Buying Applecare off ebay...

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Ive seen an applecare gaurantee on ebay for my 17"MacBook for £189 and was wondering if anyone else on here had purchased one from ebay? ive contactied a person who has bought one from them and they said it was fine, registered ok with no problems, it came in a a sealed box just like from apple themselves. Its a big saving over the apple prices so im very tempted so i got the 3 year cover on my macbook. Let me know your thoughts
 
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chas_m

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I prefer to buy mine from resellers on Amazon (.co.uk in your case). I find great deals and feel a lot safer about the process than I do with Fleabay.
 
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Oops.. Accidentally double posted.
 
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I've purchased several Applecares off ebay and never had a problem. I intend to buy another for my iPad at some point in the future. I haven't heard a horror story from anyone who had a problem either. Occasionally someone posts that they heard from somebody who heard from somebody who heard from somebody that they had a problem, but I've haven't seen anyone post a thread on MF entitled, "I Bought Applecare on eBay and Got Screwed!"

Some folks think it's a great deal. Others are very adamant that its a terrible idea. You'll find the folks on MF are about a 50/50 split one way or the other.

Just make sure you get exact part number of Applecare that you need. They are not interchangeable. I think it's a good idea to go on the Apple site and add the correct Applecare to your shopping cart. View your cart, and you'll be able to get the part number for the Applecare you need. Then search for that part number on eBay.

And once it's registered, you can go on the Apple site at any time in the future and verify that your coverage is still intact.
 

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I would agree with Chas_m on Amazon purchase of Applecare.
I have bought it at significant discount on several of my devices and it comes in shrinkwrapped original box.
Same may be true of eBay purchase as well (depending on seller). But with eBay, that is the problem--depends on seller. With Amazon you know who you are dealing with and what your recourse is if there are problems.

I don't work for or own Amazon stock BTW, they just get a lot of my money. :)
 
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Check the auction to make sure you're getting a boxed copy, not a code.

If you get a code by email you're buying a cracked code. It will probably work with Apple, and if it doesn't, the seller will just send you another cracked code until it does work (it doesn't cost them anything.) The people that do this have great feedback, since they can just send new codes whenever someone has a problem.
 
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I've considered buying Apple care off Ebay until I read a story by someone who did just that, everything seemed above board, the seller had excellent ratings, they bought it, got the code, registered it, everything seemed fine. Six months later they had a problem with their Mac book Pro which was outside its regular one year warranty, called Apple only to find that the Apple care they had bought on Ebay was in fact already registered to someone else and thus they had been ripped off and had no warranty for their Mac book Pro. Personally if this is true, I don't know how they would have been able to register it with Apple if it had already been registered by someone else, but in any case if you spend close to $2000.00 on a Mac product, a few hundred isn't that much to spend on an extended warranty, so do yourself a favor buy it from a reputable seller such as Amazon or from an Apple store directly.
 
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I've considered buying Apple care off Ebay until I read a story by someone who did just that, everything seemed above board, the seller had excellent ratings, they bought it, got the code, registered it, everything seemed fine. Six months later they had a problem with their Mac book Pro which was outside its regular one year warranty, called Apple only to find that the Apple care they had bought on Ebay was in fact already registered to someone else and thus they had been ripped off and had no warranty for their Mac book Pro.
That's the issue with cracked codes: someone else may have the same cracked code.

With a boxed copy, you also get a serial number which Apple can verify against the registration code.
 
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I've just had the exact same dillema, Applecare on ebay was £96, on apple site was £139, in the end for the sake of only £43 difference i decided not to risk it and get direct from the apple store.
 

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You might want to read this article from "Life Hacker" regarding purchasing Apple care from eBay or Amazon. LINK

Folks who recommend buying from Amazon may not be aware that it is NOT Amazon who sells the Apple care but individual sellers who do business with Amazon. Whether you buy Apple care from Amazon or eBay, it's still up to you to verify if it's good.
 
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Folks who recommend buying from Amazon may not be aware that it is NOT Amazon who sells the Apple care but individual sellers who do business with Amazon.

Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. Look for the "Ships from and sold by..." line, and the "More buying choices" box

That goes for everything on Amazon, not just AppleCare.
 

RavingMac

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You might want to read this article from "Life Hacker" regarding purchasing Apple care from eBay or Amazon. LINK

Folks who recommend buying from Amazon may not be aware that it is NOT Amazon who sells the Apple care but individual sellers who do business with Amazon. Whether you buy Apple care from Amazon or eBay, it's still up to you to verify if it's good.
You are absolutely right.
I generally give precedence when I buy from Amazon that it is actually sold and shipped by Amazon, but even on third party deals where Amazon is simply the intermediary you get substantial protection. I have never had any problem on anything I bought direct from Amazon on returns and the only occasions I had with third party sellers I emailed Amazon of the situation and my attempts to resolve directly with the seller and Amazon immediately intervened and I got my refund.
In the situation I am citing, the seller had restrictions on their refund policy (their internal store policy) that was not in keeping with Amazon policy.

Bottomline: I still prefer to buy direct from Amazon but have no apprehension about third party sales either.

EDIT:
I was curious and went back to check. My last Applecare purchase was for two iPad packages. I saved about 13% on the list price, plus tax, plus free shipping (Amazon Prime shipping). But the seller was Trimex Digital Systems, LLC , so it was a third party sale in this case.
 
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Point is that you would expect better protection for the seller when buying through Amazon even if it from a third party through Amazon versus buying from someone off Ebay. My point was though that the problem for the person in my example didn't come to light until months later when they tried to use the Apple care they had purchased, by that time it was too late to get their money back from PayPal and they were SOL.
 
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And have a read of this Caveat Emptor - AppleCare via eBay
.
I looked into buying not long ago and it seemes  recently changed the rules about buying 3rd party. This is why now they need address and so much more info. There are a lot of these stories. Not saying its bad, but make sure you get sent the box. Imperative now.

And this is another reason why the price is higher. I could have bought considerably cheaper before they changed the rule.
 

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