which should i get for my ipod? best buy includes accidental damage i believe, does applecare? Best buy's is 50 bucks and apple's is 60.
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iPod touch Best buy warranty or applecare for ipod touch?
- Thread starter jumpman23j
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My vote is for Best Buy. They cover accidental damage. The only thing is, they don't always replace it, sometimes they send it to the service center. I know this from experience. But it's not that bad, because it still covers accidental damage, which, in my opinion, trumps all other things.
Does the iPod touch have poor enough reliability to need an extended Warranty? Is it fragile? Sometimes those service plans are like flushing money down the toilet.
It'd be good if you plan to use it more than 1 year, and then get frustrated when you have to fix it for like the price of the iPod.
Insure yourself by not buying a warranty.
Put the money you were going to spend on insurance in a savings account - if you don't break it by the time you get your next device, you'll have even more saved up should the next one break...
If not, chances are a refurbished replacement of the generation you own a year or two from now will cost peanuts.
I studied extended warranties in economics. They're a cash grab unless you plan on purposely breaking it. Even then...
Put the money you were going to spend on insurance in a savings account - if you don't break it by the time you get your next device, you'll have even more saved up should the next one break...
If not, chances are a refurbished replacement of the generation you own a year or two from now will cost peanuts.
I studied extended warranties in economics. They're a cash grab unless you plan on purposely breaking it. Even then...
I guess I don't need to get it, since I never had my gadgets broken that seriously. But wouldn't it be good for the resale value?
Exactly! Extended warranties are a total ripoff. Check with anybody who isn't actually trying to sell you the extended warranty (i.e. unbiased), and they'll confirm they are a total ripoff. The original question is like asking which method is a better way for me to throw away my money? Best Buy warranty or Applecare. Do you really care which way is the best way to throw away your money? Don't waste your money on extended warranties, and you'll be able to afford a 2nd Ipod if it breaks out of all the money you save (if you're willing to save it instead of spending it).
Best buy's warranty for "accidental damage" is actually $69.99 and the one that is just a 2 year software warranty is $49.99
I agree. I ordered my new ipod from amazon and am getting squaretrade's 3year warranty that includes accidental damage, and it only $54.99.
Many credit cards double manufacturer warranties of 12 months to 2 years for free. Best deal of all.
You can get 30% off at squaretrade today if you use the code SUNSET.
My 3-year With accidental damage came to about $38
My 3-year With accidental damage came to about $38
I would never, ever again go with a Best Buy Warranty. We had three...one on a DSLR, one on a video camera and one on a computer monitor. The DSLK clearly had issues that even the clerk could see but the tech just said there was no issue. The vid cam went it for focusing issues and we were returned a refurbished model, not ours. The monitor got lost. Arch. Go with Apple Care or another reputable company mentioned in the thread.
My experience has been with AmEx extended warranty on purchases when using their card. They are very liberal on what's covered and you have a choice of taking the money or having the item fixed. Much better than Applecare. Towards the end of the fourth year, I was reimbursed for a new battery, charger, and repair sleep light issues, on my 12" G4 Powerbook. Over $800. was credited to my account and I could chose what I wanted to do with it. Just had to get an estimate from the Apple Store on repair costs.
Your card might offer the warranty but sometimes you must enroll in their program to activate it for free. So be sure to check.
Your card might offer the warranty but sometimes you must enroll in their program to activate it for free. So be sure to check.
Just buy the AppleCare on eBay and handle the Touch carefully. I got AppleCare for my last Touch on eBay for $25. I also got AC for my new MacBook for only $85.
It amazes me how easily people trade ideas on the best ways to waste money. "Waste it here." "No, waste it there." "Well if you waste it here, you get a savings of 35% back of the money you're wasting."
I've bought about 20 items in the last 10 years where I could've wasted $60 for ridiculously priced extended warranties. How am I able to self-insure my new iPod so easily? I'm using the $1,200 I didn't waste on the previous 20 items. OK. If there was a 35% "savings" available on each of those 20 items, then I only have $780 available to self-insure.
Alas, some refuse to be talked out of ridiculous 5-year car loans or wasting huge sums of money on Universal Life Insurance, as well. What's that about a fool and his money?
I've bought about 20 items in the last 10 years where I could've wasted $60 for ridiculously priced extended warranties. How am I able to self-insure my new iPod so easily? I'm using the $1,200 I didn't waste on the previous 20 items. OK. If there was a 35% "savings" available on each of those 20 items, then I only have $780 available to self-insure.
Alas, some refuse to be talked out of ridiculous 5-year car loans or wasting huge sums of money on Universal Life Insurance, as well. What's that about a fool and his money?
