New iMac soon -Applecare or One-to-one worth it?

[DynamicNotch]

6 hours from a store.
Also when I call in to apple store online for help on which imac to buy, they are not very knowledgeable at all and don't listen carefully to the questions I ask.
Should I just buy Imac for Dummies at BN for $15 or do nothing.

 

[GGJstudios]

6 hours from a store.
Also when I call in to apple store online for help on which imac to buy, they are not very knowledgeable at all and don't listen carefully to the questions I ask.
Should I just buy Imac for Dummies at BN for $15 or do nothing.

If you're only considering AppleCare for the telephone support and not for the extended warranty coverage, you may find it isn't worth it. I've found this forum and the Apple support site to be much more useful resources than AppleCare telephone support. Almost every time I've called for support, I've discovered I know more than the person at the other end of the line. That's scary, since I don't know that much!

 

[rkaufmann87]

6 hours from a store.
Also when I call in to apple store online for help on which imac to buy, they are not very knowledgeable at all and don't listen carefully to the questions I ask.
Should I just buy Imac for Dummies at BN for $15 or do nothing.

I have found AppleCare's telephone support extremely valuable and much more creditable than a rumors website. I would STRONGLY recommend it! Even if you don't use the phone support much the extended warranty is worth it, even if you have one repair. By the way you can find it discounted by buying from some resellers such as B&H Photo.

 

[richard13]

If you're only considering AppleCare for the telephone support and not for the extended warranty coverage, you may find it isn't worth it. I've found this forum and the Apple support site to be much more useful resources than AppleCare telephone support. Almost every time I've called for support, I've discovered I know more than the person at the other end of the line. That's scary, since I don't know that much!

I've found this true as well. I *am* a techie so I guess it's excusable that I'd know more. What I don't like is even when I'm given a "senior advisor" they still refuse to give me any more information than I already know.

For the extended warranty it might be useful.

Specifically to the OP:
If you are not knowledgable at all or very little and want some hand holding I would advise Apple Care, One-to-One or both. Only you can judge if you think you'll need help that much.

 

[PrincessV]

I have both Apple Care & One to One. My husband & I are both long time Windows users & very new to the Apple environment!

I've been using an iPad mini for about 7 months when I decided to buy a MacBook Air. I bought the Apple Care & One to One for the Air since the Apple environment is so much different than the Windows environment. I've had 3 One to One sessions that have been very beneficial!

4 months later, I bought the iMac desktop. Since my husband will be using the iMac, I bought another One to One, so that he can schedule session based on his schedule & learning curve.

Neither of us know enough about the Apple environment to know if our "toys" are behaving properly or know enough to configure them to interact well with each other. The interaction between the 3 devices is very important to me (calendars, apps, notes & contacts, etc., having the same data without using a flash drive or emailing to myself). The One to One sessions provides the learning environment for that.

For the Apple Care, well, we've invested a lot of money on these devices & would hate for something to happen that we can't fix (we wouldn't know how at this point), so the Apple Care gives me comfort. Not to mention, Apple appears to be flexible in coverage (either fix or replace). (Side note: 8 days before the end of my regular 1 year warranty, I found debris under the screen of my iPad mini. Initially, the phone support quoted the repair cost. I asked if I could go into the store & let them look at it. I went into the store & the genius took a look at it & replaced it with a refurbished one. Easy Breezy!)

My 2 cents!

 

[seroposi]

I'd say Applecare is worth it if only to give you peace of mind. Shop around for Applecare and buy from a reputable source. I think here in the UK it's currently£90 from Amazon.

I don't know about one to one. There's probably sufficient online/apple tutorial to get you started but it's a personal thing. If you'd feel happier doing it then do it. The hardest part for me ( 1st iMac last year ) was not to think windows pc but after about 6 weeks I'd got the hang of everything Mac.

I find sorting out the wife's windows pc now so laborious!

If you have any questions just ask here or elsewhere ( Apple Support Communities ). I've learnt a lot just from reading other peoples posts and it doesn't matter how trivial you might think your question is, we all had to learn at some point and they're a very helpful bunch.

Also, you get 90 days free telephone support and think I had to phone them about 4 or 5 times during getting started and setting things up and in that regard found their service was top notch.

Put your $15 towards Applecare or otherwise and view online tutorials and don't forget You Tube.

For me, I'd say yes to Applecare and no to one to one, bearing in mind also my nearest Apple shop is only 20 minutes away so any issues etc or free workshop attendance can be ' quickly ' handled' so to speak.

