Boot up iPod for first time in two weeks and the icon of a sad Mac stares me in the face, with (most excellent) Xs for eyes, its tongue lolling out. An ominous clicking sound emanates – telltale sound of a shot drive. Hmm… just enough time to race to the Apple store before work. Genius notices that I bought AppleCare for it, calls me “his hero” (yeah, right). Goes in the back, pulls a brand new replacement unit from brown cardboard, sends me on my way with a new unit 10 minutes later, no questions asked. The experience could not have rocked harder. Always buy AppleCare.
Interesting: Asked if I could cross-grade to a Nano, and he said no. What I didn’t know: All Apple hardware replacements are like-for-like. Even though my iPod model is no longer sold, they still manufacture them as replacements. Apparently, Apple keeps manufacturing every device they make for seven years after they stop selling them, for just this reason. Otherwise people would intentionally damage their Macs to score upgrades.
Digital (DEC) had a similar policy regarding hardware replacements. When I first worked there in 1990 I think the policy went back at least 12-15 years ! Which explained the exeedingly old bits of hardware around the offices.
I’m definitely pro-applecare on portable device, I bought one for my powerbook, for instance…
I did hear an interesting take on the extended warranty plans though.. Instead of actually purchasing them on things you buy, take the cost of the plan (or a reasonable percentage) and place it in an interest bearing savings account. Logic being that most people never use these plans, so this way you can just self-insure.
grahams – That’s pretty brilliant. Especially for things very unlikely to break, like electronics from big-box stores.
When my G3 iBook lost it’s logic board for the third time, Applecare gave me a brand spanking new G4. It happened just before Tiger became available and Bluetooth became standard on iBooks :(
Can’t look a gift horse in the mouth though;
My guess is Apple isnt making new units of discontinued iPods (or any other discontinued models) solely for AppleCare replacements, but instead is providing refurb units.
I dunno Steve – The Genius was pretty specific about it – he actually said they continued to manufacture them for 7 years. He could have been wrong…
Hm, not sure Applecare would have helped me – bought my wife an ipod last summer (just before the video models came out – d’oh!). It worked for about a month, started having intermittent then persistent failures. Sent it back because it was under warranty (very easy process). And two months later… nothing. Maybe it’s taking so long because it was engraved? I’ll avoid that in the future if that’s an issue.
-Mike.