Applecare - worth it?

[ccomms]

People often whinge online about this - not my experience.

15m old MacBook pro had a video failure - NVIDIA Card - OK we all know this was a poor batch.
Applecare very courteously apologised for this after confirming it in store.
Asked if I could manage with my other MacBook pro and offered to remove disk so I could buy an external case if data very crucial or sensitive.
A 14-21 day repair time given.

Rang 2 days later to say "We've found a replacement part it's on its way by Courier"
Rang next day - "Part here - being fitted".
Rang 3 hours later - all OK with video but we checked your system and the drive is giving an early indicator of failure
There's only one replacement drive in the stores so we've reserved it for you.

CONVERSATION AS FOLLOWS:
MacBookStore: Are you fully backed up?
ME: "OOps! not the last 3 days as I was travelling when video failed and couldn't connect to timemachine"
MacBookStore: "No problem - I'll copy the data across from old computer to new drive. There's normally a £35 charge but we'll waive it as two parts shouldn't fail in 15 months. Its not the quality we expect. We're also going to do an intensive check on each part of the system. Can you wait until tomorrow to pick it up so we can do the intensive check please?"
ME: (picking myself off the floor - I'm used to the response from PC makers "of its your fault!")
"Duh! Yes!"
MacBookStore: "Great Thanks"

They thanked me? They repaired it in 4 days!!!
Now I know why businesses are moving over to Apple!!

!!!! Thanks Applecare and Brent Cross, London !!!!

... So anyone wondering about Applecare - My experience - 120% WORTH IT!!!
(Apologies for the blatent advert for Apple Staff - but when you get service like this, it should be shouted about!)

Nick Lockett
DL LEGAL LLP
CCOMMS.COM
DLLEGAL.COM

[kriegvision]

Well that's a good story to hear. I've yet to ever have to actually use AppleCare, so I guess my story is good too.

[chasm]

For laptops, no question. Get it.

[lessthanthree]

I must admit, I didn't get AppleCare when I had the chance. I regret it now. Less than a month after my warranty expired, the superdrive failed. It cost me over £200 to get it repaired.

Quite a shock to the system compared to the £40 it would've cost me to buy the protection.

[Him]

For laptops, no question. Get it.

Agreed, 100%. I've had many problems with my mac before, nothing serious, but a few problems. and Applecare has always been there for me.

[JayVig]

I didn't get it and never really looked into details. What if there's no apple store within several hours of you?

[Him]

I didn't get it and never really looked into details. What if there's no apple store within several hours of you?

One things for sure. I wouldn't suggest trying to fix it yourself. Unless you actually know what your doing. Otherwise you could damage your machine or worse.

---

On the other hand, my local Apple store, is two maybe three Counties away. So it takes a while to get there, but it's worth it.

[Turboladdade]

I've taken apart several MacBook Pros and PowerBook G4s. Not fun, but not impossibly complex or confusing either... but those were before the unibody days. Anyone have experience dissecting a unibody MB?

[dannyL]

I bought my G4 laptop in the USA. The harddrive failed 35 months later in Brazil. I had apple care and they replaced my drive for free in Brazil!!!
They even found me a location within 15 minutes drive. (that was just plain dumb luck) But I´d say:
APPLE CARE IS WORTH IT, ABSOLUTLEY!

[Turboladdade]

I had purchased a 17" PowerBook G4 back in 2003 when they first came out. The hard drive on this machine failed just slightly past the standard warranty. Thankfully we had purchased the 3 year AppleCare, and the drive was replaced at our local Apple Store.

We've purchased dozens of Macs over the past ten years. The only times we ever had to use AppleCare was the above, as well as a faulty power adapter on a first generation MacBook Pro.

I myself sliced the optical drive IDE cable on a Mac Pro Quad Xeon. I was hoping AppleCare would help me out there, but they refused. That was a simple fix though.

[chasm]

I didn't get it and never really looked into details. What if there's no apple store within several hours of you?

If you call Apple, they will generally send you a prepaid special box for you to put your computer in and send it back to them (assuming its a laptop or mac mini). Otherwise, they will look for the nearest Authorised Repair Centre (independent dealer) to you.

You may still have to drive a ways to get it to a shop, but hey -- this is part and parcel of the hazard of living in rural areas. Apple is pretty well represented one way or another in every major city I'm aware of.