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by
Ted Landau
July 20th, 2006
The logic is simple. Extended warranties are almost always a bad deal for the consumer. AppleCare Protection Plans are essentially extended warranties for your Mac purchases. Ergo: AppleCare is almost always a bad choice. Well, maybe it's not quite that simple. But it's close.
Why should you "just say no" to extended warranties? Because the probabilities are such that, over the long haul, you will spend more money on warranties than on repairs. But don't just take my word for it; check out these quotes:
- Consumers Reports states in their August 2006 issue: "Retailers want you to buy extended warranties because they're cash cows. [They make more profit on the warranty] than they make selling actual products....For the consumer, extended warranties are notoriously bad deals because products seldom break within the extended warranty window, and when they do, the repair often isn't much more than the cost of the warranty."
- PC World, in articles from May 2006 and October 2005, concludes: "These plans are rarely a good deal...By buying one, you're betting that your product will break, that the extended warranty will cover the damage, and that repairing the product would cost more than you paid for the extended warranty--an unlikely scenario."
I was reminded of this advice recently when I chose to ignore it for the first time. I purchased a Dymo LabelWriter from Staples. At the register, I was offered a Staples warranty of course. I automatically replied "no thanks" before I had a chance to fully process what the salesperson had said: The cost of the warranty was only $5.00. That's on a product that was costing me over $100. The fee seemed so small that I reconsidered my decision and asked for more details. He told me that, with the warranty, if the product ever failed, I could take it to any Staples and get a free replacement. There would be no need to deal with the manufacturer. For five dollars, I figured this was a convenience worth having; I purchased the warranty.
And guess what? My LabelWriter turned up dead about 50 days later. The power light would not even come on. It was time to cash in on my $5.00 investment. Or so I thought. I went and got my copy of the warranty. The first thing I noticed was that, according to a table of fees in the pamphlet, the warranty should have cost $20. Apparently, the salesperson made an error and undercharged me. No wonder it seemed to good to be true: It wasn't true!
I would never have paid $20 for the warranty, but that was a moot point now. More to the immediate point, the fine print revealed that the Staples warranty did not kick in until after the manufacturer's one-year warranty expired. So I would not be able to take it to my local Staples after all. I know, this is my own fault for not checking the terms in advance! And it makes sense; it's pretty much the way all extended warranties work. Still, in the end, it only reinforced my belief that, even at $5.00, I should have heeded my own advice and skipped getting the warranty.
Paraphrasing from Hamlet: "The vendor doth promote too much, methinks." Vendors are not altruists at heart. They don't push extended warranties to save you money; they push them to make money. When you find that every manufacturer and retail store in the known world is at least mildly pushing their extended warranties, it's time to be suspicious.
Despite all this, many people claim to be quite satisfied with their extended warranty purchase. In fact, according to a table in the PC World article mentioned above, over 70% of the people who purchased an extended warranty report being "glad" they did. How can this make sense? Here's how:
- First, this is a skewed sample. All the responses are from people who were favorably enough disposed to getting a warranty that they purchased one (and who apparently also needed a repair at some point). It's probably just as true that well over 70% of people who did not purchase a warranty were glad that they did not do so!
- People can report that they are glad that they purchased a warranty even if it was a poor financial decision to do so. These are not mutually exclusive conditions. It also does not mean that they will be equally pleased with the warranty service. In fact, according to PC World, only 31% of respondents were "extremely satisfied" with the service they received.
- Finally, some favorable attitudes are surely due to placing too much import on anecdotal evidence. For example, you may buy a lottery ticket tomorrow and win ten millions dollars. But that's not a sound reason to recommend buying lottery tickets every day. Your results were far from typical. Similarly, people will happily tell you: "My computer stopped working after 18 months. Fixing it would have cost me $1200, but with my extended warranty, it was fixed for 'free.'" True enough. But the critical question is: Is that a typical result?
For what it's worth, my anecdotal experience runs the other direction. I can count on one hand the number of out-of-warranty repairs I have needed for all my computer-related purchases combined. Actually, I could cut off two fingers and still count them on one hand. And I have been purchasing computers since 1984. If I had gotten an extended warranty for all of these purchases, I would be way way in the hole.
