Broken Quad-Powermac. Buy Applecare, or travel to store

[dcleon]

My ~2 week old quad-powermac stopped working the other day.
After a few hours on the phone with Apple it was determined that
I would need to take it in for service. Unfortunately this means a 120 mile
drive to the nearest Apple store, or a 50 mile drive to the nearest
authorized service center. The other option for me would be to purchase
applecare which apparently provides on-site service. (the standard
warranty no longer inclused the option of returns by mail).

So, my questions are: Has anyone had good luck getting machines fixed
or replaced at the apple store ? What are the chances that I can get the
machine fixed/replaced without having to make more than one trip to
the Apple store ? Will the fact that this machine was configured BTO complicate getting it repaired ? Anyone have good/bad experiences with
the onsite service ?

 

[rockandrule]

You could always purchase ProCare for $99. This gives you one day turn around at an Apple Store for any repairs. This might be your best bet to try. I know sometimes it takes a while to get repairs done at a store depending on which location you'd like to bring it to. I'd always try going to the store and seeing what they'd tell you, because you surely wouldn't be happy paying $250 for something that you can get for free. Although, AppleCare is always a very good option. I'd advise anyone to get it whether they have a desktop or notebook. You never know what insuing troubles may pop up down the road. Also, what exact BTOs do you have? That will determine what they can do at the store. If it is just RAM and a HD you should be fine. But depending on if you added a Graphics Card it just depends on if they can get it in or not, as far as I know.

 

[Phatpat]

The standard warranty doesn't let you get it repaired by mail? That sounds very sketchy. I don't approve.

 

[dcleon]

Phatpat,
Yep, I'm pretty bummed out about it too. Apparently its a pretty recent change -- I pushed the tech support guy on it a couple of times, but no luck. I think Apple's website still refers to mail in warranty support, but I hadn't
checked at that time.

I was planning to get applecare at some point, but was trying to put it off a bit as I'm feeling pretty broke.