Is it worth a premium to buy at the Apple Store?

[Kyllle]

Apple will handle all warranty service. You can't return an amazon purchase to the Apple Store though. They will do warranty replacement as repair however.

ah ok i see, thanks

 

[flynz4]

I am about to pull the trigger on a 13' MBA and can't decide whether it is worth a premium to buy at the Apple Store. If I purchase at Amazon the computer will be $1,550 with 2 day shipping and B&H will be $1,500. With the Black Friday sale it would be $1,500 at the Apple store, but sales tax would add $110.

Is there a compelling reason (like ease of return if there is a problem) to buy from the apple store rather than on-line?

Several states (including mine) do not charge sales tax. We get a lot of people who travel in from neighboring states or from Canada.

/Jim

 

[SDColorado]

I had to do a couple of exchanges on my MBA 13". The first one had a really weak hinge, the second a bad backlighting issue where the bottom looked really wavy. Both times the techs agreed they were bad and swapped them out with no problems. The third one has been great. In that regard it may have been easiest just dealing with the local store, so I am happy I did. I did also get business discounts on the computer, Apple Care and accessories. Not a huge discount, but it added up since I purchased 3 computers at the time.

 

[ctyhntr]

You can tack on the one on one program for $99 when you buy a new computer from Apple. You can't get this from any other retailers or when you buy refurb.

http://www.apple.com/retail/onetoone/

I recently started playing around with Final Cut Pro X, and found out that Apple has alot of one-on-one workshop scheduled for Final Cut Pro X, and iMovie 11. So, for my next computer I would buy it at the Apple Store so I can add the the one-on-one membership.

 

[Internaut]

I was impressed with my local PC World

Same prices as the Mac Store and they were clear that they only sold the latest. They were able to sell me the MBA, process the Apple Care on the spot and they did something the Apple Store won't do; freebies:

- A free padded sleeve for it
- A three desk license for MS Office for the price of the one desk license I'd ordered (so Office on both my Macs )
- Subscription to their own cloud service*.

Since I bought Apple Care, I expect any Apple Store I walk into to provide assistance for any issues.

* Though I don't have a clue if that is any good.

 

[old-wiz]

Apple will handle all warranty service. You can't return an amazon purchase to the Apple Store though. They will do warranty replacement as repair however.

Exactly why I purchased from Apple instead of Amazon or MacConnection or the others.