In either case, what ultimately matters are not anecdotes but reasonable estimates of the most likely outcome. To illustrate, let's return to the AppleCare Protection Plan. AppleCare extends the complimentary 90 days of technical support and one-year warranty to three years. Now, I am not singling out AppleCare because it is an especially bad plan. To the contrary, as plans go, it is probably one of the better ones. I focus on it because, after all, Macs are what we are here to talk about!
So...suppose you plan to get a new MacBook. The cost of AppleCare on an $1100 MacBook is $250 (that's 28% of the cost of the computer!). To try to predict the likely financial consequences of getting, or not getting, AppleCare, we need to put together a couple of assumptions.
Here's one way to look at it: Let's assume that you replace your laptop every three years and that you purchase AppleCare with each new Mac that you buy. This means that, after nine years, you will have paid $1000 to get the extended coverage. For about the same amount of money, you could buy another MacBook instead.
Here's another look: In a recent Consumer Reports survey, only 17% of Mac laptop owners needed a repair of any type between 2001 and 2005. The percentage was even smaller (11%) for desktop Macs. However, these percentages include the first year (when most problems typically crop up and are covered by the standard warranty). They also appeared to include repairs that went beyond the extended warranty period or would not be covered by AppleCare under any circumstances. Regarding the latter point, Apple's warranty (as is true for almost all extended warranties) does not cover "damage caused by accident, abuse, misuse...or other external causes." So if your MacBook falls to the floor, AppleCare won't pay for any damage. Taking all of this into consideration, a reasonable estimate for the covered repair rate of a MacBook during the AppleCare period might be 10% (I suspect it is even lower, but I am trying to give AppleCare the benefit of the doubt here).
Finally, let's say that the average cost of such a repair would be $600 (that seems reasonable as it is more than half the cost of the MacBook).
This means that, if you bought 10 MacBooks tomorrow, you could expect—on average -- that one and only one of them would need a repair during the extended warranty period (from 12 months to 36 months after the purchase date). Without AppleCare, this will set you back $600. With AppleCare, this will cost you $2500 ($250 x 10). In other words, getting AppleCare would result in a net loss of $1900!
If you think the assumptions behind these estimates are off, substitute your own. As long as you stay within plausible limits, I am confident that AppleCare will wind up putting you in the red. Does that mean you should never under any circumstances get AppleCare? Pretty much, but perhaps not quite. Here are a few caveats:
- AppleCare extends the free technical telephone support from 90 days to 3 years. I believe that most people can get by just fine on the free support offered via the Web. And on that rare occasion when you absolutely need telephone support, paying for it will still be cheaper than having paid for AppleCare. But if you are the type who requires and expects to make frequent use of telephone support, AppleCare will fill the bill.
- If you know a particular product is significantly more likely to need a repair (especially an expensive repair) than the expected average, a warranty on that product might qualify as an exception to the rule. For example, AppleCare for Apple's $2500 30-inch Cinema Display is only $100. Given that any repair to an LCD display is likely to be expensive, and given how delicate these displays are, this might just be worth it. Still, bear in mind that Apple is well aware of these considerations. If they thought they would lose money by charging $100, they would charge more. The truth is that even these displays are not likely to need a repair in the second or third year of ownership.
- There is something to be said for the simplicity of knowing that, if something goes wrong, you don't have to worry about where to take your ailing Mac or how much the repair will cost. You may sleep better with the "insurance" of knowing you will never be hit with a big repair bill. This is not worth very much to me, given the downsides, but some users may find that AppleCare is worth it just to prevent insomnia, even if they lose money in the end.
If you are still on the fence here, consider this experiment: Every time you purchase any product (Apple or not) that comes with an extended warranty, don't buy it. Instead, put the money into an interest-bearing savings account (or just track this in a "virtual" account if you don't really want to allocate hard dollars this way). Only withdraw money to pay for repairs that would have otherwise been covered by an extended warranty. Unless you get some real bad luck right off the bat, this account should keep growing over time. After several years, feel free to use at least some of the money you've saved to celebrate your financial success.
Ted Landau is the founder of MacFixit, and the author of Mac OS X Help Line, Tiger Edition and other Mac help books.
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Observer Comments
Thu Jul 20, 2006 8:42 am Subject: Other reasons to buy
I NEVER buy extended warrantees, but I bought Applecare. Here are a couple reasons I chose to buy it.
