I've gotten it for my last two laptops. It's a little spendy, but I find the peace of mind more than worth it, particularly after my partner's experience with her iBook some years back. That particular model had some notorious hardware problems, which in her case didn't pop up until her laptop was (just barely) out of warranty. She ended up needing to use her AppleCare several times before everything was finally resolved. If she hadn't had it, it would have ended up being quite expensive. Apple's QA has improved quite a bit since then, but still...
Ask HN: Mac users, do you get AppleCare for your Macs?
11–20 of 79 posts
Re: Ask HN: Mac users, do you get AppleCare for your Macs?
#12No. Assuming the seller isn't stupid, insurance has a negative expected value. You should still buy it if the loss you're protecting against would catastrophic, which is the case for health and homeowner's insurance, and is absolutely not the case for a Mac.
I've owned around 10 Macs in the last 15 years. Foregoing AppleCare has "saved" me over $2000, and the damage that would have been covered had I bought it is less than $500.
Re: Ask HN: Mac users, do you get AppleCare for your Macs?
#1310% is my limit for any warranty.
If you're worried it'll die, and you won't be able to afford to replace it, scale back. you can add ram later, you can improve the hd later.
I think you'll get more peace of mind by doing some math. Computers are the tools i use for work, so i tend to buy new ones fairly frequently. The odds of me using any given computer for more that 2 years are pretty low. So, how much of a hardship would it be to replace that earlier?
If it's really a budget stretch, you might think about moving to the cheaper end of the spectrum. What if it gets stolen? applecare is no help.
Also, the first 30 days come with applecare. Usually if hardware is going to die, it'll die quick. Flexing the motherboard for years will kill a laptop eventually, but meh.
Re: Ask HN: Mac users, do you get AppleCare for your Macs?
#14No. Laptops are replaced every 18-24 months. AppleCare and any other warranty for laptops is completely worthless. When I went to buy my current MacBook the salesman actually refused to sell me one after I told him I wasn't going to buy the warranty since I'd just be replacing it again next year.
Re: Ask HN: Mac users, do you get AppleCare for your Macs?
#15Have had 3 Macs, all laptops, and never bought the warranty. Had one laptop need in warranty service, but all mostly trouble-free.
Also if you buy with your American Express card, they cover up to an additional year of your original warranty.
Re: Ask HN: Mac users, do you get AppleCare for your Macs?
#16For RevA products: yes. Everything else, no.
RevA Apple products are guaranteed to die right after year 1, in my (limited && anecdotal) experience. I had to take in my Rev A Macbook when they just switched to intel 5 times, got the bezel & mother board replaced. So, if you're getting an iPad now or new gen macbooks, then yes.
Re: Ask HN: Mac users, do you get AppleCare for your Macs?
#17You can get completely valid warranties for half price on eBay, which makes it a pretty unambiguously good idea, in my opinion.
Re: Ask HN: Mac users, do you get AppleCare for your Macs?
#18No, I haven't because I don't like to pay a premium for something that should come with the product. In the EU, in my case the Netherlands, anyone who sells a product is responsible for its reliability during the time a customer can reasonably expect it to work. When it breaks after more than two years I will have replaced it anyway.
In my case they have covered the repair of an iMac that broke a few months after their 'warranty' of one year expired. One of my interns, however, was refused support in a similar situation with a faulty PowerBook screen. His uncle, a lawyer, wrote some angry letters to Apple on his behalf, but if I remember correctly they decided that it wasn't worth the costs of going to court.
Re: Ask HN: Mac users, do you get AppleCare for your Macs?
#19No.
My thoughts are warranties/insurance are the following:
* If having to repurchase/cover the item would seriously hurt my financials, then I buy it (car insurance, rental insurance, etc are good examples).
* For everything else, I skip it.
I figure that by self-insuring, I come out ahead in the end. Sure, there's always some gadgets that fail past the end date of the manufacturers warranty. However, replacing those items tends to cost less than buying warranties for everything. Besides, if they fail past the manufacturer's warranty, there's usually some improved version of it I've been eying anyways.
Re: Ask HN: Mac users, do you get AppleCare for your Macs?
#20AppleCare is the only kind of extended warranty I have ever bought. I'm glad I did -- my Macbook Pro needed multiple repairs within the last few years, including logic board replacement. I'll buy AppleCare again for my upcoming MBP update.