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i bought applecare on ebay for my macbook for about $125 with just a code and no box. a year later, i went to apple because my fans weren't working and it kept overheating and shutting down. they typed in my serial number, saw that i was covered, and repaired my computer for free no problem. so im definitely happy with my ebay purchased applecare. just look at the seller's feedback and see how many months or years it goes back.
 
"eBay Applecare Legit or Not?"

NO -- it's NOT legitimate.

ANY and ALL Applecare sellers on ebay who sell you "the code only" (that is, without including a shrink-wrapped box) are SCAMMERS.

The definitve thread on "ebay Applecare" is here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/690859/

Read it ALL THE WAY THROUGH before you buy.

Consider yourself as having been warned.
 
i bought applecare on ebay for my macbook for about $125 with just a code and no box. a year later, i went to apple because my fans weren't working and it kept overheating and shutting down. they typed in my serial number, saw that i was covered, and repaired my computer for free no problem. so im definitely happy with my ebay purchased applecare. just look at the seller's feedback and see how many months or years it goes back.

Well, don't take this the wrong way, but your post is no more trustworthy than the sellers on Ebay that distribute the codes. This forum doesn't know you so we don't know if you're a seller on Ebay trying to justify that buying a code is legit. We don't even know if your story is true about your Applecare being legit after a year so in this case it's best for anyone buying Applecare on Ebay to buy a sealed box only, that way it's guaranteed not to be a scam. :cool:
 
Well, don't take this the wrong way, but your post is no more trustworthy than the sellers on Ebay that distribute the codes. This forum doesn't know you so we don't know if you're a seller on Ebay trying to justify that buying a code is legit. We don't even know if your story is true about your Applecare being legit after a year so in this case it's best for anyone buying Applecare on Ebay to buy a sealed box only, that way it's guaranteed not to be a scam. :cool:

well, i know my story is true. So i cant in good conscience recommend anyone waste money on buying the box as well, when you can get applecare for dirt cheap. if i were a seller i'd include a link to my auction, i have no reason to lie. So i stick to my theory, buy just the code and check the seller's feedback, you should be just fine.
 
well, i know my story is true. So i cant in good conscience recommend anyone waste money on buying the box as well, when you can get applecare for dirt cheap. if i were a seller i'd include a link to my auction, i have no reason to lie. So i stick to my theory, buy just the code and check the seller's feedback, you should be just fine.

Well, that's good that your situation worked out for you, and BTW, I did ask you not to take what I wrote the wrong way, obviously you did. I wasn't calling you a liar, I was saying that there's no way to prove your story about your Applecare lasting a year and being scam free. Your Applecare code purchase worked out for you, that's great but it's still a very poor idea to tell people not to waste money on a sealed box, (that still saves them $$$ from a retail sale) that will guarantee them a legit sale and recommend them to trust a code that has a high scam rate. Check around the web about buying Applecare on Ebay. Almost every one of the replies will be about someone buying a code and getting their Applecare cancelled a couple of months afterwards. The seller gets to keep the money, gets good feedback and Ebay can do nothing about it.
 
"eBay Applecare Legit or Not?"

NO -- it's NOT legitimate.

ANY and ALL Applecare sellers on ebay who sell you "the code only" (that is, without including a shrink-wrapped box) are SCAMMERS.

The definitve thread on "ebay Applecare" is here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/690859/

Read it ALL THE WAY THROUGH before you buy.

Consider yourself as having been warned.

Did you actually read that thread? The only person who had any problems was the OP, no one else in the 26 page thread did. He also stated he did not get his Apple Care letter from Apple after he registered, and also had problems registering it, as Apple was having issues when he tried to do it.

I certainly not would consider it the definitive thread on "eBay Applecare", as it was ONE persons problem. 99.9% of the people who reported in that thread had no problems whatsoever with buying from eBay.
 
