Angry Dictator

1. Posted by Bob - 03/03/2004

   I’ve had great experiences with AppleCare. It’s paid for itself on both my PowerBooks. Of course, the fact that both laptops needed service might mean that Apple manufacturing quality control is inadequate to start with.

   I agree that AppleCare price is high compared to the competition. It also sucks that all PowerBooks must be repaired in Texas. No matter what the problem, the machine has to go away. Still, the last repair was out and back in three days tops, not bad.

2. Posted by James - 03/03/2004

   Remember that the value of the extended warranty is just one factor when considering a computer purchase. I sure hope you consider them all before you regress to a Dell and recommend anyone else to do the same.

3. Posted by Brad - 03/03/2004

   You need to read the fine print on the dell warranty… All is not as it seems.

4. Posted by PJ Doland - 03/03/2004

   I don’t need to read the fine print. I’ve had a Dell-contracted technician in my home 2 years and 11 months into a three-year warranty to replace an LCD on a laptop because it wasn’t as bright as it should have been. And he was there the day after my support call.

5. Posted by coolspin - 03/03/2004

   personally i feel u have a choice - sub standard Dell products or quality Apple products - if u think Dell is superior, go ahead but just don’t whine and bitch when u encounter some problems with them.

6. Posted by Dave - 03/03/2004

   And if you had a relationship with a Apple Authorized Service Provider who repairs PowerBooks, they would fix it on site… And if any individual or company tells you that they will have a repair done by a specific date, then they’re just trying to get your business by lying; it’s almost impossible to do. Unless you do really crappy work.

7. Posted by PJ Doland - 03/03/2004

   Don’t get me wrong, I love my Mac. But it infuriates me that Apple only offers one standard of service where duration is the only variable. As a business owner, I can’t wait two-weeks for a repair. Many years ago I worked for a hardware manufacturer that shipped out replacement units as soon as they received a defective unit from a customer. For $349.00 you should get that kind of service.

8. Posted by PJ Doland - 03/03/2004

   And BTW, I’m pretty sure that the Apple Store is an Apple Authorized Service Provider, and they wouldn’t fix it.

9. Posted by asciii - 03/03/2004

   Apple Stores are NOT Apple Authorized Service Providers - they just ship them out. Personally I have the 12 inch REV A and the “HEAT” hasn’t Damaged it one bit - and it runs 24/7 as my desktop machine on high settings.

   Your just a Troll.

10. Posted by PJ Doland - 03/03/2004

    If you search http://wheretobuy.apple.com/locator/service.html to find Apple Authorized Service providers it lists Apple Retail stores. So who’s the troll?

11. Posted by Larry - 03/03/2004

    I love AppleCare and don’t mind paying for it. My experiences have been very good with it. My brother just had his first encounter with AppleCare and he couldn’t believe that any company could do the repairs in such a short turnaround time - 18 hours! He lives in Iowa and had a problem with his 12″ G3 iBook, it kept locking up on him. We tried everything I knew to fix it and finally I told him to call AppleCare. He called them on Sunday night, the box to ship it to Apple arrived on Tuesday, he shipped it FedEX that afternoon and at noon on Wednesday he got it back, and repaired correctly. 18 hours!!

    Needless to say, he is singing the praises of AppleCare.

12. Posted by Stefan Oetter - 03/03/2004

    A good example to NEVER deal with Apple directly or with their stores. As an Apple Dealer we repair PowerBooks in a day or two with NO FUSS! Dealing mail-order or big box…you get that sort of response in a time of need. Support your dealers.

13. Posted by Rich - 03/03/2004

    The main message to take from this experience is that you got more comments from this post than you have in the last two months. I guess this means that there are many nerds lurking in cyberspace googling “applecare”.

    I really have no opinion. I paid for applecare and haven’t used it. My 15″ albook is fine so far.

    Also turns out this is more controversial than the passion of the gibson

14. Posted by Erin - 03/03/2004

    The only reason I care about this thread is because I want apple to send his computer back correctly fixed pronto so that I can erase Jack’s profile off my machine. I don’t like sharing things. I think I failed that part of kindergarten. ;)

    I also agree with Rich, I think more people should be responding to the hysterical conversation that I overheard about The Passion, three posts down. Absolutely riotous. I’m still laughing about it.

15. Posted by dvc - 03/04/2004

    Extra costs using Dell :

    • You need to tripple your IT personel to support your users

    • You need to buy extrz software like a professional viruskiller & a firewall ( still this doesn’t mean your protected )

    • You have to stop your employes customizing their desktop with 3th party apps ( they mess up windows & are uneasy to remove - on other hand with Macs all works fluent )

    • you have to expect less work to be done in a days work & expect to pay your employes overtime due to this fact

    I’dd say those Dell’s become pretty expensive machines considering all these issue’s , plus employe satisfaction will fall back too .

