Applecare - Is it worth it?

Just bought my Macbook a week ago and am wondering whether I should take out Applecare?

It seems really expensive to me at £200.

I would have thought that a higher end laptop would be able to last at least 3 years without any problems.

I work in IT so if the HD or RAM packed in I could replace that pretty easily myself.

But I would be very dissapointed if my Macbook couldn't make it through at least 3 years unscathed.

I bought it when I got my first iMac (but it was only £85) and needed to use the phone line a few times at first because I was completely new to computers, let alone Macs.
However, with the use of sites like this and general internet searching I could have found out all I needed to know to solve anything from those sources really.
As you work in IT you are well equipped to deal with any hardware issues, so if I were you, I would save some of the £200 and just get some accidental damage insurance.
In fact you could probably get breakdown and accidental damage insurance for far less.
To sum up, no, in my opinion it's way overpriced for what you get.
(remember, the phone line you call is premium rate too!)

Nope, not in my opinion. All electronics extended warranties are overpriced.
Every electronics reseller sells these high priced warranties today. For many, it is the highest profit margin item they sell.

I wouldn't get Applecare for a desk top, but I do have it on my MBP. With the speed of today's laptops and the heat they generate it's a good idea. I paid over 3 grand, another 350 seemed like a good idea. I would get it if you play a lot of games.

jram said:

I wouldn't get Applecare for a desk top, but I do have it on my MBP. With the speed of today's laptops and the heat they generate it's a good idea. I paid over 3 grand, another 350 seemed like a good idea. I would get it if you play a lot of games.

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£350 out of 3 grand is 10% of the price, so its not too bad.

I paid £689 for my macbook, so paying an extra £200 raises the price by a nearly 30%!

I don't intend to do much gaming on the macbook though.

If your not going to play intensive games on the MacBook, you will probably be fine. You have a year warranty. I know real life people that when they buy a computer be it a laptop or desk top push the heck out of it to see if there is a problem. I don't because I don't play games neither. The only reason I got Applecare was because I was afraid of heat, but this runs cooler than any laptop I've owned. It's been on since 5am, it's running at 93.2 F. Good luck with your MB.

YES 100% WORTH IT

but not if you buy it at Best Buy or from Apple. you can buy Apple Care on ebay for 1/2 off everyday from reputable sellers.

if your going to spend over $1,000 on a computer why not spend $125 more to have complete coverage for 3 years.

plus Apple customer care is great. i have had to deal with Apple Care several times with my many mac's and they have always been polite and fast to get my mac back to me. my last experience my black macbook had the chipping on the edges and Apple sent me a box, i put my macbook in a street side pick up box at 10am tuesday morning and Fed Ex delivered it back to me on thursday morning before i had left for work. they also replaced my keyboard and trackpad while they were at.

ive had nothing but good luck with Apple Care and for around $125 for an additional 2 years of coverage on a very expensive piece of electronics i will buy it every time.


for example here is your Apple Care for $125 total from a seller with 100% rating.

or

even cheaper here for only £71.80

Take all the money you would spend on extended warranties and go buy yourself something nice. While in time, it is somewhat likely you'll use one, it's a certainty you'll NEVER use them all, and study after study after study have shown that in the long run, you'll save money by NOT buying extended warranties. Businesses don't offer them to be nice guys. They do so because they are HIGHLY profitable.

In the case of Apple hardware, I'm on my second laptop, still have my first iPod (3rd gen), a desktop display, and second PowerMac/Mac Pro. And 2 iPhones in the household. If I had bought Applecare for all these, it would all have been wasted money thus far. I've not ONCE had to have anything serviced even under the standard warranty.

lifeisabeach said:

Take all the money you would spend on extended warranties and go buy yourself something nice.

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just curious did you pay the full $225 to $275 for your Macs Apple Care? i completely agree with you for those prices but if you were going to buy a $1,500 Macbook as i just recently did and you assumed you would be keeping for at least 3 years would you not spend $125 more to have no worries for 3 years about it breaking? especially if it is something that you are going to carry around from place to place picking it up and setting it down a million times and sometime maybe a little harder than you had planned.

also keep in mind that the Apple Care us a HUGE selling point if you decide to sell it before the 3 years. you can assure your buyer that it will work as promised and that if there is a problem they are covered y Apple still

fletch33 said:

just curious did you pay the full $225 to $275 for your Macs Apple Care? i completely agree with you for those prices but if you were going to buy a $1,500 Macbook as i just recently did and you assumed you would be keeping for at least 3 years would you not spend $125 more to have no worries for 3 years about it breaking? especially if it is something that you are going to carry around from place to place picking it up and setting it down a million times and sometime maybe a little harder than you had planned.

also keep in mind that the Apple Care us a HUGE selling point if you decide to sell it before the 3 years. you can assure your buyer that it will work as promised and that if there is a problem they are covered y Apple still

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I didn't pay ANYTHING for Applecare. I don't have it. What I have is $125 more than you have now (much more than that if you add up all the warranties you have bought and I haven't) and peace of mind knowing that I've bought hardware from a company known for their higher than average quality control, and knowing from retrospective look that I've never needed to use ANY extended warranty had I bought one. If by chance something does break, I can rest easy knowing that the money I saved by NOT buying extended warranties will far outweigh the repair cost I will incur.

lifeisabeach said:

I didn't pay ANYTHING for Applecare. I don't have it.

