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Unasked Questions: applecare AND insurance

P

Prabz

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 25, 2003
73
0
Meri PHILLY meri jaan!
So to be on the safe side, I have decided to go with both the applecare and insurance for my Powerbook.

First the questionz on AppleCare:
1) Educational price on Applecare: I know its $239 at the online education store, but does anyone know if their university offers any additional discount. I'm going to call up the campus computer store at UPenn on monday, and ask them the same...
2)Apple claims that AppleCare extends the complimentary 90-day phone-support and 1 year repair warranty to upto 3 years. So, does that imply that it doesn't matter whether you buy it with your computer purchase, or wait till the complimentry year is almost over: you will have only TWO "paid-for" years, regardless?




Alright, now onto insurance:
1) Has anyone had any experience with safeware? Also, any other recommodations?
2) What on earth is: a) Personal effects coverage? b) Business personal property coverage?
(....I was asked this at the website when I selected the option that I may travel overseas with my laptop]
3) Lastly, is it worth spending $25 dollars and getting the LapCop software? Anyone recovered their stolen computer this way?


um... as you can see I'm definitely not taking any chances with my *precious*... :D
Heck, I might as well get a Kensington lock... buy a bullet-proof laptop case... hire one of the President's bodyguards... acquire an armored truck...

Prabz;)
 
i highly doubt that you will get any further discount than the edu. discounted price. good luck finding out but i wouldn't hold my breath. michigan doesn't offer anything cheaper than the edu. discount.

yes, you can wait until the day before your original purchase date a year later to enroll in the applecare.

dunno about insurance. ask the ones offering the insurance directly. it's a lot more important for you to understand what you are purchasing than some non-lawyer interpretations of terms you are likely to get from a forum like MR.

i've heard of lapcop but don't know much about it. it will probably help recover your laptop if the thief is a novice. otherwise, if the thief would just reset the whole HD, it won't help you much.

by the way, i'd check to see if your insurance will cover for manufacturing defects. sure, it would be nice to be able to call apple, i guess, but i don't see much point in double covering it...
 
I can answer your AppleCare questions. It's not likely that a campus store will have any further discounts, unless they have their own warranty, in which case, it's not AppleCare. Furthermore, buying AppleCare give you a a full 3 years from the date of purchase of the computer. If you buy a computer today, then it doesn't matter if you buy the AppleCare now or in 364 days, it'll go 3 years from today.
 
Originally posted by jxyama
see if your insurance will cover for manufacturing defects.
Click to expand...
Hai Rabba! Now THAT would be, like <chokes with emotion> perfect!
Does anyone have an insurance that also covers manufacturing defects?

I came across safeware on doing a search here... seemz to be the only site recommended so far. It sucks that they do not cover manufacturing defects.... ::sigh::






Originally posted by LimeLite
I can answer your AppleCare questions. It's not likely that a campus store will have any further discounts, unless they have their own warranty, in which case, it's not AppleCare. Furthermore, buying AppleCare give you a a full 3 years from the date of purchase of the computer. If you buy a computer today, then it doesn't matter if you buy the AppleCare now or in 364 days, it'll go 3 years from today.
Click to expand...
Ahh... Thats what I thought.
Obviously, its a common misconception to think that, "Hey, I'm getting AppleCare free for a year anyway! So might as well apply for the *3-year* deal later on and in effect, have coverage for 4 years:D "

So AppleCare is basically only for 2 additional years [plus 9 months extra for the phone-support:rolleyes:]



In that case, I might as well apply for APP now.
Now what to do about accidental damage *peace~of~mind*....?
 
Originally posted by Prabz
plus 9 months extra for the phone-support
In that case, I might as well apply for APP now.
Now what to do about accidental damage *peace~of~mind*....?
Click to expand...
Actually, the phone support is for three years too. Buy it now if you can.
 
Originally posted by kanker
Actually, the phone support is for three years too. Buy it now if you can.
Click to expand...
Correct, the phone support is also extended for the full three years.

AppleCare is a good deal. For the iMacs it's extremely inexpensive. For the iBooks and PowerBooks, the cost would more than likely pay for itself with only one significant problem. There are things on the computers that would require about $850 in parts and labor.
 
Sorry, my bad.... obviously, I wasn't clear. What I meant was this:

Repair Warranty: 1 year (free) + 2 years = 3 years with APP
Phone Support : 3 months (free) + 2 years and 9 months = 3 years with APP






Of course, the 3 complete years of Phone support only holds true if I got AppleCare before the complimentary 90 days (3 months) ran out. If I bought it later, say on the last day before my 1 year Repair Warranty expired, then that would mean loosing out on the 9 months. So basically, its just 2 "paid-for" years of both with APP, with a bonus 9 months of phone-support thrown in, if APP was bought within the first three months of the computer purchase. And that's EXACTLY what I intend to do.


Thanks for the input so far, folkz! Appreciate it.
Still in a flux trying to decide whether or not to take on an insurance policy as well. Any suggestions for that?:(
 
if you travel a lot (or plan to take it traveling), or live in a high-crime area, definitely get insurance. Otherwise, if it's just for school for example, don't bother unless you can find a really great deal.

EDIT: oh, and definitely get AppleCare. You'll probably never need it, but every time I haven't gotten AppleCare, I've regretted it in a big way.
 
I actually have both AppleCare and insurance through Safeware. Yes, I am that protective about my PowerBook (867 MHz, last generation Titanium). I am paying $126/year for $2,100 in coverage for Safeware.

AppleCare has covered my ass a few times, so I highly recommend it.

Safeware covers almost everything that AppleCare doesn't cover, there's practically no overlap between the two. AppleCare covers defects that manifests itself later; Safeware covers accidential damage (including stupidity), natural disasters, and theft.

Unfortunately I had to use my insurance because I accidentially knocked over a mug of tea onto my PowerBook, and afterwards it would not start up. That was incredibly stupid of me. I knew that AppleCare wouldn't cover this, but Safeware did. I called them up and they shipped me a box so I can send off my PowerBook off for repairs.

Anyway, that was about a month ago, and I'm awaiting for the replacement to come in; they said that the damage was too extensive to be worth repairing. It's been taking much longer than I would have liked, and there was a some miscommuniction between the Safeware and the company they use for computer servicing. Really annoying, but they said that it should be here in a few days, so I can give an update on that one it arrives.

I'm on a tight college budget, but my PowerBook was one of the best investments I ever made (I'm a switcher, this was my first Mac), and I figured that both the AppleCare and Safeware insurance would be worth it, since a few hundred bucks is nothing compared to paying $2,000 for a new machine.

Anyway, good thing I also have a Firewire drive so I have copies of all my important files :)
 
I finally got my PowerBook back, courtesy of Safeware. It's been about a month, and they had some internal confusion and miscommunication between Safeware and their computer service company on who was doing what, which probably bought on that month long delay.

I'm still happy though. They said that it would cost too much to replace the damage (from spilled tea) so they replaced it with the exact same model and configuration as I had before, except that the combo drive seems a little quieter when burning. It's a Titanium 867 MHz, they don't replace with the newest models unless I did have the newest model.

So besides taking so frickin' long and giving me the runaround, I'm happy with Safeware and I recommend them.
 
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