UK: Apple / John Lewis / Amazon extended warranty

[DragonJade]

Does anyone have experience with AppleCare+ versus John Lewis' Protect+ or Amazon UK's Product Protection?

My friend is looking to get a 15" MacBook Air with some kind of extended warranty for her son.

Thanks.

 

[orbital~debris]

I have no recent experience with John Lewis or Amazon's extended warranties, but AppleCare+ is an excellent product and extremely easy to set up, and make use of.

It also helps that it's the product offered by the manufacturer, and is well integrated with Apple's products (e.g. in the OS, in Apple Support app, on the web) as a result.

 

[orbital~debris]

Oh and just to add, the 15-inch MacBook Air 💻 is a fantastic product, well worth the money. Definitely recommend exploring the Apple Education Store, or Apple's EPP Store – if these are applicable – for a discount.

 

[cjsuk]

Do not got anywhere near John Lewis extended warranty. They will ship it to some random third party repairer and it'll disappear for months on end. Absolute horrible company. I will never deal with them again. Dismissive, rude, entirely incompetent and paste over that with a layer of marketing. Also they won't price match half the places like everyone thinks they will. It's a meme company at this point in time.

Go to Apple Store directly, buy it with AppleCare and see if you can get an educational discount somewhere through StudentBeans or Unidays in the UK. You might get free stuff with it as well. Usually presenting some college or university ID will get you the discount in store as well.

 

[DragonJade]

Thanks for the feedback. It sounds as if John Lewis isn't what it used to be.

Unfortunately, the student discount at Apple isn't great, and you can get cheaper if you buy from Amazon. It now looks like the best option is a refurb from Apple directly with AppleCare on top. The excess of £229 for a large repair compared to £75 from Amazon makes you stop and think, though.

 

[orbital~debris]

One thing to explore with Amazon, if you choose that route, is the instalment payment option. It's the option on the product page (before checkout), called Amazon Monthly Payments (but not the similar one financed by Barclays). It usually divides the total cost into 3 or 5 monthly payments that are charged to your payment card in the same way as a regular purchase, no interest or credit checks etc.

Personally, I'd probably still opt for Apple direct as it makes everything easier if there is a problem of any kind.

Oh and an alternative to the education discount at Apple is their upcoming Apple Store Shopping Event, which gives Apple gift vouchers that can be useful to pick up Mac accessories or other technology.

 

[DragonJade]

One thing to explore with Amazon, if you choose that route, is the instalment payment option. It's the option on the product page (before checkout), called Amazon Monthly Payments (but not the similar one financed by Barclays). It usually divides the total cost into 3 or 5 monthly payments that are charged to your payment card in the same way as a regular purchase, no interest or credit checks etc.

Personally, I'd probably still opt for Apple direct as it makes everything easier if there is a problem of any kind.

Oh and an alternative to the education discount at Apple is their upcoming Apple Store Shopping Event, which gives Apple gift vouchers that can be useful to pick up Mac accessories or other technology.

Thanks for the heads up. This is all useful information for me to pass on. I appreciate you taking the time.

 

[orbital~debris]

Thanks for the heads up. This is all useful information for me to pass on. I appreciate you taking the time.

You're most welcome ☺️ Hope your friend's purchase goes well.

 

[Ifti]

My first choice - Apple direct. I always get Applecare+ with my phones or macs. For piece of mind more than anything else. They have always been good with service etc. on occasion you do need to push and prove your point, but on the whole they are good. Once had a MacBook that needed a logic board replacement 2 weeks before the 3 year Applecare was due to expire! I can tell you, was glad I had Applecare for that!
Anything MacBook/Mac or especially high value, I always purchase from Apple direct.

Second choice - John Lewis. I see someone above has had a bad previous experience - not the case with me. I tend to buy smaller items, like Airpods etc from John Lewis, as they come with a free extended guarantee. I have twice had to send airpods back and both times they were just replaced - no issues at all.