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sorry i misread your post i thought you had bought it in the past.

we will just have to agree to disagree

i usually do not keep my main laptop for more than 2 years at the most as i have an uncontrollable desire to have the latest editions even though i know i dont need them hahaha but i can say that when i sell them one of the first questions the buyer will generally ask is if it has Apple Care on it. i did not have Apple Care on my Mini or iMac as they are not being moved around and i can also open them up a lot easier and fix them myself.

fletch33 said:

even cheaper here for only £71.80

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how is this seller able to sell applecare for so much cheaper?

just had a look on the apple site and it costs £195 directly from them.

is this legit?

fletch33 said:

sorry i misread your post i thought you had bought it in the past.

we will just have to agree to disagree

i usually do not keep my main laptop for more than 2 years at the most as i have an uncontrollable desire to have the latest editions even though i know i dont need them hahaha but i can say that when i sell them one of the first questions the buyer will generally ask is if it has Apple Care on it. i did not have Apple Care on my Mini or iMac as they are not being moved around and i can also open them up a lot easier and fix them myself.

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I had absolutely no problem selling my unwarranted PowerMac G5 when I got my Mac Pro, and got more than I realistically expected. And no one asked me about AppleCare.

With warranties, it's really a gamble. You are gambling that you will need to use the warranty one day. I'm gambling that I won't. A good gambler though knows the stakes, the odds, and the rewards and acts accordingly.

bungy said:

how is this seller able to sell applecare for so much cheaper?

just had a look on the apple site and it costs £195 directly from them.

is this legit?

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it is legit. i am not sure how they get them or how they might buy them in bulk since when you look at the sellers info the person is usually selling a lot of them.

all you are buying is the Apple Care registration number and as long as it hasn't been used it is good.

we recently had a big electronics store in Cincinnati, OH going out of business and they had boxes of Apple Care selling for $75 a piece so maybe this is how these people get them.

lifeisabeach said:

I had absolutely no problem selling my unwarranted PowerMac G5 when I got my Mac Pro, and got more than I realistically expected. And no one asked me about AppleCare.

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i agree i have sold many without it with no problems however i know i have gotten $100 or so more for a couple that had it on there.

lifeisabeach said:

With warranties, it's really a gamble. You are gambling that you will need to use the warranty one day. I'm gambling that I won't. A good gambler though knows the stakes, the odds, and the rewards and acts accordingly.

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i go to Vegas a couple times a year for work and never hit the tables so i guess i have no gambling sense

bungy said:

how is this seller able to sell applecare for so much cheaper?

just had a look on the apple site and it costs £195 directly from them.

is this legit?

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I sold my AppleCare for a MB really cheap as I got it free from my Higher Education course. Ended up buying a MBP instead of the suggested MB but they still sent me the MB AppleCare so it went for a discounted price on here.

Personally for Desktops I'd say not really worth it. As they really are built to last for 3 years and even more. And for notebooks. I'd say not for the desktop replacements, only for the ones that will be traveling with you always. Because all that movement can jolt things around inside it.

The only exception to this is if you work on your Mac for a business or something. Then the time lost taking it to another repairer or paying the extra expense if something does happen past the 1 year, makes it worth it. Kind of like salary/wage insurance. 9 times out of 10 you'll never use it, but for those 1 times you'll be glad you had it. The average user can wait a few days/weeks for it to be fixed but the worker can not, as time lost is money lost.

the8thark said:

... 9 times out of 10 you'll never use it, but for those 1 times you'll be glad you had it. ...

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Until you stop and figure out how much money you paid out those 10 times in order to be re-paid one time.

When I got to purchasing age, there didn't exist all these extended warranties on everything under the sun. I did stop at one point when I was about 50 and sat down to figure out all the electronics, machinery, automobiles, etc. that I had bought and estimated I would be approx. $50,000 behind on what went out vs what was received.

Any of you that want warranties on everything you purchase, you'll do much better in the long run if you self warranty your purchases. Instead of paying someone else, stick that money in a savings account each purchase and just wait and see how much you'll have by the time you reach 50 or 60.

Since 1995 i have had 6 Macs the first 5 all lasted 3 years without drama. Last 2 were bought new and the MacBookPro no extended warranty lasted 18 months before having to have Logic board replaced - Fault escalated and Apple picked up the Tab. My Brother got a new iMac - no extended warranty lasted 14 months before new Logic Board - Apple picked up the Tab. My take - with increasing production numbers more units have issues so if you do not want to fight and scrap over repairs between 1 and 3 years buy the extended cover.

lifeisabeach said:

I had absolutely no problem selling my unwarranted PowerMac G5 when I got my Mac Pro, and got more than I realistically expected. And no one asked me about AppleCare.

With warranties, it's really a gamble. You are gambling that you will need to use the warranty one day. I'm gambling that I won't. A good gambler though knows the stakes, the odds, and the rewards and acts accordingly.

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Couldn't have put it better myself