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Its not that plain and simple. If you paid by credit card you likely have a second year of warranty coverage already. Evaluate the additional support, the third year of coverage, the high cost, and the chance that you will actually need it. You can expect that some people will have a positive experience with insurance. But their favorable experience should not form the basis for your entire analysis.
 
I just bought my first mac ever with the recent 15" i5..and for peace of mind I went through and bought apple care...plus with my student discount it came out to be around $2050 with it which was around how much I was planning on spending anyways
This being my first mac, I wanted it to last forever, and if anything happened along the way I knew it was going to be expensive. Even if anything doesn't happen in the 3 years covered...I'll at least try to get a new battery out of it
 
I just bought my first mac ever with the recent 15" i5..and for peace of mind I went through and bought apple care...plus with my student discount it came out to be around $2050 with it which was around how much I was planning on spending anyways
This being my first mac, I wanted it to last forever, and if anything happened along the way I knew it was going to be expensive. Even if anything doesn't happen in the 3 years covered...I'll at least try to get a new battery out of it
smart kid...:D
 
I just bought my first mac ever with the recent 15" i5..and for peace of mind I went through and bought apple care...plus with my student discount it came out to be around $2050 with it which was around how much I was planning on spending anyways
This being my first mac, I wanted it to last forever, and if anything happened along the way I knew it was going to be expensive. Even if anything doesn't happen in the 3 years covered...I'll at least try to get a new battery out of it


Battery is one year. Considered a consumable part. Your battery must be tested and verified for a failure during the first year of warranty only. And, the serial number must match with the one that came with the system. Other than the battery and any damage, your covered.
 
this is true. but i think its best to get apple care so you primarily just need to be extra careful when handling ur mbp. and as for the rest of it, if ur mbp goes crazy without you doing anything, then its a free fix! (capt. obvious i know :rolleyes:) but yeah! lol

I can fix almost anything computer related on my own, and I purchased the best buy warranty to cover accidental damage.
 
BTW, woud you know if you bought using American Express, would American Express cover you on the 4th year (AppleCare first 3 years, then American Express for the 4th year)? Or would getting AppleCare mean you're covered for year 3 (year 1 = standard warranty, year 2 = American Expresss)?

Its not that plain and simple. If you paid by credit card you likely have a second year of warranty coverage already. Evaluate the additional support, the third year of coverage, the high cost, and the chance that you will actually need it. You can expect that some people will have a positive experience with insurance. But their favorable experience should not form the basis for your entire analysis.
 
Get it when you buy your MBP because you can't get the student pricing on Applecare after. You only get the discounted price on Applecare when you buy it with your computer.

You can get student discount any time, and you can even apply student discounted Applecare to non-discount Macs. In fact, one of my friends going to school in the USA bought Applecare for her Mac, but she forgot when she bought her MacBook originally, and it had already passed 1 year, so she gave me the Applecare number and I could use it, outside of the USA.

Two weeks after I applied Applecare to my MacBook, the battery bulged and I got it replaced for free. The battery would've cost me more than the student discount Applecare locally.
 
You can get student discount any time, and you can even apply student discounted Applecare to non-discount Macs. In fact, one of my friends going to school in the USA bought Applecare for her Mac, but she forgot when she bought her MacBook originally, and it had already passed 1 year, so she gave me the Applecare number and I could use it, outside of the USA.

Two weeks after I applied Applecare to my MacBook, the battery bulged and I got it replaced for free. The battery would've cost me more than the student discount Applecare locally.

Well you are still on your original 1 year warranty. They would replace your battery even without the extended Applecare. I have a few of Sony VAIO laying around, all of them over 2 years old. Nothing broke only too slow to be used productively.
 
Does applecare without telephone support come free for students in the US like it does for those in the UK? :confused:
 
i never knew that you can get student discount applecare! how much of a discount is it? I am seriously considering it now. when do i have to buy it to get the discount?
 
i never knew that you can get student discount applecare! how much of a discount is it? I am seriously considering it now. when do i have to buy it to get the discount?


As was posted here, you may purchase Applecare at any time during your warranty, but not after your one year warranty has expired. Go to the edu store on line, select the model you purchased and under the configuration page, usually at the bottom, is the Applecare price.
Ex:
15" MBP- Non edu= $349./ Edu= $239.
 
BTW, woud you know if you bought using American Express, would American Express cover you on the 4th year (AppleCare first 3 years, then American Express for the 4th year)? Or would getting AppleCare mean you're covered for year 3 (year 1 = standard warranty, year 2 = American Expresss)?

No. American Express will not give you year #4.
 
