Select Apple Stores Piloting Extended AppleCare+ Eligibility Beyond Usual 60 Days

[jlocker]

I love Applecare+ when you spend $3200 for a 16in macbook pro, It is only a 10 percent cost coverage for that large amount of cash. With two indents of damage it is work every penny. Maybe Apple will extend the coverage to 5 years that would cover it for the live of the machine. But it is still worth it at three years.

 

[konqerror]

I'd be interested in reading more about that if you have some references you could provide.

https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2019/02/27/518793.htm

The Best’s Market Segment Report, titled, “U.S. Property/Casualty 2019 Review & Preview,” says the P/C industry’s combined ratio is estimated at 101.5 for 2018...
For 2019, A.M. Best projects the combined ratio to improve slightly to 101.2, based on the expectation of more normalized losses.

Means claims+costs are 101.5% of premiums.

https://www.iii.org/article/2018-commentary-on-year-end-financial-results

Fig 5 shows that the majority of the time, combined ratio is greater than 100. There's some profitable years, where disasters didn't happen, but 11 of 19 years, they lost money on underwriting. Fig 1, however shows a net profit over all of those years.

https://newsroom.statefarm.com/2018-state-farm-financial-results/

The State Farm property-casualty (P-C) group of companies reported a combined underwriting gain of $1.7 billion in 2018 on earned premium of $65.2 billion, compared to an underwriting loss of $6.5 billion on earned premium of $63.9 billion in 2017. The 2018 underwriting gain, combined with investment and other income of $4.7 billion, resulted in a P-C pre-tax operating gain of $6.3 billion

So they're saying the insurance part made $1.7 B in 2018, lost $6.5 B in 2017, but in both years (if you look back) they made $4.7 B in investment income, so the company has been profitable.

Even if that is true, I'd be quite surprised if the expected losses aren't lower than the premium itself (stripping out the administrative costs and profit). If so, then self-insuring still makes sense.

Many companies that self-insure still have to hire a claims administrator. For example, they need to deal with the government and others to prove that they're properly insured. Let's say you hit somebody's car, you're going to have to properly estimate the damages and deal with their insurance company/lawyers and probably talk their claims down, which are all necessary costs. There may be conflicts of interest too, particularly with health plans.

 

[JohnnieBBadde]

If Apple were really serious about their own statements regarding the (hardware) quality of their products they should make a 5-year warranty regarding manufacturing defects the standard. That would also lead to leaving a much less bad aftertaste when looking at their prices for BTO options like the absurd cost for more storage.

Finally, add an optional, purchasable product like AppleCare+ for accidental damages caused by the user.

(Just looking at my iPad Pro 10.5 2017 where 2 months after the purchased AppleCare+ coverage has ended the usual bright spot on the display appeared and currently gets larger and larger)

 

[newyorksole]

I love Applecare+ when you spend $3200 for a 16in macbook pro, It is only a 10 percent cost coverage for that large amount of cash. With two indents of damage it is work every penny. Maybe Apple will extend the coverage to 5 years that would cover it for the live of the machine. But it is still worth it at three years.

You can have AppleCare+ beyond 2 years for iPhone/iPad. This changed in September when the new iPhones came out. You just have to pay monthly once you get past the 2 years.

Unfortunately Macs are still 3 years maximum and can’t be paid monthly during that time or after. Hopefully that changes. Can’t go beyond 2 years for earphones/headphones.

 

[mike...]

You can pay monthly now, which extends until cancelled

Unfortunately this doesn't seem to be available worldwide

 

[iapplelove]

The only thing I ever bough Apple care for was my MBP

 

[billyb2]

Does anyone know how we can find out which stores are participating? I just called into Apple Care but they don't have access to that information since it's a retail location program. I also called my local store which didn't know about it.

How do we find out where we can go to get it???

 

[Expos of 1969]

Does anyone know how we can find out which stores are participating? I just called into Apple Care but they don't have access to that information since it's a retail location program. I also called my local store which didn't know about it.

How do we find out where we can go to get it???

Does it not concern you that Apple Care does not know and did not offer to help you find out? That is top notch customer service! I would be eager to give my money to this sort of operation

 

[billyb2]

Does it not concern you that Apple Care does not know and did not offer to help you find out? That is top notch customer service! I would be eager to give my money to this sort of operation

At the initial level they did not know and they did try to help me. When they worked their way up to the top level where they were aware of it, they did not have the information on which retail locations are participating. Since this is a new development, I am sure at some point the info will be shared. The person I spoke with went out of her way to help me.

 

[UglyCowboy]

Since applecare doesn't even kick in until after one year and this program requires the product to be checked for pre-existing damage I don't why this program isn't the default option. It costs Apple practically nothing. Perhaps 10 min of product evaluation time from a minimum wage retail store worker bee in exchange for the fat profit margin of applecare "insurance" premium. Win for Apple.