1. Applecare phone support covers all Apple software as well.
2. I do not have any friends with Macs to ask for help.
3. I got a significant discount by ordering it online from a third party computer store (Apple Authorized). Shop around, you will be surprised. I think the Applecare was about 10% of the purchase price of my Powerbook.
That said, today Apple stores give you free support that you can sign up for in advance. That wasn't an option when I bought Applecare.
Just my 2 cents.
Thu Jul 20, 2006 9:51 am Subject: Sometimes it's a good idea
Two reasons to consider AppleCare:
1. A new hardware design. My 2001 TiBook had the LCD replaced in the third year. Lots of TiBooks had hinge problems. With AppleCare, you minimize the risk of buying a new and untested hardware design.
2. Known costs. I worked for a company that put AppleCare on every Mac it owned when it was an annual contract - sometimes paying more for AppleCare than the ancient Mac was worth. But they could predict costs.
Personally, I'd seriously consider AppleCare for any notebook but hardly think about putting it on a desktop Mac.
Dan Knight, LowEndMac.com
Thu Jul 20, 2006 10:00 am Subject: Also remember...
You can buy AppleCare anytime up to the year anniversary of your purchase. If you're problem free after a year or have another Mac on your wish list, skip out on AppleCare. If you've had a problem or two with the machine and it's critical that you keep it running for awhile, buy AppleCare then.
Thu Jul 20, 2006 10:14 am Subject: could be worth it to some
I traditionally dont buy new Macs. and I normally dont buy extended warranties. But when I bought my 1st brand new Mac in December 2003 I was nervous. this was a big deal $1600 purchase for me. I didn't think to buy the AppleCare, of course I was coerced into it by one of the Apple dudes at the local AppleStore. One month later I relented and paid the $250 for the AppleCare for my new MDD Dual G4. It ran perfectly for long time then in January of this year I started having major problems. After not being able to figure out using all the resources I normally use: apple forums, mac tech web sites, buddies from work, or fiddling with it. I called AppleCare. they were, in my opinion, not much help either, basically their main advice was to take it in for repair. The AppleStore had a basic response: Replacement of hardware. 7 days later, They gave the Mac back. The bill would of been $1450 without the AppleCare. What they did was replaced the mobo, dual processor, and video card. I never really knew why they did, but they did. So the AppleCare saved me from having to buy a new Mac, I guess... I just wish someone there could of gave me Technical info as to why they swapped out these things... I wondered was it common procedure to just Swap out parts? or to Actually try to Fix things? Because to me no one ever tried to fix anything.
I will only buy AppleCare if I buy a brand new Apple product. And I normally keep my Mac gear longer than 4 years. I don't have the money to get new gear all the time.
Thu Jul 20, 2006 10:14 am Subject: One other reason
Quoteblibman wrote:
3. I got a significant discount by ordering it online from a third party computer store (Apple Authorized). Shop around, you will be surprised. I think the Applecare was about 10% of the purchase price of my Powerbook.
Good point- shop around. I never pay full price. Most people don't know that Applecare is a retail product.
QuoteLow End Dan wrote:
1. A new hardware design... With AppleCare, you minimize the risk of buying a new and untested hardware design.
Excellent point. I doubt Consumer reports factored new product design into their survey.
Besides the piece of mind that you get from having this [relatively expensive] insurance plan, the biggest reason I buy Applecare on my new machines is simple: resale value. Applecare is transferrable. Sell a machine on eBay with Applecare attached, and your bidders have the confidence to reach deeper into their pockets. They know that the machine doesn't have some strange issue that pops up 1 week after they send you $1500. And I feel better being done with my sale as well. If there are any problems, they can call Apple.
BTW, Let me know if anyone wants to buy a Dual 2.0 G5... it will be available about 1 week after Apple releases the MacPro. Applecare included
Quotelz4broc wrote:
What they did was replaced the mobo, dual processor, and video card. I never really knew why they did, but they did.
It's typical these days for repair shops to just swap out parts. The cost of the part is less than the labor to really debug and fix it. This is especially true when they can hire people with fairly little training and have them swap major components, rather than some one with years of training and experience who could repair a mobo or whatever the root cause was..
I suspect that your system arrived in the shop, they looked at its symptoms, replaced the guts, and the system worked. That got it off their bench in 15-30 minutes rather than spending a day really trying to find the problem. It's probable that two of the three components were just fine. It's even possible that all three were fine and there was tarnish on some plugs or something like that, which was resolved buy the act of unplugging and plugging the components.
