AppleCare Warranty

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Aaroona

3196 posts

Uber Geek

#39359 12-Aug-2009 19:54

After I sell my new Alienware M17x, I am planning on getting a MacBookPro 15".

With my Alienware, I get complete coverguard which covers accidents AND manufacturer defects etc. (so if I drop my laptop and it breaks, they'll fix it).

With AppleCare, is it the same policy? the Apple website is rather fague when it comes to disclosing the details (to my lazy eyes).

If they do my next question is;

with the Standard 12 month warranty, does the same conditions apply? so if I drop it with the standard 12 month warranty, will they cover that?

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1539 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#245789 12-Aug-2009 20:12

I always thought this sort of thing is covered by contents insurance?

but in saying that I've never had apple care so I wouldn't know if this is covered

STI

239 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

#245790 12-Aug-2009 20:15

AFIK AppleCare or 12 month standard warranty don't cover accidents only manufacturer defects. Might be worth to see if your content insurance will cover it.

Aaroona

3196 posts

Uber Geek

#245792 12-Aug-2009 20:16

boby55: I always thought this sort of thing is covered by contents insurance?

but in saying that I've never had apple care so I wouldn't know if this is covered

Contents isurance differs by an extreme amount..

if my excess is $300, and my hard drive fails because i dropped it. I could go by a new hard drive cheaper than $300 - but then im still paying money to repair it.

I would pay for the warranty as a piece-of-mind type thing - where IF my laptop fails (my fault or not) i want to know its covered. (and subsequently, any parts that are damanaged, are replaced).

Sounds cheaper than making an insurance claim if your laptop had problems (again, my fault or not) within say 6 months of each other. $300+$300, would have been cheaper to buy the warranty if it covers it.

STI: AFIK AppleCare or 12 month standard warranty don't cover accidents only manufacturer defects. Might be worth to see if your content insurance will cover it.

See, thats why im not sure.. they still call it AppleCare..

also, do you know if they DO cover it with the extended warranty?

STI

239 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

#245799 12-Aug-2009 20:21

Had a quick look at the legal section on AppleCare, and it doesn't cover accidents:

b. Limitations. The Plan does not cover:

(i) Installation, removal or disposal of the Covered Equipment, or installation, removal, repair, or
maintenance of non-Covered Equipment (including accessories, attachments, or other devices such
as external modems) or electrical service external to the Covered Equipment;
(ii) Damage to the Covered Equipment caused by accident, abuse, neglect, misuse (including faulty
installation, repair, or maintenance by anyone other than Apple or an Apple Authorized Service
Provider), unauthorized modification, extreme environment (including extreme temperature or
humidity), extreme physical or electrical stress or interference, fluctuation or supower, lightning, static electricity, fire, acts of God or other external causes;

Full conditions are here:
http://images.apple.com/legal/applecare/docs/AppleCare_Protect_Plan_NA_en.pdf

Aaroona

3196 posts

Uber Geek

#245800 12-Aug-2009 20:23

STI: Had a quick look at the legal section on AppleCare, and it doesn't cover accidents:

b. Limitations. The Plan does not cover:

(i) Installation, removal or disposal of the Covered Equipment, or installation, removal, repair, or
maintenance of non-Covered Equipment (including accessories, attachments, or other devices such
as external modems) or electrical service external to the Covered Equipment;
(ii) Damage to the Covered Equipment caused by accident, abuse, neglect, misuse (including faulty
installation, repair, or maintenance by anyone other than Apple or an Apple Authorized Service
Provider), unauthorized modification, extreme environment (including extreme temperature or
humidity), extreme physical or electrical stress or interference, fluctuation or supower, lightning, static electricity, fire, acts of God or other external causes;

Full conditions are here:
http://images.apple.com/legal/applecare/docs/AppleCare_Protect_Plan_NA_en.pdf

Thanks for that info.

What a bummer, oh well.. looks like I will just go ahead with the standard 12 month warranty then.. might worry about the extended warranty later if i can be bothered.

so just to be clear; it is basically just a manufacturers faults warranty?

STI

239 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

#245806 12-Aug-2009 20:54

Yes, but AppleCare also includes technical support to the 3 year period. With the standard one year warranty only 90 days of complementary telephone tech support is included. (not worth it imo)

As you know AppleCare can be purchased anytime within the standard warranty period.

Aaroona

3196 posts

Uber Geek

#245807 12-Aug-2009 20:56

STI: Yes, but AppleCare also includes technical support to the 3 year period. With the standard one year warranty only 90 days of complementary telephone tech support is included. (not worth it imo)

As you know AppleCare can be purchased anytime within the standard warranty period.

Ahh thats okay. I more than capable without tech support anyway, so yeah, a waste of money.

Guess we'll see how it goes, i'll just purchase without the extended and worry about that later

Thanks for your help and clarification.

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josephhinvest

1543 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

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#245928 13-Aug-2009 09:21

Just my 2 cents, and IAAACMT (I Am An Apple Certified Macintosh Technician).
Always, ALWAYS buy APP (or a similar third party warranty like from Noel Leeming or whatever) when you purchase a new Apple portable.
Whilst it does not cover accidental damage, and does not ever cover your personal data, the cost of an out-of-warranty repair is often pretty high, especially for display or logic board faults.
Cheers,
Joseph.

