I never got offered free applecare with my student purchase
just a discount is all.
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How can Apple still justify a 1 year warranty
- Thread starter superdudeo
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I never got offered free applecare with my student purchase
just a discount is all.
If anything is going to go wrong with your product, it will be in the first month. Safe to say, you have 1 year. I very much doubt you need extended warranty. Take out special insurance, it covers all the things Apple covers, and accidental damage, it's also much cheaper.
I don't usually bother with extended warranties. Instead, section 14(2) of the Sales of Goods Act 1979 is enough. It states all goods must be of satisfactory quality. This is judged objectively, and covers manufacturing defects. I'd say an expensive computer like a Mac should last 3 years?
I've never had a problem with Apple, but other things that have broken have been fixed out of warranty by using that law. You have to be willing to argue your case, but I think it is worth it. Most companies will buckle long before courts get involved!
There's a myth about an EU Directive and two year warranties, but that is misunderstood.
Having said that, UK student can get a free 3 year warranty on Macs. Free is certainly worth the price! See the link in my sig.
(None of the above is legal advice, I am not a lawyer)
I've never had a problem with Apple, but other things that have broken have been fixed out of warranty by using that law. You have to be willing to argue your case, but I think it is worth it. Most companies will buckle long before courts get involved!
There's a myth about an EU Directive and two year warranties, but that is misunderstood.
Having said that, UK student can get a free 3 year warranty on Macs. Free is certainly worth the price!
See the link in my sig.(None of the above is legal advice, I am not a lawyer)
I never got offered free applecare with my student purchase
The warranty extension for students doesn't apply in the u.s.
Cheers,
Nice retort, it's a shame that this seems to be the generic answer by a section of Apple fans when you criticise something about the company. If you can't formalise an intelligent answer, don't bother.
I never got offered free applecare with my student purchase
If you are in the UK then a student purchase comes with a 3 year warranty by default. You don't need to ask for it. However, a lot of the sales staff are either confused by this or are trying to sell. If you purchased Applecare at a reduced price, return it for a refund like I did. The student warranty comes without call out support however.
I'm guessing they don't make crap on AC, but what they are ensuring is they don't have to replace much, or offer that high level of service to a whole group of people. The ones that didn't buy AC....
I have been upset that we have to pay for it, but when i look at it from the other direction, that if I didn't have to pay $xxx for the "concierge level" of service, then I'd probably either not get the level I get, or I'd be paying more for the computer in the first place.
It's a gamble, but I'm pretty sure that neither my credit card or square trade offer the level of service you get from Apple either. Maybe, maybe not..... It's all a gamble!
I have been upset that we have to pay for it, but when i look at it from the other direction, that if I didn't have to pay $xxx for the "concierge level" of service, then I'd probably either not get the level I get, or I'd be paying more for the computer in the first place.
It's a gamble, but I'm pretty sure that neither my credit card or square trade offer the level of service you get from Apple either. Maybe, maybe not..... It's all a gamble!
I have never bought an extended warranty for an Mac purchase I have ever made and have never had a warranty issue either. I purchased many Macs over the last five years and I currently own a early 2008 black MB and a late 2009 MBP. Both are running perfectly.
Perhaps stop calling people "sheep" and you might get better responses.
Does that mean you've never had to take anything back or you've never had a problem when returning something? The day will surely come. My MBA had to be returned and I've had to return iPhone's about 5 times. Not really comparable but still.
Meaning I have never had to bring a Mac back for repairs or defects for any reason. This also includes every iPhone and iPod as well.
I thnk apple is over priced and lack many options I enjoy and use on my PC based machines. Their standard warranty seems to be in line with the rest of the big players.
I generally buy extended/accidental warranties on my Dell notebooks, since they see a lot of travel and bouncing around.
Having recently bought my first Mac, apple care to me seems to be the biggest bottle of snake oil. However, I have seen people with AppleCare come into a store with a beat to piss iMac and walk out with new, to them, boxed machine.
I am not sure if apple is more generous and forgiving if AppleCare is purchased.
Whatever the story is a lot of people are content.
I am not ready to abandon Dell as their next day on site service has been outstanding.
I generally buy extended/accidental warranties on my Dell notebooks, since they see a lot of travel and bouncing around.
Having recently bought my first Mac, apple care to me seems to be the biggest bottle of snake oil. However, I have seen people with AppleCare come into a store with a beat to piss iMac and walk out with new, to them, boxed machine.