Thu Jul 20, 2006 11:35 am Subject: Applecare is a lot better than you think
Applecare is a lot better than you think. This guy is comparing some cheap label printer extended warranty against Applecare and there is no comparison how much better the Applecare warranty is. No cost for parts or labor and there is no deductable cost or anything like that either. If it breaks you call Applecare they try and help you over the phone. If that doesn't work you could drop by your local Apple store and have the Genius bar look at it. If you have Applecare and it is a hardware problem they'll fix it for you and you'll get it back in a day or two with no hassles. I had a G3 ibook that the battery went dead prematurely after 1 year. Called Applecare and they sent me a new one within two days with a box to ship back the bad one prepaid.
Applecare is worth every penny.
While all you are saying may be true horvatic, Apple's quality is much better than some cheap label printer so that reduces the risk. The problems are, to be honest few and far between. So the battery in your G3 iBook died and they replaced it for free. Fine that's great but how much would the battery have cost you on the open market? Was this more or less than the cost of AppleCare?
I never buy extended warrantees.
Thu Jul 20, 2006 12:10 pm Subject: AppleCare for me has always been worth it
Bought it for my Powerbook G3. Replaced:
1. The battery twice.
2. The power supply twice.
3. The sound card once
4. The hinge and keyboard once. The keyboard was done even though I didn't ask for it!
Bought it for my iMac G4. Replaced:
1. The logic board three times.
Bought it for my Powerbook G4:
1. The entire computer was replaced for a fan issue which could not be fixed any other way, and I got a newer machine in the process.
Bought it for my iMac G5: The power supply and logic board were replaced.
In addition, I've called numerous times for phone support, and spoken to customer relations on issues where I think they need improvement.
It is a win-win situation for both the customer and Apple. If you are able to offer suggestions, they can improve the next Mac you buy.
Thu Jul 20, 2006 12:19 pm Subject: I buy AppleCare
I also NEVER buy extended warrantees, but I buy Applecare. Here are a couple reasons I buy it for all my Macs:
1. For notebooks, the cost of any repair is much larger than the cost of a [discounted, e.g., from www.lacomputercompany.com] an AppleCare warranty. For example, my daughter's iMac had its hard drive fail at the 13 month mark. We did not have AppleCare. Cost to fix was over $350 USD.
2. For all Macs, it helps the resale value when you sell on eBay. My strategy is to sell my Macs at the 2.5 year mark. I get a new Mac and the buyer of my old one gets 6 months of comfort. You might not get a lot more money for your used machine, but it will sell for more than one without.
3. You can't buy Apple parts at commodity costs as you can with Windows white boxes. For example, to replace the motherboard in my Windows box would cost me about $100 and I would do it myself as I built the machine in the first place. I can't buy a new motherboard for my Power Mac for $100. Not even close to $100.
,dave
I have a 4th generation iPod under AppleCare and have had it replaced twice when the hard drive failed. I don't abuse it, jog with it or anything that puts more than the usual stress. It has been some time since it last failed, so maybe there was a bad batch of hardware with that particular model. The photo iPod my wife uses has had no problems, but it too is under AppleCare
I use my Macs for home based business, I need them to make money. I consider AppleCare on those units to be part of the cost of doing business.
For appliances and autos I do not opt for extended warranties.
I had the dreaded logic board problem with my old G3 iBook. I got it fixed under AppleCare shortly after my basic warranty expired. Shortly after that, Apple made the repair free for owners of those particular iBooks. Oh well. That's the only problem I have had with my iBook.
Yet I still think I will get it when I get a MacBook Pro. I would never even consider it for a Desktop, but with the laptop bumping around in your bag all the time, there just seems like a much higher chance of something going wrong.
Thu Jul 20, 2006 1:52 pm Subject: It has saved my bacon 3 times!!
I never really considered Applecare until I had a problem with another extended warranty company fixing my Pismo Powerbook. They had it a total of 5 times when I finally told them I wasn't going to accept it back since they never repaired the problem. I took it to an Applestore and they verified that the problem still existed (thermistor on mobo was bad). So I got enough money to buy a new 15" Titanium and I bought Applecare. Two years later I needed a new screen. I then sold the machine and bought a 17" Powerbook. Almost three years later I had problems with the optical drive, the hard drive, and they keyboard was warped.
