Applecare; to get or not to get.

Well, my iMac's warranty ends this 24th of November, and I'm wondering if I should purchase the Applecare. I'm really really on a tight budget, and I don't have much to spare, so I'm kinda thinking whether it'd be worth it getting Applecare especially since my iMac is running really fine, no problem at all whatsoever except for my Mighty Mouse which I'm gonna get it fixed. But as you know, like all tech stuff are, things tend to break down after the 1-year mark(esp in my case, I've got tons of experiences bout this), so if you were in my case, would you get the Applecare? Considering that its running fine, and its a desktop(less chances of breaking down).

What would happen to your tight budget if your iMac should need a new logic board or display after your one year warranty has expired? Enough said.

Regards.

chscag said:

What would happen to your tight budget if your iMac should need a new logic board or display after your one year warranty has expired? Enough said.

Regards.

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It depends on how worried you are that something like this will happen in the 2nd and 3rd years of your Mac's life (Which is all that it will cover).

Personally I think it's a rip-off and, if I had purchased it on all of my Apple purchases over the last 12 years or so (None of which have ever had a problem), I would have wasted enough money to have paid for a new iMac twice over.

It boils down to how much risk you are prepared to take (Consider the amount of faith you have/haven't in the product) against how much the (Fairly considerable) financial outlay will affect you.

How many reports of iMac failures do you hear reported? It's hardly xbox360 territory is it?

There is probably more of a case for applecare for laptops that are constantly on the road (Although personally I still take the risk) but as for desktops I just do not see it as value for money.

Only you can decide what is best for you in your particular circumstances.

PS
Like yourself, I currently have an iMac with only a few more weeks left on the warranty. There is no way on earth that I will be purchasing Applecare for it.

calenerd said:

Well, my iMac's warranty ends this 24th of November, and I'm wondering if I should purchase the Applecare. I'm really really on a tight budget, and I don't have much to spare, so I'm kinda thinking whether it'd be worth it getting Applecare especially since my iMac is running really fine, no problem at all whatsoever except for my Mighty Mouse which I'm gonna get it fixed. But as you know, like all tech stuff are, things tend to break down after the 1-year mark(esp in my case, I've got tons of experiences bout this), so if you were in my case, would you get the Applecare? Considering that its running fine, and its a desktop(less chances of breaking down).

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Have a look on fleabay, Applecare for my mac mini costs about half of what it would at the store - you may get lucky for an iMac.

S

If I were you, I'd get it.

Its more for piece of mind. As said before, what if in a year your logic board just fries? It'll be a good chunk of money to change that. AppleCare take care of it. Sure, it can be a rip off if you never use it, but I wouldn't take the chance.

My rule of thumb: anything over $500, but an extended warranty.

Oh and it will help a lot when you're ready to sell your iMac...

From a business prospective if a product is faulty it will fail in the first 12 months. Hence the reason why 1 year warranty is free and you have to pay for the Apple Care.

Unless you are buying a Macbook/Macbook Pro or another portable device. I wouldn't say you would need it.

Andy348 said:

If I were you, I'd get it.

Its more for piece of mind. As said before, what if in a year your logic board just fries? It'll be a good chunk of money to change that. AppleCare take care of it. Sure, it can be a rip off if you never use it, but I wouldn't take the chance.

My rule of thumb: anything over $500, but an extended warranty.

Oh and it will help a lot when you're ready to sell your iMac...

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Just out of interest, how many products have you purchased extended warranty for over the years and how many of these have you actually needed to claim on it?

shfle said:

Just out of interest, how many products have you purchased extended warranty for over the years and how many of these have you actually needed to claim on it?

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Thats a good point, and one I'll remember in future.

S

Save up the money and get it! You never know when something will fail or go bad. It's especially true with computers not so much with appliances.

When I bought my macbook a couple years ago I purchased applecare and wish that I hadn't because so far I have had one problem which happened in the first year.

Applecare is kind of like insurance.... if you need it it is helpful but if you dont it feels like a huge waste of money

bad.heron said:

From a business prospective if a product is faulty it will fail in the first 12 months. Hence the reason why 1 year warranty is free and you have to pay for the Apple Care.

Unless you are buying a Macbook/Macbook Pro or another portable device. I wouldn't say you would need it.

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Exactly, if a product has any kind of defect it is extremely likely that this will appear within the 12 months that you are covered for free.

Applecare, like any other extended warranty, is a clever marketing ploy to make customers worry that they need peace of mind, when in reality it just provides the company with a major increase in profit for very little effort. I wish I could persuade people to buy thin air from me, I would be a very rich man, but this is predominantly what is happening in most of these cases.

I picked up the following quote from another forum:-

The most famous insurance company on earth-Lloyd's of London-has made countless millions of dollars out of the tendency of everybody to worry about things that rarely happen. Lloyd's of London bets people that the disasters they are worrying about will never occur. However, they don't call it betting. They call it insurance. But it is really betting based on the law of averages...don't happen nearly so often as people imagine" ("How to Stop Worrying and Start Living" 67 & 68).


