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Purchased MacBook @ Future Shop

kixsand

kixsand

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 25, 2007
191
0
Toronto
Well...this is a great day. I bought myself a MacBook from Future Shop today. I went to FS because it was convenient and I knew that I just wanted the standard stage 2 system -- 2.4, 2gb of ram, superdrive, 160gb hd. I start a new job tomorrow so wanted to get it today and arrive in style at the new career!

The experience that I had in the store almost put a damper on the excitement of the purchase.

The guy sees me obviously interested in the MacBook and starts hovering -- "Any questions?"

"Yes, I do have one question. How much is your warranty extension on the MacBook and how is it different from AppleCare?".

I had inadvertently opened a can of worms here. Now he knows I'm a buyer and that he might be able to sell me a warranty. Mr. nice guy was gone and I was left to deal with Mr. Hard Sell.

Apple Care in Canada is $299. Futureshop's warranty extension is $369. The computer was the same price as in the AppleStore -- $1349.

The salesman immediately leaves to talk to his manager. "Okay, he'll knock $40 of the price of the computer if you buy our warranty."

I brought up my concerns about support -- Apple has always been so good to deal with whenever I've had a problem -- hardware, software, my fault or theirs. "No problem, Future Shop has support too...all you have to do is call the 1-800 # and they will talk you through any problem."

Then he's going on and on about all the horror stories that he has heard about Apple taking 6 months to fix one ladies laptop and how they will not give replacement systems for any issue.

So, I said to him. "Listen, I just want to make a good decision here...it's not so much about the price. Why don't you just give me a minute to go online and see if I can find any good information on the differences between your warranty and Apple's."

So, I find a long thread on the subject on a Canadian site(ehmac.ca) and proceed to read post upon post from people warning others to stay clear of the FS warranty -- no support, no parts, long waits for repairs, they only warranty hardware but will blame software for problems etc. etc.

The salesman is back again...he's spoken to his manager one more time. They will take another $10 off the price of the computer to get it under $1300 which drops the warranty price down to $329 from $369. Now I'm saving $90 and the guy is still pushing hard to sell the thing.

I stepped back from the computer and said:

"I'll take the computer for $1349 and I will pass on the warranty." You'd have thought I said something nasty about his mother. He was that hurt. It was now very clear to me that the profit for him was in the warranty and not the computer. I almost told him to put the computer back and that I would go and buy it somewhere that might appreciate my business, but I didn't have the balls or the time to head out to the Apple Store at that point.

Now that I've unwrapped it and played with it I'm delighted with the purchase. And, now that I've told my story about Futureshop I can put that experience behind me as well.

So, do I go out and get AppleCare now? Or, do I wait a year and see how it goes?

Darren
 
You're right, the salesman makes about $5 from the Mac and about $50 from the warranty. Good call in passing up the FS warranty, the FutureShop warranty gives you typical 30 day turnarounds on repairs.

Partially, this problem is Apple's fault. They unilaterally set the Apple Store price at about 3% - 6% above the wholsale price to their resellers, therefore after taking your charge card (which costs them about 1.8%) the reseller makes little or nothing on the sale of the Mac. Thats why they push the warranties and the $120 Monster power bars so hard.
 
Sage advice all.

I will likely wait a bit and see how things go. My feeling is that if something is going to go wrong it will do so long before 1 year is up. I will also feel much better about spending the $299 months after I've paid off the $1500 with taxes that the computer cost me.

I have always bought AppleCare in the past on my iMacs but this is my very first laptop.

I absolutely love it. You don't really get a good feel for the thing when you just bang on one in the store. Beautiful quality. This magsafe power cord rocks -- so small and light. I'm used to the power cord on m wife's Dell -- it weighs about as much as her computer does!

Cheers,
 
You can also find Applecare from eBay, Amazon, and other places much cheaper than the Apple Store.
 
You don't really need to buy AppleCare until just before the 1 year anniversary of your purchase UNLESS you want to have the phone support continue after the first 3 months.

It's like this:
Without AppleCare: Phone support for 3 months, warranty for the year.

With AppleCare: Phone Support and warranty for 3 years.

If you live near an Apple Store, you don't really need the phone support because you can go to the Genius Bar with any questions/problems.