Anyone have a favorite seller on E-bay? Lots of you are saying you have bought multiple copies on E-bay for all your different devices... Care to share who the seller was to help us out and hopefully not get ripped off lol
 
Anyone have a favorite seller on E-bay? Lots of you are saying you have bought multiple copies on E-bay for all your different devices... Care to share who the seller was to help us out and hopefully not get ripped off lol

I second this post here.

I am definitely interested in getting some AppleCare, especially at a discounted price.
 
The person I bought applecare from was in a bit of controversy here at macrumors. He didn't do anything wrong if I remember correctly, he was just the personification of the problem that a few users here had experienced. Personally I've never had a problem and had a few repairs on one of my two early 08 mbps. Here's the link to the seller: http://myworld.ebay.com/macman812

Look for his name here to read what I talked about above.
 
I'll talk from my personal experience.


I bought the Aluminum Macbook 2.8 in October 2008 when they were released. I believed (and still believe) an extended Applecare warranty was (and is) potentially very useful (based a faulty logic board in my 2002 iBook and a defective Ram slot in my 2005 Powerbook 15").

I purchased my Applecare online from a reputable seller with 1000+ feedback and almost all positive.

After the purchase, I applied my Applecare and confirmed it was valid.

In September 2009, I checked my Applecare status. It stated that I had not purchased Applecare.

I tried contacting the eBay seller with no avail. Paypal/Ebay could not do anything. I consider this a $100 learning experience.

This might be a $135 learning experience to the OP. But even that is cheap in comparison to much larger, more costly learning experiences in the future.
 
I'll talk from my personal experience.


I bought the Aluminum Macbook 2.8 in October 2008 when they were released. I believed (and still believe) an extended Applecare warranty was (and is) potentially very useful (based a faulty logic board in my 2002 iBook and a defective Ram slot in my 2005 Powerbook 15").

I purchased my Applecare online from a reputable seller with 1000+ feedback and almost all positive.

After the purchase, I applied my Applecare and confirmed it was valid.

In September 2009, I checked my Applecare status. It stated that I had not purchased Applecare.

I tried contacting the eBay seller with no avail. Paypal/Ebay could not do anything. I consider this a $100 learning experience.

This might be a $135 learning experience to the OP. But even that is cheap in comparison to much larger, more costly learning experiences in the future.
Here is my experience:

I bought a late 2008 unibody 2.4 ghz MBP in January 2009. Few months later I bought AppleCare from eBay (serial via mail only) only later to realize what kind of risk I took with this purchase.
Fast forward a year and few months (its april I think, 2010) I have 4 repairs behind me (display, logic board, fans, HDD) and apple warranty still valid. I contacted apple, complained about so many repairs, and they replace my 2.4 C2D with a brand new 2.53 i5.

Now here is the catch: apple offered to transfer my remaining apple care days on the new MBP. The thing is, AppleCare ticks from the purchase date. So, I had about 20 months left of applecare from eBay, but if I were to transfer it to my new machine, it would tick from the "purchase" date, meaning I'd have AppleCare covering my 1y warranty as well. This meant I'd have less than a year warranty extension outside my standard 1yr warranty period.

As an alternative, apple offered to return the AppleCare purchase money to me. I thought: "cool, you payed 150€*on ebay for AppleCare, and apple will give you 200+€*back (they don't give out full amount if you had a repair)". But the thing here was, they wanted to have a receipt of my AppleCare.

Since I had none, I said that I didn't want the money and I didn't want them to transfer the remaining AppleCare days either, as that would leave me with not even 2yr warranty MBP.


In the end, I got a brand new 2000€*i5 MacBook Pro from my eBay purchase, but I will not purchase AppleCare on eBay again. I'm gonna get it from Apple directly this time and be on the safe side. I consider myself REALLY lucky on this one and I don't recommend anyone buying AppleCare on ebay (unless you are getting the box).
 
Education discount has it at $238. Saving $100 really doesn't seem worth it anymore. Not to possibly get screwed over on ebay.
 
anyone else purchased applecare off ebay have a recommendation on a seller to buy from??

my factory is close to ending and i'll either have to purchase one off ebay or for the full regular price.
 
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