Should I get AC on my rMB? almost at one year

[thadoggfather]

bought with amex, so I'm covered for a second year but should I get AC to have the third/help with resell if I decide to sell?

I dunno..

Found it as cheap as $170 on eBay,

 

[rigormortis]

i bought apple care from eBay once, and apple made me jump through a hurdle before they would activate it

based on 3 years of ownership , you would have 1095 days
maybe at 1050 days your going to need a new battery anyway, so apple care would pay for the battery?

thats my favorite argument for apple care, after 2 to 3 years, you might need a new battery, heh

do you own any apple wireless routers??? your apple care would cover those

 

[lyngo]

i bought apple care from eBay once, and apple made me jump through a hurdle before they would activate it

do you own any apple wireless routers??? your apple care would cover those

Only if you buy the router with the computer.

 

[troy14]

bought with amex, so I'm covered for a second year but should I get AC to have the third/help with resell if I decide to sell?

I dunno..

Found it as cheap as $170 on eBay,

With nothing being able to be serviced on the Macbook, I would without hesitation. It's insurance really, if you need it and you have it.. you'll be thanking yourself. If you need it and you don't, you'll be cursing yourself. I usually just factor in Applecare to my purchase price and if I'm okay with it, then I buy the machine. Some items have paid themselves 5 times over such as a Mac Mini that replaced its logic board 2x.. and I had an iMac that didn't need any service...

That being said, I reiterate my main point. Since you can repair nothing on the machine, if anything were to happen... you'd be out.

 

[Queen6]

bought with amex, so I'm covered for a second year but should I get AC to have the third/help with resell if I decide to sell?

I dunno..

Found it as cheap as $170 on eBay,

Like all extended warranty deals, the one who benefits the most is Apple, far better to shop around for coverage that includes accidental damage & theft, than line Apple coffers. Personally I have never purchased Apple Care, nor had need of it. given you are already coved by Amex for 24 months, I wouldn't even consider Apple Care.

If I was to calculate the cost of AC on all the Mac`s I have purchased over the years I would likely be very unhappy about all the free money I had given to to Apple. Only way I would consider AC is if you were refunded the full AC cost at the end of the 3 years if no claim is registered, equally that`s never going to happen as AC is mechanism to generate revenue for Apple, hence it`s limitations.

Q-6

 

[deeddawg]

Yep, it's insurance. All insurance is priced to benefit the provider not the consumer.

I've generally eschewed Applecare and have yet to regret that decision across multiple ipads, iphones, and macs. On the other hand I bought tire/wheel coverage for my car and it's more than paid for itself in the first three years of the five year term.

I see that out of warranty battery replacement is $200 for the rMB. Since I have a 2015 and it's the first year for the model design, as I approach the 1 year term I may pick up Applecare, though I'll go with B&H or similar rather than eBay so as to avoid any question with Apple. Or I may not. All depends on what think I'll be doing with it at the time in terms of keeping it through the AC term or not.

 

[SSD-GUY]

Yep, it's insurance. All insurance is priced to benefit the provider not the consumer.

I've generally eschewed Applecare and have yet to regret that decision across multiple ipads, iphones, and macs. On the other hand I bought tire/wheel coverage for my car and it's more than paid for itself in the first three years of the five year term.

I see that out of warranty battery replacement is $200 for the rMB. Since I have a 2015 and it's the first year for the model design, as I approach the 1 year term I may pick up Applecare, though I'll go with B&H or similar rather than eBay so as to avoid any question with Apple. Or I may not. All depends on what think I'll be doing with it at the time in terms of keeping it through the AC term or not.

That's nothing. Microsoft charge £400 to replace a battery for their Surface line.

I would shop around for Applecare, it can be found for cheap on websites such as Amazon etc, for around £120.

 

[zhenya]

I don't buy warranties for anything in life, except for laptops. They tend to be extremely expensive to repair out of pocket, and decades of ownership has proven this to be mostly a good value. Sometimes the value also lies in the quality and speed of service you receive with the warranty, which is often better and faster than without. I don't buy warranties for my iPhones or iPads, because Apple has a fixed replacement cost for those devices which is only marginally higher than the cost of AppleCare and the co-pay required for replacement. That's not the case with the laptops (other than for battery replacement). They don't have a fixed price that covers any repair. A failed logic board, a not-uncommon occurrence on a Mac laptop (it's happened once on my MacBook already) can easily run to $600-800.