Just curious.. given what Applecare packs are worth, why are they on ebay for such a small amount of $$ ?? For 150.00 i'd totally pick one up if there is no difference compared to the 350.00 one from Apple.
 
Its a no brainer for me every time. Also in the UK as a student:

- If you buy Applecare at the same time as the product, say a MBP like I did a few weeks ago, you get Applecare for around £50-60
- If you buy Applecare within the first year Warranty for a product, say a MBP, you get a discount from the original amount but its nowhere near as good as the discount you get if you buy it with the product.
 
i actually bought mine through ebay back in feb. it was a brand new 15 inch anti glare and it came with 3 year apple care. 2 months after i bought it the hard drive failed (or was failing). Luckily, apple care covered the 250 dollar repair. I definitely think its worth it.

I have never understood this -- how can somebody sell AppleCare on Ebay? Wouldn't anybody selling it be selling it at a loss? For example, the seller purchased from Apple the full-price AppleCare, and they'd have to sell it at a loss -- otherwise the buyer would just buy it from Apple itself.

And how does the Ebay buyer even know if the AppleCare is legitimate and not used?
 
Its a no brainer for me every time. Also in the UK as a student:

- If you buy Applecare at the same time as the product, say a MBP like I did a few weeks ago, you get Applecare for around £50-60
- If you buy Applecare within the first year Warranty for a product, say a MBP, you get a discount from the original amount but its nowhere near as good as the discount you get if you buy it with the product.

What you are paying for when you buy that is just the telephone support, right? The 3 year apple care minus the telephone support comes for free with student deals in the UK unless I'm mistaken.
 
I had the logic board replaced in my previous 20" iMac twice, which was covered by Apple Care. When I had just one month left to go on my 3 year Apple Care plan, I took the iMac to a newly opened Apple store because of more issues. The diagnosis - it needed yet another logic board replacement, but due to the extent of the work needed, and the fact that there was some damage done through a previous repair (which was done at an Apple certified dealer), I was given a brand new current iMac as a replacement.

As an added bonus, I was able to step up to a new 24" iMac, and simply paid the difference between the price of the 20" and the 24" models.

Meanwhile, my brother, who doesn't have Apple Care, has had a CD stuck in the disc drive of his iMac for a year because he doesn't want to pay the expense of getting the disc removed from his machine.

For me, Apple Care is part of the purchase of the computer.
 
What you are paying for when you buy that is just the telephone support, right? The 3 year apple care minus the telephone support comes for free with student deals in the UK unless I'm mistaken.

No, you don't get 3 years warranty just for being a student, I bought my new MBP 3 weeks ago and that was definitely not the case.
 
My 27" iMac is almost 3 months old and I just bought Apple Care from B&H Photo for only $131 no tax and free shipping. 3 years of phone support and transferrable if/when I sell the computer, not bad.

I recently picked up a MacBook for only $799 at MicroCenter.com. I am debated if AC is worth it. Instead, I might sell it when it is around 10 months old while there is still some warranty time left and get the next generation 13" MBP. So instead of spending about $200 on AC, I will get a new computer with a 1 year warranty and fresh battery. This might be more economic, especially since I got a good deal on my MB and AC would be about 25% of the cost.
 
Get it

I never bought it for any of my computers until my last laptop crapped out at 1 year and 1 week(mind you I dropped it twice).

It's well worth it and it's true Applecare is absolutely phenomenal. definitely worth the money.
 
I have insurance. If something is wrong I just get the money there.

Why pay twice?

And AppleCare is a whopping 20% of purchase price... insane
 
I have insurance. If something is wrong I just get the money there.

Why pay twice?

Well thats fair enough then, but a lot of peoples house insurance doesn't cover laptops/they don't want to pay insurance.

If something goes wrong and you have Applecare all you have to do is take it in store and your sorted, whereas with insurance things can be a pain in the arse.
 
true, but the difference between 349 euro for just the MBP or 3 euro/month for all my equipment is pretty... huge

Strangely enough AppleCare for the MBP on eBay is only $135, or about 100 euro. This is a price I might consider.
 
I wish I would have gotten AppleCare on my old MacBook. I didn't purchase it when I bought the MB and then I forgot about it. I ended up having to have my battery replaced b/c it was bulging and my Superdrive stopped burning DVD's. I replaced the battery out of pocket and just let the Superdrive remain partially working.

Fast forward to last week when I bought my new 21.5" iMac. I bought AppleCare on it and it was only $142.00 on Amazon. Amazon is another good place to buy AppleCare as it is usually cheaper than Apple and less risky than eBay. Caveat to Florida residents, Florida has some strange law that only allows residents to buy their warranty from the manufacturer, which means AppleCare can only be purchased from Apple. Several negative ratings on Amazon b/c of this law.
 
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