AppleCare: Is It Worth It?

frawgz

Basically I'm asking this as a favor for a friend, who is considering making the switch with the purchase of an iBook. Seeing as how there are miscellaneous added expenses when switching sometimes (she will need a floppy drive to maintain backwards compatibility with her Windows using peers, she'll need to shoulder the extra price of Office v. X, etc.), AppleCare would just be another expensive thing to add to the list for a student strapped for cash. If too many things like this add up, the iBook may not be such a great choice after all.



She's just rebounding from a disastrous support experience with a brand new Dell laptop, so AppleCare may be good simply to hedge her bets, but personally I would not have considered buying such support for myself because of the price.



So, your opinions: what exactly does AppleCare offer? And is it worth the extra price?

mandricard

WITHOUT QUESTION.



I had a motherboard go on me, and within a day there was an apple tech at my house.



I recommend it without reservation. It is one of those things, when you never need it, you have paid money for peace of mind. And when you need it, you are most definitely glad you have it.



Mandricard

AppleOutsider

seb

FYI - your friend should take advantage of the Office Promo - if she buys a new Mac she'll get an instant $300 off.



You should take her to the Grove in LA if you haven't already. Let her visit the Genius Bar there so she'll know she won't have to worry about getting help.



And, to answer your question, yes I think she should spring the extra $250 for the AppleCare especially if she is going to have it for more than a year or if she thinks she'll want to use the 3 years of phone support.



So, $1299 for the 12.1" midrange iBook plus $200 for the Office, plus $250 for the AppleCare, plus $40 for the double your RAM deal and she has a great iBook with 3 years of coverage for $1789 plus tax. Not a bad deal.



Plus, be selfish for a second. Think how you'll feel 2 years from now if something goes wrong on it and you can tell her, "don't worry about it, just take it down to the Apple Store and they'll fix it for nothing." Much better than if something goes wrong with it and she says to you "this iBook you talked me into buying is broken and they want over $300 to get it fixed!"



[ 11-13-2002: Message edited by: seb ]</p>

torifile

I think it's worth it, but you can get it at any point during the first year, so no need to rush into it. But it's definitely worth it, esp. for a laptop.

leonis

It's like buying insurance.



You don't want it when nothing goes wrong. But when problems arise this is coming handy.



If Apple has 3 year warranty standard that would be great. But doesn't seem they will change their policy anytime soon

ast3r3x

The only way i'll buy apple care is if i buy a 'book. Any hardware problem in a machine will show up in less then a year, and any problem that shows up after would most likley be a manufacturing error that numerous people have so apple would replace it. But as for a laptop...if i dropped it or something, i dont feel confident I would be able to fix it...i've never had a problem on a tower that was not a software problem.

stunned

Its better to have applecare and not use it then want to use applecare but dun have it.

matsu

Plenty of other companies out there that offer 3 year warrantee standard (at least in the USA, not so much in Canada)

leonis

At least in Canada....



Sony and IBM too only have 1 year warranty on their computers



Same to HP (Some models)



[ 11-14-2002: Message edited by: Leonis ]</p>

smithjoel

Extended warantees are for suckers.



I think if you read the fine print any upgrade you do yourself will void it.