AppleCare

© Apple

I’m not one for buying warranties. In fact, I usually ignore them altogether as most warranties are excuses for companies to pilfer more of your money (and sometimes used as a scare tactic at the end of your purchase depending on the type of business). However, there are times where warranties are a worthy investment but do your research and weigh the odds.

In my case, AppleCare has proven to be worth the money. Back in 2007, when I bought my first Apple MacBook Pro laptop, I was offered a warranty and ignored it at first but a friend convinced me to reconsider (as Apple gives you up to a year to decide from original purchase). I’m glad he did because it payed off in the end. During the life of the warranty I ended up replacing the following:

• Graphics card (burnt out, lost all display) - $400 repair parts and labor (roughly)
• Hard drive (overheated) - $300 parts and labor (roughly)
• Optical drive (broken, wouldn’t read disks anymore) - $200 parts and labor (roughly)

Those prices are estimates as I only have rough figures from what AppleCare claimed the cost was during those repairs (so I could be a little low or high). Regardless, the point is that AppleCare, which costs around $250, paid for itself and then some.

If you are a developer, like me, who uses a laptop 10 to 12 hours/day in all kinds of conditions (as I did travel to San Francisco and through Chaco Canyon in 50+ miles of rough rock road with my laptop in the top case of my motorcycle) then you might want to consider buying this plan.

1 Comment to AppleCare

1. 

   I agree for some Macs. For an iPhone or iPad I don’t get it. But it has paid off for sure on my MacBook Pro (CD Drive, Battery, and I think I’ll take it in to get a fan looked at that’s making noise before my warranty runs out).
Ken Walker on June 18th, 2010

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