Applecare fixed everything but the new keyboard didn't light up all the keys. So I shipped it back. After shipping it twice back to them to get ALL of the keys to light up, I noticed that the top left hand side of the keyboard would bow when you pressed on the keys. Applecare decided to replace my computer!!! I lucked out since the next day Apple released the 17" Macbook Pro and I was able to get one with one catch. I had to buy Applecare on it. Hell Ya I would have!!
The third time it saved me was with my 20" iMac. I had some bad capacitors which died a year and a half after I got it. New mobo would have set me back $800.
It's your money. If you think Apple products won't go bad after a year, take a seat at a genius bar and listen to all the sob stories of people like Ted who DIDN'T buy Applecare hear how much it would cost to repair their stuff. After that Applecare sounds like a steal.
Thu Jul 20, 2006 2:00 pm Subject: No need to buy
I’ve been buying Apple products since 1979. Always new. I have never once paid for a repair. In fact, only once i have ever needed to take any Apple product in for repair: A 17" CRT. I thought it was out-of-warranty and i’d have to pay to get it fixed. Even though the warranty had “expired†two years earlier, Apple had extended the warranty for all owners for that particular problem (high voltage capacitor).
I have never bought AppleCare and don’t plan to start. Although it may be right for some people, for peace of mind, it is not a wise financial investment. Better to take the money you would spend on AppleCare and buy Apple stock instead.
Thu Jul 20, 2006 2:52 pm Subject: A couple things left out...
Here are a couple of things that were left out of the article.
1.) Consumer Reports, while they do recommend against extended warranties, make two exceptions: computers and treadmills.
2.) AppleCare covers more than just the parts, it also covers labor and shipping. It is also worldwide coverage, meaning that if you are somewhere in the middle of Kenya and there's not Apple authorized service provider nearby AppleCare pays to ship your machine to the nearest one.
3.) There isn't a single thing that could go wrong with the hardware on a Mac today that would cost less than AppleCare once you factor in both parts and labor.
4.) After the 90 days of phone support that comes standard any call you make to Apple tech support will cost about $50. With AppleCare you can make unlimited calls during the three year period. Factor that into your buying decision if you think that you will make a couple of phone calls a year.
5.) If you happen to be a student or a teacher then AppleCare is 30% less.
Quotelz4broc wrote:
I just wish someone there could of gave me Technical info as to why they swapped out these things....
Because Apple said to. They have a step-by-step set of instructions on how to fix problems. The tech does each step and tests to see if the problem was fixed until it is.
I buy AppleCare for all my machines. I had a Power Mac G4 that broke constantly, and the AppleCare rep told me after three repairs, I would get the equivalent level computer -- and so I got a new dual 1-ghz Power Mac G4 two and a half years later. And that one works perfectly (although it *is* loud).
I've been buying Macs since 1987. I've bought Applecare on the last three Macs, mainly becasue of the phone support issue. When you buy a new mac, the Warranty may be for a year, but the phone support only runs for 90 days. At $50 a pop, it only takes 5 calls in three years to cover the cost.
The nice thing about their phone support is that if you have it through Applecare, they don't care why you call, its covered, so you don't pay. Applecare is on your new MacBook? Trouble with your system update on your old dual G4? They don't care, they'll help you out anyway.
This works no matter what product you buy (except .Mac service - they have seperate phone support). Buy your Mac, with Applecare, no problemo for 3 years. At 2 yrs, 11 months, buy a new copy of iLife - bingo - phone support for another 90 days. If, in the next 90 days, you have trouble with your old MacBook, no problem, they'll help you with it. Space out your purchases this way, and you can have a much longer extended phone support period, separate from the actual hardware warranty.
Don't underestimate the phone support - you may not ever use it, until that one time you have a problem with an update, or some other new peice of software goofs things up, then, with a half an hour or so on the phone, they can help get you back on track. Believe me, the hassle that can save is almost immeasureable, and makes the cost of Applecare well worth it.
Besides, I would never buy a laptop without an extended warranty - and I don't care what the financial gurus say about the cost analysis. One repair, and you've just bought a new laptop without it. Laptops are much more expensive to fix than desktops. Sure, its a gamble, as with any insurance policy - which is what Applecare is. But Applecare returns more than a pure insurance policy, so the standard analysis doesn't quite cover it.
