Mac OS X: iBook with Apple Care
iBook with Apple Care
by santiagogiraldo - 11/24/04 1:01 PMI'm going to buy a 12'' iBook (i'm going to switch) and i will upgrade the hard drive to 60GB. Would it be good to get the apple care protection plan or would i be wasting my money?
Re: iBook with Apple Care
by mrmacfixit
- 11/25/04 6:42 AM
In reply to: iBook with Apple Care by santiagogiraldo
Given the cost of having an iBook or PowerBook repaired, I think you would be wise to add the AppleCare option to your purchase. Your warranty will be extended to 3 years and, short of you sitting on your iBook, most things would be covered and repaired for free. Bear in mind that Software problems are NOT covered under the warranty.
Re: iBook with Apple Care
by what_now3 - 11/27/04 7:57 PM In reply to: Re: iBook with Apple Care by mrmacfixit
Be sure your getting the Apple care Warranty and ask what you have to do to get service. Will they send it out, how long do they "normally" take, is there a loaner policy, yeah right.
I bought from Circuit City when they were still an Apple supplier. What they sold me was THEIR plan not Apple's. I felt stupid why I realized what had happened and of course it was too late when I woke up to the switch. They were still willing to service it, just package it and they would send it to the hinter lands and I would get it back someday. For me it was money down a rat hole. If was the Apple Care probably would be worth it.
My computer glitch was not a big enough challenge to go through with all the preparation and the lost computer time. I decided I didn't want to back up my whole computer setup and delete the files I wouldn't want the service person walking through. I know I should already make backups of my personal files but I am not that organized and my files are not that vital just private. I would rather face a "clean" re-install of the OS and apps and even a root canal.
Re: iBook with Apple Care
by Melj - 12/3/04 2:51 AM In reply to: Re: iBook with Apple Care by what_now3Yes, you need the Apple Care, I also think you can extend it at the end of the normal 3 years another year. Keep the box that your unit came in as this will speed up the repair cycle. Costs to repair at time will almost excede the purchase price. Hope you don't run into that situation cause a flaky logic and a bad backlit or LCD will be in the area of $700 each. The repair cycle time is on average, in the repair center today it will be on the road to you that day or the next. Longest part of the rapair cycle is the travel to and from. I have found support to be good and the repairs done on first trip 95% of the time.
Re: iBook with Apple Care
by Afroman - 12/3/04 3:29 AM In reply to: iBook with Apple Care by santiagogiraldoOrdinarily I would say don't waste your money with warranties, but on this occassion as it is an Apple I would recommend that you do.
Apple computers can only be repaired by authorised service centres as they are the only people who can order the parts. Once your standard guarantee runs out if you are not protected it can be quite expensive to replace some parts.
It is also worth remembering that you can contact Apple for help within the 'protection plan' period for free.
Re: iBook with Apple Care
by bstellar - 12/3/04 4:57 AM In reply to: iBook with Apple Care by santiagogiraldoYes, definitely get the Apple Care Protection Plan. It's worth it just for technical assistance, let alone covering any repairs. Don't chance it.
Good luck,
B. S.
Re: iBook with Apple Care
by Canoeman33 - 12/3/04 5:50 AM In reply to: iBook with Apple Care by santiagogiraldoI have owned three Apple imacs and have not had any problems with them whatsoever, they are very reliable and well made, I did buy the apple plan on the first two imacs, but felt it wasnt needed on my third one as they are so reliable...But buying a portable is different, they can be dropped, have battery problems and I do think it would be a very good ideal to get the aplle care plan if getting a laptop.
You will love the i book, but i'd get the 17 inch powerbook!
Bill Miller
Re: iBook with Apple Care
by jvenskus - 12/3/04 6:58 AM In reply to: iBook with Apple Care by santiagogiraldoMy daughter and I both have iBooks. Each of us has had problems and have had to send them back for repairs. In my case, four times over several years for a major hardware problem with the screen output. I would recommned getting Apple Care if you must purchase the iBook. I would also recommend looking at other products and teir reliability ratings.
Re: iBook with Apple Care
by jaydee - 12/3/04 5:16 PM In reply to: Re: iBook with Apple Care by jvenskusjvenskus,
Did the logic board on both your iBooks fail? I understand that was quite a problem with the past generation of iBooks. (I assume your would fall into that category, seeing as you have had it for "several years")
--
The new iBook G4's should be fine, and if they do show such problems as jvenskus' iBooks, Apple has a program running whereby they will fix iBooks with this logic board failure or re-imburse those who have payed to fix it. See http://www.apple.com.au/support/ibook/faq/
I personally am not getting the extended warranty. I am very careful with computers. It has warranty for the first year, and if anything is going to go wrong I figure it will go wrong within that period.
HOWEVER that is just my opinion, if you feel you need it, then go for it.