 

[ender78]

I had the backlight on my 24" Apple Cinema Display start failing after about 2.5 years of use. Glad I had the Apple Care. Apple directed me to a service centre around the corner from my home and it was fixed within a few days. I recommend Apple Care on every product.

 

[MartinAppleGuy]

I got a 3 year garrentee with mine. I think the money is worth it.

 

[raniel]

I'd go for applecare for peace of mind for the next 3 years

 

[aggri1]

I am glad that I had AppleCare because the GPU in my iMac cacked itself shortly before AppleCare ran out. However, if you're so far from an AppleStore, it may not be worth it for you...

 

[silvetti]

I am glad that I had AppleCare because the GPU in my iMac cacked itself shortly before AppleCare ran out. However, if you're so far from an AppleStore, it may not be worth it for you...

You don't need an Apple Store for that...

Any apple repair center will do and will honor the warranty given by Apple Care.

 

[sostoobad]

I have one to one and I think it is great, and at the end of the yr you can re up it for the same 99.00/yr. For those who are not familiar with it you can go to an Apple store and sit down with one of the guys or gals and get your questions answered....for an hour. You just make an online appt and go, plus it gives you a reason to go back to the Apple store to see new stuff....I walked out with a new 13" Air but am very happy with it

I think you can get apple care from La computer for 180.00 it think thats worth it.

 

[aggri1]

You don't need an Apple Store for that...

Any apple repair center will do and will honor the warranty given by Apple Care.

Hmmm, yeah, good point.

 

[Dirtyharry50]

AppleCare is well worth it for the peace of mind in my opinion. My 27" iMac is about a year and a half old now and needs to have the screen replaced. As you can imagine, I am very glad to have AppleCare now.

I also found Apple Support to be very helpful the couple times I needed to call them early on.

I didn't think the one to one service was worthwhile myself so I did not go for that. I never needed much help really. Macs are easy to use.

 

[DynamicNotch]

I have one to one and I think it is great, and at the end of the yr you can re up it for the same 99.00/yr. For those who are not familiar with it you can go to an Apple store and sit down with one of the guys or gals and get your questions answered....for an hour. You just make an online appt and go, plus it gives you a reason to go back to the Apple store to see new stuff....I walked out with a new 13" Air but am very happy with it

I think you can get apple care from La computer for 180.00 it think thats worth it.

Would you have bought it if you lived 6 hours away from a store?

 

[silvetti]

Would you have bought it if you lived 6 hours away from a store?

Again, as I said, you don't need an Apple Store to "use" the Apple Care.

Check on Apple website for Apple Authorized Service Provider. Technicians are certified by Apple and the Apple Care is also valid there.

Again, the distance to your Apple Store doesn't matter.

Get Apple Care. You will thank yourself later

 

[iSayuSay]

AppleCare is well worth it for the peace of mind in my opinion. My 27" iMac is about a year and a half old now and needs to have the screen replaced. As you can imagine, I am very glad to have AppleCare now.

I also found Apple Support to be very helpful the couple times I needed to call them early on.

I didn't think the one to one service was worthwhile myself so I did not go for that. I never needed much help really. Macs are easy to use.

For what reason if you don't mind my asking? Dead pixels?
And which model is that?

 

[JoeRito]

You can mail it to an authorized service provider.

 

[Dirtyharry50]

For what reason if you don't mind my asking? Dead pixels?
And which model is that?

Dust and dirt have crept in between the glass and screen and there is strange black/light black discoloration along the borders of the screen on all sides that is shaped sort of like a crescent moon on each edge. One area looks like there is a handprint inside now with 4 finger tips. It isn't really but it looks like that.

So basically, a year and half later it looks like hell. This of course did not happen overnight. It's been getting progressively worse for months from when I first noticed it. I guess the screen was never properly sealed but I also wonder if it isn't otherwise defective given the curious distortions around the edges.

This is a mid-2011 27" iMac that has this problem.

Oh and I forgot to mention that just the other day I noticed artifacting when moving the mouse around on the screen but I haven't seen it since. This was not long after a few gaming sessions which resulted in the GPU overheating and shutting itself off. I forget which game now which is really bad since it was very recently. I think it might have been Crysis Warhead played in bootcamp that was doing this but then magically stopped doing it without any intervention from me.

My guess seeing that behavior is that my GPU's days may be numbered also. We shall see. The GPU is the Radeon 6970m with 1 GIG RAM.