QuoteBennyboy wrote:
It's your money. If you think Apple products won't go bad after a year, take a seat at a genius bar and listen to all the sob stories of people like Ted who DIDN'T buy Applecare hear how much it would cost to repair their stuff. After that Applecare sounds like a steal.
At the risk of repeating the points I made in the article, the people at the Genius Bar are not really relevant to whether or not you should get AppleCare. I could just as easily assemble a group of people who never needed to use the Genius Bar, and claim that this was evidence of why getting AppleCare is not a good idea.
I never claimed that no one would ever need a repair during the warranty period.
The bottom line is, if a person gets AppleCare on all the products they buy (or whatever subset they decide is worth it), how likely is it that they will ultimately come out financially ahead?
This same principle applies to many of the replies posted here.
Again, as I explained in the article, anecdotes of why AppleCare worked out well for you, is not evidence of the overall wisdom of getting the warranty. In that regard, recall that the estimated extended warranty repair probability was 10%. Put another way, that means that 90% of people who purchase a Mac laptop will never need to use AppleCare for a repair. Those sound like good odds to me!
"Again, as I explained in the article, anecdotes of why AppleCare worked out well for you, is not evidence of the overall wisdom of getting the warranty. In that regard, recall that the estimated extended warranty repair probability was 10%. Put another way, that means that 90% of people who purchase a Mac laptop will never need to use AppleCare for a repair. Those sound like good odds to me!"
And this is from a guy who a while back tripped over his power cord and knocked off his display. Then whined about the cost of replacement of the part.
You know Ted.. write your books.. And let people decide about Applecare. After all it's their investment not yours.
Sat Jul 22, 2006 2:07 am Subject: Refundable AppleCare
I thought it would be worth mentioning the best deal going: refundable AppleCare. There's a racket going on at Westworld Computers (http://www.westworld.ca) where, if by the time your AppleCare expires you've never needed it, they will give you store credit for the original purchase price of the AppleCare Protection Plan to use against the purchase of your next Macintoy.
I'm one of those people who were 'glad they bought AppleCare.' I had an AlBook 15" 1.5GHz that needed service three times: once for the dreaded 'lower RAM slot' failure, once for a dead hard drive (smoke, noise, the whole deal), and once for a lid that wouldn't stay closed (a known problem with some latches). I'm not claiming to be typical – just claiming to be 'glad.'
Quotemacuber wrote:
"Again, as I explained in the article, anecdotes of why AppleCare worked out well for you, is not evidence of the overall wisdom of getting the warranty. In that regard, recall that the estimated extended warranty repair probability was 10%. Put another way, that means that 90% of people who purchase a Mac laptop will never need to use AppleCare for a repair. Those sound like good odds to me!"
And this is from a guy who a while back tripped over his power cord and knocked off his display. Then whined about the cost of replacement of the part.
You know Ted.. write your books.. And let people decide about Applecare. After all it's their investment not yours.
Nuff said.
Quotemacuber wrote:
And this is from a guy who a while back tripped over his power cord and knocked off his display. Then whined about the cost of replacement of the part.
You know Ted.. write your books.. And let people decide about Applecare. After all it's their investment not yours.
Ah yes. An ad hominem attack that makes no attempt to refute any of the points made in the article. How helpful.
And by the way, Apple was not selling AppleCare for my display at the time I purchased it, and accidental damage would not have been covered even if I had been able to get AppleCare. And if you honestly believe that it's not worth at least noting that Apple wanted to charge $440 for a replacement that a competing store did for $60, I'm glad you are not my financial advisor.
Finally, I am more than happy to let people "decide about AppleCare." I just offered my opinion. That's what columnists do.
Gee Ted..since you like quoting Consumer Reports..give the readers here another reason for buying AppleCare from here on TMO:
http://www.macobserver.com/article/2006/05/05.13.shtml
And for the so called attacks..let me see..I'll use your own words
"Vendors are not altruists at heart. They don't push extended warranties to save you money; they push them to make money. When you find that every manufacturer and retail store in the known world is at least mildly pushing their extended warranties, it's time to be suspicious."
It's a Apple Product Ted.. understand? Just like anything else on the shelf..Appleworks ... iLife06... .Mac. ...FCP. Yes those are moneymakers as well for Apple.
Bottom line is if I add up all 9 of your books (Moneymakers) thats about $300.00. You can purchase Applecare for any of the Macs for the same price.
