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Do you pay for AppleCare?

S

Stonebyte

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 4, 2008
7
0
Denver, CO
Just wondering if most of you opted for the AppleCare coverage? I bought my Mac Pro last July, and this weekend it crapped out on me. Two little red LED lights appeared on the logic board, which they thought they'd have to replace... they've now tried, and it still isn't working. Lovely.

At any rate, I'm still under warranty until July (I did not purchase the AppleCare warranty)... but this little scenario has me wondering if maybe I'd better do it. These things are really too expensive to screw around with.

Do most people get AppleCare?
 
I buy Apple Care, more for peace of mind than anything else. Gives me 3 years of not having to worry about something going wrong. Worth every penny to me.
 
On laptops, protection plans are a fairly decent deal because repairs are fairly expensive, and laptops are prone to being dropped and dinged up. Unfortunately, AppleCare doesn't cover accidental damage.

More importantly for you, a desktop owner, AppleCare is probably not needed. Computer hardware is either defective immediately or will work nicely indefinitely.

You could always buy it off Ebay, where it's much, much, cheaper.
 
I have AppleCare on both of my most recent Macs and have never bought a Mac without it. (Save for the older PPC Macs that I sometimes get)
 
My original plan was to buy the machine and wait until the 12 months were coming to an end, then if nothing dogdy had happened inbetween, I'd not bother with AppleCare. 11 months passed and all was well, but I thought — I can afford the AppleCare but not a bill to fix a proccessor or similar. It's a gamble, but like the other poster says, the peace of mind is nice too.

Oh, and yes go to a trusted source on ebay as you can save up to 50%.
 
irishgrizzly said:
My original plan was to buy the machine and wait until the 12 months were coming to an end, then if nothing dogdy had happened inbetween, I'd not bother with AppleCare. 11 months passed and well as was well, but I though I can afford the AppleCare but not a bill to fix a proccessor or similar. It's a gamble, but like the other poster says, it peace of mind is nice too.
Click to expand...
Not a bad idea, as Apple's repair parts are very expensive. The logic board alone for the '08 models goes for around $800USD last I checked. The AppleCare is far less expensive. :) But as you say, it's a gamble. ;)
 
Stonebyte said:
At any rate, I'm still under warranty until July (I did not purchase the AppleCare warranty)... but this little scenario has me wondering if maybe I'd better do it. These things are really too expensive to screw around with.

Do most people get AppleCare?
Click to expand...

I bought it. Hope I never need it but I know it's there if need be :p
 
I buy it even though I've never had a Mac fail. My first Mac was an SE. :)
 
I got my first Mac early last year, and I haven't purchased AppleCare. I don't buy extended warranties; just something I've never done, especially on my computers, because I always fix them myself. I don't regret not getting it so far, but then, I don't have health insurance either.:eek:
 
Stonebyte said:
Just wondering if most of you opted for the AppleCare coverage? I bought my Mac Pro last July, and this weekend it crapped out on me. Two little red LED lights appeared on the logic board, which they thought they'd have to replace... they've now tried, and it still isn't working. Lovely.

At any rate, I'm still under warranty until July (I did not purchase the AppleCare warranty)... but this little scenario has me wondering if maybe I'd better do it. These things are really too expensive to screw around with.

Do most people get AppleCare?
Click to expand...

Buy it.
 
Students in the UK get most of the benefits of AppleCare for free when they buy from the online Higher Education store, in addition to a ~17% discount. It's a pretty good deal and it's one reason why I'm able to keep buying new Macs - the discount is so big that I rarely lose much money by selling a few months or a year down the line.

If you buy in store, it's still a good deal - you get to buy the full boxed AppleCare product for about 75% off the regular price. These deals apply to all University students in the UK and some who are attending colleges as well.

Personally, I've started opting for the full AppleCare option because the free one doesn't include return shipping to Apple to get the fault fixed if you are outside the first year. Also, when you can show a proper AppleCare box in your eBay auctions it really makes people interested!
 
Always.

It's not that I've needed it much, but the few times I did it more than paid for itself.

That's been true for the iPhone as well as Macs.