    So Keep Using Mac’s , don’t complain & get replacement machines if u need a repair

16. Posted by Anonymous Coward - 03/04/2004

    I’ve had both good and not-so-good experiences with AppleCare. On the good side, they’ve more than kept their word, covering an AirPort base station that wasn’t purchased with a Mac. They’ve sent technicians three hours by car to fix my iMacs (I live in the mountains, far from any Apple dealer or service center). They’ve shipped portables for repair, quickly and reliably, and even changed a hard disk in an iBook that was too noisy.

    I did have a bad experience recently, and ended up escalating my repairs through personal contacts at Apple. It was a complicated problem, but it was resolved.

    I find AppleCare no worse than the service provided by PC manufacturers, and, in most cases, better.

17. Posted by Tim - 03/07/2004

    I’ve been happy with AppleCare. I’ve sent my iBook (G3 600) back 3 times for repair. Each time I’ve dropped it off at the Apple store on a Saturday, and gotten it back, fixed, by the following Wednesday. I use my iBook very heavily (and probably a little abusively) so it’s been more than worth it to me. And the iBook contract is only $250.

    Could you please turn off the requiring of email addresses? I’m only going to put in a bogus one…

18. Posted by Stephen - 03/15/2004

    Yeah, I never get apple care with my purchases because on the few times when I had it and needed it, it has been far too much trouble.

19. Posted by Tim - 04/02/2004

    An anecdote to add to the positive side of the AppleCare ledger:

    I took my 2001 iBook (G3/600) in for repairs two weeks ago. They still had my Minnesota address (I live in DC now) in their database, and when I signed my iBook over to them I pointed out the discrepency to the “genius,” who apparently did not enter the new address correctly. The shipping company dropped it off in Minnesota without getting a signature, and when I called a few days later to find out where it was, they couldn’t retrieve it. Instead, they’re going to send me a G4/800 iBook with a bigger hard drive, a better graphics card, a combo drive, and an 802.11g card.

    So in exchange for being computerless for ~3 weeks, I get a free tradeup to a much faster machine. I was planning on buying a new machine early next year anyway, so I’m a very happy customer.

20. Posted by John - 11/27/2004

    I have had some horrible experiances with AppleCare lately. I sent my 12″ in for repair. After a few days they called and told me it’d cost $640. I ok’d it because i wanted the repair done. After a week, needing the machine for a trip, I called and checked up on it. It was waiting parts and they couldnt guarantee when it’d be fixed. Since the machine ran “ok” I told them to ship it back to me and cancel the repair. That was on a monday. On tuesday I got an email telling me it was on hold, for parts. On wednesday I called and was told the same thing… so I cancelled again. On friday I looked at the web interface and it said “in repair”. I called and they admitted fault and said it had already completed repair but that I would not be charged the $640 and they’d ship it to the location I was going on a trip to. They shipped it to my regular shipping address, and today my credit card showed a charge of $640 from apple computers. Thus far they have screwed up every single aspect of my dealing with them. I’m wondering how such incompetant people can get away with this?

21. Posted by KJW - 02/20/2005

    IMHO applecare is just not worth it. I have bought applecare for my last three Macs (last one is a powerbook 15 incher) and which replaced two logic boards and a bad speaker, problems that were apparent during the first year. These problems were basically covered under teh first year waranty anyway. No repairs were ever needed during the second or third years. I’m guessing that is often teh case. Regarding the third computer a powerbook (less than six months old) the one time that I have needed a repair was caused by personal accident. I droppped it in its bag and dented the corner. The applecare plan clearly states that accidental damage is not covered which means that the $650 for repairs would have to be sucked up by yours truly. Now at roughly $300 bucks for each plan, that comes out to be over $900 bucks. That $900 bucks did not cover any repairs not covered by the original warranty AND I’ll have to pay $650 for the repair that I caused (comes out to be $1550). With this money I could have payed for the repair that I caused and still had $900 bucks to spare. Apple makes great computers and I’ll continue to buy them but the protection plan is way overpriced for what you get. Better to save your money and fix it if need be, chances are any faulty equipment will fail during the first year anyway. BTW APPLE if your listening get with the program and offer us accidental protection coverage like Dell does ( and no flaming over this one please ). If they did that then I would consider buying their coverage again. Let’s be honest, portable devices are not like destops and can easilly be mishandled and that should be taken into account for any protection plan. I think that everyone should start asking more of apple in this regard. Other things that I would like to see in future applecare services are the ability to upgrade hardrives, etc in a fashion that is cheaper than what someone without applecare pays…. currently if you replace the hardrive yourself you void the warranty. Lastly, if accidental coverage is not ever covered under the applecare protection I would at least like to know that if I need a repair such as those not routinely covered under the warranty (such as cosmetic damage etc) that I can at least afford the reparis they do. Too charge $650 for a replacement bottom housing (which costs less than $200 bucks) while I own applecare protection is just too steep. Its a huge rip off and I would have been better off saving my $$ for repairs. Anyway, that’s just my two cents.

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