I notice when running Windows 7 in bootcamp that once the fans spin up, they go full out and stay that way even after exiting the game and time has passed. It seems as if they do not function correctly when Windows is running on this machine. However, if I play say World of Warcraft in OS X (on ultra settings at 1440p) and they spin up, they go back down soon after I exit. I understand this could vary by how demanding a particular game is but the behavior is really consistent in Windows. My iMac is loud whenever I play games in Windows. It isn't when I play games in OS X. I got this uncomfortable feeling like I was abusing my computer by playing games with bootcamp and since i hated rebooting anyway, I deleted it. My fans have not spun up hard since.

I love my iMac overall but as you can see above it isn't perfect, not this particular one anyway. So it's a good thing I got AppleCare so I wouldn't have to worry about it for at least three years. I figure if a GPU is going to fail with regular gaming, it will do it within three years. The screen issues I was not expecting but having heard about them being an issue on some iMacs I am not all that surprised either. I keep putting off taking this in for repairs because I hate to be without it but I really should soon. I paid damned good money for a high quality display and this ain't it.

 

[iSayuSay]

Dust and dirt have crept in between the glass and screen and there is strange black/light black discoloration along the borders of the screen on all sides that is shaped sort of like a crescent moon on each edge. One area looks like there is a handprint inside now with 4 finger tips. It isn't really but it looks like that.

So basically, a year and half later it looks like hell. This of course did not happen overnight. It's been getting progressively worse for months from when I first noticed it. I guess the screen was never properly sealed but I also wonder if it isn't otherwise defective given the curious distortions around the edges.

This is a mid-2011 27" iMac that has this problem.

Oh and I forgot to mention that just the other day I noticed artifacting when moving the mouse around on the screen but I haven't seen it since. This was not long after a few gaming sessions which resulted in the GPU overheating and shutting itself off. I forget which game now which is really bad since it was very recently. I think it might have been Crysis Warhead played in bootcamp that was doing this but then magically stopped doing it without any intervention from me.

My guess seeing that behavior is that my GPU's days may be numbered also. We shall see. The GPU is the Radeon 6970m with 1 GIG RAM.

I notice when running Windows 7 in bootcamp that once the fans spin up, they go full out and stay that way even after exiting the game and time has passed. It seems as if they do not function correctly when Windows is running on this machine. However, if I play say World of Warcraft in OS X (on ultra settings at 1440p) and they spin up, they go back down soon after I exit. I understand this could vary by how demanding a particular game is but the behavior is really consistent in Windows. My iMac is loud whenever I play games in Windows. It isn't when I play games in OS X. I got this uncomfortable feeling like I was abusing my computer by playing games with bootcamp and since i hated rebooting anyway, I deleted it. My fans have not spun up hard since.

I love my iMac overall but as you can see above it isn't perfect, not this particular one anyway. So it's a good thing I got AppleCare so I wouldn't have to worry about it for at least three years. I figure if a GPU is going to fail with regular gaming, it will do it within three years. The screen issues I was not expecting but having heard about them being an issue on some iMacs I am not all that surprised either. I keep putting off taking this in for repairs because I hate to be without it but I really should soon. I paid damned good money for a high quality display and this ain't it.

Oh yeah I know how it feels. Virtually my old iMac (i7, 2GB 6790M) had the same problem and I think the computer is a ticking bomb waiting to be defused by Apple. Thing is it will run out of AppleCare and they would not defuse it anymore for you. Not for free anyway

I suggest you fix all the problem at once. Ask for a new display, graphic card, or even HDD if you haven't claimed your free replacement (Apple recalls some of it so you might wanna check your serial# to see if you're eligible).

After that you sell the computer and get the new 2013 with 780M instead. Apple replaced my 2011 with 2012 model with 680MX. All in all it's a [better] iMac, not perfect yet but better. Dirty screen is still present but to a much smaller degree. It runs cooler and more silent even under heavy load and gaming.

That's why I'm done with iMac after all this problems. Unlike a simple Macbook, it's a heavy computer to lug around so even under AppleCare I feel really reluctant to bring it in and have it repaired. Not to mention it takes around a week for one repair session. This is also my work computer so a prolonged halt is basically intolerable.
As I stated earlier my next computer would be PC and the display would be 27inchers Dell Ultrasharp so I wouldn't miss anything in term of spec and quality. I might even get more.

 

[aristobrat]

Would you have bought it if you lived 6 hours away from a store?

IMO, although One to One has some online videos only for members, to get the most out of if, you need to be near a store.

If you're six hours away from a store, I would not get One to One.

I would, however, get the Apple Care. In addition to the 3 years of hardware protection, you also get 3 years of phone/chat support, including software support.