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AppleCare+ for Mac
#45323 06/23/17 10:41 AM
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I just stumbled across AppleCare+ for Mac:

Originally Posted By: Apple
AppleCare+ for Mac extends your coverage to three years from the original purchase date of your Mac and adds up to two incidents of accidental damage coverage, each subject to a service fee of $99 for screen damage or external enclosure damage, or $299 for other damage, plus applicable tax.1 In addition, you’ll get 24/7 priority access to Apple experts by chat or phone.

1 If your Mac has catastrophic damage from an accident or is inoperable after unauthorized modifications, you will need to buy a replacement.

Purchase AppleCare+ with your new Mac. Or buy it within 60 days of your Mac purchase (Emphasis added)

I wonder what line your damage has got to cross for it to be considered catastrophic?

(It adds $29 to the cost of basic AppleCare for my 15" MBP, which may make it a worthwhile buy for a road warrior.)


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Re: AppleCare+ for Mac
artie505 #45326 06/23/17 02:01 PM
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The big news to me is not the additional $29 it is the Purchase AppleCare+ with your new Mac. Or buy it within 60 days of your Mac purchase proviso. That may give a lot of Mac using Road Warriors a nasty surprise.


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Re: AppleCare+ for Mac
joemikeb #45330 06/23/17 06:11 PM
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Originally Posted By: joemikeb
The big news to me is not the additional $29 it is the Purchase AppleCare+ with your new Mac. Or buy it within 60 days of your Mac purchase proviso. That may give a lot of Mac using Road Warriors a nasty surprise.

Just to make it crystal clear, AppleCare + does NOT replace traditional AppleCare (which can still be purchased up to a year after you've purchased your Mac); it's a new (Anybody know how new?), second option for ALL new Macs, not just laptops.

The 60 day proviso makes sense; this is, after all, AppleCare, not Obamacare, and coming from Apple, even a minimal 60 day pre-existing condition window is a boon.

I wonder if it would have covered my friend's having spilled a glass of wine on her laptop?

Last edited by artie505; 06/23/17 07:51 PM. Reason: More

The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: AppleCare+ for Mac
artie505 #45372 06/25/17 09:58 PM
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AppleCare+ was introduced on Jun 5, 2017, and AppleCare+ Now Available For Mac With Accidental Damage Coverage - MacRumors says "It replaces the AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac....", and, indeed, I just selected an MBP from the Apple Store and was offered ONLY AppleCare+. (The "immediately or within 60 days" caveat was unmentioned, other than in the small print, after I clicked on "Learn More".)

Wow...confusing!

I just found AppleCare - Apple which says "To extend your coverage further, purchase the AppleCare Protection Plan or AppleCare+".

Looks like MacRumors is incorrect on that one.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: AppleCare+ for Mac
artie505 #45383 06/26/17 04:36 PM
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Originally Posted By: artie505
If your Mac has catastrophic damage from an accident or is inoperable after unauthorized modifications, you will need to buy a replacement.


This isn't a conceptual amount. How i liked to rephrase that at work: "The cost of the repair exceeds the value of the equipment in working condition". i.e. "it's not worth fixing".

Considering that Apple does NOT accept parts back for exchange that are "abused", it's easy to have the repair cost for something exceed its original purchase price / new replacement cost. Example:

lets say you leave your macbook on the roof of your car and roll out the driveway. as you slow down, it slides off, and under your wheel where it gets ran over. Lets be really generous / optimistic and say they just want to replace:

- display panel
- frame
- logic board

there's other things likely to be damaged but lets just call it that. Lets say that's a $1500 computer new. The NRET cost on a logic board is huge, it's probably roundabouts $1200. (seriously) An NRET display panel, probably $500. Frame is always NRET and is going to be $200ish. So for $1900 you can (somewhat) repair a computer you can buy new for $1500.

And this is comparing it against new / replacement value. It may only "book" for $1100 now if it's a year old, or $800 if older. Would you pay $1900 to fix a computer that, at best, you could sell for $1100? (or $800?)

That being said, occasionally people would opt for repair. Insurance companies more than anyone else. Though our manager would write insurance assessment letters for them from time to time, and I think he used my exact verbiage above when it was totaled.


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Re: AppleCare+ for Mac
Virtual1 #45402 06/27/17 05:53 AM
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That ground has been covered before, but never in a "he said, she said" context as is likely to be the case in many AppleCare+ related instances.

Originally Posted By: AppleCare+ for Mac
ADH coverage does not include

(a) protection against normal wear and tear, excessive or catastrophic damage, theft, misplacement, or damage caused by reckless, abusive, willful or intentional conduct associated with handling and use of the Covered Device,

(b) protection against any other act or result not covered by the Plan, as described in Section 4.2 below, or

(c) any damage to the Covered Device that arises from one or more conditions described in Section 3.2 (a) or (b).

Apple may ask you to provide an explanation of where and when the accident occurred with a detailed description of the actual event. Apple will deny your claim if you fail to pay the service fee or fail to provide information relating to the accident when asked.

Under AppleCare+ for Mac, you will pay a $99 (U.S.) dollar service fee plus applicable tax for a screen-only ADH claim or an external enclosure-only ADH claim (“Tier 1 ADH Claim”) or a $299 (U.S.) dollar service fee plus applicable tax for all other ADH claims (“Tier 2 ADH Claim”).
To qualify for the Tier 1 ADH Claim fee, the Covered Device must have no additional damage beyond the screen-only damage (if applicable) or the external enclosure-only damage that would prevent Apple from repairing the display or external enclosure. Covered Device with additional damage will be charged the price of the Tier 2 ADH Claim fee. (Emphasis added)

Since "excessive [in particular] or catastrophic damage" isn't quantified (Can it be quantified?), it requires an independently considered judgement call in each instance, and those could leave Apple vulnerable even considering (or perhaps because of)

Quote:
11. General Terms.