My advice is to wait the year and get it before it ends to cover your new MacBook's butt. That's what I'm doing. Oh, and look around online- you can buy AppleCare for way less than the $299 that Apple Canada offers. For example, I came across this place when I was searching. You could probably find it even cheaper on ebay.

Enjoy it- I've had mine since November and it's been awesome.

EDIT: I never liked shopping at Future Shop, even though Best Buy owns it FS's sales team always seemed more pushy and less informed.
 
i was thinking of waiting too...
when u get ur macbook u have a warranty for 1 year and if u buy apple care right away it goes to 3 years...
if i wait till near the end does the warranty last longer since u got it later?
or is it 3 years from the purchase date no matter what?

thanks
 
Another bad FS experiance

When i bought my macbook from FS in January, I had a bad experience that left a bad taste in my mouth.

First the salesman smelt like B-O

When I asked about the student discount he told me the price was 1399 instead of 1449. However, the actual student discount price from apple.com and my university computer store was 1349.
Obviously I tell him that it is 1349 and I show him my flyer from my university. He looks at the flyer and tells me that it is one day expired. At this point I am pretty frustrated at how stupid this guy is, so I go onto apple website and show him that the price is 1349.
I just wanted to get home and get my new toy up and running. So I quickly pay and tell him to take a shower.

Anyway if my universities computer store would have had it in stock I would have just bought it there, but i had to deal the usually FS ******** salesman. Oh, one good thing about buying something at FS is that they have a 14 day return policy and I wasn't decided between the white and black, so I wanted the option to get a blackbook if I didn't like the white MB.

Part of the reasons that these guys are *******s is that if they don't sale enough warranties and high margin products like power cables, they can actually be fired. So it doesn't matter if they sell a lot of laptops, if they don't sell the warranties they get in trouble. FS is a corrupt and just horrible place to buy things. Too bad most of the time they're the only option.
 
nidserz said:
i was thinking of waiting too...
when u get ur macbook u have a warranty for 1 year and if u buy apple care right away it goes to 3 years...
if i wait till near the end does the warranty last longer since u got it later?
or is it 3 years from the purchase date no matter what?

thanks
Click to expand...

3 years from the purchase date of your MacBook.
 
Surely said:
You don't really need to buy AppleCare until just before the 1 year anniversary of your purchase UNLESS you want to have the phone support continue after the first 3 months.
Click to expand...

I have AppleCare on my iMac...so I was sort of thinking that if I need support I could just sort of pretend I was having the problem on my iMac ... and not my MacBook. Don't tell Apple though.
 
hah best buy is better, the repairs are done within the store or is serious shipped out to our repair centers, future shop are idiots, i hate the place!
 
New job and you have to buy your own computer?

WTF? :)


A good new job ought to provide you a new computer. :eek:
 
Good that you didn't get the extended warranty from them.

I once went to an interview at Futureshop (back in October), and the guy was asking me what kind of stuff I would sell with an iPod. I named like a billion accessories, and then he's like, your missing something. And I'm like "ohhh the PSP!". lol, he was like "Yes, you need to sell that all the time, and make sure the customer buys it."

I didn't get the job, (I guess cause I listed probably every accessory their store carries and forgot about the PSP) lol. :D
 
kixsand said:
I have AppleCare on my iMac...so I was sort of thinking that if I need support I could just sort of pretend I was having the problem on my iMac ... and not my MacBook. Don't tell Apple though.
Click to expand...

Um, ok.

GeneKam said:
hah best buy is better, the repairs are done within the store or is serious shipped out to our repair centers, future shop are idiots, i hate the place!
Click to expand...

You do realize that BestBuy owns FutureShop, right?

Hey acfusion29, when you say PSP, are you talking about the Playstation Portible? How is that an iPod accessory? Or is that another name for the extended warranty?
 
Surely said:
Um, ok.



You do realize that BestBuy owns FutureShop, right?

Hey acfusion29, when you say PSP, are you talking about the Playstation Portible? How is that an iPod accessory? Or is that another name for the extended warranty?
Click to expand...

PSP stands for Product Service Plan, so the extended warranty for any product.
 