 

[IIGS User]

Extended warranties, like insurance, is always a net loss in the long term. Insurance makes financial sense when you insure against catastrophic loss that you're not likely to recoup over your lifetime. As long as you can afford to replace a damaged product, it generally makes sense to decline extended warranties / insurance.

And if you can't afford to replace the product, then in order to be really fiscally prudent, it's worth asking yourself whether you should be purchasing that product in the first place.

Tell that to a pre med student working two jobs to make tuition and save up for a laptop for school.

 

[brandon87]

with the way most phones are now traded in yearly via upgrade programs is it a benefit to have apple care since we have a 1 year warranty?

more of a newbie here regarding potential apple care purchase.

 

[mike...]

with the way most phones are now traded in yearly via upgrade programs is it a benefit to have apple care since we have a 1 year warranty?

more of a newbie here regarding potential apple care purchase.

AppleCare+ includes two claims of accidental damage and if you don't make a claim you can get a pro-rated refund, so yes it might be worth it.

Not everyone upgrades yearly either. I only upgrade every 4-5 years because smartphones are extremely environmentally damaging.

 

[brandon87]

AppleCare+ includes two claims of accidental damage and if you don't make a claim you can get a pro-rated refund, so yes it might be worth it.

Not everyone upgrades yearly either. I only upgrade every 4-5 years because smartphones are extremely environmentally damaging.

thanks for the info!! was not aware!

 

[konqerror]

with the way most phones are now traded in yearly via upgrade programs is it a benefit to have apple care since we have a 1 year warranty?

Also if you're doing it through the iPhone Upgrade Program, the AppleCare payments are split across the entire loan, so you naturally only pay for the period of time you have the phone.

 

[Hieveryone]

Really, you should be able to enroll up until your standard warranty runs out.

This makes sense.

You get up to a year to buy apple care.

That way, if you find trouble with your device in that first year, you can get the warranty and protect yourself in subsequent years.

I don't know within a couple of months if my product will need repairs or not but after a year I might be able to better predict.

 

[haydn!]

This would be good if it happens, but too little too late for me. When I purchased my MacBook last year, AppleCare plus wasn’t available, and the original AppleCare was available with the option to buy within the first 12 months. I opted to wait, but six or so months later when I went to buy it. It had switched to AppleCare plus and because it was more than 60 days since my original purchase date I wasn’t eligible.

Sucks that Apple moved the goal posts without notification. They have my email as I ordered through their store... would have really hurt them to notify people and give them say 30 days after AppleCare plus launched to add it. In the end, they’re the ones losing out now.

 

[Killbynumbers]

Such a waste of money. No wonder it drives apples services.

True. I've never needed Apple Care on any device I have ever bought since 2007. The oldest Macs I still have are a 2012 i7 Mac Mini and a 2012 non retina MBP. Both work flawlessly today. Never needed it on any iPhone since 2007 either.

I will never buy Apple Care.

 

[konqerror]

It had switched to AppleCare plus and because it was more than 60 days since my original purchase date I wasn’t eligible.
...
Sucks that Apple moved the goal posts without notification.

They didn't. All you had to do was call them on the phone and they would have sold you the original AppleCare within the one year warranty. I did that, and @Kelly the Dude reported the same earlier in the thread. IIRC, if you tried to buy it through the add AppleCare link in the warranty lookup page, it would have told you to phone them.

 

[blairh]

It should always had been this way.

 

[CarlJ]

I wish there was an option for 3 years of Applecare on iPhones-since most people now keep them for 3 years or more.

They have both the 2-year fixed AppleCare plan and a month-to-month plan now.

And, if I understand correctly, you can get the 2-year fixed plan at time of purchase (or shortly thereafter), and then, when when the expiration time arrives, sign up for the month-to-month plan. The 2-year upfront plan is a bit cheaper for those first two years than month-to-month, so there's a payoff for doing it this way rather than starting out with the month-to-month deal.

 

[Dominicanyor]

Nice. I was looking for this 9 months ago for my iPhone XS Max..

 

[alphaod]

I remember this one time I dropped my Surface and broke it; I went to Microsoft just see how much cheaper would to through replacement versus buying a new one.... and they offered to tell me their "Complete Protection" plan for I think $99 plus a deductible for replace it.

Ended up being a lot of less than buying a new one.

 

[msp3]

Apple should go full out and just allow all extended purchases through the Apple Support app. Easiest method by far

 

[haydn!]

They didn't. All you had to do was call them on the phone and they would have sold you the original AppleCare within the one year warranty. I did that, and @Kelly the Dude reported the same earlier in the thread. IIRC, if you tried to buy it through the add AppleCare link in the warranty lookup page, it would have told you to phone them.

What? That wasn‘t an option. I even complained to them over the phone and was told there was nothing could be done as my MacBook wasn’t eligible for AppleCare anymore.