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John Lewis (UK) 2 year warranty or AppleCare?

B

bilbo--baggins

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 6, 2006
782
130
UK
I'm buying a MacBook Pro, and cannot decide whether to get it from John Lewis with a 2 year warranty, or from Apple with AppleCare?

To extend the warranty with John Lewis from 2 to 3 years is £250, compared with £273 for AppleCare extending from 1 to 3 years.

Does anyone have experience of the John Lewis warranty - is it the same as AppleCare (presumably you don't get the extra telephone support, and probably cannot take it into the Apple Retail Store genius bar?)? Presumably if you want a 3 year warranty its better to have AppleCare, but in terms of value for money the standard 2 year warranty with John Lewis sounds much better.
 
Unless the John Lewis warranty includes some sort of accidental coverage, I wouldn't even consider it. You get great service with Applecare.
 
Buy your MBP from Apple direct, and your AppleCare for it from eBay (they go for ~£130, just buy from someone with lots of good feedback, an e-mailed code is all you need).
 
bilbo--baggins said:
I'm buying a MacBook Pro, and cannot decide whether to get it from John Lewis with a 2 year warranty, or from Apple with AppleCare?

To extend the warranty with John Lewis from 2 to 3 years is £250, compared with £273 for AppleCare extending from 1 to 3 years.

Does anyone have experience of the John Lewis warranty - is it the same as AppleCare (presumably you don't get the extra telephone support, and probably cannot take it into the Apple Retail Store genius bar?)? Presumably if you want a 3 year warranty its better to have AppleCare, but in terms of value for money the standard 2 year warranty with John Lewis sounds much better.
Click to expand...

Since John Lewis gives you that 2 year warranty for free (at least they did when I bought a Mac there), take it. Then remember: You have twelve months time to buy AppleCare. If your Mac is fine during the first 11 months, don't buy AppleCare (especially since JL gives you 13 months more warranty). If your Mac runs into repeated problems in the first eleven months, you should then buy AppleCare.

Accidental damage is most likely covered by your home insurance. Give them a call to check.
 
bilbo--baggins said:
Does anyone have experience of the John Lewis warranty - is it the same as AppleCare (presumably you don't get the extra telephone support, and probably cannot take it into the Apple Retail Store genius bar?)? Presumably if you want a 3 year warranty its better to have AppleCare, but in terms of value for money the standard 2 year warranty with John Lewis sounds much better.
Click to expand...

I bought a Powermac G5 from JL a couple of years ago that needed repairing. I had to box it up and bring it into the store who then send it out to be repaired. It took about 2 weeks (i think) and came back fixed.

If you're buying one of the standard configurations that JL sells, I would definitely buy it from them rather than Apple. They give you a longer return period (28 days instead of 14) and an extra year warranty for the same price.

Of course, you're right about not getting the Apple Care telephone support, but between Google and being pretty handy with computers, I've never felt the need to ring Apple.

Hope that helps.
 
edesignuk said:
Buy your MBP from Apple direct, and your AppleCare for it from eBay (they go for ~£130, just buy from someone with lots of good feedback, an e-mailed code is all you need).
Click to expand...

Got applecare for my Macbook off ebay for £63 - Bargin :)
 
If you don't have a local Apple store then going with John Lewis is a no brainer. If you want to extend the warranty then go with Apple care via ebay as has been suggested.
 
GoKyu said:
Unless the John Lewis warranty includes some sort of accidental coverage, I wouldn't even consider it. You get great service with Applecare.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the replies.

Are you inferring that AppleCare covers accidental damage? As far as I can tell from the information on Apple's site including the terms and conditions it specifically EXCLUDES accidental damage.

We do have a new Apple Retail store nearby, so it probably would be quicker to take a Mac in there for repair, rather than getting John Lewis to send it away. I'm also considering taking out Apple Pro Care - we have 3 Macs, 2 of which are used for our own business.

Lacking telephone support wouldn't be an issue for me - I tend to only use it if I suspect a hardware fault. Usually it's quicker to look up problems on the web, than to go through the lengthly process of repeating all of the basics before getting to the issue at hand. I remember when I bought my PowerMac G5 there was a faulty fan that clicked with every rotation. I had to reboot the computer, unplug everything, run the hardware test DVD, and even then they wanted me to send the computer away for repair for a few weeks. Eventually I managed to get them to send me a replacement fan which slotted in like a piece of lego. Any software issues that I cannot work out myself would probably take a month of wasted support calls - and they'd probably end up telling me to reformat the hard drive and reinstall everything!

Good tip re: ebay for cheaper AppleCare. Are these sealed genuine boxes, or just emailed codes? My Mac Pro is near the end of it's first year warranty, so getting cheap AppleCare would be great (it was a CTO, so John Lewis wasn't an option).
 
GoKyu said:
Unless the John Lewis warranty includes some sort of accidental coverage, I wouldn't even consider it. You get great service with Applecare.
Click to expand...

Ah - if you're referring to the £250 John Lewis extended warranty (taking it from 2 to 3 years), I agree - unless it's actual AppleCare I wouldn't touch it. Especially now I know how cheap AppleCare is on ebay.

I always buy my .Mac renewal code on ebay, but never occurred to me to look for AppleCare (because I've never had AppleCare, so I wasn't really aware it was just a code).
 
John Lewis aftercare is second to none. My friend worked for JL as a telesales/support blokey (he is now a manager there) and he had to attend several courses on the Mac OS.

I really believe if they can not fix it they will replace, they live for their reputation.

Besides, every Mac I have had that has gone wrong has done it in the first 18 months, if it lasts two years you should be fine :)
 
if i was to buy a standard config mac. id go with john lew is EVERY time.

John lewis after sales care is the best i have ever experienced. And for the record, it took apple 2 weeks to supposedly fix my issue with my mac pro, and it came back the same as it went out, resulting in a further 5 months of repairs before they replaced it...a big hassle.

John lewis give you the extra years warranty, so take it, and if you still feel it necessary, buy applecare within the first year also.
 
I bought my MBP from JL last week, largely because of the two-year warranty.

I don't hold much loyalty (usually go with the cheapest!), but I rate JL highly. As others have said, their Customer Service is second to none. Indeed with the MBP I bought it over the telephone and then went to their customer collection centre (Reading branch) and went and picked it up.

I went for the "base" MBP and it was £1360 because they'd reduced the VAT on it.

Just checked Apple's website and the MBP is still £9 cheaper than Apple direct, and you get the two-year warranty. (It may only be £9 but, as my Dad would say, look after the pennies and the pounds look after themselves :D)

I guess it is up for you but JL gets my vote!

HTH

D
 
I used to work in John Lewis's Audio and TV department, so I know all about the customer care. It really is second to none - if anything happens, take it back and they'll deal with you professionally every time. No arrogant people to talk to - the prime aim is to keep the customer happy.

Warranty: the first year is with Apple and the second is with a third party vender Scotsys (least it is in Scotland anyway, can't confirm for down south). However, the repair service is still excellent. Take it to John Lewis, and they'll have it back in about two weeks or less (depending on what is wrong with it).

Another good thing - the previous gen MacBook Pro's had yellow tint issues, and although I worked there, my colleague who was selling me it was allowed to open it before I bought it and check for yellow tint.

If it goes faulty and say the logic board needs replaced (£800), and then it happens again in the 2nd year, you'd be with a good chance of getting a replacement because it is John Lewis who pays for the repairs on the 2nd year, and if they deem it not worth repair because of the cost against the chance it might go faulty, then replacement.

All TV's are a 5-year guarantee too.
 
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