So here’s the situation:[list=][li]My MacBook Pro is 11.5 months old, and is almost out of its 1-year hardware warranty. []Until May 10th, when the warranty expires, I have the option of buying the AppleCare extended warranty, which will provide coverage until three years from the original purchase date (or just over two years from now). []I have already had one battery replaced under the existing warranty. Batteries are approximately $160.[]AppleCare for the MacBook Pro is quite pricey: $400. Tomorrow, according to the memo from last week, I will receive a bonus at work that will allow me to purchase it.[/list][/li]
Should I buy the extended warranty?
I got AppleCare on my iBook G4. In the first year and a half I had a bum hard drive and motherboard. At the time I wasn’t living anywhere near an Apple store: I called the helpline, talked to a very nice young man, went though some steps to try to figure out the problems, then they overnighted me a padded box w/paid return postage. Fixed it.
I recently bought a MacBook because said iBook had a ruined power cord and messed up power source, and the battery was shot so I couldn’t turn it on. Wanted my files off of it, asked Apple how much it would be - the price was crazy high. They even said they charge like $60 or something for basic file transfer when the computer works - something you can do yourself easily with the right cable.
Long story short, if you can afford it, I say do it. Because if anything happens while it’s not covered, Apple will charge you a LOT to fix it. I got it on my MacBook now.
I normally don’t buy warranties, and folks always say that they are pure profit for the company.
But AppleCare seems to be in its own league: it is what all warranty programs should be. As you have already found, they treat you quite well for warranty repairs, to the point that they are quite willing to Fedex stuff to you and they treat you like an individual.
When my new iPhone battery was flaky the AppleCare folks gave me such good individual attention and kept up the email dialog during the whole exchange process (they Fedexed me a new phone and I packed off the old one). It was only after this process that I learned that Apple was selling 20,000 iPhones per day in the first six months, illustrating just how little incentive they would appear to have to care about my one phone, but they did anyway.
When I bought my MacBook Pro, I got AppleCare with it. It was an expensive machine and I didn’t want to have to worry about problems after the first year.
They shipped me a new bluetooth MightyMouse overnight because the little ball got gunked up beyond repair, and I am confident that any other problems will be met with efficient service, up to and including complete replacement.
ETA: myskepticsight, did you go to the Genius Bar and ask them? I imagine that they would just do something like that for you without much fuss there. Maybe not?
For comparison purposes, a dispatch repair to Apple for an OOW MBP is generally around $450
AppleCare Pros;
3 years (well, 2 years now in your case) of telephone support, Apple generally charges $49 per incident after the complimentary 90 day software support
3 years (2 in your machine’s case) of parts-and-labor hardware support, good at any Apple store, independent reseller, or mail-in to Apple Dispatch
AppleCare Cons;
the additional cost of the plan
end-user damage, and accidental damage is not covered (drops, shattered LCD screen, liquid spills, etc…)
minor7flat5, I took the machine back to the reseller where I bought it, not to Apple directly, but yeah, there was no problem. The reseller took notes and I got a sheet back afterwards detailing the condition of the machine and what they did.
I think I may do it. This will push the new point-and-shoot camera purchase off a bit, unless I got a LOT more than I expected in that bonus. So I buy this little box. When I get it home, it’s just a matter of registering the AppleCare plan at the Apple website with some serial number or other? My machine is already registered.
Laptops are the only machines that I recommend Applecare on. They are inherently prone to issues that desktops aren’t (hinge issues in particular).
It’s good for hardware problems, but virtually useless for software ones. If your OS X is screwed up, and all you have is phone support, all they will do is talk you through wiping out the system and re-installing. It’s a lot better deal of you have a local Apple store and can use your AppleCare to get hands-on service. Otherwise, it’s a hardware replacement service.
