I was just looking at my apple account and realized my iMac purchase was a year ago Mar 1 .
My question is their a grace period to buy applecare now that I'm over the 1 year period?
I would have bought it had they called to remind me!
I've heard of them being lenient within a couple of days...not sure about what your results will be like approx. 2 weeks late. Call them and ask as soon as possible! The longer you wait, the less likely they are to let you extend your Applecare.
Why Bother? If it has been okay for a year it should be okay for a while yet. I been buying & selling Macs for over 20 years and never had the need to pay for Applecare.
TTFN, TeeC
I paid for AppleCare once long ago and never again. And for some very good reasons.
1. Price. The price of computers has gone through the floor. A laptop that used to cost $3500 can now be had for around $1250. But has the price of AppleCare gone down to reflect this? Nope. In fact, it went up a few years ago for notebooks and because Apple decided to discontinue pricing it at-par for Canadians.
2. Cost outweighs benefits. AppleCare is roughly $300 plus taxes, that's about 25% the price of a MacBook. It's not hard to see that there's far better value in selling your Mac. The cost incurred from depreciation is mitigated by gaining a newer, faster machine and an all-new warrantee. If you were to buy AppleCare instead, the best benefit you can hope for is that your machine breaks and they fix it for free. Think about that....this is the best-case scenario as far as getting your money's worth from AppleCare. Ouch!
3. AppleCare is *not* a three-year warrantee. It's a two-year extension on the standard one-year coverage for parts and labour. Sure, you get phone support that extends beyond the standard 90 days. Big deal. I get better answers from ehMac than I ever did by placing a call for support. And if I need something fixed within warrantee, I just fill out a form online and Apple sends me a box. Done.
4. A matter of perspective on risk. In my estimation, the cost that AppleCare really covers is the labour involved in repairing a computer. It's sure not for the parts, since most of those just keep getting cheaper. And easier to replace. Example: unlike the old iBooks, with MBs fixing one of the most common issues--replacing a dead hard drive--is something that can be done by users themselves. Yes, I am sure there are those out there who will tell you stories about failed logic boards and screens outside of the one-year warrantee. And yes, those things are quite expensive to fix. But how many of these issues pop up before the end of a standard warrantee? In the case of logic boards, a lot. A whole lot. And in the case of the iBook, Apple ended up extending the warrantees on this part plus labour for all users...which rendered moot much of the need for extended warantees. My point here is that there is risk in every purchase. Odds are in your favour that a design problem is going to flare up early rather than sit quietly for years and years. There are exceptions, yes. But as a rule, this is true. Otherwise Apple would lose money on the deal. Which brings me to my last point...
5. Profit is their motive. Remember, Apple's not offering this extended care service just to be nice. They do so because they estimate it's a good gamble that they'll make money off of it. That's the nature of insurance.
How timely a discussion. What a fiasco! I too let my warranty lapse by about 18 days or so. I however, after ordering the wrong AppleCare package (MacBook vs MacBook Pro, I ran down to Sherway Gardens and purchased the proper AppleCare package. This morning I logged in to register and was surprised to see that the warranty on my MBP could not be extended and that I should contact Apple immediately. After a long protracted conversation with Apple, I was told that despite being a long-standing (1986 or 87) Mac fanatic, with a .Mac account and PROCARE...blah, blah, blah, there was no grace period and that extended Applecare was not an option for me. My jaw dropped, as this is a big swing in attitude for Apple. If this was a legal thing I'd likely win since I have been guilty of warranty procrastination in the past and Apple, being the good compan they are have always taken my money. Looking at the quality of my MBP versus my previous PowerBook, I can see their point. In terms of quality and ease of service, the PowerBook beats the pants of of my MBP. I did tell them that they could use my once a year tune-up to assess the condition of my computer, but they wouldn't hear of it. My other problem with this little tête-à-tête is that Apple, the online people told me I would receive my refund within 6 to 8 weeks. What!!! Kick me when I'm down Apple!! I explained to the nice lady that I had paid by debit at the store. She told me the money would be refunded directly into the account whence it came. Impossible, I countered. The only way to directly deposit the refund is to have my PIN, which everyone knows can't be given out! I called the Canadian operation and their solution is the one I'll employ. Go back to the Apple store!!!
Anyway, to say I'm disappointed in Apple would be an understatement. I guess for Apple to maintain the high quality of customer relations, they would have to continue to make superior (i.e., built to last, as I have never had an issue with their innovation) quality products, which sadly they no longer do.
While some of what you say is correct, there are exceptions. When there is a logic board failure out of warranty, the part itself is very expensive. Also, there are less expensive ways to buy AppleCare.
