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AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac Pro? Should I purchase it?

J

Jelly Belly

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 22, 2007
2
0
This past week my wife's G4 hard drive went out after about 6 or 7 years of great service:eek:. Let me tell you she wore it out with Photoshop and Illustrator.

Anyway, yesterday I went and bought her a new MAC PRO, 2.66 Dual with 3G. Plugged it in last night and it was effortless how quickly and seamless it is to get it started for her. Literally plug and play (or work in her case).

I purchased a 3 year year protection plan for the system at $249.99 - I have not opened the box and resgistered it yet - it it needed? Is it advisable to not purchase it?

Thanks in advance for your comments!

The Jelly Belly :D
 
warranty is an essential part of te system. Usually apple products are not trouble makers but as time passes the wear and tear the system has to go through makes it vulnerable to problems therfore i always advice people to buy the warranty.
 
For Desktops, if they don't fail within the first year, I think they will last a long time. Perhaps the harddrives or motherboard could fail, but that's just my opinion.
 
Personally, i would have waited 11 months as you can buy AC anytime in the 12 months after purchase, You get 90 days telephone cover and 12 months service cover at apple authorized repair place anyway, then when the beastie is 11 months old buy applecare, no point spending the wedge on it when you can spend it on other things, $249 will buy you a lot of swizzle lollipops :p or in my case i have new radiators to pay for, so AC can wait till the MP's 11 months old.

thats just my thoughts ;)
 
IMHO,

Just remember that extended warranties produce very high profit margins for companies, when I was at CompUSA it was around 70%. So the odds of you needing it are not terribly high. There is always a chance the system could break, making the warranty worthwhile, most likely it is unnecessary.

I for one have never purchased an extended warranty and have never needed one. Most likely over a lifetime of electronics purchases if I always bought warranties, the amount spent on those warranties would net a higher lifetime cost than if I never payed for a warranty and payed for the repairs/replacement myself. From my experience the most likely component to break is the super drive, but you can get something faster with Lightscribe for under $30 at Newegg. The next most likely is the hard drive that is still far cheaper than the warranty.

Of course I could never own a computer for over a year without tinkering around with the innards, thus voiding the warranty:D.
 
Yeah I am in this situation I am sitting at almost a year old with my system. So i have less then 30 days to decide.......So far I have had no problems what so ever...I don't think i will buy AC. I just don't think its worth it on the towers. On laptops yes it is, but towers I don't think so.
 
Not worth it, in my opinion and most consumer reports state the same. The only item that it is useful for is a laptop - tighter fit, battery, is moved around & suject to more of a beating, and repairs are harder to make and more expensive.

What will your desktop be worth in 3-4 years anyway? A few hundred if you are lucky. And if you do have something that goes wrong after the manuf. warranty, you would still have the $250 (plus interest) you saved, to help repair it. A lot of components are replaceable by you anyway, if you do some research. And the prices of components such as graphics cards, memory, etc. drop with time. So in all probability, you can just buy the part and do it yourself.

If you do stick with the Applecare, check out lacomputer company - they sell it cheaper.

www.lacomputercompany.com/cgi-bin/rpcart/featured.cgi?group=appcare
 
Just get it off ebay. I bought Mac Pro warranty for $92 shipped! Much better than $250.
 
Two months before my applecare ran out I blew out one of the processors in my G5. Needed to have both processors and the motherboard replaced. Would have cost $1,300 if I didn't have applecare. I didn't pay a dime.
 
I'd get Applecare. First I needed a replacement video card, then my PPC dual 2.5 crapped out on me. Apple replaced the logic board and everything and it still wouldn't work. So they gave me a new Intel G5 quad for free. Definelty worked out in my favor and well worth my 250. If it was a PC I'd never get a warrenty but G5 parts ain't cheap.
 
My advice is to RETURN that warranty asap and buy one on ebay. I got my Mac Pro Applecare warranty on ebay for $80 shipped. On ebay there are practically free. $250 from apple is just a rippoff.
 
JesterJJZ said:
How can other companies sell just a warranty plan? I don't get it?
Click to expand...

It's just a small box with a cd in it and a serial number. You couple the AppleCare serial number with your Mac Pro via an online form and you're set. I just got a letter from Apple in the mail stating that my Mac Pro has warranty until 2010, so it's all well.

I think eBay has a bunch for $99+shipping via Buy It Now. I won it via a bid, that's why it was a bit cheaper. Take a look.

I think it's worth it...I mean it's a $4,000+ machine.
 
I wish to thank each of you for your comments and thoughts with this issue.

Based largely upon this forum, I have decided to return the AC warranty until a future date and time when I may reconsider it.

I returned it yesterday to Micro Center and they gave no problem with the return.

Thanks again!

Jelly Belly :D
 
I am pretty sure the only thing in the MP that you can't just buy a replacement for online is the motherboard? Only component in the MP even value at, or higher than the warrenty are the two processors. So most likely your 300$ warranty will go towards replacing a 80$ hard drive, ram, or something silly. If you are not computer savy the money may be more useful as Apple will figure out what the issue is for you, in addition to the costs.
 
Apple called my parents when my initial year was about to expire (because I shipped it to their house). Told them to buy it for me. Good thing too, my front USB ports are starting to crap out.
 
velocityg4 said:
IMHO,

Just remember that extended warranties produce very high profit margins for companies, when I was at CompUSA it was around 70%. So the odds of you needing it are not terribly high. There is always a chance the system could break, making the warranty worthwhile, most likely it is unnecessary.

I for one have never purchased an extended warranty and have never needed one. Most likely over a lifetime of electronics purchases if I always bought warranties, the amount spent on those warranties would net a higher lifetime cost than if I never payed for a warranty and payed for the repairs/replacement myself. From my experience the most likely component to break is the super drive, but you can get something faster with Lightscribe for under $30 at Newegg. The next most likely is the hard drive that is still far cheaper than the warranty.

Of course I could never own a computer for over a year without tinkering around with the innards, thus voiding the warranty:D.
Click to expand...

You are right, as with any insurance the company selling it makes a profit. It's like gambling for the user really. But unlike gambling, if your main resource for earning a living goes away, you can't just say, "Oh well, I lost" and go on with your life... it may be fairly catastrophic. So if you are barely able to pay the premium it may be worthwhile. If you have plenty of spare capital you may just try and ride it out and carry the losses yourself by repairing replacing, since over the long run you will save on average.

I insure my home, life, car and I may just ensure the retina macbook pro recently released... but not my iMac or iPad.

You can make the sums and decide yourself.
 
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