For the love of God don't buy a warranty from FS. Man they screwed me huge on an Acer that was broken out of the box and I had purchased the warranty from them. Nothing! They didn't exchange it, repair it, nothing! Please oh God don't!
 
"You do realize that BestBuy owns FutureShop, right?"

Yes, but it doesn't mean their service isn't different. FutureShop is their Cash cow they don't care or honor anything, unlike BestBuy.
 
ScottFitz said:
New job and you have to buy your own computer?

WTF? :)


A good new job ought to provide you a new computer. :eek:
Click to expand...

A good job would but this job doesn't -- Not that kind of industry I suppose. I'm a sales consultant at a BMW Retailer in Toronto. Out of 16 sales people I'm the only one with a laptop it would seem. I asked the IT guy if he could find me an ethernet cable so that I could hook into their network and he looked at me like I had multiple heads.

"You want to do what?"
 
Originally, I come from Winnipeg, Canada, and I can honestly say that Future Shop sucks farts out of dead seagulls. Their customer service is absolutely horrible IMHO. Especially at the store on Regent AVE. Years ago I purchased a MiniDV camcorder from JVC there. First two were defective - had to exchange two times to get a good one. Then they had the sheer audacity of saying that I was causing the problems and that they would call the police to report me. After that I never stepped foot in a Future Shop again. Screw them! Bloody SOBs...

Now that I am a U.S. Permanent Resident (soon to be U.S. Citizen), I can go to the Apple Store in my city and deal with people that actually have some intelligence and know what good customer service is all about.
 
Anderson3133 said:
"You do realize that BestBuy owns FutureShop, right?"

Yes, but it doesn't mean their service isn't different. FutureShop is their Cash cow they don't care or honor anything, unlike BestBuy.
Click to expand...

I say BS on that. BestBuy in the USA sucks farts out of dead seagulls, just like Future Shop in Canada. They have learned the FS ways...
 
Anderson3133 said:
"You do realize that BestBuy owns FutureShop, right?"

Yes, but it doesn't mean their service isn't different. FutureShop is their Cash cow they don't care or honor anything, unlike BestBuy.
Click to expand...

Haven't done much shopping at Best Buy have you? ;)

Best Buy is probably the worst consumer electronics store when it comes to... well, everything.

They'll find any reason to get out of honoring their extended warranty, AFTER lying about what it covers to get you to buy it. Then it'll take months to get a repair done and, more often than not, the repair hasn't been properly performed.

They mark up the price of their iPod accessories. Those Apple in-ear headphones that sell for $39.99 at Apple and everywhere else cost $52.99 at the local Best Buy here. The universal dock for iPods runs over $60.

They'll go so far as to not sell you a computer if you refuse to let them add on expensive cables, accessories, and their extended warranty.

Don't even get me started on how bad their customer service is. I went in there looking for a backpack for both of my laptops. I tried for more than an hour and a half to get ahold of someone to help me find it, as their website said it was in stock but I didn't see it in the usual place.

I know its cliche to say this, but Best Buy really should be called "Worst Buy".

Oh and their selection of products is a joke too. I laugh every time I see their headphone selection.
 
mosx said:
Haven't done much shopping at Best Buy have you? ;)

Best Buy is probably the worst consumer electronics store when it comes to... well, everything.

They'll find any reason to get out of honoring their extended warranty, AFTER lying about what it covers to get you to buy it. Then it'll take months to get a repair done and, more often than not, the repair hasn't been properly performed.

They mark up the price of their iPod accessories. Those Apple in-ear headphones that sell for $39.99 at Apple and everywhere else cost $52.99 at the local Best Buy here. The universal dock for iPods runs over $60.

They'll go so far as to not sell you a computer if you refuse to let them add on expensive cables, accessories, and their extended warranty.

Don't even get me started on how bad their customer service is. I went in there looking for a backpack for both of my laptops. I tried for more than an hour and a half to get ahold of someone to help me find it, as their website said it was in stock but I didn't see it in the usual place.

I know its cliche to say this, but Best Buy really should be called "Worst Buy".

Oh and their selection of products is a joke too. I laugh every time I see their headphone selection.
Click to expand...

Ok Well I am just speaking from MY OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCES and Bestbuy exceeds whatever treatement i ever encountered at FS.
 
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