Applecare Question

[Twinson]

If I bought a Powerbook 4 months ago through Best Buy, will it still be covered through Applecare?

Now, Best Buy aside, is there any hope?

 

[rush24t3]

Not unless you purchased AppleCare with it to begin with.

All Macs have a standard one-year warranty, and any time during that period you can purchase AppleCare.

 

[mrweasel]

Best Buy sells Apple now?

yeah, what he said. You get one year of hardware support, but only 90 dyas of software support by default. If you buy apple care, you get 3 years of each.

My iMac's power supply just went up...would have cost me $235 to get it replace. Glad I gpt the $169 AppleCare

 

[vinividivici]

for the record, and because it hasn't been said clearly enough (IMHO) in this thread-

you can buy applecare anytime during the first year after the initial (retail) purchase of hardware.

 

[hiredgun2112]

so if you buy applecare just before the 1 year deadline is up, you get an extra 3 years....
1 + 3 = 4 years of hardware support?

 

[vinividivici]

so if you buy applecare just before the 1 year deadline is up, you get an extra 3 years....
1 + 3 = 4 years of hardware support?

i was trying to figure this out for my post. IIRC, you get 3 years total for display and computer applecare. so 2 additional years (plus some weirdness with phone support). for iPods you only get a second year with applecare, at least that's how it was with my 3G.

 

[Tomahawk]

You get one year of hardware support, but only 90 dyas of software support by default. If you buy apple care, you get 3 years of each.

AppleCare for a Apple Computer does not cover software repair.

If you were to take your mac in to have its display replaced, and the repair guy conveniently finds your hard drive is corrupt and runs DiskWarrior to "fix" that, he will try and charge you $90 an hour for software repair. I know, I've been through this.

 

[Absentee]

AppleCare for a Apple Computer does not cover software repair.

If you were to take your mac in to have its display replaced, and the repair guy conveniently finds your hard drive is corrupt and runs DiskWarrior to "fix" that, he will try and charge you $90 an hour for software repair. I know, I've been through this.

when he said software support, i believe he meant to say telephone support for that software...
cus thats what they do...

http://www.apple.com/support/products/proplan.html

 

[Tomahawk]

Yeah, but phone support covers both hardware and software.

The closest genius bar to me is over 300 miles away, so my experience with AppleCare is probably a little bit different than most people.

 

[bahula03]

If I bought a Powerbook 4 months ago through Best Buy, will it still be covered through Applecare?

Now, Best Buy aside, is there any hope?

Yes, it is still covered under the 1 year factory warranty.

Yes, you can still purchase applecare, up to 1 year from the date of purchase. If you want more info on applecare, I suggest you go here; http://www.apple.com/support/products/proplan.html or visit yor local apple store and ask a genius any specific questions you may have.

If you're having some sort of hardware problem or are planning to keep the computer a full 3+ years, I HIGHLY suggest getting applecare as powerbook repairs get expensive fast.

 

[Black Morty Rackham]

The price of AppleCare makes me glad I live in Sweden. Two years of warranty, as required by Teh Law.

 

[mrweasel]

AppleCare is no more expensive than the warranty Dell offers.

 

[PuNkErX]

I've used applecare at work and they ship the parts out next day air, granted it's probably not the same as normal consumers, but overall i've had nothing but good experiences with Apple regarding parts going bad,

Even my friend accidentally washed his iPod Nano, lol, he told Apple it stopped working and they sent one out to him, he shipped his back, and he got a new Nano

and Applecare is no more expensive than Dell's extended warranty, we have a few thousand Dell's at work, and I dread calling their tech support everytime a part goes bad, but they are good at getting parts shipped next day air, just have to get their accent down

 

[bahula03]

applecare for "normal" consumers also overnights parts/boxes

 

[Tomahawk]

I seriously advise anyone considering AppleCare to wait until their factory warranty is almost over before they spend, err waste, a lot of money.

You'll be able to make a smarter decision at that point, and waiting won't hurt because you're still covered.

The only thing you gain by purchasing it within that time frame is phone support. This forum is free.

Besides, every money saving book out there tells you that paying extra for an extended warranty, especially on computers since they quickly become out dated, amounts to a rip off.

 

[swatbat]

Besides, every money saving book out there tells you that paying extra for an extended warranty, especially on computers since they quickly become out dated, amounts to a rip off.

They do and I question them because of that. If you are planning on keeping a machine 3 years or so then a warranty is something to look into. Even with them being too high in price as it may seem(yes the stores have very high margin in them) in many cases if you have 1 hardware problem then they can pay for themselfs. Mind you the people in these forums can probabilty fix most issues themselfs but for others that is not always the case. Your mom/dad any relative that doesn't know much about computers goes into best buy or a compusa with a notebook that is not working right. 80 to 140 bucks right off the bat just to look at it. Bad hard drive? Thats another 100 to 130(they can go higher then that). Thats over 200 bucks easy for a simple hard drive problem. Some notebooks you can change the hard drive in under 5 minutes then it is just a software reload. Also in the case of some warranties(apple care doesn't cover this) the battery is covered for the 3 years. Batteries last about 2 years in many cases. Figure even though most will be a 3rd party replacement thats another 100 bucks or so. Add it up and a warranty starts to be something to at least consider for a lot of people.

