it but otherwise just be careful with it and you should be fine. Apple makes these computers very solid with the new unibody design.
 
I used to be very anti-extended warranty, not so much anymore. My dell motherboard died right at 13 months, Hard drive failed at 15 months and fan died at 17 months. All my cars have/had extended warranties and most (except my honda) have paid for themselves twice over. I would go with it if you can afford it. Things break. Especially a laptop that you will be carrying around quite a bit.
 
Definitely must for a laptop. Laptops are much more "abused" compared to desktops so I always get 3-years plan for any laptop I get. I didn't get Applecare for iMac since I knew if it didn't have any problem for a year, then it probably won't have problem for next 2 years as well..(Entering 5th year and zero problems.)
I always had some problems with laptop (PC or Macbook or MBP) within 2nd or 3rd year....I think it has to do with usage pattern and more sophiscated innard...
 
I got best buy's accidentally warranty instead of apple care. I think best buy's accidentally warranty is better than apple care,and only thing not covered is water damage. But, depends if you got it from Apple store or Best buy.

My 3 year old made a mistake and ran into the kitchen table with his rc car my mbp fell off the table ( I had it on the edge grr) screen cracked and everything, took it into best buy under my extended warranty after 1 week I received a new computer, worked fine with me. And it does cover water damage I think just like spills not thrown in a pool lol, but for me I need best buy warranty not apple care (support)
 
An extended warranty is only worth it, if you have a problem that is covered for the device.
 
It's just overpriced and you can expect a fight if and when you ever need to use it.
so far from the truth

I have always had good times with apple care
at times they should not have helped me but I was being a customer and getting my way
in the last 16 months I have owned 6 macbooks/pro all with applecare that I bought of ebay or craiglist and I had the battery replaced or casing or display or something that was just bugging me, newer magsafe ect.. and apple always said yes.
 
I will not be purchasing Applecare with my 2011 MBP. At $350, that's an increase of over 10% of the purchase price. It doesn't cover the battery (which will be defunct before the coverage is), nor does it cover accidental damage. It won't cover the aftermarket SSD & Ram upgrade I'll be doing at purchase time, and I couldn't care less about phone support, as I've never needed it before and don't plan on starting now. I can't stand talking to first level tech support anyway.

I'll be buying my MBP on my Amex, thus getting an additional year worth of warranty. Amex will simply cover any charges (up to the purchase price) should I need to take it back to Apple within the second year of ownership. I'll also be getting an accidental damage and theft rider on my homeowners. The $300 I save can be used for a battery when it dies, or perhaps it'll be the start of my savings account to cover a new laptop in a couple years, with plans of selling the MBP just as it exits it's warranty period.

edit: In my line of work, I like having up-to-date computers. The laptop I'm replacing now has been my longest running computer at just over three years old. Four years of coverage is overkill, I'd rather be replacing the machine every two years, and selling the old one to help fund the new one.
Macs with aftermarket HDs and memory because they are user-replacable and don't void your warranty.
 
Macs with aftermarket HDs and memory because they are user-replacable and don't void your warranty.

Please reread what you quoted and tell me where I said anything about voiding my warranty.

Applecare will not cover my user-installed RAM & SSD.

...which means the only parts left for it to cover are the logic board, screen, keyboard, touchpad, and power adapter. For $250, I'd rather save that money towards buying a new one just before my Amex extended warranty expires.
 
My late '06 Merom MBP has been very good to me and used it mostly stationary on my desk and to my DJ gigs. I didn't have Apple Care on it and luckily I didn't need it. That was a gamble and it favored on my side. June '10 I purchased my 2nd MacBook, the Arrandale MBP and to be honest I am more inclined to buy AC on this one before June. I can get it with the education price since I'm still in school at a local college. Haven't had any issue with the newer MBP the last 8 months, but it seems a bit more fragile than my '06 MBP. Does anyone here who have Apple Care use the tech support for trouble shooting, etc? It seems to me that you can pretty much find most answers here on this forum.:eek:
 
I'm waiting on a call back from my State Farm agent now, regarding the price of a personal articles policy to cover a laptop w/upgrades replacement value at ~$2800.

I figure that two years of solid warranty, along with a rider for theft and accidental damages is probably the best bet. Then I'll sell and re-up with a new laptop on a two year interval.

Making a claim on it would then raise your homeowners insurance would it not? It seems that will be WAY more than $300 over time as you pay the additional monthly for making a claim under homeowners.

That is, if you were planning that route.. I know a lot of folks do that way. Not all though.
 
Do you live in the European Union?

Because if you live in the EU, all electrical equipment sold has to perform satisfactorily for 5 years. Rendering AppleCare pretty obsolete.

Right spirit, wrong execution.

Exact details will vary from country to country. EU countries do tend to have better consumer rights than the US. However, they are not uniform across the EU. (It is to do with some complex legal stuff, like differences between EU regulations and directives etc).

In the UK, I would say no it is not worth it. The Sale of Goods Act is a powerful tool that should cover a lot of circumstances. (Although, some people I know have been able to negotiate a discount on AppleCare so it is then worth it, smile nicely and try your luck)
 
Do you live in the European Union?

Because if you live in the EU, all electrical equipment sold has to perform satisfactorily for 5 years. Rendering AppleCare pretty obsolete.

