My thoughts are warranties/insurance are the following:
* If having to repurchase/cover the item would seriously hurt my financials, then I buy it (car insurance, rental insurance, etc are good examples).
* For everything else, I skip it.
I figure that by self-insuring, I come out ahead in the end. Sure, there's always some gadgets that fail past the end date of the manufacturers warranty. However, replacing those items tends to cost less than buying warranties for everything. Besides, if they fail past the manufacturer's warranty, there's usually some improved version of it I've been eying anyways.
Warranties seem to have a lot of parallels with gambling. People love to tell the stories about how they bought a $2000 television and the warranty saved them when it broke 1 year later. However, they rarely mention all the warranties they purchased and never used.
That said, warranties are not always bad. In the specific case of students, I suspect the answer to "If having to repurchase/cover the item would seriously hurt my financials" is different for their situation than it is for mine. As such, it might make perfect sense for them to buy the warranty.
Agreed, students more frequently setup and move their devices compared to the average home user or business user. If you're moving between 4/5 classes per day and moving in crowded halls of people, then the warranty is probably more beneficial, especially considering that many likely can't afford the replacement cost mid-semester.
I generally avoid warranties completely. I seriously hate being asked for certain things, especially purchasing DS games (I've had cartridges survive washer/dryer cycles and being run over by a truck).
Maybe I'm cynical, but paying $80 for 3 years of coverage is a no-brainer for me.
I mean, heck, my battery died after 2 years of usage and they replaced it for free. As a result, I've already "made" $20 off of it, and that's without any major repairs (which I've definitely had them do under AppleCare before).
Of course, my machine and maybe my TV ($50 for 3 years) are the only warranties I've purchased. I think I agree with your philosophy, but I don't think that's ever stopped me from buying a warranty on nearly anything.
Also, the education pricing gives a big discount on AppleCare. I've been looking at MBP's, and it's ~$300 for AppleCare normally but ~$200 for it with education pricing, which makes it a much better bet.
I'm purchasing a 15" MBP (with education pricing) as soon as the back-to-school sale starts, and I'm pretty sure I'll get AppleCare.
The issue with 99% of warranties is you have to send the item in for fixing. That is often not the case for apple items in the AppleCare cycle, which makes it a LOT more valuable.
Gateway warranties on the other hand, took my last laptop for 4 months to fix it.
No. Assuming the seller isn't stupid, insurance has a negative expected value. You should still buy it if the loss you're protecting against would catastrophic, which is the case for health and homeowner's insurance, and is absolutely not the case for a Mac.
I've owned around 10 Macs in the last 15 years. Foregoing AppleCare has "saved" me over $2000, and the damage that would have been covered had I bought it is less than $500.
I mostly agree, but would say, "Assuming the seller isn't stupid or you have information they do not...", which is sometimes the case. E.g., you know you'll be subjecting the device to conditions that contribute to failure but don't void the warranty.
For example, I recently bought a comprehensive SquareTrade warranty for my Roomba because they priced it as a "vacuum cleaner", when in fact I know that the Roomba (a) an immature technology compared to most vacuums and (b) more likely to fall or be knocked down the stairs. I did the math and decided the odds of this thing dying or being killed in the first three years were greater than the warranty/purchase price ratio.
I'm not making this up. Intern of mine spilled 32oz of soda on his mbp. He dumped as much out of his keyboard as he could but it wouldn't come back on the next day. You're not hiding that from Apple. His machine was on year 3 and had a few screen issues too. He figured he'd send it in under applecare and see what they said.
They fixed it. Replaced the keyboard, replaced the screen, replaced the trackpad. No questions asked and he had it back in less than a week.
Someone spilled wine on my 4-month-old, AppleCare-covered MacBook while it was being used for a live show. It stayed alive to the end of the show, then immediately died. Apple charged me $800 to have it fixed. I had to have it repaired twice again after that (both of those were free, since the previous two repairs had been wrong.) During and after that, the battery failed and needed replacement four times. The last time, the Apple Genius told me that batteries are not covered after the first year, so I would have to pay for it myself. He looked at the repair history on the laptop and had sympathy, and replaced it for free.
To this day, the laptop does not work correctly, even though every individual component has been replaced at least once. Also, they made a typo when setting the serial number on the motherboard, which I had to tell Apple each time I had it serviced, since it didn't match the one on my AppleCare plan (replaced a B with an 8.)