Like any other type of insurance, if you wind up needing it, it can be a lifesaver. But personally, I’d forgo AppleCare, buy from a store and get their own extended warranty. It is usually cheaper and you’ll get the same hardware swap. Spend the difference on a good external drive or two, format them with HPF+ (VERY important, as most external drives are formatted with DOS’ FAT32) and install a back-up system on them. That will allow you to boot to the external drive and fix the system.
Apple hardware is generally very solid and unlikely to fail. Hardware failure rates are a “bathtub curve” - a very high level of “infant mortality” followed by a long mid-life of very few failures, then a sharp rise near the end of the lifespan of the individual components - by which time you usually have upgraded anyway.
I go to a lot of trade shows. It’s days of slogging from one booth to another on the worst walking surface this side of a bed of nails - cheap carpet laid on concrete with no pad. But the booths of extended warranty companies are an oasis! Expensive carpet and nice, thick pad. I’d sometimes find myself wandering into their booths just for the relief of standing on their wonderfully restful carpet. I
I went to the AppleStore and asked one of the people working there how much their fees were for out-of warranty work - and she told me the Genuis Bar people do it and the prices.
A guy from my mom’s work got all my files off and onto an external hard drive, and my mom gave him the computer for his help.
I did get AppleCare for my MacBook but have yet to use it. That said, I considered it reasonably good insurance. Unlike my desktop (which I actually built myself), I can’t easily fix a laptop if something goes wrong, especially if the screen cracks or something. And it was expensive enough that the insurance was worth it, compared to most other extended warranties.
For future reference, if you need the info off a hard drive from a non-functional laptop, you can open it up, take out the hard drive and put it in a cheap external case. Gives you a spare hard drive, too.
Apple care on a laptop kind of depends on how high your risk tolerance is. But laptops are inherently more prone to problems – they pack a lot of hardware into a small, hot enclosure and they get jolted around a lot. So…it’s a bit of a coin flip.
Unless the laptop is completely dead, you can just mount it’s hard drive using FireWire target mode (hold the ‘T’ key down when you turn the laptop on). Much easier than dissecting the machine.
I buy AppleCare for laptops 100% of the time, and desktops perhaps half… though I haven’t had a desktop in over 5 years. Since you carry it around, it is a lot more prone to issues.
Only works if you have another Mac. I’d have to dissect the machine myself, as it’s the only Mac I have.
I vote to get the AppleCare. Gaffa is right about the U-shaped curve, and for cheap electronics, that’s a reason not to get an extended warranty. But laptops are expensive and very difficult to work with**. Just opening up the case on most laptops is nerve-racking; I’d rather just drop it off somewhere***.
IME Apple computers are very high in quality, and they’ll last for a very long time, but components do go bad on occasion, and most stores will charge $60 or $70 just to open the case & look. AppleCare is relatively inexpensive as extended warranties go, and (unlike many extended warranties) it provides good service.
** Except for my MacBook. I just upgraded the hard drive to 250 GB and it took all of five minutes (the drive slides sideways out into the battery bay without opening up the case). Of course, it took me five hours to (research and) back up the Mac & Boot Camp partitions before replacing the drive.
*** My personal experience is actually that motherboards & power supplies on desktops & towers have failed; I’ve never had a problem with my Mac laptops (PB100, 4300, TiBook, MacBook).
I’m sure someone here could help you. 
Suprisingly, Apple laptops have been pretty easy to open (as opposed to those damned iPods). My most extreme fix was for a friend of a friend. She had spilled a full large coffee on a Powerbook. Luckily, she knew enough to pull the battery immediately. She brought it over to out mutual friend and I came over. I took it apart as far as I could, down to the circuit board level. Then I ran everything but the LCD through a cycle of the dishwasher. No, I’m not insane - all circuit boards go through essentially the same process these days to remove solder rosin. After the cycle was done, I throughly dried everything with compressed air and a hair dryer. Then I put it all back together.
She’s still using it to this day.
I would not have thought to do that, but it does seem to make sense.