Apple Care?

schweb said:

I'll give you that's probably true in most cases, but how many people do you honestly think would stick that money aside and not touch it.

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Heh… well when you save enough, you go and blow it on an upgrade.

lifeisabeach said:

I would hardly call it "extra goodwill". They don't provide extended warranties out of the goodness of their hearts.

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You misinterpreted what I said (or I didn't explain it well). What I meant was that Applecare buyers are treated better in marginal situations than people who didn't purchase Applecare.

Apple has a great reputation -- best in the industry -- for customer care of all types, but staff will more easily go "above and beyond" for Applecare/long-time customers. That's what I was trying to say.

They make more money coming in than they pay out in the long run.

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It's less profitable for Apple than you probably think, in part because they tend to be pretty generous with customers (broadly speaking), knowing that the word-of-mouth is worth a lot to them. But yes, its profitable.

The simple reality is that if you buy extended warranties on everything you buy, you are throwing money away.

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I broadly agree with this, apart from for laptop computers and iPhones. There I have to disagree.

You can self insure yourself by taking that money, throw it in a savings account, earn interest, and pay for repairs from that, and still be way ahead.

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$300 in a savings account, even at high interest, is never going to cover a $1200 motherboard repair. Not to mention that nobody on earth actually saves like that.

A car, on the other hand, I always get it.

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Thanks for reinforcing my point.

chas_m said:

You misinterpreted what I said (or I didn't explain it well). What I meant was that Applecare buyers are treated better in marginal situations than people who didn't purchase Applecare.

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Actually I have read differently. Depends on the situation, but some people with a major problem out of warranty were able to get Apple to cover it.

It's less profitable for Apple than you probably think, in part because they tend to be pretty generous with customers (broadly speaking), knowing that the word-of-mouth is worth a lot to them. But yes, its profitable.

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Bear in mind, I am talking about warranties in general, not Apple in particular. At least you can agree it's profitable even for them.

$300 in a savings account, even at high interest, is never going to cover a $1200 motherboard repair. Not to mention that nobody on earth actually saves like that.

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Of course no one saves like that. But you aren't looking at the big picture. Let's take my Apple purchases. Let's even say at $200 a pop for: Powerbook, PowerMac, monitor, Mac Pro, MacBook Pro. That's a thousand dollars' worth of "peace of mind" and nothing else, because I've never, not once, had a need to have any of these serviced. And let's go beyond that (because I am talking everything in general that one buys). Add up the dollars for TV sets, washer/dryer, telephones, and on and on and on, and it amounts to thousands of dollars for "peace of mind". The only 2 items I would have ever had a need to take advantage of an extended warranty for in well over 20 years was my Ford Ranger and a home telephone. That's it. When you look at the "big picture", extended warranties are a colossal waste of money.

Thanks for reinforcing my point.

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I didn't. At least I don't think I did. I basically said you have to pick and choose your battles. With cars in particular, too many exceptionally expensive things can go wrong, and for something I need on a daily basis to... well... get to work to make money to pay that repair bill (not to mention the payments on this car that's sitting dead in the water)… extended downtime while saving up to fix it can break you. At least with cars, the cost of that extended warranty, as a percentage of what you pay for the car, is far less than most any other product's extended warranty is. I will say that I'd be more inclined to do it for a computer if my livelihood utterly depended on it.

I didn't. At least I don't think I did. I basically said you have to pick and choose your battles. With cars in particular, too many exceptionally expensive things can go wrong, and for something I need on a daily basis to... well... get to work to make money to pay that repair bill (not to mention the payments on this car that's sitting dead in the water)… extended downtime while saving up to fix it can break you. At least with cars, the cost of that extended warranty, as a percentage of what you pay for the car, is far less than most any other product's extended warranty is. I will say that I'd be more inclined to do it for a computer if my livelihood utterly depended on it.

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I agree completely. The transmission I had repaired for my daughter is just one example. Nowadays, if a computer module fails in an auto and it just so happens it controls fuel flow, emissions, etc; and you don't have coverage, plan on paying out $2000 or more to replace it (including labor).

Regards.