Apple Care on MBA 11 inch, is it even needed?

[Beanoir]

In 17 years of Mac ownership i've never bothered with Applecare.

I have had to fix computers, superdrive failed recently in fact on an old Mini, but that is after 6 years so Applecare wouldn't have been applicable anyway.

I've spent far less on repairs than I would have spent on Applecare on new Macs over the years by LONG way.

However, if you're not up to fixing computers yourself, then you're probably best off with Applecare for piece of mind.

 

[MrXiro]

i just had bad RAM replaced on a 2009 mac mini.

sure, i am just wasting time right now on the forum, but duplicate threads are annoying. this started out specific to the air, but then you just went off on some crazy, general crystal balling, essentially ignoring everything that was offered.

and sure, just like you are free to post either way, i am free to complain.

you may like to think everyone on here is 'speculating' very 'theoretical' potential failures, because you probably don't want to shell out $200 after getting such a good deal on it from Amazon, but the fact is computers fail. i don't know where you got the idea these things don't happen in the first three years. it's a simple matter of researching the question. in fact, people were trying to help you do that, but you didnt seem very interested after all.

Oh I know things happen... it's just based on all the computers I've personally owned the CD/DVD drive is the only thing that has ever full out failed on me before. I've never heard of RAM failing... not saying it's not possible. But it just seems based on my own experiences that probability seems low.

I could avoid the 200 dollars and just get Squaretrade for half off, if it was all about the money. I just felt like the MBA is least likely to fail so I wanted to know what actually fails.

I'm happy people are helping. I'll probably end up getting the Applecare next March or so... but hypothetically I could get hit by a bus or killed in an earthquake tomorrow and then I wouldn't need the Applecare either.

I never heard of a USB port or a power adapter etc...

or RAM for that matter... but that's a great one to worry about.

Thanks.

 

[nebulos]

Extended warranties are quite profitable for most businesses, including Apple. That makes Applecare a bad bet for the average buyer unless the product turns out to be far less reliable than typical for most Apple products (e.g. PowerBook Duos and 5300's). But I haven't seen any rumors of MacBook Airs dying in any significantly greater numbers than any other recent MacBook or PowerBook.

by this argument, you should never buy any insurance of any kind.

now, i have not completely researched the RAM issue, but if replacing RAM on a Air means getting a new logic board, that makes the Applecare question different for the Air than for other Macbooks. (note: you can live with a bad superdrive.)

is Applecare worth it for the Air? i don't know. i agree, i would certainly wait till the 11th month either way, on any computer. would i get it? i don't know. the RAM issue does worry me. if i planned to keep an Air for a long time, i might get it. maybe not on a $800 11" though.

 

[MrXiro]

In 17 years of Mac ownership i've never bothered with Applecare.

I have had to fix computers, superdrive failed recently in fact on an old Mini, but that is after 6 years so Applecare wouldn't have been applicable anyway.

I've spent far less on repairs than I would have spent on Applecare on new Macs over the years by LONG way.

However, if you're not up to fixing computers yourself, then you're probably best off with Applecare for piece of mind.

I actually do like to fix my computers myself!

I wouldn't say I'm an expert in any way but I have taken my Macbooks apart done the Optibay mod on a MBP and not afraid to get my hands dirty...

I want to put an SSD in my iMac... but I watched a video and that one scares me a little... a little bit daunting.

 

[MrXiro]

by this argument, you should never buy any insurance of any kind.

now, i have not completely researched the RAM issue, but if replacing RAM on a Air means getting a new logic board, that makes the Applecare question different for the Air than for other Macbooks. (and note, you can live with a bad superdrive.)

is Applecare worth it for the Air? i don't know. i agree, i would certainly wait till the 11th month either way, on any computer. would i get it? i don't know. the RAM issue does worry me. if i planned to keep an Air for a long time, i might get it. maybe not on a $800 11" though.

I've bought the extended warranties on about 75% of all the stuff I've ever bought from Best Buy and I ended up cashing out the product every time... they cover batteries and such under their warranty so when my iPod Touch's battery crapped out I was able to score the 4th Gen!

But yeah my biggest weight on this issue here is $211 (amazon's price) on an 800 dollar machine is a bit steep. On another thought though... as long as your Macbook isn't smashed Apple tends to "refurbish" your Mac for $310.

They pretty much did that for me when I went in for my flickering 9400m issue on my MBP... only they didn't charge me cause it was known defect... lucky for me though my Superdrive died about 2 weeks earlier and my airport crapped out a week after I got it back... I also got my speakers replaced because of a rattle... but apparently that's how all of the 15 inch MBPs are... at least of the '08 models, not sure if it was redesigned but the woofer on the right side causes a rattle at certain frequencies.

But yeah... for $310 for a 15 inch MBP that still looks in good shape they will fix any and all issues at once and you've got a 30 day warranty for the whole computer.

