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AppleCare for PowerBooks - Worth it or Wasted?
Starquake asks: "I am planning on purchasing a PowerBook in the near future. The choice between models largely depends on whether or not the cost of AppleCare is included. Of course the salesman at the Apple Store suggested I purchase AppleCare, but I am not sure about the cost/benefit ratio. Would the PowerBook owners on Slashdot please advise me on whether or not the AppleCare plan is worth the extra cost? What types of experiences have you had with Powerbook failures and replacements?"
Sorry Charlie!
-n
http://www.remix.net/
Never buy an extended warranty/service plan/whatever.
The company has done its math, and priced the warranty so that on average they make a handsome amount of money. Do you think PC makers are making a profit on $499 machines? Nope. But what about that $99 service plan, representing another 20% of the cost of the machine, which is pure profit if nothing breaks? (the most likely case).
Think of it this way: why would they try to sell you something they would lose money on?
AppleCare is a must have. While I'd never buy it for a desktop machine (and never have) laptops take a tremendous amount of abuse and no matter how careful you are and how good the hardware is things will break. I've seen screens, optical and hard drives, motherboard connectors, keyboards, and batteries replaced without a hitch under AppleCare.
While the price of AppleCare for PowerBooks is the highest Apple charges (that might be indicative of the percentage of claims that relate to PowerBooks), it's less than the cost of a replacement motherboard or screen.
I had a used Pismo with no Applecare and after about a week I busted one of the arrow keys. I had the little bit of aluminum that busted off so I called and they said it was out of warranty but send it in anyway. So I did and four days later a package arrived from a local apple shop. It was a new keyboard.
So that may not answer your question but I've had good luck with Apple.
It's insurance. Insurance is a losing bet. They make a profit on it. If they are making a profit, then it must be a loss for the buyers (as a group, of course).
The purpose of insurance is not to save money, it's to avoid disaster. That's why insurance on something like a house is a good idea - no because it won't cost you money, but rather so that you're not wiped out if your house burns down.
If you can stand the loss, you're better off in the long run not buying extended warranties. Yes, there will be times when something will break, and you'd have been better off having bought the insurance, but overall, you'll have more money in your pocket if you don't buy insurance on things you can stand (however painful) to lose.
My company has 10 iBooks we give out on a regular basis, so they see their share of abuse while moving from room to room and person to person. When we bought them, we talked about getting AppleCare but since we've never had it on other Macs, the management angle was to avoid spending another $3000 to support all of these.
Now, I know the company line that Ni-Cad batteries have no memory. I also have seen on 10 iBooks that if you don't follow good practices of fully charging the laptop and allowing it a few cycles now and then, you'll have 10 batteries with a life of 30 minutes or less within a year. So I've now replaced every battery in my iBooks because of this short-life problem. This IS covered by AppleCare. Free $129 battery if you call and explain your's has no life. In 3 years, I go easily see you going through two or three batteries.
And then...maybe gravity takes hold and one of these laptops happens to "fall." Well, AppleCare will cover the screen and most other parts, so long as physical damage is not evident (no cracked or shattered screen and plastic). We had an LCD completely wig out and fail after the warranty expired. The procedure is this...
You call Apple, and they charge you $50 to talk to them. Then, they decide it needs to get sent back, and you ship it on a credit card which has an estimate of what it might cost. Mine was between $400-800. Two days later I got the iBook back. Two weeks later I got the bill. $869 for a new screen, the repair labor, and shipping.
AppleCare might seem like a waste...and some warranty programs are. But if EVER you need it, you're saving a lot of money in the long run.
-Barkeep, a draft of your most hazardous brew, for the world is slowly stepping into focus, and I don't like what I see.
Early Titanium PowerBooks (15" before they called them that) in the 400 to 500 megahertz range G4 processor had problems with the screen developing always-on vertical lines. Apple will charge you around $800 to $1200 to fix this problem. Unfortunately, that's the depreciated value of those powerbooks at this point. Applecare would have taken care of this issue for $50. It took about 18 months before this problem developed widely and powerbook owners were able to corroborate stories that this problem was widespread. I've heard of keyboard-issues with the 12" models, but can't confirm that. My next powerbook will have AppleCare, as this is a piece of business equipment I can't afford to have not work perfectly all the time (kinda like a high availability server).
http://tinyurl.com/4ny52
Replying to my own reply, just wanted to add that I didn't mean to sound quite so negative about AppleCare ;)
No, it's not what most people would think of as "insurance", but that doesn't mean it's worthless. A lot of the other posts in this thread indicate that Apple is pretty lenient in what you call a manufacturing defect (and thus covered by their warranty) versus what they could argue was damage due to, you know, flying monkeys. So it may be well worth the money.
Buying the next two years of coverage for my iBook 700MHz w/DVD/CDRW Combo will cost me what, $300?
If I can manage sell that iBook for $900 (which is not far off the going rate for that particular configuration,) I could turn around and buy a new 12" iBook 900MHz, which not only buys me another year of warranty, but sports a faster CPU, twice the video memory, and twice HD space. Total net cost: about $400.
Time to activate that eBay seller's account, I think. :)
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
My iBook went through: two hard drives, two lcds, four logic boards, two batteries, a power inverter and various and sundry other bits, all within its first year. All problems speedily repaired by Apple at no cost to me. Opting for Apple Care to extend the hardware coverage beyond the first year was something i didn't have to think twice about.
So, unless you think you're going to need telephone tech support beyond the initial 90 days -- which I never did -- I would advise you to see how it goes over the course of the first year and make your decision based on that. I'm told that Apple doesn't like it if you don't have continuous coverage, however, so if you do decide to go with AppleCare, make sure to purchase it before the anniversary of your powerbook's purchase.
Given that any single hardware repair on an out of warranty powerbook is $379, and the cost of 3 years of powerbook applecare is $350, even if you only need it once, it's a deal.