Quick question... AppleCare.

Organichu

So I'm buying a Macbook. I'm also grabbing a free printer and iPod. Cool.

But.

AppleCare. It is apparently a really, really good and comprehensive warranty. It is expensive, though. Apple's 'normal' warranty is only 90 days, right? That seems terrible. I've had the good fortune not to have ever had any of my expensive products shit on me in the past- I have a 360 that's never RROD'd me, none of my older consoles have ever done so, my Lenovo notebook and 3 Dell desktops have never really hiccuped.

But this is a serious investment, as even with Education discount I'm looking at over $1,300. Is the extended APP worth it? What does APP cover? Would I regret not getting it? I'm sure the reasonable advice is "just don't make this purchase until you're financially comfortable with buying the APP"... but I'm not sure I'll ever be cool spending $183 on something that I might not need. But I could need it.

Or wait, maybe Apple isn't as pushy as other companies. Can I add APP to my Macbook afterwards, independent of the purchase? If so, during what time line?

Someone convince me not to be a cheapskate.

Rookie

I can't really give much advice about Applecare because I didn't pick it up when I bought my Macbook last Christmas. I've been using my Macbook as my main computer since then, and there isn't a single thing wrong with it. Well, nothing that isn't wrong with other Macbooks too. I have that screen-flicker problem on mine, but last I heard about that not only was it not covered by Applecare, but Apple wasn't even recognizing it as an issue.

Don't quote me on this, but I'm fairly sure you have a certain timeline after the purchase of the computer in which you can buy Applecare, and I think it's one year. Someone will know for sure though.

edit: Also allow me to say that I've been backpacking through Australia for the last 5 months with this computer in my bag. It's got some scratches on the gloss of the case which I don't really care about, and it's a little dirty on either side of the trackpad where my hands sit, but not nearly enough to bother me or even to be strikingly visible. It's not that yellowing problem they had, but it's just dirt. I assume if I had washed my hands before every use, it wouldn't be dirty.

DVG

It's always been 1 year, as far as I knew. If it's 90 days now, that's a new (crappy) thing.

projectmayhem

Buy it.


Every apple product I've ever bought ended up having a major defect of some kind in under a year. On top of that, every Macbook (apple laptop in general) I have seen so far has had battery problems.

Evil_Reaver

Apple's limited warranty is 1 year. You get complimentary phone support for 90 days.

I'd hold off on buying AppleCare for now. You can buy it whenever you want during the first year of ownership, so you can literally walk in to the store on the last day of your warranty and buy it and still get 2 more years of coverage.

TwistedJester

Evil_Reaver wrote: »

Apple's limited warranty is 1 year. You get complimentary phone support for 90 days.

I'd hold off on buying AppleCare for now. You can buy it whenever you want during the first year of ownership, so you can literally walk in to the store on the last day of your warranty and buy it and still get 2 more years of coverage.

I'm pretty sure that it only adds another year at the very end of your limited warranty, regardless of when you buy it, so long as it's within the limited warranty period. Also, I think you can only buy a year of applecare per product. At least that's how it was with my iPod.

Evil_Reaver

TwistedJester wrote: »

Evil_Reaver wrote: »

Apple's limited warranty is 1 year. You get complimentary phone support for 90 days.

I'd hold off on buying AppleCare for now. You can buy it whenever you want during the first year of ownership, so you can literally walk in to the store on the last day of your warranty and buy it and still get 2 more years of coverage.

I'm pretty sure that it only adds another year at the very end of your limited warranty, regardless of when you buy it, so long as it's within the limited warranty period. Also, I think you can only buy a year of applecare per product. At least that's how it was with my iPod.

AppleCare extends the limited 1 year warranty to a limited 3 year warranty for computers.

The smart thing to do would be to wait until the first year is almost over to buy it because you're already covered for that first year. All AppleCare does is extend your warranty by 2 years.

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

lordswing

I only want to add one more thing, as most people have already mentioned what I was going to say (wait on the warranty, they'll give you a call roughly 2 weeks before you're out of coverage), is to be careful with how hard you close your laptop. I guess this seems to be a pretty common issue, as 2 other people have had this same issue as me. Don't slam your MacBook when you close it, and don't stack anything heavy on top, as the edges near the palm area might result in some cracking. Your warranty covers this kind of damage, I brought my MacBook in and they fixed that in ~15 minutes. I eventually purchased the Marware Protection Pack, and I"m hoping it'll stop this from occurring.

http://www.marware.com/PRODUCTS/Apple-Laptop-Products/Protection-Pack-for-MacBook

Evil_Reaver

lordswing wrote: »

Be careful with how hard you close your laptop. I guess this seems to be a pretty common issue, as 2 other people have had this same issue as me. Don't slam your MacBook when you close it, and don't stack anything heavy on top, as the edges near the palm area might result in some cracking. Your warranty covers this kind of damage, I brought my MacBook in and they fixed that in ~15 minutes.

Quoted for Truth.

I'm taking my Macbook to the Apple store today to have this problem fixed.