I am not sure if apple is more generous and forgiving if AppleCare is purchased.
Whatever the story is a lot of people are content.
I am not ready to abandon Dell as their next day on site service has been outstanding.
I agree with an earlier poster that if the warranty were to be extended, the projected additional costs would simply be added to the existing item's cost, and we would likely be none the wiser.
I feel it is okay that applecare is offered separately. This way, people who wish to take their chances and believe their apple hardware will last a good long time can save that few extra dollars, rather than paying extra for warranty they don't need/want. Those who want the added assurance, can pay the extra. This way, everyone gets want they want, and is happy.
I feel it is okay that applecare is offered separately. This way, people who wish to take their chances and believe their apple hardware will last a good long time can save that few extra dollars, rather than paying extra for warranty they don't need/want. Those who want the added assurance, can pay the extra. This way, everyone gets want they want, and is happy.
What I love...
What I love about this thread is all the people chiming in, basically labelling anyone who thinks Apple SHOULD offer more than 1 year warranty, as a foreign PC-loving Apple-bashing piece of *****. I'm betting they are the lucky ones who have never bought a bad Apple.
I have only ever owned Apple computers, since my Macintosh Classic in 1991. I have never purchased AppleCare... but also have largely purchased 2nd hand Macs, as it's all I could afford - other than a PC. That hadn't even been an problem however - I had never had a Mac go bad.. until I bought an eMac in 2004. 18 months later, bang, bad cap plague, with no Repair Program in sight despite the problem being known by Apple for many many months.
Under Australian Consumer Law, Apple HAD to repair it, as 18 months for a PREMIUM product (with a premium price) is not acceptable. I pointed this out to Apple Australia, and was still told to go screw myself. Other than taking them to the small claims court, I really had no legal way to get them to repair my dead computer.
An email to Steve Jobs solved my problem (4 months before they finally did release a Repair Program), but not everyone would think to do that, nor would such an approach work every time.
The simple fact is, if Apple did extend a 2 year warranty to all consumers, their prices would go up - it wouldn't be free - as there would be plenty of machines that would have some kind of failure, large or small, after 1 year, and before 2 years.
Warranties are part of the price of purchase... so we'd be back to paying the Apple premium prices of the early days... back when Apple actually purchased premium components and really cared about their products.
There, I said it.
BTW - $268 for iMac AppleCare in Australia. That's 19% on top of the price of the base iMac.
What I love about this thread is all the people chiming in, basically labelling anyone who thinks Apple SHOULD offer more than 1 year warranty, as a foreign PC-loving Apple-bashing piece of *****. I'm betting they are the lucky ones who have never bought a bad Apple.
I have only ever owned Apple computers, since my Macintosh Classic in 1991. I have never purchased AppleCare... but also have largely purchased 2nd hand Macs, as it's all I could afford - other than a PC. That hadn't even been an problem however - I had never had a Mac go bad.. until I bought an eMac in 2004. 18 months later, bang, bad cap plague, with no Repair Program in sight despite the problem being known by Apple for many many months.
Under Australian Consumer Law, Apple HAD to repair it, as 18 months for a PREMIUM product (with a premium price) is not acceptable. I pointed this out to Apple Australia, and was still told to go screw myself. Other than taking them to the small claims court, I really had no legal way to get them to repair my dead computer.
An email to Steve Jobs solved my problem (4 months before they finally did release a Repair Program), but not everyone would think to do that, nor would such an approach work every time.
The simple fact is, if Apple did extend a 2 year warranty to all consumers, their prices would go up - it wouldn't be free - as there would be plenty of machines that would have some kind of failure, large or small, after 1 year, and before 2 years.
Warranties are part of the price of purchase... so we'd be back to paying the Apple premium prices of the early days... back when Apple actually purchased premium components and really cared about their products.
There, I said it.
BTW - $268 for iMac AppleCare in Australia. That's 19% on top of the price of the base iMac.
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This is one of the dumbest things I've read today, and there's a lot of stupid crap floating around, what with Lion's recent release.
Since when does the length of a manufacturer's warranty equate to their assessment of how long the product is going to last? This is what the OP suggests. A warranty is simply a manufacturer's voluntary assumption of responsibility for problems during a stated period of time following purchase.
Oddly enough, this wouldn't be the first time that someone started a thread thinking that a Mac would only last a year because of the warranty length. I remember a thread suspiciously like this one about two years ago. Maybe it was the same person under a different name.