I drank the purple kool-aid and opted for ProCare as well, so that in an emergency, I can literally walk in and get everything taken care of with no delay.

Again, been worth it in spades.

I don't really need "How to" help very often, what I usually need is Priority.
 
I've bought AppleCare on every Apple machine I've owned since my 1GHz TiBook (so, that would be 5 or 6 machines up to now). It's a gamble, sure, but out-of-warranty Apple repairs are obscenely expensive.

I've benefited from AppleCare on numerous occasions (multiple times on my old 12" PBG4 alone), so for me, the cost has been justified. My 20" white C2D iMac (recently sold) never had a problem (knock on wood), but the new owner has AppleCare coverage through March 2010 - it's nice to have for resale, if anything.

I got my first Mac early last year, and I haven't purchased AppleCare. I don't buy extended warranties; just something I've never done, especially on my computers, because I always fix them myself. I don't regret not getting it so far, but then, I don't have health insurance either.
Click to expand...

I've fixed machines myself a lot (and actually, I kind of enjoy doing it for the nerd factor), but most of those were PCs, where the parts are relatively cheap and easily accessible. But when you start talking $800 replacement logic boards in Mac Pros that you can't just go anywhere to buy, things start becoming a bit different.

I'm not huge on extended warranties in general, but I always buy AppleCare.
 
I have had a new PowerMac G5 (2003) and a new MacBook Pro (2008). Nothing ever went wrong with them. Never had AppleCare. I trust my Macs. They build them good. I think Apple partners with Toyota or something. lol.
 
I buy a form of owners insurance that covers the machine from breakage including accidental damage but not AppleCare. I pay $15 for up to $3,000 worth of coverage which lasts for 3 years. To me that's better and cheaper than Applecare. I've exercised it twice so far. It's completely transparent. Awesome. Just took my printer in (when it busted), they gave me a loaner, and in 2 weeks it came back fixed. When I noticed it came back with empty ink cartridges a phone call to the insurance company and a next-day fed-x showed up at my house with 5 brand new ink cartridges - direct from canon.

Applecare? I dunno it looks ridiculously expensive and too limited to me. If there were no other options I would go for it tho - especially if it were a lap-top!
 
Applecare is a waste of money on anything but laptops and the high-end Mac Pros.
 
300D said:
Applecare is a waste of money on anything but laptops and the high-end Mac Pros.
Click to expand...

My iMac G5 and its 3 £412 logic boards would disagree with you and then after that they gave me a replacement Intel iMac.
 
All insurance is a gamble. It pays for a few, like you, but only costs money for the vast majority.
 
Definitly a good idea

I'd always recommend it I had it on my iMac and I have it on my Mac Pro only reason I don't have it on my Macbook Pro is I didn't have the extra cash for it at the time.

If you change your macs fairly often e.g. before it runs out it can often help the resale to :)
 
For work I do. Part because work is paying for it, part because IT doesn't support Macs, and part because buying replacement parts is a PITA through the procurement process. At home I roll the dice. I've been using Macs for almost 20 years and only had a few major problems.

At work I recently had the power adapter replaced on a MB Pro that seems to be a common fraying issue. I also had a battery replaced that died. So, about got my money worth on that one anyway with another 1.5 years to go.
 
Yes I do. I was in two minds about it as it is quite expensive but I opted for it in the end. The chances that you might have a problem, any problem on a laptop in three years are higher than one might imagine. Given that this is my main computer as well I think it was a wise investment.
As it is I have the screen dimming problem on rare occasions. It hasn't bothered me that much but if it ever gets worse in the next 2 years then I always have the option of getting a replacement.

Buy if you can afford in my opinion.
 
I did not buy in for my Mac Pro. And so far its been fine. I had issues with my x1900 but that was replaced either way. Besides for the cost of applecare i could have almost bought a new video card.

Hardware failure rates and highest in the first year. After that they don't climb again for many many years. So if your hardware is fine in the first year I think its better to self insure. For towers that are easy to work on that is. Now if you have things replaced like you have I would think twice. As now you aren't covered for the full one year where the failure rates are the highest. (with the new parts that is)
 
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