I work for Best Buy atm and I can tell you the difference between their service plan and Applecare.
Best Buy Service Plan:
1. Covers Accidents due to drops and spills.
2. Covers 1 Battery and 1 power cord replacement over the course of the plan.
3. Coverage on Manufacturers defects and other malfunctions
4. No Lemon Policy where if product has 4 qualified repairs they give you a new computer.
5. International coverage (excludes accidents, battery and power cord replacement, and no lemon policy.)
Applecare:
1. Manufacturers Defects coverage
2. Better tech support
3. Better support in the stores by geniuses.
4 Not sure about no lemon policy
5. Battery and power cord only covered for the first year and only if they have defects.
6. International coverage.
Both plans have their positives and negatives but if you are worried about accidents and dont want to have to pay to replace the battery and power cord if/when they go bad then get the best buy service plan otherwise applecare has better tech support.
As a personal experience with the Best Buy plan, my Hard drive failed on my MBP and while at the warehouse they upgraded it from a 120gb to a 160 due to parts availability on the 120gb. The one problem I had was that they sent the laptop bck to me with no OS on it and I had to restore it myself.
Best Buy Service Plan:
1. Covers Accidents due to drops and spills.
2. Covers 1 Battery and 1 power cord replacement over the course of the plan.
3. Coverage on Manufacturers defects and other malfunctions
4. No Lemon Policy where if product has 4 qualified repairs they give you a new computer.
5. International coverage (excludes accidents, battery and power cord replacement, and no lemon policy.)
Applecare:
1. Manufacturers Defects coverage
2. Better tech support
3. Better support in the stores by geniuses.
4 Not sure about no lemon policy
5. Battery and power cord only covered for the first year and only if they have defects.
6. International coverage.
Both plans have their positives and negatives but if you are worried about accidents and dont want to have to pay to replace the battery and power cord if/when they go bad then get the best buy service plan otherwise applecare has better tech support.
As a personal experience with the Best Buy plan, my Hard drive failed on my MBP and while at the warehouse they upgraded it from a 120gb to a 160 due to parts availability on the 120gb. The one problem I had was that they sent the laptop bck to me with no OS on it and I had to restore it myself.