I imagine that Apple provides only a 1 year warranty as standard because that's how long they think most people will keep their machines for. Anyone who stays on this forum will know that there are some pretty crazy people out there who trade-in their previous generation Mac to get the latest and greatest. So it's not farfetched.
Besides, in most businesses, warranties are not a selling point (i.e. not a competitive market) and so most companies stick to the minimum of 1 year. One of the only exceptions are the automotive industry where they continually advertise 3 to 5 year new car warranties as a "feature".
Take this as an interesting anecdote of sorts: the home I live in was bought and built by my family 14 years ago. Back then the home builders provided a lifetime structural guarantee on the house - something virtually no home builder provides anymore these days. When we called them up about something we were concerned about a couple months ago, they wanted a lot of proof that we had such a guarantee going so far as to requesting us to scan a copy of it.
So, don't be surprised or disappointed by Apple providing only 1 year standard since you'd most likely be finding relatively small warranty periods on any other item you would purchase for your home... and even the home itself
Besides, in most businesses, warranties are not a selling point (i.e. not a competitive market) and so most companies stick to the minimum of 1 year. One of the only exceptions are the automotive industry where they continually advertise 3 to 5 year new car warranties as a "feature".
Take this as an interesting anecdote of sorts: the home I live in was bought and built by my family 14 years ago. Back then the home builders provided a lifetime structural guarantee on the house - something virtually no home builder provides anymore these days. When we called them up about something we were concerned about a couple months ago, they wanted a lot of proof that we had such a guarantee going so far as to requesting us to scan a copy of it.
So, don't be surprised or disappointed by Apple providing only 1 year standard since you'd most likely be finding relatively small warranty periods on any other item you would purchase for your home... and even the home itself
On average I use my Macs for about 3-4 years... or more. This has ALWAYS been a selling point of Macs - the fact that they last so long. Yes, SOME people do buy/rent the latest Macs, then upgrade when the next model comes out. These people are called early adopters, and are NOT the norm.
This is a good example... Extended warranties like the automotive industry are now offering are fairly new... Apple should follow this lead for the IT industry! As noted - Apple gear historically has tended to last longer than PCs... if for no other reason than because a new version of Windows often requires massive hardware upgrades. I own a bucket load of 80's and 90's Macs that still work... Apple should look at the sums... if they did make a promotional point out of a 3 year warranty, for example, then it could well encourage people over from PCs.
Frankly, it has always concerned me, especially after my eMac encounter, at how little American consumers seem to care about their lack of consumer protection.
Addendum - When the eMac dilemma broke, what upset me most was the fact that SO many of those affected were first time Mac buyers. This was after all Apple's entry level Mac. And Apple's response - it's 6 months out of warranty - so you'll have to pay 50% of the purchase cost to get it repaired. I lost count of the number of people who said they'd never buy Apple again - as well as bigger accounts like school computer labs that were also stung. Yes, Apple Business Relations (or whatever they are called) did help some schools with free repairs, but many were left out in the cold.
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I wasn't saying the manufacturer's warranty equates to their assessment of how long the product is going to last. UK consumer law states that a product must be fit for purpose for a reasonable amount of time. This can normally be interpreted as higher end or expensive products should be able to last a number of years.
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Apple are kind enough to offer AppleCare to extend the warranty to 3 years at a mere £150-£300!
I bet they make a fortune on it!You have the benefit of knowing a bit about UK consumer laws. Many people don't. In fact we want people to keep buying AppleCare and not using their consumer rights, because if they don't buy it Apple will just raise prices to adjust. As I said above, I don't buy extended warranties unless they are very cheap and I've had a lot of success simply using UK law to get repairs/refunds. (Although I've had no problems with Apple products out of warranty yet). Just read up on the laws and save yourself money!
No, Apple ONLY provides a 1 year warranty so they can sell another 2 years and make allot of money, it's a business.
We all know this world is based on money, there's even a price on a human life, and it's not even worth that much.
I'm pretty sure that most customers keep their machine(s) for longer than 1 year, and if so, Apple knows about it.
A reasonable price?
Not here in Sweden, if I buy a base 15" MBP, the additional 2 year warranty would cost me $550 for a computer that costs $2590.
That's more than 20% of the cost of the machine.
If that's cheap, then you're made of money, those additional 2 years should be free, especially since Mac computers aren't exactly cheap compared to other brands.
There is no need for you to buy one. Since you are from Sweden, you have laws covering you back in case it fails within reasonable amount of time (~1-3 years).