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Originally Posted by (( p g ))
2. Cost outweighs benefits. AppleCare is roughly $300 plus taxes, that's about 25% the price of a MacBook. It's not hard to see that there's far better value in selling your Mac. The cost incurred from depreciation is mitigated by gaining a newer, faster machine and an all-new warrantee. If you were to buy AppleCare instead, the best benefit you can hope for is that your machine breaks and they fix it for free. Think about that....this is the best-case scenario as far as getting your money's worth from AppleCare. Ouch!
A laptop that used to cost $3500 can now be had for around $1250. But has the price of AppleCare gone down to reflect this?
You're comparing apples to oranges, which disproves your own argument; i.e., comparing an iBook/MacBook to a PowerBook/MacBook Pro. Even today, there are still MacBook Pros (read: 17" MBP) that cost over $3000.00 CDN, and you're comparing it to a $1249 MacBook, which isn't even in the same playing field. On top of that, AppleCare for the MacBook costs less than AppleCare for the MacBook Pro.
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2. Cost outweighs benefits. AppleCare is roughly $300 plus taxes, that's about 25% the price of a MacBook. It's not hard to see that there's far better value in selling your Mac.
What is that even relevant to? People buy AppleCare to protect what they purchased from potential hardware repairs which almost always run more than the price of AppleCare, regardless the part. Purchasing AppleCare has nothing to do with selling your Mac.
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3. AppleCare is *not* a three-year warrantee. It's a two-year extension on the standard one-year coverage for parts and labour. Sure, you get phone support that extends beyond the standard 90 days. Big deal. I get better answers from ehMac than I ever did by placing a call for support. And if I need something fixed within warrantee, I just fill out a form online and Apple sends me a box. Done.
A) I guess you must have been told wrong, or read the description wrong. No one advertises AppleCare as a 3-year warranty. It's advertised as extending your factory warranty to a total of 3 years.
B) Not everyone is a part of a knowledgeable web-based forum full of free answers such as ehMac, especially those who have difficulty using their Mac, or Safari, let alone are capable of finding, surfing to, and asking ehMac members for help.
C) Please don't compare iPod repairs to Mac repairs. The days of DIY Mac repairs are long over and done with. If your iMac, MacBook, or Mac mini suffers from a hardware failure, Apple won't be sending you a box of any kind, and will instead redirect you to an Apple Authorized Service Provider for repair purposes.
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In my estimation, the cost that AppleCare really covers is the labour involved in repairing a computer. It's sure not for the parts, since most of those just keep getting cheaper. And easier to replace.
It's completely irrelevant what it costs to manufacture a part of any kind. The only fact that matters here is how much YOU have to pay for the part, and how it compares to the price of AppleCare for the unit in question. As I work within an AASP, the AppleCare price for a MacBook is $299; the cost for a replacement logic board -- excluding labor -- is just over $700; or otherwise 58% more expensive than APP, or just over twice as expensive. Factor in labor in at at one hour, at anywhere between $80-$120 an hour, and you do the math. Sure, it all comes down to probability. Will it or will it not break? Is that a risk all of us are willing to take? Sure, you are, but I'm certainly not.
Example: You spend $1249 on a MacBook. After 16 months into your purchase, the logic board fails. You're out of coverage. The part and labor is $800, + 14% PST/GST, for argument's sake, and you're at $912 for a repair MacBook -- or back up to 73% of the original purchase price with the unit under 2 years of age. Or, you could have gotten AppleCare, which is only 25% of the purchase price, protects you for another 2 years on top of the original year, and covers an unlimited number of repairs of any part. AppleCare is a MUCH better value in comparison to replacing the unit entirely because the repair cost exceeds 50% of its purchase value.
As well, don't argue that parts are "easier to replace." Your only example is the MacBook hard drive. Try changing any part of significant stature in any Mac and it goes from easy to non-for-the-timid real quickly.
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Yes, I am sure there are those out there who will tell you stories about failed logic boards and screens outside of the one-year warrantee. And yes, those things are quite expensive to fix. But how many of these issues pop up before the end of a standard warrantee?
More than you'd like to believe. I work in the business, and I give clients the bad news regarding their 2 or 3-year old PowerBook or iBook all the time, and then finish off my bad news with, "...it would have been a wise move to purchase AppleCare," as with a lot of these situations, it would have been covered had they purchased AppleCare for their unit.
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And in the case of the iBook, Apple ended up extending the warrantees on this part plus labour for all users...which rendered moot much of the need for extended warantees.
Except, it doesn't render the AppleCare warranty moot, as such REP's cover specific parts -- not every part. The iBook G3's had a logic board REP, which means logic boards only. If you're not under AppleCare and past the one-year period, and your optical drive, hard drive, LCD, Inverter Board, or other part goes south, the logic board REP does NOT apply to you, making you SOL pretty quickly.
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It is said that extended warranties like Applecare are useless and not worth the money, except when purchasing laptop computers...
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When you have to spend 20- 30% as insurance because you're pretty sure its going to have some failure in the next 2 years that's a pretty poor endorsement of apples products!
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