I avoid Amazon at all costs with anything Apple.
I once purchased Apple Airpods from Amazon - these came from Amazon direct, not a third party seller. I specifically made sure they were Amazon supplied.
Used them as normal. After around 18 months I upgraded my iPhone and my Airpods would no longer connect to my new phone.
Went into Apple, who took a close look and couldn't work it out. They sad the airpods had been replaced an unusually high number of times. I said I had them since new and never replaced them before?! They said the left airpod was last replaced by 'Susan' a month ago. I said no, I don't know any Susan and I've had these Airpods for 18 months - even had the original Amazon invoice to show them!

Turned out the Airpods were fake!!! The guy at Apple was even shocked at how good of a clone they were. It seems the serial number had been cloned across a large number of units, hence the reason for the unusually high return rate on this serial. Basically I had a genuine serial on fake Airpods!
I complained to Amazon, who said they would take the Airpods back and have them repaired!!!
I said no, I paid for new Apple Airpods, not fakes.
In the end they refunded them, and I repurchased from John Lewis, and they've been perfect.

Granted, a MacBook is unlikely to be a clone - but considering Amazon themselves were unknowingly supplying people with illegal clone products was enough to put me off. Hence I would never buy anything of great value from Amazon again, especially anything Apple.

 

[DragonJade]

My first choice - Apple direct. I always get Applecare+ with my phones or macs. For piece of mind more than anything else. They have always been good with service etc. on occasion you do need to push and prove your point, but on the whole they are good. Once had a MacBook that needed a logic board replacement 2 weeks before the 3 year Applecare was due to expire! I can tell you, was glad I had Applecare for that!
Anything MacBook/Mac or especially high value, I always purchase from Apple direct.

Second choice - John Lewis. I see someone above has had a bad previous experience - not the case with me. I tend to buy smaller items, like Airpods etc from John Lewis, as they come with a free extended guarantee. I have twice had to send airpods back and both times they were just replaced - no issues at all.

I avoid Amazon at all costs with anything Apple.
I once purchased Apple Airpods from Amazon - these came from Amazon direct, not a third party seller. I specifically made sure they were Amazon supplied.
Used them as normal. After around 18 months I upgraded my iPhone and my Airpods would no longer connect to my new phone.
Went into Apple, who took a close look and couldn't work it out. They sad the airpods had been replaced an unusually high number of times. I said I had them since new and never replaced them before?! They said the left airpod was last replaced by 'Susan' a month ago. I said no, I don't know any Susan and I've had these Airpods for 18 months - even had the original Amazon invoice to show them!

Turned out the Airpods were fake!!! The guy at Apple was even shocked at how good of a clone they were. It seems the serial number had been cloned across a large number of units, hence the reason for the unusually high return rate on this serial. Basically I had a genuine serial on fake Airpods!
I complained to Amazon, who said they would take the Airpods back and have them repaired!!!
I said no, I paid for new Apple Airpods, not fakes.
In the end they refunded them, and I repurchased from John Lewis, and they've been perfect.

Granted, a MacBook is unlikely to be a clone - but considering Amazon themselves were unknowingly supplying people with illegal clone products was enough to put me off. Hence I would never buy anything of great value from Amazon again, especially anything Apple.

Holy crap. That's mad. I heard years ago that fakes get mixed in with genuine stock somewhere high up the supply chain, sometime by the logistics people or the distributors. Retailers think they're getting the real thing because they're dealing with an authorised distributor, not realising that someone has mixed in some fake stuff.

Glad to hear you finally got it sorted out.

 

[Peter Franks]

Do not got anywhere near John Lewis extended warranty. They will ship it to some random third party repairer and it'll disappear for months on end. Absolute horrible company. I will never deal with them again. Dismissive, rude, entirely incompetent and paste over that with a layer of marketing. Also they won't price match half the places like everyone thinks they will. It's a meme company at this point in time.

Go to Apple Store directly, buy it with AppleCare and see if you can get an educational discount somewhere through StudentBeans or Unidays in the UK. You might get free stuff with it as well. Usually presenting some college or university ID will get you the discount in store as well.

100% agree. Used to get every electrical appliance from JL. They 'were' the place to go. Definitely not anymore though.
Bought several televisions from them and MBP, but wouldn't buy anything there anymore. They used to swap over faulty products with no hassle. My Samsung telly developed a white line running down the middle of the screen within a couple of months and expected a swap over for a £500 TV, but they refused and said it has to go away for a repair. They aren't the same anymore. Avoid