We all know that I’m a huge fan of Apple products. One of the things that I like the best about Apple products is their warranty program called Apple Care. For the most part, I tend to like warranties in general. for me, there is something about knowing that you can go back to the store where you bought a product and ask them to fix an issue with what they sold you with no extra cost to you that makes me feel more comfortable buying the product. It’s almost like a promise. The provider of the product saying “I’m happy to sell you this, but if it doesn’t work, bring it back and we’ll get you sorted out.” I’ve had some pretty good experiences with Apple Care and It’s become standard practice for me to get it on their big-ticket items. I’ve got a few different reasons that Apple Care is a good investment;
1) It’s fairly inexpensive – I have seen many different warranty programs (and certainly bought a few) which cost a lot of money but don’t actually do that much. It drives me crazy when I bring a product into the store where I bought it and request that it get’s fixed, only to find there is a weird loophole or the product doesn’t quite meet what is required for the warranty. with Apple Care, it’s a whole different game. I have found that Apple Care is typically about 10% of the cost of whatever it is you’re buying, which in my opinion is not that much. If you’re planning on spending around $1500.00 on a computer spending $150.00 on a warranty program seems like a sound investment to me.
2) It covers nearly everything – Drop your device and the screen breaks? you’re covered. Have a malfunction with a keyboard and it stops working? you’re covered. Drop your phone in some water?….ok so that’s why I said “Nearly” everything. I will admit that the one downfall of Apple Care is that it doesn’t cover water damage. On the other hand with the iPhone 8, they are now considered to be waterproof, so water damage to the most mobile of your devices should be less of a thing.
3) It works everywhere – Ever buy something when you are out of town, have it break down and have to bring it to the local store? In my experience, it’s been a straight 50/50 shot as to whether the local store would be willing to deal with me on one of their products from a different store. No so with Apple products which are covered by Apple care.
A few years back I was on vacation in Las Vegas. I was sitting on the bed in my hotel room playing Angry Birds or some such game on my iPad. I realized it was almost 1 in the morning and I decided to go to sleep. I reached out and attempted to put my iPad on the nightstand next to my bed. The crash below me told me that Instead of putting it on the nightstand I ended up putting it on the air in front of the nightstand, and it fell and crashed on the uncarpeted floor below me. The screen was cracked beyond recognition, I could barely put in my lock code without cutting my finger for all the cracks in the screen.
Being from Canada I thought I was totally out of luck. I was supposed to fly home 2 days after and I had no iPad to keep me entertained for the 4-hour flight. My Wife suggested that we go see if we could find an apple store in Vegas and see what they could do for us. I was unsure at the time if I had bought Apple Care for that Ipad, but I figured I should try.
We found an Apple Store nearby (on the strip no less) and went to talk to one of the Mac Genius’ and his reaction was priceless.
“Wow,” He said; “That’s really cracked…I don’t suppose you have Apple care?”
I told him that I wasn’t sure. he asked what my apple ID was, I gave him my username, he clicked a few things on his computer and said;
“Oh yeah, you have apple care on this iPad.” and he practically turned around, picked something up, turned back, handed me an iPad box and said, “Cool, here’s your new iPad.”
I was both COMPLETELY floored, and mentally decided to start buying everything but Toilet paper and cereal from Apple stores from then on. Not only had they just handed me a new iPad, but they also let me use their store’s wifi to download a couple of movies for my flight home. It was one of the best customer experiences I’ve ever had.
For me, Apple care (lack of water damage notwithstanding) is a great investment and if you are considering getting a new phone or iPad or computer I would HIGHLY recommend getting it. In fact (considering I had to get my phone replaced recently) I just discovered that getting apple care is easier than ever. When I went in to get my new phone I was able to purchase Apple care in my provider’s store, without having to go to Apple to do it. I (thankfully) have not had to put this to the test yet, but if I do I will report back and let you know how that went.
Do you have Apple care on your device? Would you consider getting it for your next one?
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