Apple protection plan worth it?

L

LloydC

Veteran
I'm about to buy a 15' macbook pro and I'm wondering if that $400 protection plan is worth it?

That's quite a lot of money to dump into an extended warranty, where in 3 years, my MBP will probably be obsolete.

What do you guys think?
 
Definitely worth it if you travel a lot- these things do break unexpectedly with a lot of wear and tear. Of course if you drop it off a building not going to be much help... :thumbsup:

Noah
 
I say no, it's not worth it. Put that $400 aside for your next computer. Here's why:

Your new laptop is soon to be worth only half of what you paid for it. It's got a 1-year warranty. In two years the newest Macs will be better and cheaper. If your's dies, you'll have the option of a new one, or buying a used one just like the one you have for a reduced price on Ebay. Either way, you'll be in control.

You're a techie - by the third year, your machine is ready for an uprade anyway.
 
NoahK said:
Definitely worth it if you travel a lot- these things do break unexpectedly with a lot of wear and tear. Of course if you drop it off a building not going to be much help... :thumbsup:

Noah
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I agree. I get it with all of my macs I use for business.
 
pcascio said:
I say no, it's not worth it. Put that $400 aside for your next computer. Here's why:

Your new laptop is soon to be worth only half of what you paid for it. It's got a 1-year warranty. In two years the newest Macs will be better and cheaper. If your's dies, you'll have the option of a new one, or buying a used one just like the one you have for a reduced price on Ebay. Either way, you'll be in control.

You're a techie - by the third year, your machine is ready for an uprade anyway.
Click to expand...

That may be true for PC, but not macs.

My macs last far longer and have had a better useable service life than any of my pcs.
 
Yup- a four year old G5 is still totally usable today as is a 4 year old Powerbook. Of course there will always be newer faster but I'd say Mac's viability is quite lengthy.

-Noah
 
The APP is definitely worth it. Apple will ship the part to you overnight and provide a box to ship it back while covering the shipping cost. Plus the APP covers phone support as well.
 
Depends on how often you buy new laptops I suppose. It makes sense if it's your main machine and if you can't afford to loose it. All the parts in the MBP are custom, and the cheapest repair is the hard drive, which is an hour of labour ($70-100) + around $70 for the smallest slowest 80GB HDD. Everything else is far more expensive. The top case alone, the keyboard and the trackpad, is around $170.

The least you can do is back up regularly. I'm sure you knew that but I just see too many people coming into the store with the words "I have to get his machine working by tomorrow. All my work is on there!" and I can already tell that there is no way they can recover their data.
 
well not to many people get that you can buy the extended warretty up to 360 days after purchase. why would some one pay when they buy the computer. if it gets stolen in the first year your s.o.l . even if you want it buy it at the last minute. or after 11 months you will sell it before the warrentty is up and then the new owner can buy it at his exspence. every dollar for me counts.
 
jetaddiction@mac.com said:
well not to many people get that you can buy the extended warretty up to 360 days after purchase. why would some one pay when they buy the computer. if it gets stolen in the first year your s.o.l . even if you want it buy it at the last minute. or after 11 months you will sell it before the warrentty is up and then the new owner can buy it at his exspence. every dollar for me counts.
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You can transfer your APP to another machine. So lets say your apple is stolen you can switch it to another computer. Also the APP starts from the original date of purchase and not from the time you purchase the APP so if you are going to buy it you might as well buy it in the beginning.
 
NoahK said:
Yup- a four year old G5 is still totally usable today as is a 4 year old Powerbook. Of course there will always be newer faster but I'd say Mac's viability is quite lengthy.

-Noah
Click to expand...

Yup, my powerbook G4 is still a viable uncompressed edit station with an aja io la.
 
NoahK said:
Sure that's one way to do it- a lot of people forget too.

Noah
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A lot of people forget, indeed. The funniest thing is that the machine breaks down within a month after the 1-year warranty expires which once again proves that technology, too, abides the laws of irony.
 
I recommend it, although I don't remember it being so much. Did they recently raise the prices for AppleCare?

I had a recent experience of a FW800 transfer issue with my G5. They thought it was the logic board so they replaced that and even sent a tech to me rather than me taking it to an Apple Store. That didn't fix the problem so they replaced the memory. Again they sent the tech to my home. I had 512MB RAM installed from factory, plus 4GB of my own. They ended up sending him out with 2GB to replace the 512MB, and he just swapped them and said it was ok since that's what they sent. It fixed the problem and upgraded me from 4.5GB to 6GB RAM for free.

I've since paid $130 to upgrade to the maxed out 8GB. Seemed worth it at that point, especially with FCS2.

It's been especially worth it for the on-site service.
 
I believe you can also cancel your APP for a pro-rated amount. Many people do forget to purchase the APP within a year, but if you register the computer Apple will usually send you a reminder/offer before the year is up.
 
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