 

[thadoggfather]

I hear what you guys are saying, but again, I have a second year of coverage with my credit card company that will just retract the charge I incur at the genius bar,

same service, just different way of it being "free" or included

is $170 or so really worth the third year of coverage?

 

[zhenya]

Well, this thread made me realize that my Surface Pro 3, which recently suffered a battery failure that cost over $450 to get a replacement unit because I was 2 months out of warranty, was originally bought on my AMEX, so I've just filed a claim with them. We'll see what happens...

I still think the time element comes in to play here. I would have had a lot less issue getting a replacement device had I just bought the warranty in the first place.

 

[objektør]

I never considered Apple Care but my battery health is now down at 83% (247 cycles), almost one year old. I won't get it below 80% the first year but I wonder how long it will last if it continues like this. It's stable for a few months and than decreases rapidly with 5-7% before it stabilizes again for a few months at that level.
I am in Norway. Apple Care costs me $280. A new battery at an Apple Service Center (there is no Apple Store in Norway) costs me $570!!!
On the other hand it seems that the battery guarantee here in Norway is three years (up to 1000 cycles, 80% or below). If this is true I don't need Apple Care.
But this sounds too good to be true, so it probably ain't true. Anyone who knows more about this norwegian treat?

 

[rigormortis]

Only if you buy the router with the computer.

nooooooo

that is not true

for computers and iPads and the apple watch ( i recently learned from macrumors that this does not include iPhones )
covers all apple airport extremes and time capsules form 2 years before the computer was purchased and up to 3 years of apple care coverage. the airport extreme , airport express or time capsule is covered as long as the computer or ipad or watch connects to it.


http://appsliced.co/ask/does-applecare-cover-the-airport-extreme-base-station-and-time-capsule

accessories like monitors, keyboards, and mice are the ones that have to purchased at the same time as computers


3.2 Covered Equipment

In addition to the Apple-branded product and accessories contained in the original packaging, “Covered Equipment” includes the following according to your Plan:

(a) one compatible Apple branded display if purchased at the same time as the Covered Equipment, (b) an Apple-branded mouse, Magic Trackpad, Apple Battery Charger and keyboard if included with the Covered Equipment (or purchased with a Mac mini), or (c) an AirPort Extreme Card, an AirPort Express or AirPort Extreme Base Station, Time Capsule, an Apple-branded DVI to ADC display adapter, Apple RAM modules and Apple USB SuperDrive if used with the Covered Equipment and originally purchased by you no earlier than two years before the Covered Equipment purchase.

 

[maflynn]

Its a gen 1 product, with some early reports of the keyboard having some issues. I'd opt for AC just to play it safe.

 

[SteveJUAE]

As we know this is insurance coverage, personally I never buy AC although would be tempted on the rMB mainly for the potential issues with the KB,

I suspect there someone out there that's good with statistics/probabilities but I would say if you keep your laptop for 36 months (Sell at 33 months) then AC is a reasonably cost at ~50c/mth.

Less than 36 months and risk favours the policy greater than 36 months and probability of repair is very high outside AC

 

[BeyondtheTech]

I bought my 2015 rMB off of eBay and it's still under warranty until next month. Considering what others have written - there are no serviceable parts, the battery alone will cost around the price of AppleCare (I'm at 90% with 77 cycles), and more importantly, the fact that the rMB still only has one USB-C port that is used multiple times a day - and if that goes from being broken, loose, or worn down, then everything goes with it - expandability, connectivity, backup, syncing, power, charging, etc., I think I will opt for AppleCare before its initial warranty expiration date.

 

[jbachandouris]

I don't know if you should or shouldn't. I chose to buy AppleCare on the last eligible day for my rMBP. I'd rather be safe than sorry.

 

[SteveJUAE]

Only if you keep it 2 years and 9 months. If you get through the 1st year, 2nd should be low risk but may help resale valuse, 3rd year if covered, 4th year etc not covered and highest risk so little point

 

[Trey M]

I chose Squaretrade warranty. I have owned AppleCare in the past and have been satisfied, though I've only made one repair claim. The thing that appealed to me most about AppleCare is just taking it into my local Apple Store to get repaired same day.

The SquareTrade warranty actually allows for Apple repairs from a Genius Bar, however. They'll reimburse you the full cost of the repair. It also covers accidental damage unlike AppleCare, and it refundable based on the prorated portion you didn't use.

Note of warning: buy these warranties from SquareTrade.com and no where else. The SquareTrade warranties floating around Amazon are known to have issues come making a claim time. SquareTrade seems to honor their warranties purchased thru their own website more than those purchased elsewhere