Of course, the laptop had been working fine until a drunk hipster dumped box wine all over it. I wish the repairs had been perfect and free, but they weren't. I've gone through a lot of Apple products over the years, and this is the only one where I've had problems. All of the ones before and after have been fine, and this one had been fine until the wine.
Anyway, this is just an anecdote. Don't expect your own fuckups to be covered under AppleCare. It's an extended warranty, not insurance. If the parent is telling the truth, then he's an exception, not the rule.
I figured that my story was the exception. But I just went in to get a new ipad replaced due to a bad rotation switch and I watched as they replaced a macbook that had water on it (they tested it and said they could tell) and they also replaced a little girl's ipod that she dropped in the bathtub.
I think it largely depends on who handles the call. I agree that it's not an insurance policy. I was just sharing my experience. I know from past experience that with my bad luck, they would never replace my macbook if I dumped stuff all over it :)
Yes. I buy AppleCare on eBay (at the moment 130€ vs. 350€ from Apple for a MacBook Pro). It’s not a scam, it worked twice for me already.
I probably wouldn’t buy it for Apple’s price, but considering my screen was replaced twice, my mainboard once, my battery three times and my keyboard once it would have been worth it even for 350€.
(Would be nice if someone could explain how those eBay sellers can sell AppleCare so cheaply. Buying it in the US would bring down the price only to a bit more than 260€. Even if they manage to get a educational discount the price only goes down to 180€.)
Most people don't realize that you can buy AppleCare any time during the first year of ownership. I always wait until the 1-year standard warranty is about to expire before deciding. At that point you have a better idea if the machine is prone to having problems or not.
Also, you can gauge how your hardware is holding up against new technologies that have popped up since you bought it. Perhaps you want to ensure the machine lasts at least 2 more years... perhaps you have your eye on something a little shinier.
Absolutely, here's my story: Macbook always had some minor overheating issues, it would act erratically or shutdown, I think this only happened two or three times in three years. I took it in to the Apple Store once, they returned it two days later and said there were no issues. Flash forward to a week after the Apple Care Warranty expires, full on overheating issues, keyboard stopped working, Finder was running incredibly slow, to the point where all the animations where in slowmo. I bring the laptop in, even though the warranty was over a week expired and Apple was legally in the clear to charge me ~$800 for replacement, they replace the entire innards of the laptop and overnight it back to my apt the next day. I have never been more impressed with customer service like that before.
absolutely. And it has paid off royally. I've gotten my power plug thingy replaced twice and my hard drive replaced once and they also replaced the cracked keyboard surround thingy. Not a bad return for $250.
Personally, the peace of mind that things will be handled when something goes wrong is worth the extra $50 for two additional years. Thats just $2.50 a week, even if nothing were fixed.
When they fixed my hard drive, they installed the OS and I restored my data from time machine and I was back in business.
Figure out what your time is worth after taxes and then figure out how much time you would spend just trying to assess what the best course is to handle a problem. That cost is gone when you can just hand it to Apple and they return it to you whole.
No, I haven't because I don't like to pay a premium for something that should come with the product. In the EU, in my case the Netherlands, anyone who sells a product is responsible for its reliability during the time a customer can reasonably expect it to work. When it breaks after more than two years I will have replaced it anyway.
In my case they have covered the repair of an iMac that broke a few months after their 'warranty' of one year expired. One of my interns, however, was refused support in a similar situation with a faulty PowerBook screen. His uncle, a lawyer, wrote some angry letters to Apple on his behalf, but if I remember correctly they decided that it wasn't worth the costs of going to court.
Yes. Got fan replaced twice, battery once, keyboard components once because of weird sound. Also, I check it in every month for general cleaning and service.
Fan, keyboard and logic board failures are very common with Macs. Just google and see. I'd suggest you get AppleCare. But don't buy it at the time of purchase, you can wait 11 months and buy, sometimes you might end up changing the machine in less than a year, then AppleCare would be worthless.
Still doesn't necessarily make sense economically... most of those things are a cinch to replace yourself with a $10 electronics screwdriver set from Radioshack.
From iFixit.com, my model MBP:
Fan - $50
Battery - $100.
Keyboard - $85.
The logic board is probably a bit trickier, but I don't know how common those failures are (a Google search on any mass market device will show a lot of failures... .1% of a million is still 1000.)
For comparison, AppleCare on a MBP is currently $350, and covers an extra 2 years on the end of your complimentary 1 year.
EDIT: Looking at the absurd prices for replacement parts for a newer Unibody 17" (motherboard - $1000), I think it definitely makes sense there, unless you're the type to replace often.
