Need Help with Apple Care for uMBP

[FarSeide]

I need some help here and if you can shine some light on this matter I would greatly appreciate it.

I purchased my late 08 uMBP in Jan of 09. In May of 09, I purchased Apple Care from eBay for a lot cheaper than what Apple charges for. So I have Apple Care protection plan until Jan of 2012.

Fast Forward to Today.
Due to multiple issues with my screen, Apple has agreed to replace my existing uMBP for the current version. However they gave me 2 choices for Apple Care option.
1. Transfer the Apple Care to the new uMBP but the expiration date wont reflect the new purchase date so it will still expire on Jan of 2012.

2. Get a refund but they wont accept my refund because I purchased Apple Care from eBay and not one of their authorized reseller.

Has anyone gone through this ?

Help ?

 

[Hellhammer]

I would do the first option. You still have 2.5 years of warranty left and basically AppleCare is bought for three years of peace of mind which you've got in Jan 2012

 

[EricNau]

That sounds about right, to be honest. Apple will provide a prorated refund for AppleCare, but only when a valid proof of purchase can be supplied. It's a risk one takes when purchasing an AppleCare Protection Plan from ebay. On the bright side, you have a new unibody MacBook Pro.

So, essentially there are two options:

1) Transfer the AppleCare plan to your new machine (which, I'll note, is already outside of typical procedure), thus losing about 9 months of possible coverage.

2) Suffer the monetary loss and purchase an APP for the new machine.

If it were me, I'd probably choose option 1. You purchased APP with the expectation that you'd get 3 years of coverage, and that's exactly what you'l get.

 

[madog]

Fast Forward to Today.1. Transfer the Apple Care to the new uMBP but the expiration date wont reflect the new purchase date so it will still expire on Jan of 2012.

That sounds logical. If they were to fix every part with the computer, the warranty would remain as it was on the computer. However, in this instance they are simply replacing the entire machine and you are keeping the same warranty as if it was a repair.

I have seen Apple do this before with machines out of warranty that couldn't be fixed (usually a REP or something similar), machines that were in warranty but the parts could not be recieved for many weeks, and when a machine has had enough major repairs that it is then replaced.

If you personally are buying the machine then it may be different, but you are just getting a warranty replacement that for some reason is more cost effective for them then fixing whatever is wrong with the old one.

Option 2 would only suffice if you had purchased it from Apple or an authorized store.

 

[FarSeide]

Thanks for the feedback. I will go ahead with the option 1.