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Ask HN: Mac users, do you get AppleCare for your Macs?

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41–50 of 79 posts

Re: Ask HN: Mac users, do you get AppleCare for your Macs?

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

mine has a problem with a plug that costs $80 to replace. and it happened twice and may even happen once more before apple care expires in 2 months

The mag-safe connector? Mine is going bad. Intermittent LED, and the cord is starting to fray at the connector. I had to tape it up. Seems like a bad design. I notice they use a completely different mag-safe connector on the 24" cinema display and on the macbook air. bad: http://imgur.com/TmRbu.jpg good: http://imgur.com/9ciyo.jpg

yep. $80 each. a known problem, they said.

yeah, that new design looks a lot more robust

Re: Ask HN: Mac users, do you get AppleCare for your Macs?

#44
Yes. I buy AppleCare on eBay (at the moment 130€ vs. 350€ from Apple for a MacBook Pro). It’s not a scam, it worked twice for me already.

I probably wouldn’t buy it for Apple’s price, but considering my screen was replaced twice, my mainboard once, my battery three times and my keyboard once it would have been worth it even for 350€.

(Would be nice if someone could explain how those eBay sellers can sell AppleCare so cheaply. Buying it in the US would bring down the price only to a bit more than 260€. Even if they manage to get a educational discount the price only goes down to 180€.)

Re: Ask HN: Mac users, do you get AppleCare for your Macs?

#45
All my Mac laptops have been covered for 3 years under a different agreement so I've never purchased AppleCare for them. I won't have this option with my next machine so I will be purchasing AppleCare — why? My Apple laptop history is as follows:

* replacement logic board on a 15" PowerBook

* replacement top-housing and fan on a black MacBook

* replacement logic board on a 15" MacBook Pro

2 of the above cropped up after the initial warranty period and would no doubt have cost more than AppleCare. If it's a laptop and you intend to keep it well beyond a year, in my experience AppleCare is worth considering.

EDIT: Also had a power brick replaced on the 15" MacBook Pro due to a frayed cord outside warranty period.

Re: Ask HN: Mac users, do you get AppleCare for your Macs?

#47

For laptops, always. It's a certainty that something that would otherwise cost > $300 to repair will break in three years.

Come on, if it was really as certain as all that, Apple would be making a loss on AppleCare. (I guess it's possible that they are running it at a loss, but it seems unlikely.)

Re: Ask HN: Mac users, do you get AppleCare for your Macs?

#48
post #30

I'm not making this up. Intern of mine spilled 32oz of soda on his mbp. He dumped as much out of his keyboard as he could but it wouldn't come back on the next day. You're not hiding that from Apple. His machine was on year 3 and had a few screen issues too. He figured he'd send it in under applecare and see what they said. They fixed it. Replaced the keyboard, replaced the screen, replaced the trackpad. No questions…

Someone spilled wine on my 4-month-old, AppleCare-covered MacBook while it was being used for a live show. It stayed alive to the end of the show, then immediately died. Apple charged me $800 to have it fixed. I had to have it repaired twice again after that (both of those were free, since the previous two repairs had been wrong.) During and after that, the battery failed and needed replacement four times. The last time, the Apple Genius told me that batteries are not covered after the first year, so I would have to pay for it myself. He looked at the repair history on the laptop and had sympathy, and replaced it for free.

To this day, the laptop does not work correctly, even though every individual component has been replaced at least once. Also, they made a typo when setting the serial number on the motherboard, which I had to tell Apple each time I had it serviced, since it didn't match the one on my AppleCare plan (replaced a B with an 8.)

Of course, the laptop had been working fine until a drunk hipster dumped box wine all over it. I wish the repairs had been perfect and free, but they weren't. I've gone through a lot of Apple products over the years, and this is the only one where I've had problems. All of the ones before and after have been fine, and this one had been fine until the wine.

Anyway, this is just an anecdote. Don't expect your own fuckups to be covered under AppleCare. It's an extended warranty, not insurance. If the parent is telling the truth, then he's an exception, not the rule.

Re: Ask HN: Mac users, do you get AppleCare for your Macs?

#49
post #27

Yes. Got fan replaced twice, battery once, keyboard components once because of weird sound. Also, I check it in every month for general cleaning and service. Fan, keyboard and logic board failures are very common with Macs. Just google and see. I'd suggest you get AppleCare. But don't buy it at the time of purchase, you can wait 11 months and buy, sometimes you might end up changing the machine in less than a year, t…

>Fan, keyboard and logic board failures are very common with Macs.

This could be an argument for Applecare, but it could also be an argument against buying a Mac.

Re: Ask HN: Mac users, do you get AppleCare for your Macs?

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mag-safe connector? Mine is going bad. Intermittent LED, and the cord is starting to fray at the connector. I had to tape it up. Seems like a bad design. I notice they use a completely different mag-safe connector on the 24" cinema display and on the macbook air. bad: http://imgur.com/TmRbu.jpg good: http://imgur.com/9ciyo.jpg

yep. $80 each. a known problem, they said. yeah, that new design looks a lot more robust

There's a newer design that they're using on the new laptops, similar to (but sleeker than) the air adapter pictured above.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/typo3temp/pics/d4598c4081.jpg

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