Friend dropped Powerbook - do I bother with Applecare?

[trudd]

Forgive me for the monotony of the topic, but I've no encounter will AppleCare or servicing thus far.

I volunteer on staff with a local church's youth group. I was talking to some of the students one night when one of the girls randomly reached out and unclipped the buckle on my InCase Sling Pack. My Powerbook landed with a dull thud and made a dent right below the power port.

I've yet to purchase AppleCare, and will have until March to do so. Should I go with AppleCare? Or just save my money and pay for it up front when something hits the fan? I did inform the girl that she dented my laptop, but I'm not sure I could have her or her parents cover the damage 2 or 3 years later.

All in all, it's a crappy situation since I take immaculate care of my photography, video and computing equipment, but I'll end up paying for somebody else's life lesson.

All advice is appreciated.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that this happened a few weeks ago. So far so good on performance. My fan seems to always turning, but this seems to be normal.

 

[DVNIEL]

A dent is considered accidental or physical damage, and Applecare doesn't cover that. If you opt to have it fixed by Apple, they charge you for labor and parts. So if you dented the casing and its going to inhibit you from plugging it in, or worse not letting any of the ports work. Then you're looking at close to $600-$800 worth of damage.

My suggestion is still to get the Applecare, but also get some laptop insurance or attach it to your homeowner's insurance. The Applecare will cover anything like a logic board malfunction, bad software, dying hard-drive. The laptop insurance will cover theft or accidental damage. Then if your situation gets worse, you can do an insurance claim and they'll cover the damage to make the computer operational again.

For the Applecare w/ student discount and Safeware.com insurance... I paid about $400, and $150 each year after that to renew the insurance.. to give me peace of mind, because I don't live in the most honest city out there, and my 17" Pb gets moved around a lot.

BTW, how old is the person that was responsible for your Powerbook in taking a dive? If she's under 16-20.. then you might want to intervene with her parents in assisting in the repair of the computer. If she's older, then I suggest you confront her with the situation.

Good luck in your situation.

 

[goodwill]

Villanova is right. The best option would be to have insurance for your laptop. Having the insurance is ideally one of the easiest options to cover the faults of your laptop if there was a human incident (i.e spilling water, having someone unlatch your laptop bag etc.)

I recently had to have the A/C power adapter replaced on my powerbook and although I had AppleCare, they would only replace the brick part of the adapter under warranty and not the plug in part. Go figure. But my point is, don't rely on AppleCare to service your computer free of cost. Unfortunate, but reality.

Your last and unethical resort would be to buy the insurance, wait the grace period out that you could submit a claim, then submit it regarding this issue.

 

[eleveneastgate]

Count Your Blessings...

Don't stress about it if it's working as it should.

I've dropped a iB & a PB.

iB - was fixed for $500, then crapped out again. Fixed once more (under warratny) then crapped out again. I've since parted it out, and only kept the hard drive. This was my 1st Mac.

PB - dropped and the RH corner near the battery got dented up a bit. EVERYTHING works so, no need to get it repaired. Plus, I like the battle scars, it gives it character.

Don't get wrong, I take care of my Macs, and these were unfortunate incidents. In plain words..........

Sh*t happens, and that's life!

It'll be OK, and in 5 years you can sell it on feeBay (eBay) to offset the cost of your new PB,

BTW, consider doing a hardware test to be certain that's everything is OK.

To answer your Q, Apple Care WILL NOT cover this. Get the girls parents to give you some $ if it needs repairs...

PEACE!

 

[trudd]

Thanks for all the input thus far. I think my only worry is that if I got AppleCare and something happened down the road (drive/display/board failure), then Apple would say "we won't replace it because of the dent."

My big concern is what happened to the gentleman here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/170522/

...As luck would have it she dropped it (in a backpack) at the airport soon after purchase. We checked out the computer and put it through its paces soon afterwards and the verdict was no harm, no foul except for the dent in the aluminum case.

Fast forward two years later and the drive starts to fail (at the end of the semester no less). First it's slow boot, then no boot (but still available as target disk), then dead.

I brought it to the genius bar yesterday and they confirmed the diagnosis but refused to cover the repair under Applecare citing the visible damage to the case. When I explained the amount of time and the fine functioning of the computer for 2 years until the failure, they were still unmoved. I ended up approving a paid repair for the drive (around $300)...

 

[aaandrewww]

My experience is that Apple will do everything in their powere to not pay for your repairs. If you have a dent now and a problem later then you will be given grief when you try to get it repaired. You may get it fixed anyway but you will have to go up the ladder talking to superiors until one finally agrees (if they do).

 

[California]

Where is the dent?

I have found that getting the spare top or topcase or bottom case fixed on an iBook or PB is a lot less expensive once you research it and find an Apple Tech who won't charge and arm and a leg.

If the dent is on the palmrest, or lid try to get the part priced and repaired with the parents' help. Call around, shop around for the part. I happen to have an Apple tech like this that I trust here in town and I like it that he can do what I need and not break the warranty.