AppleCare claim. Good report :)

Last Sunday I brought my nieces 5,1 Macbook Pro in to our local Apple store for service. *purchased in Feb '09 2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo 15"

- The laptops black plastic hinge piece (the tube shaped plastic just under the display when it is opened) had some nasty looking cracks along its length.

- The audio out jack was cutting in and out randomly. Regardless of which cable I plug into it. Becomes worse if the laptop is moved slightly or if the jack is wiggled at the connection.

- The display had what appears to be a stain or water mark behind the glass. Did not appear to be the LED display itself but instead the glass that overlays the display. This was there from the beginning but my niece ignored it because it only showed up on darker colors. She told me about the "watermark" just last week when I was asking her about the cracks in the hinge.

We had purchased the 3yr Apple Care warranty for $349 when we bought the laptop for her back in Feb 2009.

It is all covered under the plan and she should get it back fully repaired soon. At first the tech (genius?) was not sure if they were going to cover the "watermark" display repair because the tech said he couldn't see it. It was really reflective in the store with the florescent lights but his comments were really disconcerting at first.

Not exactly the onsite next business day service repairs I get with my other laptops warranty plans from other Mfrs but Apples plan doesn't cost as much the others do either (but if Apple did offer an onsite NBD repair plan I would've purchased it). I'm still very happy. I'm glad we purchased the 3 yr Applecare.

 

The Applecare plan is great EXCEPT 1) if you damage the computer with any type or liquid, and 2) if you put it through any type of accident, from a small dent to a cracked screen.

Next time if I buy a new Apple computer I'm gonna buy it through best buy with their accidental and liquid damage protection.

 

The don't offer damage protection currently.

 

Isn't this the damage protection? If you get the advanced coverage?

http://images.bestbuy.com/BestBuy_US/en_US/images/global/pcontent/gs/btp/BTP_Computers.pdf

 

looks like it but look for fine print, BB in Canada is horrendous for weaseling their way out of the accidental protection they sell you.

only ones ive had sucess with over the years are certain manufacturers directly.

 

So even a small ding on the side of a laptop (on the lid) would invalidate the warranty? I dropped mine slightly and I was able to hammer out the one dent in the unibody, except for discoloring, but can't do anything about the lid. The LCD is in perfect shape but the round aluminum corner is not as smooth.

 

Hi,

Just to be clear, Apple won't invalidate the warranty if you get a ding. It just means that they won't repair that ding under warranty. And we wouldn't expect them to either. You'd have to pay for that repair yourself (assuming a ding is worth repairing). The Mac would still be under warranty if something else were to happen with your Mac that is covered under their warranty plan (if the hinge were to break or come loose or if the screen just went dead for no reason, etc)

Hypothetically, if the dent you had in your Mac was a small cosmetic ding/dent and if you DID have the Best Buy accidental coverage, I would not expect Best Buy to cover that repair or replace whatever part that was dented if it is only minor cosmetic damage (but I have not studied their policy to know for sure). So even having accidental coverage in the case you described about the small ding, I don't think Accidental Protection would cover it anyway.


*In contrast to the above paragraph... I've accidentally dropped my other Macbook Pro onto the cement in my garage. The unibody case was heavily damaged especially the corners. But it was still perfectly functional although much louder because the case was cracked open and the fans could be heard more than they would otherwise. It was cosmetic damage but it was pretty severe. In that situation, even though it was only cosmetic damage to the case (display and lid were miraculously unscathed) I'd expect Best Buy would cover that damage if I had their Accident Protection warranty since my Mac looked hideous. But in my situation I didn't have any accidental coverage and I ended up buying a replacement unibody case from ifixit.com and I did the swap myself.

Each claim and situation is different and it's ultimately up to the "insurance company" to make that final call. Personally, I'd probably purchase my next Mac through Best Buy just to get that accidental coverage on top of the Apple Care coverage (my MBP case replacement was $300 just for the parts) but I can understand KCETech1's concerns about Best Buy.

 

To add to ygohome,

Let's say you dropped your macbook pro on the corner where the hinge is, it is simply cosmetic, the laptop works fine afterwards, but then one day, the lcd decides to not turn on, or if the backlight is broken. You would take it to apple right? But because of that dent on the corner by the hinge, they most likely will NOT repair your LCD issue because they will say that you dropped your laptop on the corner where it probably damaged the LCD components.

In the end, we all know that it is not your fault, but apple wouldn't repair your lcd issue.

 

Squaretrade will offer warranties with accidental damage coverage.

Just watch out, because they do a max dollar type thing over the entire life of the warranty, so if you have a lot of warranty issues, at the end you might not get enough money out of it to fix a problem. Luckily Macs shouldn't be failing 3 or 4 times to make this a problem... unless you've already had a few fixes, then drop it, and it totally is ruined... the pay out on whats left of the warranty might not be enough to cover a replacement.