Future Shop Warranty vs Apple Care 2014

[MPG211005]

Hi Everyone,

I was wondering what everyones opinion is in regards to the Future Shop Warranty(the basic one) vs Apple care. They are both the same price and for the same term. The guy at Future Shop said that theres cover a bit more than apple care but I'm not sure of any details.

Any information on this would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

 

[joshlalonde]

Well, go and ask FutureShop what exactly they provide.

As for Apple's side of things, see: https://www.apple.com/support/products/

I guess the only advantage of getting FutureShop's warranty is that they'll do your repairs. That is, if you live too far from an Apple store.

But if you live near an Apple store, I suggest going with appleCare. They'll give you the best experience. Geek squad is evil. At least Apple takes pride in its workmanship and relationship with the consumer. GeekSquad is just in for the money (Apple wants money too, but they have a MUCH better customer support).

Sadly, I'm with BestBuy's warranty because there are no Apple stores close enough.

 

[MacInTO]

I'm not sure what the FS warranty is like, but I probably would not want them to fix my mac. Apple is pretty good or otherwise an Apple authorized service provider is good also.

 

[MacModMachine]

Hi Everyone,

I was wondering what everyones opinion is in regards to the Future Shop Warranty(the basic one) vs Apple care. They are both the same price and for the same term. The guy at Future Shop said that theres cover a bit more than apple care but I'm not sure of any details.

Any information on this would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

dont bother with futureshop warranty, its bs.

they have to send it to apple anyway and it takes them weeks.

 

[crawler1975]

Hi Everyone,

I was wondering what everyones opinion is in regards to the Future Shop Warranty(the basic one) vs Apple care. They are both the same price and for the same term. The guy at Future Shop said that theres cover a bit more than apple care but I'm not sure of any details.

Any information on this would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

If I were you, I would go with Apple Care. It is better to deal with the manufacturer itself than a retail store or third party vendor. Plus apple have a very good customer service and pride themselves about that.

 

[GoingDark]

I used to work for Future Shop and their warranty process varies greatly from store to store. It's extremely inconsistent and depending on the store, can be a complete nightmare to deal with. I would only ever consider it if you don't have an Apple Store within an hour's drive.

AppleCare is almost always the better deal, and if you're a student (or have access to a student with a valid student card) you could save close to $100 on AppleCare.

Also keep in mind that Future Shop employees are on commission and are highly incentivized to sell you their warranty.

 

[MacInTO]

I would only ever consider it if you don't have an Apple Store within an hour's drive.

AppleCare is almost always the better deal, and if you're a student (or have access to a student with a valid student card) you could save close to $100 on AppleCare.

Even if you don't have an Apple store within a close drive, look for an Apple Authorized Service Provider nearby. They're pretty much everywhere.

I live in a town of less than 10,000 people and there is one here.

You might even get better service because of the size. I needed a screen replacement. Once they part arrived, they did it in the span of a morning.

https://locate.apple.com/ca/en/

 

[MPG211005]

I used to work for Future Shop and their warranty process varies greatly from store to store. It's extremely inconsistent and depending on the store, can be a complete nightmare to deal with. I would only ever consider it if you don't have an Apple Store within an hour's drive.

AppleCare is almost always the better deal, and if you're a student (or have access to a student with a valid student card) you could save close to $100 on AppleCare.

Also keep in mind that Future Shop employees are on commission and are highly incentivized to sell you their warranty.

The Future Shop Price was more expensive but he said he would price match it to match the Apple Education pricing on the warranty.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

I have no experience with the company (I live south of the border), however, there are two considerations that come to mind that may (or may not) distinguish one from the other:

Portability - 139 Future Shop stores (more or less), in one country vs. Apple's worldwide network of Apple-owned stores, authorized service providers, and mail-in service centers.

Telephone/chat/mail tech support - Is this part of the Future Shop service, or is it essentially a carry-in/face-to-face organization? What are the operating hours?

I often see people focus on the repair/replacement aspect of AppleCare when they compare it to other extended warranty programs, and give zero value to the tech support side of things.

 

[MacInTO]

The Future Shop Price was more expensive but he said he would price match it to match the Apple Education pricing on the warranty.

I would pass on FS because they aren't an Apple authorized service provider. Like MacModMachine stated, they would have to send the machine to Apple for the repairs anyway.

ApfelKuchen brings up a good point about telephone support from Apple which is very good.

 

[ATC]

Hi Everyone,

I was wondering what everyones opinion is in regards to the Future Shop Warranty(the basic one) vs Apple care. They are both the same price and for the same term. The guy at Future Shop said that theres cover a bit more than apple care but I'm not sure of any details.

Any information on this would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

As someone who has experience with both a FS and AppleCare warranty on our Macs, as others have suggested, definitely skip FS's in favour of Apple's.

Telephone support with AppleCare is great, not only to diagnose hardware issues but also software; FS does not include this - that alone makes FS's warranty much less valuable.

Secondly, the turn around times with FS repairs can be atrocious from my past experience. One time our iMac took well over a month to get back and the problem was still not fixed, had to be sent out again. Not saying that can't happen with Apple but I have never experienced lengthy repairs with AC, even a replacement iMac display (that was back-ordered) and a motherboard replacement took a couple of days at an Apple Store.

Also, beware of over-promises with FS warranty, you can really get burnt as it's a heavily commissioned sale item and sales-people there push it hard (i.e. promise the world just to make the sale).