Really? What makes you think it's a scam? Have you been scammed?
I've bought AppleCare on eBay three times from three different sellers within the last 4 months and it has worked perfectly every time: two for two MacBooks ($85 for one, $100 for the other) and one for my last Touch (for like $25). I've checked each one on Apples site since registering it, and they're all covered under AppleCare now.
For the $210 that you've spent, you were most of the way to being self-insured for your iPod if you had just kept your money. When you end up not needing to replace the ipod (under the warranty), then you would've been $210 richer.
Best Buy makes a far greater profit on the extended warranties than they do on the item being purchased. That in itself should tell you something. Now if you think your Apple products will require warranty service 50% of the time, then maybe the warranty is worth it, but why would you buy something that you think will fail 50% of the time?
Best Buy makes a far greater profit on the extended warranties than they do on the item being purchased. That in itself should tell you something. Now if you think your Apple products will require warranty service 50% of the time, then maybe the warranty is worth it, but why would you buy something that you think will fail 50% of the time?
So $85 to insure my MacBook (a $1000 laptop) for an additional 2 years was a ripoff? I can see how it's probably not the completely necessary for an iPod, but for a laptop? Laptop hardware can fail, and I don't want to be out hundreds, if I can put up $85. Over two extra years, it's like $3.50 a month. I spend more than that on toothpaste.
Atom,
Then you're under the misunderstanding they want you to be under. Do you understand how rarely any single component fails on a laptop? Rarely! Add to that the fact that you can replace many individual components on a laptop for about $85, and now you have to have 2 of those components fail (that do so very rarely) before your warranty actually saves you any money.
But if they can get you to think of it in monthly terms as you do, (or better yet, in daily terms) then it's easier to sell you an overpriced needless warranty, because it only costs $3.50/month. If you look at it as a daily cost, then it's only $.11/day! At that rate, how could you not spend it? Right?
If you're willing to look at it that way, you can justify spending $80,000 on a car you expect to last 8 years because it's only $2.73/day, right? You probably spend more than that on breakfast every day, right? Breaking costs down to daily/monthly amounts is how people allow themselves to get talked into ridiculous purchases, and you're willing to make the argument for them.
It's the same mentality that allows unscrupulous insurance salesmen to sell universal life insurance (worst possible) instead of term insurance (best possible). It's the same mentaility that allows unscrupulous car salesmen to talk people into buying a car on a 5-year car loan payment. Uneducated people shop for cars based on monthly payment amounts regardless of cost/value analysis (similar to your justifications). Talk to anybody who has nothing to gain regarding extended warranties (Consumer Reports, etc.) and they'll tell you it's a no-brainer decision NOT to waste your money on them.
Then you're under the misunderstanding they want you to be under. Do you understand how rarely any single component fails on a laptop? Rarely! Add to that the fact that you can replace many individual components on a laptop for about $85, and now you have to have 2 of those components fail (that do so very rarely) before your warranty actually saves you any money.
But if they can get you to think of it in monthly terms as you do, (or better yet, in daily terms) then it's easier to sell you an overpriced needless warranty, because it only costs $3.50/month. If you look at it as a daily cost, then it's only $.11/day! At that rate, how could you not spend it? Right?
If you're willing to look at it that way, you can justify spending $80,000 on a car you expect to last 8 years because it's only $2.73/day, right? You probably spend more than that on breakfast every day, right? Breaking costs down to daily/monthly amounts is how people allow themselves to get talked into ridiculous purchases, and you're willing to make the argument for them.
It's the same mentality that allows unscrupulous insurance salesmen to sell universal life insurance (worst possible) instead of term insurance (best possible). It's the same mentaility that allows unscrupulous car salesmen to talk people into buying a car on a 5-year car loan payment. Uneducated people shop for cars based on monthly payment amounts regardless of cost/value analysis (similar to your justifications). Talk to anybody who has nothing to gain regarding extended warranties (Consumer Reports, etc.) and they'll tell you it's a no-brainer decision NOT to waste your money on them.
I agree with your point, but the math here is off. That car would cost $27.40/day. I don't know about you, but I usually spend a little less than that on my daily breakfast.
Having an insurance is quite convenient on the other hand. HP for example offers different types of so called care packs. There are send in repair (least expensive), pick up and return, next business-day, next business-day worldwide etc.
I don't insure my own hardware, but many of our customers were glad to have done it several times already. Especially when your note-book breaks and the display has to be exchanged or the logic-board.
I don't insure my own hardware, but many of our customers were glad to have done it several times already. Especially when your note-book breaks and the display has to be exchanged or the logic-board.