Those replacements would be around $315 compared to $249 I paid for it. Also, more things can break. It also saved time.
If one has to do dollar-to-dollar comparison for $10/mo service, they aren't ready to buy a $1200 laptop.
Just because I can rip apart my laptop and can reapair it myself doesn't mean I shouldn't buy service which cover failure of it's components. That's like saying a doctor shouldn't buy medical insurance for his family.
Eh? $250 is a 20% premium on 1200. $10-15 per month is not insignificant for a service you are likely not to need.
Also, I was stating a case where 3 parts go bad on the laptop, which I think is pretty pessimistic - I've only had a fan go on my MBP, and that was under exceptional circumstances (my apartment was filled with very fine abrasive stone dust). It paid off for you, but as with all insurance plans, the odds were against it paying off for you, unless you are much riskier to insure than average.
Furthermore, I don't believe normal battery wear and tear is covered under applecare.
You're right. In my case, my battery was defective, it just blanked out one fine morning. :)
But I'd still press that some replacements for MacBooks are really out of proportion in terms of cost and one might regret not getting it. Namely - the logic board failures.
No. Laptops are replaced every 18-24 months. AppleCare and any other warranty for laptops is completely worthless. When I went to buy my current MacBook the salesman actually refused to sell me one after I told him I wasn't going to buy the warranty since I'd just be replacing it again next year.
We're an all Mac shop, and we buy roughly one machine every month of the year. We skip AppleCare.
However, several years ago, before Matasano, we bought Erin a G3 iBook which went on the fritz, and AppleCare got her machine not only replaced, but replaced with a G4. So, I've had good experiences with it.
Usually, I don't. But my brother a year ago purchased a MacBook Pro, and, thanks to a somewhat paranoid mother, was pushed to purchase AppleCare. A year later, we were typing away at some cafe, and his screen turned white and the machine let out a long constant beep. We tried restarting, clearing various types of RAMs, etc, nothing worked. We took it in to the Apple store and they told us something had randomly given out, and that it could've been some sort of manufacturer's defect. The repair costs would've have added up to something around $800, but because of AppleCare, there was no charge. It was definitely worth it in that case.
Edit: Reading arihant's comment, I now remember that it was his logic board that gave out.
I was going to guess it was the logic board. The 2007/2008 MBP's are notorious for that. Same thing happened to me and my friend, but we both had to pay $330 to get it fixed.
Yes, totally get the AppleCare -- I've had to replace a main board in a PowerBook one too many times, and the total cost (without Applecare) would have been more than just buying a new one.
You should also get yourself an AmEx card and buy the hardware on it -- it extends the manufacturer's warranty (whether you get the AppleCare or not) by 1 year, i.e. with AppleCare you get 4 yrs total, without it you get 2 yrs total. And it doesn't cost anything extra. (Here'a a post I wrote about it a while ago: http://ten7i.com/content/how-buy-mac-pro-right-way-and-save-...)
One more thing, don't buy the AppleCare from Apple: there is actually a company in CA that sells the real deal AppleCare for less than Apple does by miles. See here: http://www.lacomputercompany.com/cgi-bin/rpcart/featured.cgi... (they are an actual company that I've bought all my AppleCare from and it works)
You can also have the person in the Apple Store match the AppleCare price that they have if you're sceptical: I've done that without a problem as well.
I used to be one of those who didn't. Now it is my policy to get AppleCare and a case for everything I buy from Apple. Why? Because items from Apple protected with a case and still under warranty have much higher resale value.
Ditto on the case. I once tried to sell a Powerbook G4 that had a big dent on one of the corners, when the going rate on Craigslist was ~$500. I couldn't find a buyer for more than 300.
The MBP that replaced it has lived its entire life in a case.
Yes. My macbook is the single most important device that I need to do my job. It goes pretty much everywhere I go, and I will use it every day until its untimely demise / upgrade.
It's worth paying a little extra to help ensure my source of income doesn't go up in smoke (literally?).
I got AppleCare on my 1st-gen MacBook Pro for peace of mind. Although I haven't really needed it since I bought it, I don't regret buying it: I didn't have a lot of money at the time, and if something had happened to the MBP I couldn't have afforded to replace it.
If you're worried it'll die, and you won't be able to afford to replace it, scale back. you can add ram later, you can improve the hd later.
I think you'll get more peace of mind by doing some math. Computers are the tools i use for work, so i tend to buy new ones fairly frequently. The odds of me using any given computer for more that 2 years are pretty low. So, how much of a hardship would it be to replace that earlier?