(xi) There is no informal dispute settlement process available under this Plan.

And completely aside from all of that, according to AppleCare+ terms, replacement of only a damaged keyboard will cost $299. tongue


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: AppleCare+ for Mac
artie505 #45406 06/27/17 12:30 PM
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Originally Posted By: artie505
And completely aside from all of that, according to AppleCare+ terms, replacement of only a damaged keyboard will cost $299. tongue

That may be a bit inflated. Sometimes they quote for a mail-in repair on a laptop, and "accidental damage" mail-ins are not cheap. A local repair would probably be closer to $150 for the part and 1/2 hr of labor. Unless it's a top case, or a top case that includes a battery glued to it, that would make it pricey.


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Re: AppleCare+ for Mac
Virtual1 #45426 06/28/17 08:19 AM
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Originally Posted By: Virtual1
Originally Posted By: artie505
And completely aside from all of that, according to AppleCare+ terms, replacement of only a damaged keyboard will cost $299. tongue

That may be a bit inflated. Sometimes they quote for a mail-in repair on a laptop, and "accidental damage" mail-ins are not cheap. A local repair would probably be closer to $150 for the part and 1/2 hr of labor. Unless it's a top case, or a top case that includes a battery glued to it, that would make it pricey.

But we're talking about an insured event that's subject to the specific contractual terms I posted.

You'd think it would have occurred to somebody that a keyboard or battery could be damaged independently of the logic board, that either would cost considerably less to replace than the logic board, and that provision should be made for the possibility.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: AppleCare+ for Mac
artie505 #45428 06/28/17 12:19 PM
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Originally Posted By: artie505
You'd think it would have occurred to somebody that a keyboard or battery could be damaged independently of the logic board, that either would cost considerably less to replace than the logic board, and that provision should be made for the possibility.

They've always been pretty general with regard to "repair tier". I don't remember the exact format but it was something like
tier 1: accessories (mouse, ext keyboard, power adapter, minor removable cosmetic parts)
tier 2: trackpad, internal speakers, wifi card (two or more, -> tier 3)
tier 3: frame/top case, hdd, dc-in board, battery (two or more -> tier 4)
tier 4: logic board, lcd panel

something like that, you get the idea. For a mail-in, cost is determined by tier, not by specific parts used or labor worked. If we send it in for a bad CD rom drive and it turns out to be a bad logic board, they often will put the repair on hold and re-quote us so we can get approval from the customer. The nice thing about mail-ins is they always come back completely fixed, often fixing parts that we didn't know were bad or didn't consider needing replacement. For that reason we always warned the customer that apple MAY replace the hard drive, (and there's NOTHING we can do to prevent it) so either have your data backed up or we will do a backup (and restore if needed) as a service prior to mail-in. This got a lot simpler with the advent of Time Machine. And I did see maybe 15-20 laptops come back from say an abuse liquid spill or drop mail-in with the hard drive and battery also replaced. (in those cases, the abuse (tier 4) mail-in cost was significantly lower than the NRET replacement of the display panel or logic board, so the mail-in made more sense) (we capped our mark-up on parts at $100 and had a flat $100 markup on mail-ins, so $750 MLB + $100 + labor, or $400 + $100 (+$30 for backup, maybe another $30 for restore) for mail-in, kind of a no-brainer)

Part of the cost is the actual cost of the physical hardware. Part is the labor involved in replacement. And sometimes a major factor is "is this part a critical piece in assembling a new computer from parts?" Apple puts ample consideration into making sure there will never be a significant source of macintoshes assembled from parts taken from scrapped machines. (I've actually gotten one once... MoaT sold me a mac pro that had impossible specs, the CPUs it came with weren't an available option with the motherboard it came with... which had no SN burned into it, so they mixed a new replacement motherboard with used procs from a compatible model)

So Apple will hyper-inflate the core return cost on a critical part even if it's not actually that expensive. That's why you see logic boards that are $225 for a swap or $650 for no-swap sale. (and "abused" computers are NOT eligible for swapping of parts, which is what makes "abuse repair" so expensive) They do this to prevent people from buying the parts to assemble a mac from scratch. Just make the sum of the parts cost twice as much as the final product and you've closed that market.

It gets really silly with significant cosmetic parts like frames. Where the price of the part is like $75 exchange or $250 buy. And you know they're just throwing it away when they get it back because it's a cosmetic part, that's made of bonded composites that can't even be easily separated for recycling. They're doing it to keep that used frame out of circulation so someone doesn't buy it and glue the broken bit and use it as part of the mac he's assembling from bits. Look at the rear housing on an iMac. Okay there's a chunky bit of aluminum you can probably recycle there, but they're getting what, $2 for the AL out of it maybe? It's got a lot of attention to detail in the design and cost to manufacture, acid wash etc, so the $75'ish it costs in exchange makes sense as the actual purchase price. But look at the purchase price of $250 or so. When they're getting at most a few dollars out of it when you send the dented one back. (that there's ZERO chance they will be able to "refurbish" and resell, being a cosmetic part that customers expect to look perfect) (logic boards OTOH, those WILL get sent to foxconn or someone else to be fixed and be put back in the service parts exchange pool, and a big part of them wanting that particular thing back is they NEED it because they're only making so many spare logic boards for a given model, which can cause quite a parts-flow problem if they have a logic board that has a high failure rate like the nvidia chips awhile back, which caused the NRET price to DOUBLE because they really wanted the bad board back)


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