That's another reason to question Applecare... yes I can spend 249 for Applecare for peace of mind... but it's only saving me 60 bucks over the actual repair from Apple if anything actually DOES happen and if it doesn't then I didn't spend that money.

 

[nebulos]

Oh I know things happen... it's just based on all the computers I've personally owned the CD/DVD drive is the only thing that has ever full out failed on me before. I've never heard of RAM failing... not saying it's not possible. But it just seems based on my own experiences that probability seems low.

I could avoid the 200 dollars and just get Squaretrade for half off, if it was all about the money. I just felt like the MBA is least likely to fail so I wanted to know what actually fails.

I'm happy people are helping. I'll probably end up getting the Applecare next March or so... but hypothetically I could get hit by a bus or killed in an earthquake tomorrow and then I wouldn't need the Applecare either.

I never heard of a USB port or a power adapter etc...

or RAM for that matter... but that's a great one to worry about.

Thanks.

i haven't had a billion computers, and either way, that is the only time i've ever replaced RAM, but i had never thought of this as a rare type of computer failure; in fact, its possible this doesn't 'make the news' because its (usually) so cheap and easy to fix.

... or maybe RAM failure really is rare. i don't know. i'd like to know.

 

[MrXiro]

i haven't had a billion computers, and either way, that is the only time i've ever replaced RAM, but i had never thought of this as a rare type of computer failure; in fact, its possible this doesn't 'make the news' because its (usually) so cheap and easy to fix.

... or maybe RAM failure really is rare. i don't know. i'd like to know.

I mentioned it because I never heard of RAM failing and you said it has... and now I'm worried about it. This is a perfectly legit one to worry about... cause if the RAM fails on a MBA you're replacing the whole logic board...

 

[nebulos]

are you sure about this $310 flat fee?

my old powerbook had a widespread panel defect that Apple tried to deny for a really long time, (even though Dell did a recall on the same panels), but finally 'acknowledged'. the 'deal' that they offered was a flat repair fee of about $300.

since we're on the subject, why don't we clear this up?

by the way, the student price for Applecare on the 11" is $180 from Apple. (Not sure, but I think any student can buy AC for any computer.)

 

[MrXiro]

are you sure about this $310 flat fee?

my old powerbook had a widespread panel defect that Apple tried to deny for a really long time, (even though Dell did a recall on the same panels), but finally 'acknowledged'. the 'deal' that they offered was a flat repair fee of about $300.

since we're on the subject, why don't we clear this up?

by the way, the student price for Applecare on the 11" is $180 from Apple. (Not sure, but I think any student can buy AC for any computer.)

Oh I didn't have to pay anything for my repair... the nice genius waved it for me. But a different genius at the bar told me that there was a flat $310 repair for any and all issues as long as your machine looks in good shape. I keep all my stuff looking as good as new, also that any other issues afterwards was covered for 30 days... so I lucked out when the Airport crapped out and they did the speaker swap cause the genius heard the rattle too. It does sound like what they offered you though.

Or it might be a new thing. I'm not sure, it was the first time I ever went to the genius bar. Well then I went in over and over again for the following few weeks for various things. (once for my sister's macbook) I felt like I had computer munchausens.

Hmm... 180 isn't bad. I'll have to drag my daughter (she's 7) in to get the student discount though.

 

[nebulos]

i know you didn't have to pay. the flicker issue may have been a widespread problem, for which they may have offered a $310 flat repair fee. what the genuis told you may have been in this context. (i understand that, whatever the situation was, your repair costs were waived.)

$310 as a general flat repair fee sounds weird to me. couldn't a repair easily cost Apple more than that? why would they choose to lose money?

you should verify this, not only for yourself, but since you're posting about it here. if it's not true, you don't want to confuse/mislead people.

 

[MrXiro]

i know you didn't have to pay. the flicker issue may have been a widespread problem, for which they may have offered a $310 flat repair fee. what the genuis told you may have been in this context. (i understand that, whatever the situation was, your repair costs were waived.)

$310 as a general flat repair fee sounds weird to me. couldn't a repair easily cost Apple more than that? why would they choose to lose money?

you should verify this, not only for yourself, but since you're posting about it here. if it's not true, you don't want to confuse/mislead people.

Yeah like most things... people should check it out first. I could be totally off on this.

 

[s.hasan546]

IMHO applecare in general isn't worth it depending on your refresh cycle rate. I get a new laptop every year. So i could care less about the applecare. However, for my dad he keeps his laptops for 3-4 years. I always get him applecare.

Except on the MBA (well depending on the model.) The MBA 11" base is $850 refurb. I would not spend $250 (30% of purchase price) on a extended warranty. Esp. since in a year you could buy a used one for prob $500 or less.