Ragnor

8223 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#246173 13-Aug-2009 17:48

If the extended warranty offers protection beyond the law like it sounds like the Alienware one you mentioned earlier does, then yes it may be worthwhile. Howeever other than that extended warranties are only worth buying if you can't be bothered exercising your rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act

http://www.consumerblogs.org.nz/tech/2009/04/squaring-up-to-dell.html
http://we-fearless-ones.blogspot.com/2009/05/playstation-3-durability-courts-ruling.html

I guess if you value your spare time very highly you might actually like paying a premium to have a company not mess you around when you try and get them to fulfill their legal obligations.

Aaroona

3196 posts

Uber Geek

#246319 13-Aug-2009 22:13

jofizz: Just my 2 cents, and IAAACMT (I Am An Apple Certified Macintosh Technician).
Always, ALWAYS buy APP (or a similar third party warranty like from Noel Leeming or whatever) when you purchase a new Apple portable.
Whilst it does not cover accidental damage, and does not ever cover your personal data, the cost of an out-of-warranty repair is often pretty high, especially for display or logic board faults.
Cheers,
Joseph.

So, what if I just use the standard warranty till that runs out, then get the applecare extended warranty?

Or should I buy AppleCare right off the bat?

daman88

81 posts

Master Geek

#246338 13-Aug-2009 23:01

why you even bother about applecare anyway?

The consumer guarantee act states that any product that you buy should be functional within its lifespan - that is in few years (say 3 -5 years)

wanion

31 posts

Geek

#250355 25-Aug-2009 14:10

I have personally had a lot of grief with Apple over a repair to a 2007 MBP that had the video die - which although the computer was out of warranty at the time (18 months old) should have been covered by an extended warranty (see http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377 - MacBook Pro: Distorted video or no video issues).

However, due to an incompetent technician, and Apple support staff who put you through to customer service staff with no technical training, it was an uphill battle to get them to recognise the issue. The technician diagnosed it as a generic "logic board" fault which isn't covered by the warranty extension, and I do not have APP, so Apple said they were unable to cover it.

The incompetent technician part comes in when it came down to the fact he informed Apple the computer was not turning on because it was not producing a chime on boot. It was fairly unbelievable. The sound was muted (I often do this to *prevent* the boot sound). When I took it in, I clearly explained the issue, as I had already connected to my computer over the network to back it up when the video card failed, and it was working perfectly except for displaying no video. The technician continued to tell Apple and his superiors that he had correctly diagnosed the fault even when evidence to the contrary was produced. It was frustrating, and what I found the most incomprehensible part of the whole situation.

After discussing it further with the Apple person said they would "as a gesture of good faith" (their words) replace the part at their expense, which they said would otherwise be around $3100 for a new logic board, so long as I paid for the labour ($240). I agreed to the repair in the end, but told them I'd continue to attempt to recover the money, seeing it it should have been covered by warranty.

I got the computer back with the technician's repair notes, and comparing the times in their notes with the entries in my system.log file, it was obvious the computer had been operating, seeing as the times on his notes matched up exactly with when the computer reported it had been running. It's not like a computer with a defective logic board that isn't powering on should be logging the full boot process, displaying the logic screen, and searching for wireless networks.

It took literally hours on the phone and writing some letters, but at first I got half of the money back from Renaissance and then Apple instructed them to refund the other half, but it was more the principle of the thing that made it worthwhile. It certainly wasn't worth pursuing if I placed any monetary value on my time.

In summary, I'm certainly not advocating buying APP, and wouldn't ever do so myself after my last experience with Apple, but you might want to be ready for a real battle if you do want to get them to comply with the Consumer Guarantees Act. My experience should have been covered by a warranty extension programme, but even assuming it wasn't my computer should have still been covered by the CGA but when you're speaking to Apple staff overseas it's somewhat difficult to get them to care about local legislation.

Apple "NZ" is based in Australia, and although their support staff for NZ are Australian, their customer service representatives are based on Singapore and don't all speak particularly clear English (some are better than others). The Americans that you speak to if you call the NZ number after hours (or before 10am) are the most friendly (well trained?), and probably would be the most helpful, but they can't help with NZ issues beyond asking someone to call you.

You can take it up with the retailer, if you buy locally, at least. This is what I was pursuing before Apple eventually agreed that they should have covered the fault.

Aaroona

3196 posts

Uber Geek

#250378 25-Aug-2009 15:05

wanion: I have personally had a lot of grief with Apple over a repair to a 2007 MBP that had the video die - which although the computer was out of warranty at the time (18 months old) should have been covered by an extended warranty (see http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377 - MacBook Pro: Distorted video or no video issues).

However, due to an incompetent technician, and Apple support staff who put you through to customer service staff with no technical training, it was an uphill battle to get them to recognise the issue. The technician diagnosed it as a generic "logic board" fault which isn't covered by the warranty extension, and I do not have APP, so Apple said they were unable to cover it.

