Thursday, November 15, 2018

AppleCare’s Limited Duration

Juli Clover:

AppleCare+ extends the warranty on the iPad Pro to two years from the date of purchase, and it covers two incidents of accidental damage subjected to a $49 service fee. The protection plan also covers the Apple Pencil.

AppleCare+ must be purchased alongside a new iPad Pro or within 60 days, with Apple using an online or in-store verification process for AppleCare+ purchases made after an iPad Pro purchase.

It’s too bad that you can’t get coverage for longer. The new iPhones and, in particular, the new iPad Pro, should be able to last a lot longer than two years. AppleCare for Macs provides three years of coverage, which also seems a bit short for today’s hardware. My 2012 MacBook Pro is still going strong.

I asked a salesman at the Apple Store about this, and he said it was because Apple found that “everyone” updates their devices every two years, anyway. Does his family do that with their devices? No, not since they got a mortgage and two kids.

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This is why I no longer purchase AppleCare. It's absurd that I would pay for an extended warranty that lasts less than half the life of the device, and then if I need to make a claim against the warranty I have to pay extra? Uh, right.

In the EU consumer electronics have a mandatory 2 year warranty against manufacturing defects. So unless you have particularly bad luck ith gadgets AppleCare's unlikely to be particularly good value for money. Especially if your bank or insurer provides "gadget insurance" bundled with existing products.

Put it on an Amex, which extends warranties for an extra year, even purchased extended warranties like AppleCare.

@Justin, How does the Amex extends warranties works? So if I buy AppleCare+ with Amex I get 3 years warranty for iPhone instead of 2?

@Ed
My understanding is yes. However in that last year of coverage, you inform AMEX of the problem, then you get an estimate. AMEX will let you know if you are covered and then okay the repair.

I don't understand updating $1000+ phones and $1000+ tablets every two years. Consumers are weird. Just wait until their cable bill increases by $8/month but not a peep for these very expensive devices.

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