Do you have to pay surcharges for AppleCare in your country?

[jojoba]

I used my AppleCare for my MBA for the first time last week, and while the support I got on the phone was fully satisfactory, I was pretty bummed to find out that the phone call had cost me 20 dollars, which is at least five times as much as I would have paid for a regular phone call of the same duration.

At my national AppleCare web site, the service is advertised as 'free phone support'. Only way down with TINY script on the following page is there a sentence which say "local charges may apply". That kind of nontransparent advertising really pi**es me off

 

[snberk103]

Was the surcharge levied by Apple or your telephone company? In Canada, in my experience, the call to Apple under AppleCare is always free - no surcharges - as long as I call on the toll-free line.

However, if I choose to call Apple long distance, then while the Apple portion is free I still get to pay the telephone company for the long distance call, same as if I had called my friends or family long distance.

I suspect you called a non-toll-free number and got dinged long distance charges.

 

[jojoba]

Was the surcharge levied by Apple or your telephone company? In Canada, in my experience, the call to Apple under AppleCare is always free - no surcharges - as long as I call on the toll-free line.

However, if I choose to call Apple long distance, then while the Apple portion is free I still get to pay the telephone company for the long distance call, same as if I had called my friends or family long distance.

I suspect you called a non-toll-free number and got dinged long distance charges.

No, Apple has selected a phone number for AppleCare support which applies surcharges no matter what kind of phone you call from (although calling from a landline might generate less surcharges than making the same call from a mobile), or where in the country you call from. They have no toll free alternative (this was confirmed to me by the Apple employee I spoke to when I called to complain).

There are different 'categories' of numbers in my country, ranging from the equivalent of 800 numbers which are free (although they are much less common than in north America) to numbers with other prefixes that charge you much more money than calling a 'regular' phone number would do. Apple in my country has opted for one of the most expensive versions of the latter for those seeking AppleCare support (although I think there is one category of numbers above the one they are using in terms of costs).

 

[blueroom]

And what country are you in OP?

 

[jojoba]

Norway.