AppleCare or MacMall's Service Net?

[heatasmallhouse]

Has anyone had any experience with "Service Net," the warrantee extension program offered through MacMall? It would appear to offer all the coverage of AppleCare + accidental damage (ie- Mac goes boom, your fault) for LESS.

With the new MBPs coming at WWDC, I will be investing in one and the horror story in the "I dropped my MBP!!" thread is making me cringe. So what's up with the Service Net plans? Good? Rubbish? What have you heard? And more importantly, for all of us about to buy a MBP, do you have a personal experience dealing with them?

Thanks in advance, appreciate it.

 

[Aea]

MacMall has a 1.76 / 10 rating on reseller ratings, so I'd be skeptical of even buying from them unless there were plenty of satisfied customers (http://www.resellerratings.com/store/macmall).

 

[heatasmallhouse]

In the past year about 4 of my friends have ordered thru MacMall with success. And the tax free + rebates makes it almost a no brainer for me. The main question was about Service Net, which I believe is a third party company offering the warantee thru MacMall. Thanks for the advice tho, I'd never seen that site before.

So, Service Net anybody?

 

[Cindynjgirl79]

i have never used anything but applecare and i love it. sorry but i just don't trust anything that is not apple. stick with applecare it's worth the cost.

 

[heatasmallhouse]

The accidental coverage is what appeals to me more that the cost. Thanks for the reply

 

[dcains]

Hard to believe macmall.com would have such a crappy resellerratings number, and honestly I'd not thought to look before purchasing my MBP from them about a month ago. But, I had a great buying experience, and am about to buy a 2gHz whitebook for my wife from them, too.

Having said that, I think AppleCare is the only way to go, and if one shops around a bit, it can be found for a lot cheaper than from Apple or the other big-name resellers. I paid ~$250 for AppleCare from lacomputercompany.com, and I've heard of others getting even better deals on eBay. As for accident coverage, I've got ~$10K of camera gear covered under a StateFarm personal articles policy, and with the MBP added, pay ~$180/year, with pre-agreed values on everything and a zero deductible. I'm guessing MBP coverage alone would be less than $40/year.

 

[heatasmallhouse]

Hm. You know, I didn't even think about State Farm or similar options. I'll look into that. Thank you.