If it's really a budget stretch, you might think about moving to the cheaper end of the spectrum. What if it gets stolen? applecare is no help.
Also, the first 30 days come with applecare. Usually if hardware is going to die, it'll die quick. Flexing the motherboard for years will kill a laptop eventually, but meh.
AppleCare is the only kind of extended warranty I have ever bought. I'm glad I did -- my Macbook Pro needed multiple repairs within the last few years, including logic board replacement. I'll buy AppleCare again for my upcoming MBP update.
have never bought any other warrantee either. but had a bad experience with my last pc laptop that could have been a black hole of wasted time and money if I'd decided to fix it.
Not to mention the lost time. If you enjoy tinkering, though, I guess you might just handle the problem yourself.
All my Mac laptops have been covered for 3 years under a different agreement so I've never purchased AppleCare for them. I won't have this option with my next machine so I will be purchasing AppleCare — why? My Apple laptop history is as follows:
* replacement logic board on a 15" PowerBook
* replacement top-housing and fan on a black MacBook
* replacement logic board on a 15" MacBook Pro
2 of the above cropped up after the initial warranty period and would no doubt have cost more than AppleCare. If it's a laptop and you intend to keep it well beyond a year, in my experience AppleCare is worth considering.
EDIT: Also had a power brick replaced on the 15" MacBook Pro due to a frayed cord outside warranty period.
I've gotten it for my last two laptops. It's a little spendy, but I find the peace of mind more than worth it, particularly after my partner's experience with her iBook some years back. That particular model had some notorious hardware problems, which in her case didn't pop up until her laptop was (just barely) out of warranty. She ended up needing to use her AppleCare several times before everything was finally resolved. If she hadn't had it, it would have ended up being quite expensive. Apple's QA has improved quite a bit since then, but still...
As a rule of thumb, you are better off buying your Mac with a credit card that extends warranty by a year such as American Express. I've had a smooth experience dealing an expired warranty repair with my macbook - all I had to do was get an estimate from Apple, then fax it to my cc company. I received the money in no time.
This should be good enough for 2 years (1 Apple + 1 cc company). That's all you need anyways.
As about other stuff like tv, get third party warranty.
I've had the Mac Genius replace my first generation Intel Macbook Pro battery for free, 3 years later without Applecare. However, I also have this video problem that could have been solved had I purchased Applecare: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1697470...
I did buy it for mine. I am curious about the plan though. Lately, the temperature of my mbp has been going higher than I'm used to and I'd like to get it cleaned. Does anyone know if apple care covers that? Normally I'd do it myself but since I have the first gen of the non-replaceable battery, I don't know if the the warrantee terms will allow it.
RevA Apple products are guaranteed to die right after year 1, in my (limited && anecdotal) experience. I had to take in my Rev A Macbook when they just switched to intel 5 times, got the bezel & mother board replaced. So, if you're getting an iPad now or new gen macbooks, then yes.
Repair rate is ~17% over three years. MacBookPro cost is $2000. Apple Care is $350. Simple math: statistically you're better off replacing entire laptop each time something goes wrong and selling the old one for parts.
The only exception is if you got cashflow problems, then yes you have to pay extra for being poor.
Yes. Bonus points for increasing its resale value when I buy a new laptop 18-24 months later.
If you still have your student ID, bring it along and get the educational discount on the Apple Care. 15" MBP Apple Care for $239 instead of $349 retail price.
I have not, but that's probably because I tend to buy mac's used since I'm near a university and the prices are just too enticing. Plus, I suspect like most other HN readers, I don't mind doing repairs myself if need be.
No, never have. I've been blessed to not have had any major weird issues with my machines, and by the time they start getting a little iffy, that's about the time I am looking to buy a new one anyway.
My rationale is that laptops are more fragile than desktops so the extra protection is worth the expense. Its been 2 years now and I haven't needed it yet though :/
Come on, if it was really as certain as all that, Apple would be making a loss on AppleCare. (I guess it's possible that they are running it at a loss, but it seems unlikely.)
My thoughts are warranties/insurance are the following:
* If having to repurchase/cover the item would seriously hurt my financials, then I buy it (car insurance, rental insurance, etc are good examples).
* For everything else, I skip it.
I figure that by self-insuring, I come out ahead in the end. Sure, there's always some gadgets that fail past the end date of the manufacturers warranty. However, replacing those items tends to cost less than buying warranties for everything. Besides, if they fail past the manufacturer's warranty, there's usually some improved version of it I've been eying anyways.