No brainer there....
PS.. Also Ted..if your going to link to PCWorld to use as a reference to backup your opinion... then you should show the argument against your opinion....
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,124856,pg,3,00.asp
Ok..thats enough for me
Quotemacuber wrote:
PS.. Also Ted..if your going to link to PCWorld to use as a reference to backup your opinion... then you should show the argument against your opinion....
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,124856,pg,3,00.asp
If you read my column, you'll see a link to this PC World page is indeed included.
Tue Jul 25, 2006 11:11 am Subject: Business Insurance
I use my Mac (along with my photography gear) for my business. A year ago I dropped one of my cameras on the job. It cost me a little over $300 in repairs (very heavy lens broke the lens mount on the camera and the lens itself).
Now I have an Allstate business insurance policy that runs a little over $300 per year, covers $10,000 in equipment, and also covers accidental damage and theft. These are far more likely than actual equipment failing, and it's a hell of a lot cheaper than Applecare.
I'm not sure what the requirements are for having a business equipment insurance policy is (I would assume it would only cover equipment used for a legitimate business), but given that the trend seems to be that Macs are typically used for business more than pleasure tells me that many people could benefit from this approach.
- Jon
Quotedavebarnes wrote:
I also NEVER buy extended warrantees, but I buy Applecare. Here are a couple reasons I buy it for all my Macs:
1. For notebooks, the cost of any repair is much larger than the cost of a [discounted, e.g., from www.lacomputercompany.com] an AppleCare warranty. For example, my daughter's iMac had its hard drive fail at the 13 month mark. We did not have AppleCare. Cost to fix was over $350 USD.
2. For all Macs, it helps the resale value when you sell on eBay. My strategy is to sell my Macs at the 2.5 year mark. I get a new Mac and the buyer of my old one gets 6 months of comfort. You might not get a lot more money for your used machine, but it will sell for more than one without.
3. You can't buy Apple parts at commodity costs as you can with Windows white boxes. For example, to replace the motherboard in my Windows box would cost me about $100 and I would do it myself as I built the machine in the first place. I can't buy a new motherboard for my Power Mac for $100. Not even close to $100.
,dave
Not only does it make selling your used Mac easier, and possibly increases resale value, but AppleCare warranties transfer with the hardware. So if you own a used Mac and it still has AppleCare coverage, Apple covers it even though you aren't the original owner. That makes it easy.
Dell, on the other hand, requires that you "transfer" the extended warranty to the new owner of the hardware.
In business, time is money. In Anchorage Alaska, if you have to take your mac in for repair, it will sit for several days before they even look at it. Or you could pay $100+ dollars to "Expedite" the repair. Then they still have to order parts.
With AppleCare, I call Apple. They ship the parts, dispatch an onsite service tech and install the part, significantly reducing any downtime.
On one occassion, A G5 PowerMac was replaced with a brand new Mac Pro!
But, you do make good points about costs. However, if you have a deadline oriented business those figures go out the window when you try to calculate the downtime you'll incur when you have opted to save $$$$.
Merry Christmas everyone. May Santa put an AppleCare Warranty in your stocking this Christmas.
Has anyone compared the cost/benefit between AppleCare and computer insurance. AppleCare won't cover accidents and only lasts 3 years, but you are getting a certified repair... can you get that from the insurance?
I have neither but am interested in the computer insurance option, just don't know enough about it.
For example I just put a quote in to Safeware for $2000 coverage, it would cost me $120 a year. That seams reasonable, but I'd feel better if someone had any experience with non AppleCare insurance.
You're comparing AppleCare services to typical extended warranties that other companies offer. It's not an insurance bet on a Blackjack table. It's making sure that your computer runs.
Point taken: If you're buying a lot of computers, I wouldn't get AppleCare for each machine (though I do own six AppleCares, they have all served me at least 3 times.) I would recommend ProCare, which covers every computer than you own.
There are some customers out there who will need the service, (it is a service, not a warranty -- warranties are just parts and labour) especially in the technical support. Sure, there's resources on the net, but when you're a novice who can't even get the internet to work, then the phone support is worth it.
AppleCare is not for everyone. And salespersons make money regardless of what they sell you, so the excuse that someone is making money from you buying something is not an excuse to not buy anything.
AppleCare is for individual users who are incapable or have difficulty maintaining their own computers.
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