 

[nebulos]

the flat fee repair question is discussed in this old but resurrected thread.

according to that discussion, which may or may not be accurate and/or up to date, Apple charges flat rates at four different tiers. Tier 1 = $310. Tier 4 = $1200. The tier is determined by the most costly repair and any lesser repairs are done free of additional charge. So, if replacing a GPU is Tier 1, but you also have a bad speaker, they fix both for $310, which sounds like what you were told.

If anyone cares to clarify or verify this, we'd appreciate it;

If this is true, the question then is which repairs fall into which tiers, (and how much do the other tiers cost). Of course, this, (as well the failure rates), is exactly the kind of info you'd want when deciding on Applecare, yet I feel like I haven't seen it discussed too much in the AC threads; then again, there are billions of them, so maybe its in there somewhere.

 

[nebulos]

IMHO applecare in general isn't worth it depending on your refresh cycle rate. I get a new laptop every year. So i could care less about the applecare. However, for my dad he keeps his laptops for 3-4 years. I always get him applecare.

Except on the MBA (well depending on the model.) The MBA 11" base is $850 refurb. I would not spend $250 (30% of purchase price) on a extended warranty. Esp. since in a year you could buy a used one for prob $500 or less.

$500 seems rather hopeful. the 2009 white macbook, originally $1000, is quite hard to find that cheap. you can find around it $600, but right now, for example, the cheapest ones on ebay are about $700. moreover, the 2009 MB is 'just another white macbook' in a vast sea of white macbooks. i doubt the 11" MBAs will lose so much of their luster so soon.

and again, AC on the Airs is $180 for students from Apple, or $200 for anyone from Amazon.

not saying its worth it or not, just that there are things to consider. you are also ignoring the RAM issue.

 

[s.hasan546]

$500 seems rather hopeful. the 2009 white macbook, originally $1000, is quite hard to find that cheap. you can find around it $600, but right now, for example, the cheapest ones on ebay are about $700. moreover, the 2009 MB is 'just another white macbook' in a vast sea of white macbooks. i doubt the 11" MBAs will lose so much of their luster so soon.

and again, AC on the Airs is $180 for students from Apple, or $200 for anyone from Amazon.

not saying its worth it or not, just that there are things to consider. you are also ignoring the RAM issue.

Sorry im new to this thread.

I have built many custom rigs, and have been in the pc world for awhile and i never had any ram failures (even with OCing them). I wouldn't buy AC just to protect one of the least probable failures in a computer.

Also i don't think $500 is unreasonable. Ive seen them go on craigslist for $600-$700 right now. I personally bought one for a friend for $650 off craigslist. I don't count ebay as much since after fees; etc, your take home amount for a $700 computer would be around $620-650 depending on how much or if you charged for shipping. Also take into consideration apple alrdy sell the base refurbs for $850, it'll probably drop even more to $700-$750 when the refresh happens. So $500-600 is not a unreasonable estimate.

 

[MrXiro]

the flat fee repair question is discussed in this old but resurrected thread.

according to that discussion, which may or may not be accurate and/or up to date, Apple charges flat rates at four different tiers. Tier 1 = $310. Tier 4 = $1200. The tier is determined by the most costly repair and any lesser repairs are done free of additional charge. So, if replacing a GPU is Tier 1, but you also have a bad speaker, they fix both for $310, which sounds like what you were told.

If anyone cares to clarify or verify this, we'd appreciate it;

If this is true, the question then is which repairs fall into which tiers, (and how much do the other tiers cost). Of course, this, (as well the failure rates), is exactly the kind of info you'd want when deciding on Applecare, yet I feel like I haven't seen it discussed too much in the AC threads; then again, there are billions of them, so maybe its in there somewhere.

That sounds a bit like what they were telling me... though I did end up getting a full on Logic Board, Speaker, Airport and Superdrive replaced on all the same "repair" though it was actually consecutive repairs. Oh I forgot to mention they also replaced my bottom panel on my MBP because they scratched the hell out of it replacing the logic board.

I'm not sure what defines each tier but one would think that a logic board would be considered a higher tier item. I was explained that it's more the condition your Mac is in... but maybe that was a misunderstanding/assumption of mine.

 

[MrXiro]

The reason she said they do that is for customer loyalty. She proceeded to tell me that with the flat rate repair they would fix anything and everything that was wrong with my macbook pro for that $310 as long as there was no water damage inside the machine. She said it would cover the logic board, the hdd, the video card, the screen and the isight camera and the bottom case where it is dented. Made me very happy because I only paid 400 and with this repair I can still sell the machine for around 900 and make roughly $150 on it or I can keep it if I want. I will probably sell it and get my money out of it since they are going to fix everything. But thats now and today, they do offer the service and it is a part of a tiered service plan they have.

Just saw this on the other page... this sounds about right! No water damage... that's probably what I took as "condition"

 

[nebulos]

well, like i said, i just had a problem with bad RAM in a (2009) Mac Mini. but i'd be happy to hear this is rare.