Applecare advice please

[abooth2909]

I have had my imac for just under 12 months now and so have to make the decision of whether to take out the extended 2 further years of applecare.

The cost of this is about £130 which is approx 10% of the initial purchase price of the imac.

I appreciate this is an expensive item and some cover may be a good idea but have never had any similar cover with previous PC's that I owned for years.

I am looking for advice really regarding reliability of imacs from anyone who has experience of them longer term and whether I'm likely to need the cover provided by applecare.

All help appreciated.

Andy

[krushy]

My 18 month old MacBook air recently started to slow down ( to the point of being unusable). I have AppleCare and took it to the apple store, they ran diagnostics on it and it passed all, however the suspected the hard drive may have an intermittent mechanical fault. They are changing it for a new one (and transferring all the data etc). No additional cost other than the original outlay! So in my case it has pretty much paid for itself in this one incident. Any other problems in the next 18 months and I'm in credit :-)

I must admit it seems an easy to use, no hassle warranty!

In my case it has been worth it!!

[thattallchap]

Applecare is a great thing, and you shouldn't just look at it as a warranty because it will actually ad value to your Mac should you decide to upgrade.

Apple's service under Applecare is incredibly good, I've had many an iPhone, Macbook replaced FOC because of it. I even got a major upgrade when Apple replaced my Macbook Pro!

Win Win.

[100thmonkey]

No brainer really it's like boiler cover. For the price of the insurance for the peAce of mind I always have it. Yes they are very very reliable but it's electronic and no matter how well made it is electronics fail,

[abooth2909]

Thanks for the replies so far guys.

If its anything like other electrical items in our house, exactly one day after the warranty expires, it will self destruct!

Looks like I shall be buying the applecare this evening...

Cheers

Andy

[Carlton-Browne]

I think it helps if you don't compare it with the warranty on anything you already have. I had an appointment with the Mac business team in Covent Garden a few weeks ago and took along our team Mac guru, who brought along his Macbook Pro as the Applecare was about to run out. After our meeting he took his Mac to the service counter (he had pre-booked an appointment), explained that his Applecare was about to run out and then reeled off a list of niggles he had with the device. In the end he got a new motherboard (I think Mac call them logic boards??), trackpad and optical drive. To a certain extent some of this was discretionary (and I'm sure Apple have a crib list of "warranty get out of jail cards" that they use) but I was impressed and the point is that he is about to go out of warranty with a largely new machine - not to be sniffed at. Try doing that with your Dixons extended warranty.

I still think Apple is more of a cult than a technology company though :D.

[callen9797]

I would go for the applecare every time, it is the best warranty I have experienced and will add value to your Mac should you choose to upgrade.

I had a new iPhone 3GS due to a crack on the back last month, no questions asked.

[Thewatchbloke]

It sounds like it probably makes sense to extend the cover. However the thing that gets me is that with a high end product like an imac I would seriously be expecting it to last a good few years without a problem. The price charged is more than many multiples the sum of it's parts so I would have expected at least a 36 month applecare deal included in the purchase price from the getgo. Apple make very well engineered and designed products which are famously user friendly, it's just a shame that they seek to wrest money from their customer bases pockets at every opportunity.

[callen9797]

It sounds like it probably makes sense to extend the cover. However the thing that gets me is that with a high end product like an imac I would seriously be expecting it to last a good few years without a problem. The price charged is more than many multiples the sum of it's parts so I would have expected at least a 36 month applecare deal included in the purchase price from the getgo. Apple make very well engineered and designed products which are famously user friendly, it's just a shame that they seek to wrest money from their customer bases pockets at every opportunity.

I agree, especially for the high end stuff!!

[astonandy]

Had it and used it on both my MacBooks and have it on my IMac and MacBook Air. Always great service from my local repairer on warranty repairs so highly recommended to get it.

[bricktop]

I can only speak for the iPhones I owned, but the AppleCare package pays off. You get first class support and practically without any questions asked. In my case I had a small crack on the back of my 3GS and they exchanged it for a new one without any hassle. Got the new one two days after I called them and then had 14 days time to arrange a collection with UPS to let them collect my defective phone.

[Seamaster73]

I always take it on any new Apple purchase. Apple are just great if you have a problem. Worth every penny. And that's from someone who otherwise doesn't believe in extended warranties.

[monogroover]

I have had my imac for just under 12 months now and so have to make the decision of whether to take out the extended 2 further years of applecare.

The cost of this is about £130 which is approx 10% of the initial purchase price of the imac.

I appreciate this is an expensive item and some cover may be a good idea but have never had any similar cover with previous PC's that I owned for years.

I am looking for advice really regarding reliability of imacs from anyone who has experience of them longer term and whether I'm likely to need the cover provided by applecare.

My experience of iMacs is this: I inherited a population of about 30 of them as the system manager of a research lab in 2007, and three years later, 20 or so of them had become unusable due to hardware failures that weren't economical to repair.

I was delighted to see the back of every single one of them, because I was able to replace them with better computers running a substantially more capable operating system at less than half the cost of an iMac - these weren't made by Apple, of course.

But I wouldn't have been so happy if I'd paid for them myself.

[Mr Yeth]

Well worth the money. Trying searching ebay for the applecare and save yourself a few extra ££ as well. Win Win.

[Mutling]

In my experience I'd say AppleCare is well worth it.

Only had to use it a couple of times but have had exceptional service.

[jukeboxs]

I have an iPhone 3GS, the 1-year anniversary is up on 21st April. I only saw this thread today. I take it I'm too late to purchase Apple care? From looking at the Apple website, it looks like they send you the care out by post, and you then e-mail them a photo of your purchase receipt. If so, I'm too late. But, if it can be done online, then I still have time.

Much obliged!

[stoneyloon]

I'm sure you can do it online. Just go to the support tab on the Apple UK website and follow the logical links.

[bricktop]

I have an iPhone 3GS, the 1-year anniversary is up on 21st April. I only saw this thread today. I take it I'm too late to purchase Apple care? From looking at the Apple website, it looks like they send you the care out by post, and you then e-mail them a photo of your purchase receipt. If so, I'm too late. But, if it can be done online, then I still have time.

Much obliged!

You can purchase it online, shouldn't be a problem at all.

[jukeboxs]

Thanks guys! That's good to know. Do you reckon it's worth it for one year of cover? I suppose it could be worth it if my phone had a little 'accident' just before the year was up ! :twisted:

[lewisanderson]

Do it! A few years ago a MacBook Pro I had went to sleep. It was one year and one week old. After begging with the shop I bought it from to let me buy Applecare out of warranty, they shipped the notebook to Apple who diagnosed a faulty logic board and hard drive and fixed both for free. When it came back the shop showed me the invoice for repairs. The Applecare cost me £150 and the repairs would have cost me £475. I always buy Applecare now.