To put this into perspective here's a question for everybody, how many people who you have known personally throughout your life, have had a fried logic board, out of how many computer users you have known over the years?

I'll start, I know zero.

It depends on how much you need you computer. If your career needs your computer than I would say go for it. If its just personal use then maybe take the chance and save your self the money.

But for me I like to be able to say "I don't care if it stops working ill send it back to apple!" so I would buy it. When I have a warranty on something I seem to get better use out of it. But thats just me.

shfle said:

Just out of interest, how many products have you purchased extended warranty for over the years and how many of these have you actually needed to claim on it?

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I haven't owned a Mac before, my first one is on delivery, should be here tomorrow.

I guess it just comes down to how much you're worth and how much you're willing to gamble. Theres only 3 things that I have that are worth over $500, and thats a dirt jumping bike, a PC and now my Mac. I can't afford, two years down the line, to replace a logic board from my MacBook so I buy the $300 warranty now. Even if that logic board failure doesn't happen, it saves me in the long run..

Not to mention I plan on keeping this awhile, so although the first 3 years nothing may happen, I plan on buying it again, and after 6 years, I wouldn't be surprised if I changed the logic board.

Andy348 said:

Even if that logic board failure doesn't happen, it saves me in the long run..

Not to mention I plan on keeping this awhile, so although the first 3 years nothing may happen, I plan on buying it again, and after 6 years, I wouldn't be surprised if I changed the logic board.

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I am not sure I understand this part... first if nothing happens then spending money for something you never used does not save you money... peace of mind maybe though

And just to be clear you cannot continually keep purchasing apple care to extend your products warranty. you get 1 year free and can purchase an additional two years in the form of applecare. After that you are on your own

Just for a little perspective, consider the iBook G3 series.

The iBook G3s with 600MHz to 900MHz processors had an exceptionally high failure rate. In my experience, every one of them eventually failed and had to be repaired. [size=-3](I'm sure there are a few people out there with still-working, never-repaired iBook G3s, but I'm talking specifically about my experience here. And I heard about a lot of them.)[/size]

And almost all of those failures were after the 1-year standard warranty.

(Eventually, Apple announced a program to repair some of the faulty iBooks out of warranty, for free. But there are still a fair number of buyers that were left with a dead laptop, and many others who ended up buying a new one or paying for repairs before Apple came around.

You can never predict the future. For those people, at least, AppleCare was money well spent. So that's the history lesson. What does it mean for you? Consider:

1. Laptops have a higher failure rate than desktops, regardless of manufacturer.

2. Many credit cards (AmEx, gold/platinum cards, check with the issuer) will extend the warranty by another year. This can mean two years without AppleCare, or four years with it.

3. Major repairs can cost as much as $500-$600 (failed logic boards or displays) out of warranty. This is about twice what AppleCare costs.

shfle said:

Exactly, if a product has any kind of defect it is extremely likely that this will appear within the 12 months that you are covered for free.

Applecare, like any other extended warranty, is a clever marketing ploy to make customers worry that they need peace of mind, when in reality it just provides the company with a major increase in profit for very little effort. I wish I could persuade people to buy thin air from me, I would be a very rich man, but this is predominantly what is happening in most of these cases.

I picked up the following quote from another forum:-

The most famous insurance company on earth-Lloyd's of London-has made countless millions of dollars out of the tendency of everybody to worry about things that rarely happen. Lloyd's of London bets people that the disasters they are worrying about will never occur. However, they don't call it betting. They call it insurance. But it is really betting based on the law of averages...don't happen nearly so often as people imagine" ("How to Stop Worrying and Start Living" 67 & 68).


To put this into perspective here's a question for everybody, how many people who you have known personally throughout your life, have had a fried logic board, out of how many computer users you have known over the years?

I'll start, I know zero.

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Brilliant post.

Apple care is like Pet Rocks

wikipedia said:

Pet Rocks were a 1970s fad conceived in Los Gatos, California by advertising executive Gary Dahl. The first Pet Rocks were ordinary gray stones bought at a builder's supply store and marketed as if they were live pets. The fad lasted about six months, ending with the Christmas season in December 1975. During its short run, the Pet Rock made Dahl a millionaire.[1]

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Originally Posted by wikipedia
Pet Rocks were a 1970s fad conceived in Los Gatos, California by advertising executive Gary Dahl. The first Pet Rocks were ordinary gray stones bought at a builder's supply store and marketed as if they were live pets. The fad lasted about six months, ending with the Christmas season in December 1975. During its short run, the Pet Rock made Dahl a millionaire.[1]

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LOL

Can't help thinking he missed the boat a little here though. If he had thought of offering 'Rockcare' he could have become a multi-millionaire

shfle said:

'Rockcare'

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LMAO!

OT: I myslef didnt get apple care, mainly because in my country Macs are expensive as **** and so it is applecare. My current budget could't simply afford it.

Maybe in a year, but thats to be seen.

It's unlikely something would happen to your Mac, but it does, so I recommend getting AppleCare.

get it or youll be sorry.
i guarantee it.