Best Buy warranty and optimizing a new mac?

[DesignerGenes]

So, i went to best buy to make a significant apple purchase a couple of weeks ago and I the kid that "sold" me my macbook told me that i would not be able to purchase applecare if I did not buy it from the apple store, therefore really pushing the best buy warranty on me.

He also asked me if I would like to pay for them to take it out of the box and "optimize" it. His specific words were "to get rid of all the trial software installed" Really? Am i not getting it or is this the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard?

So can I purchase applecare if I bought it at Best Buy? And why would i want to optimize a new mac?

 

[TEG]

You can buy Apple Care anywhere, including from Best Buy. The only advantage with the BB warranty is that you can break your machine near the end of the period, and they will replace it with the same level machine, but brand new. Just like how people would bilk CompUSA for new iPods when they came out, by claiming the previous one didn't work. - Also, while BB's employees are hourly, not commission, they get a bonus for selling the BB Care.

AppleCare can be purchased for any Apple Product with in 1 year of purchase.

TEG

 

[daflake]

Avoid the BB "warranty" as it is pure garbage nothing but profit for BB. Just buy apple care from them or from apple and register your new mac. There is no need to "optimize" anything.

 

[tdgrn]

Coming from a Geek Squad agent, they don't know what they hell they are talking about...
That said, you can buy Apple Care if you purchase a Mac from BBY, you just have to do so in the first year. The biggest difference between the BBY Black Tie Protection is that you have the option to purchase Accidental coverage, which is something that Apple Care does not cover.

The optimization that they were talking about was the PC optimization. What it covers for the Mac is setting up privacy settings (firewall, network settings), downloading and installing all updates, and doing the initial setup. It is not hard to do, but if you are worried about identity theft, and you are not comfortable doing those things on your own, then it is worth the $39, but once again it isn't brain surgery.

 

[tdgrn]

Also, while BB's employees are hourly, not commission, they get a bonus for selling the BB Care.

AppleCare can be purchased for any Apple Product with in 1 year of purchase.

TEG

This is way off the the truth, we don't get jack for anything, except for somebody telling us to sell something if you are not doing a good enough job...

 

[britboyj]

You can buy Apple Care anywhere, including from Best Buy.

Only if they actually sell it.

The only advantage with the BB warranty is that you can break your machine near the end of the period, and they will replace it with the same level machine, but brand new.

Not true. If you DON'T get the Accidental Damage warranty you basically have Applecare that ships your Mac out to a facility to be repaired by who-the-hell-knows in Tennessee. Oh, and it's more expensive for the 3yr normal plan than for the Applecare in most cases.

Second, unless things have drastically changed since I worked there, if you DO spring the extra $100 for the accidental damage, and break it, they will give you the CURRENT MARKET VALUE towards a new purchase.

Also, while BB's employees are hourly, not commission, they get a bonus for selling the BB Care.

No they don't, they just don't get yelled at/humiliated for hours on end by managers who DO get bonuses based on store performance.

AppleCare can be purchased for any Apple Product with in 1 year of purchase.

True.

 

[Tomorrow]

The only trialware I've seen on either of my Macs is a trial of Office and a trial of iWork. I didn't want either of them removed by someone else. It's not like there's a bunch of links to Norton, and AOL, and Snapfish, and MSN Messenger, and a bunch of other crap I have no intention of ever using.