Yeah. Good luck with getting free repairs when you only have the defects liability that is covered by the law.

There is a legal difference between "warranty" and "guarantee" - well, at least in Germany there is a HUGE difference between "Gewährleistung" (Warranty) and "Garantie" (Guarantee). When you buy Apple Care (or an HP Care Pack or Dell Pro Support, or, or, or) you get the latter for the duration of your contract. It gets you more and faster/better service and covers more issues than the basic warranty.

Anyway. Buying the additional support is always worth it, and may it be only to increase the resell value of the machine.
 
Making a claim on it would then raise your homeowners insurance would it not? It seems that will be WAY more than $300 over time as you pay the additional monthly for making a claim under homeowners.

That is, if you were planning that route.. I know a lot of folks do that way. Not all though.

Actually, State Farm does it as a separate policy. I don't expect it would have any bearing anymore than a claim on my boat's policy would.
 
No Comment

Apple care is definitely worth it. Number 1 you can get a nice discount if you are in college. Number 2 your pretty much guaranteed that your charging cord may get stepped on or yanked somehow and will need replacing in 3 years so that is a guarantee. Plus laptops take a beating no matter how decent you try things can and will happen, having apple care is a nice feature. My one friend has gotten his macbook repaired totaling an excess of $1000 but thanks to his apple care its was all covered. There was one time that he called the week before it expired and mentioned something about the screen starting to go. Called two weeks later and they still covered it after the warranty ran out due to the fact that he called 2 weeks prior. So yes there are other companies that offer it but with the college discount apple care isn't very expensive compared to the amount you spent on the laptop.
 
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Making a claim on it would then raise your homeowners insurance would it not? It seems that will be WAY more than $300 over time as you pay the additional monthly for making a claim under homeowners.

That is, if you were planning that route.. I know a lot of folks do that way. Not all though.

If you really are worried you can buy a separate policy for electronics, etc. the advantage there is it covers everything up to a fixed amount, not just the mbp.
 
as the past showed even 1 year old logicboards, displays...break , and the cost of replacing them exceeds the initial cost of apple care and sometimes come very close to the initial cost of a new Mac altogether and the ability to just call apple if things go wrong is a added bonus which you do not have in the one year warranty apart from the first 90 days , the rest of that year you have to drag your Mac to the apple store , not to mention a Mac with apple care achieves a much higher resell value , as i for example would not buy a used MacBook /air/pro without apple care left over for at least a year , as there are cheaper ways of wasting money , because i do not believe in "it's a Mac it wont breakdown "(ok if its a eMac 1.42 thats true :D )
 
...which is why Apple Care won't replace a battery that's worn out.

very good point here , a reason why you always find texts on ebay at Macbook deals like battery doesnt charge /only holds 5 minutes charge , most will sell anyway before the battery is completely dead to avoid the cost

and apple made these new Mac's apart from the MacPro so userunfriendly in terms of self service (cleaning inside from dust) that apple care is a must , because dust kills internal parts , and just holding a vacuum cleaner to a ventilation slot does likely only kill the fan behind

you have to be honest not many are talented enough to open a MacBook or mini or iMac to clean out the dust completely and even after only a year these Mac's can collect a lot of dust inside
 
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Just had the screen assembly and top case replaced under warranty. Together they would have cost me more than I bought the machine new for if not for the warranty. Absolutely worth it.
 
Right spirit, wrong execution.

Exact details will vary from country to country. EU countries do tend to have better consumer rights than the US. However, they are not uniform across the EU. (It is to do with some complex legal stuff, like differences between EU regulations and directives etc).

In the UK, I would say no it is not worth it. The Sale of Goods Act is a powerful tool that should cover a lot of circumstances. (Although, some people I know have been able to negotiate a discount on AppleCare so it is then worth it, smile nicely and try your luck)

In Spain, the warranty, that covers exactly the same that Apple's warranty or however you want to call it, lasts for 2 years by law. Even if you buy a 20 euros toaster, if it breaks one and a half years later, they have to repair it or replace it. That's the law. The same with an Apple product.
In my experience, I had a iBook G4 for more than 3 years without Applecare with no problems whatsoever, an early 2008 MBP that I still have covered by Applecare with only one problem (charger broken, 80 euros value if I remember properly so I lost over 200 euros in Applecare) and Applecare about to expire, and now I have a MBP i7 whose standard guarantee will last for at least this year and then I'll decide what to do. Most likely I won't buy any Applecare, but not sure yet.
So far, it has not been so useful for me. Luckily, the only Applecare I got was paid for by my company, so I didn't lose any money.
 
The only Mac I would consider skipping AppleCare on would be a Mac mini purchased without a display, and even then I would debate it.
 
In the old days I would say it was not needed. Today however I don't see it being an option. Many recent macs have been hit by serious common defects that pop up at about 2-4 years such as dead logic boards (2007-08 era MacBook Pros, G5 iMacs etc).

I just got a quote back from my AASP for $1145 to replace a MacBook Pro logic board. I've had two logic board failures on a 2 year old iMac etc etc.

I've also had to replace defective batteries under AppleCare that were just 1.5 years old (they retail for $135-150). Plus numerous other issues across a variety of machine.

Frankly Apple should just increase their standard warranty. It's not like they don't charge premium prices for their hardware.
 
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