I havnt posted in a while, but I have a question. My time to purchase the applecare protection is running out, and my dad wanted me to post on a forum for advice. Does Applecare warrant a $349 price tag for a poor college student who uses his computer for school?
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definatly, disco inferno works on the poor saps that has no Applecare and he says that all machines have problems
I am typing on my NEW ibook G4 b/c my G3 died 14x
My brother is on his second imac (G4) as the last killed itself through the powersupply. and it wasn't a surge. The iMac G3's have the analog board problems. And the imac G5's have the overheating problems, same with the G5's ('cept they are more fan oriented) and the emacs are now built crappily. The only thing i have heard that is actually having no problems, is the Mac-mini.
But you will be glad you did, especially when you are poor, and can't replace the $500 part that coulda been prevented by buying the $349 applecare
even my ibook G4 had a problem when i first got it. The FW port fell out. (the metal insert that holds the cable into the port.) it just fell into my hands. So, even new machines can be defective. I would say: definatly!
so far, this powerbook has been reliable, I hope it stays that way, but I will take your advice.:) anybody else?
Due to the wear and tear that PowerBooks and iBooks see, Applecare is always a wise investment. Every PowerBook or iBook I've bought new has had Applecare on it. Considering that the PowerBooks and iBooks travel and see a lot of stress, especially in the case of a college student, you'll be thanking yourself for getting applecare when the machine is 18-19 months old. On average, that's when things tend to go wrong in my experience. Hard drives, logic boards, and lcds are not infallible and can fail. At 18 months, my 12" PowerBook G4's lcd went very very dark on the bottom left. And these are components beyond Apple's control. Toshiba/Hitachi/Fujitsu (hda's), Samsung/LG-Phillips (lcd's) don't always make devices that last terribly long or function well. (See LG-Chem battery debacle)
For a college student, Applecare is one of the wisest investments you can make. I bought a 500 mhz dual usb iBook while I was in college, and if it weren't for applecare I'd have been liable for the logic board that would have later been covered by the rea (failure occurred in mid 2002).
-iantm
I bought AppleCare for my iPod about a month before the iPod's original warranty was set to run out. I'm glad I bought it, as just today the HDD in my iPod failed, with about a month left on the extended warranty. The $50 or so I spent on AppleCare saved me from having to spend much more to either replace the HDD or buy a new iPod.
I recommend AppleCare, particularly on a laptop - there are more things that can break on a laptop, there are more opportunities for damage, and whatever does break is almost always more expensive to replace than on a desktop.
But regardless of whether you have a laptop or desktop, AppleCare is a good option because it can often get you better warranty service during the first year (when you already have the "normal" Apple warranty), as well as providing the extra two years.
Now, on the other hand, many credit cards will double the mfr's warranty - so if you bought your Mac with such a CC, you might actually have a 2-yr warranty instead of one. And, if the machine breaks in that 2nd year, you'll likely have an even easier time of it than it if breaks in the 1st year, because CC companies generally don't excude much of anything from warranty, while Apple has been known to be rather picky on that count.
Finally, if you're going to get AppleCare, look for a bargain. Unversity computer stores usually sell AppleCare for a discount (as does Apple's online EDU store, IIRC). But eBay can be an even better deal. As long as the seller has good feedback and the AppleCare is advertised as being for your model of computer, you should be good to go.
I purchased AppleCare for my iMac G4 on eBay. It cost me about $80. When I received it I called Apple and gave them the enrollment number. They validated it, and that was it. It was totally legit and I saved about $50 off even the EDU price for AppleCare for that machine.
Matt