 

[Black Morty Rackham]

Imagine the following scenario: your two years old iMac's display suddenly craps out. Sure, you're a hardware geek, but man is that thing hard to fix. You don't even know what's causing it, and a new compatible 20" TFT will cost you hundreds of dollars. Luckily, you have AppleCare, and you just call 'em, say the display died, and you get it fixed, for free.

The chances of this happening might not be all that large, but that's what insurances are all about: protecting you against unforseen and unlikely misfortunes. Car insurance also amounts to a rip-off, since the average customer would actually save money by not buying it at all (how else do you think insurance companies make money?).

 

[rush24t3]

I seriously advise anyone considering AppleCare to wait until their factory warranty is almost over before they spend, err waste, a lot of money.

You'll be able to make a smarter decision at that point, and waiting won't hurt because you're still covered.

The only thing you gain by purchasing it within that time frame is phone support. This forum is free.

Besides, every money saving book out there tells you that paying extra for an extended warranty, especially on computers since they quickly become out dated, amounts to a rip off.

ROFL...this is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever read here.

A Mac isn't some POS DVD player from Best Buy that Jake the disheveled cashier is going to upsell you an extended warranty on; a Mac isn't something you can just jet over to NewEgg and pick up a few cheap replacement parts for like some OEM or DIY box. What you GAIN is free replacement in a short amount of time, barring a catastrophic defect, in which you'll likely end up with a new Mac anyway. What you GAIN is peace of mind.

Another point is resale value...Macs have inherently higher resale value than any PC does, but if you have AppleCare on it when you decide sell it, your Mac will sell almost instantly.

Applying some "advice" you gleaned from some book to every piece of equipment is just foolish and is, in itself, bad advice for Mac owners.

 

[swatbat]

Applying some "advice" you gleaned from some book to every piece of equipment is just foolish and is, in itself, bad advice for Mac owners.

Pretty much all of the "experts" say don't buy extended warranties on electronics including computers(apple and pc). I stand behind my statment that you need to look at it better then that. Sure if your a guru fixing a standard box shouldn't be that big of an issue. Notebooks and all in ones(like the imac) are prime examples where an extended warranty is something worth looking into. Would I buy one on a mac mini? Probability not. Imac? I'd look into it and consider it. Macbook Pro/Power book? Yes I probabilty would buy applecare or something elce as the price of the parts on it would be high(hell even the keyboards if I remember vs like dell who's keyboards are under 30 bucks for a bunch of models).

 

[mrweasel]

Guru or not, replacing the power supply on my iMac is not something I can do by picking one up at CompUSA or Best Buy. It's gonna cost me $100 and I HAVE to get it from Apple.

Sure the HDD and memory I can get anywhere, but everything else is proprietary so if it breaks, I'm screwed.

I would NEVER buy a warranty on anything computer related, but I didn't hesitiate one second to get AppleCare. Not like I can use anything off the shelf to fix it.

 

[Tomahawk]

ROFL...this is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever read here.

A Mac isn't some POS DVD player from Best Buy that Jake the disheveled cashier is going to upsell you an extended warranty on; a Mac isn't something you can just jet over to NewEgg and pick up a few cheap replacement parts for like some OEM or DIY box. What you GAIN is free replacement in a short amount of time, barring a catastrophic defect, in which you'll likely end up with a new Mac anyway. What you GAIN is peace of mind.

Another point is resale value...Macs have inherently higher resale value than any PC does, but if you have AppleCare on it when you decide sell it, your Mac will sell almost instantly.

Applying some "advice" you gleaned from some book to every piece of equipment is just foolish and is, in itself, bad advice for Mac owners.

You've got at least a full year to make a decision on AppleCare. There is nothing foolish about using that time to think about it before you fork over an extra $150 - $350.

As far as resale value, lol. If you're buying AppleCare with the idea it's gonna add some value to your mac when you go to sell it, that kinda defeats the purpose of being protected for three full years doesn't it? Hell, why not save yourself some money and just sell it before the factory warranty is up. You're not going to get all your money back out of the deal anyways, and why the hell would I want to pay for someone else's piece of mind.

For example. New, the first generation G5 iMac cost a couple hundred dollars more than the current Intel iMac does. Add $170 for AppleCare, and someone has an almost $400 net lost and his one year factory warranty may not have even expired yet!

What's wrong with waiting a few months to find out if you really want to keep your mac beyond the factory warranty time period? That's all I'm saying.