The incompetent technician part comes in when it came down to the fact he informed Apple the computer was not turning on because it was not producing a chime on boot. It was fairly unbelievable. The sound was muted (I often do this to *prevent* the boot sound). When I took it in, I clearly explained the issue, as I had already connected to my computer over the network to back it up when the video card failed, and it was working perfectly except for displaying no video. The technician continued to tell Apple and his superiors that he had correctly diagnosed the fault even when evidence to the contrary was produced. It was frustrating, and what I found the most incomprehensible part of the whole situation.

After discussing it further with the Apple person said they would "as a gesture of good faith" (their words) replace the part at their expense, which they said would otherwise be around $3100 for a new logic board, so long as I paid for the labour ($240). I agreed to the repair in the end, but told them I'd continue to attempt to recover the money, seeing it it should have been covered by warranty.

I got the computer back with the technician's repair notes, and comparing the times in their notes with the entries in my system.log file, it was obvious the computer had been operating, seeing as the times on his notes matched up exactly with when the computer reported it had been running. It's not like a computer with a defective logic board that isn't powering on should be logging the full boot process, displaying the logic screen, and searching for wireless networks.

It took literally hours on the phone and writing some letters, but at first I got half of the money back from Renaissance and then Apple instructed them to refund the other half, but it was more the principle of the thing that made it worthwhile. It certainly wasn't worth pursuing if I placed any monetary value on my time.

In summary, I'm certainly not advocating buying APP, and wouldn't ever do so myself after my last experience with Apple, but you might want to be ready for a real battle if you do want to get them to comply with the Consumer Guarantees Act. My experience should have been covered by a warranty extension programme, but even assuming it wasn't my computer should have still been covered by the CGA but when you're speaking to Apple staff overseas it's somewhat difficult to get them to care about local legislation.

Apple "NZ" is based in Australia, and although their support staff for NZ are Australian, their customer service representatives are based on Singapore and don't all speak particularly clear English (some are better than others). The Americans that you speak to if you call the NZ number after hours (or before 10am) are the most friendly (well trained?), and probably would be the most helpful, but they can't help with NZ issues beyond asking someone to call you.

You can take it up with the retailer, if you buy locally, at least. This is what I was pursuing before Apple eventually agreed that they should have covered the fault.

Great thank you for your answer there, found it an interesting read.

Unfortunately, with most companies now (such as Vodafone etc) now have their call centres outside New Zealand so it does make it difficult to get something done under the CGA etc.
But to be honest with you, your trouble with Apple doesn't even begin to register on my radar of trouble with Dell Computers Inc.

Last year, I bought an Inspiron 1720, since then, 10 months later, 5 laptops down the road, countless hours on the phone, literally hudreds of emails, over 15 techincian visits, i FINALLY get a working laptop.
I ended up thinking it wasnt worth my time, sold it, and bought a MacBookPro the other day.

Unfortunately, I had the same problem with trying to get Dell to recognize our New Zealand CGA law. In the end, or further to the end, I actually had to threaten them with going to a lawyer, which made them move a bit.
I have recorded conversations (phone calls), emails, service forms.. You name it, I have it.

It was a long and lengthly process which is the end I was able to overcome, but they did put me through the mill, despite me having bought extended warranty (3 years, including accidental coverage).

So it looks like it doesnt matter where you go, you get a bit of trouble, but some more than others.
Quite a few of my friends have MB's and they havent had any trouble with Apple helping them out should they have ever needed it, so that was promising to hear.
However, with Dell, in the recent months at least, it seems that everyone is having issues with them nd no-one wants to buy from them (its sad they took over Alienware).

Apologies for the somewhat off-topic rant.

I didnt buy extended coverage for my MacBookPro when I got it the other day.. I've decided I will do it closer to the 1 year date, that way I actually get another 3 years, as opposed to only getting another two years warranty.

timestyles

424 posts

Ultimate Geek

#250416 25-Aug-2009 16:22

Just a few thoughts about the consumer guarantees act. If you use the product for a business, you can't use the CGA. If you want to rely on the CGA, you also need to make the assumption that you'll take the company to the disputes tribunal, and pay for any repairs in advance if you don't get satisfaction. Apple laptops are expensive, I'm sure you could buy a reasonable laptop from Dick Smith for the cost of a major repair to a Pro model. Finally, you'll need to get evidence as to the definition of a 'reasonable length of time'.

phillw

60 posts

Master Geek

#250552 26-Aug-2009 00:10

So, what if I just use the standard warranty till that runs out, then get the applecare extended warranty?

Or should I buy AppleCare right off the bat?

I am also an ACMT. You don't have to buy the Apple Care Protection Plan on the day you purchase, you have 12 months to choose if you want to purcahse it or not, so long as you purchase it within 1 year from the original date or purchase you will be fine, one day out and you can buy it but you won't be able to register it as you have purchased outside that 1 year time period.
My advice would be if you don't buy at the same time buy on month 11 if you still want it, makes the registration process much easier than when the year is almost up.
As a general rule portable computer will be pushed to the limits and more things could go wrong, lets say a logic board failed you would be looking at the cost of the computer almost, hence why a few hundred dollars spent now could save you a few thousand dollars later.

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