Re: iBook with Apple Care
by fac - 12/3/04 8:02 AM In reply to: iBook with Apple Care by santiagogiraldosantiagogiraldo,
I have had several Powerbooks/iBooks and all of them required warranty work past the one year warranty period. To me it is a good investment and brings some piece of mind. I have always had great tech support from Apple under the AppleCare program (except for their use of Airborne Express - another story!!). They even fixed my Wallstreets' display cover hinges when it was several months past the AppleCare 3-year period (not to mention they gave me another 3 months free!!).
One thing to remember is that you are only buying an additional 2 years and not 3 years. The total period is 3 years (first year of purchase and then 2 more years).
Personally, it is worth it.
You may also want to review the terms in regard to upgrading the hard drive - it may invalidate the warranty in some cases or for some powerbooks/ibooks if you do the installation. If Apple installs the hard drive when you buy it, then you should be okay.
Best wishes,
Frank
Re: iBook with Apple Care
by rexwrites - 12/3/04 9:21 AM In reply to: iBook with Apple Care by santiagogiraldoyou've probably already made your decision, but I thought I'd give you my experience. I switched, too, last year. It's one of the best moves I ever made. I wonder how I could have used first DOS and then Windows for more than a decade. Mac is so superior.
that said, I did opt for Apple Care. Yes, it may seem a triffle expensive, and yes, Apple makes good machines, but someting can go wrong with anything. I've had to call Applecare a couple of times. the problems may not have seemed huge, but being new to Mac they seemed daunting to me. And I'm pretty computer saavy.
Applecare was wonderful. They really took their time, and they were very helpful in solving my issues.
The disscussion groups on the Apple and .Mac Web site are also fantastic. People always seem ready to help, and they always seem to have answers to problems, too.
Good luck.
Re: iBook with Apple Care
by SamWWJD - 12/3/04 3:06 PM In reply to: iBook with Apple Care by santiagogiraldoAs a consultive Sales associate at Sears I know that they make their money off of their Service Plan. However it is because most people that buy it don't take advantage of it. Same idea behind Rebates, who hasn't bought something really cheap (after rebate) and forgotten to send in the rebate? If you are responsible, I would recommend buying it. I buy one on EVERYTHING I purchase. It pays off. Also Sears Service Agreements are incredible if you buy them, they include annual preventive maintenance on most of their products. If you take advantage of this it pays you back several times over for the price of the extended service. Check if apple does anything like it. I recommend buying one also just for the peace of mind.
Good luck with Mac though, they suck...
Re: iBook with Apple Care
by jaydee - 12/3/04 5:06 PM In reply to: Re: iBook with Apple Care by SamWWJDEase up Sam! I'll bet you've never used a Mac for more than 10 minutes and if you have, it was probably running OS 9. The new OS X machines are fantastic, in my opinion, and they don't suck - they're just *different*.
Re: iBook with Apple Care
by what_now3 - 12/3/04 9:47 PM In reply to: Re: iBook with Apple Care by SamWWJDSorry Sam this started to sound like a commercial for Sears. I agree warranties are good, I believe in Murphy's law. Break out the violin--Too bad they don't make things like they used to--etc.
Re rebates: half the software rebates I have sent in failed to arrive and I was down more for the cost of the stamp and the photocopies. If the product isn't a good price to start with, the rebate isn't going to get my business. I stopped buying for rebates before the new "law" came in. Too much hassle. If they want my business, they will price it right in the first place.
Re: iBook with Apple Care
by SamWWJD - 12/3/04 11:33 PM In reply to: Re: iBook with Apple Care by what_now3Dang! I didn't know I would get this kind of response. Good point on the rebates, I agree that if it isn't a decent price, don't buy. However, I have had pretty decent luck with rebates. As to the "commercial" I wrote about Sears, I certainly didn't mean it that way. I simply put it as a comparison. Service agreements can be worth their weight in gold. I personally don't care much for the results turned out by Sears as of late. MY customers get great service, but I have also had to reconcile my fair share of "bad experiences". Please don't take my post as an ad. I only meant to point out that if you read the fine print and follow up on your end, lots of service plans are worth it. As to the comment made by an offended MAC user, I agree that MAC OS X is cool. But most of that is because of the UNIX shell 
. Windows is no perfect beast, but they had more business smarts back in the day. I could debate this till I was blue in the face and it wouldn't matter so I am just going to say this. MS has its bene's. MAC has it's. Linux may one day be a bigger player (I hope!) if they fix the open source dilemma (actually profiting off of one's own code) which may be happening with Red Hat and a few others. Use your MAC for what you want, but I kinda like what I am used to. And the fact that I can get to the guts of the OS uber easy. Thanks for responding! It literally made my day that people read my post and actually found it worthy of a reply. As they say in Mexico, NO quiero taco bell!
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