New Sticky: Apple Warranty and Apple Care

dc8900

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(Hi guys, as requested here is the proto-sticky on Apple Care that I agreed to write last week, do reply with suggestions and thoughts :thumbsup:)


AppleCare: Standard Warranty and AppleCare Protection Plan (Extended Warranty)

Defined:

AppleCare: is the standard Apple warranty that is supplied on all new Apple products. The standard warranty is for 1 year from the date of purchase and also includes 90 days complimentary telephone support. For this sticky, it will now be referred to as ‘SW'

AppleCare Protection Plan (APP): is the extended warranty that can be purchased for all Apple products anytime during the first year of complimentary coverage. For Apple computers and Apple Displays, this extends coverage to 3 years service including 3 years telephone support. For the iphone, ipad, ipod range and Apple TV, coverage is extended to 2 years service including 2 years telephone support. For this sticky, it will now be referred to as ‘APP'

Please note both SW and APP do NOT cover accidental coverage or liquid damage etc

Both SW and APP are ‘collect and return' but for desktops you can request onsite service

Apple warranties also include global coverage


What's covered? at a glance (sections adapted from Apple.com-All rights reserved to Apple, Inc):

For Apple Computers and Display the following:

For Computers:

Your Mac computer
Included accessories such as the power adapter
Apple memory (RAM)*
AirPort Express Base Station, AirPort Extreme Base Station, or Time Capsule2*
MacBook Air SuperDrive (for MacBook Air and Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server only)*
Apple display purchased with your Mac**
KBM if purchased with the Mac Mini
*Provided you buy them within 2 years of getting your mac
**If purchased at the same time

For Apple Displays (As a stand alone purchase):

Your Apple display
Built-in iSight camera, microphone, and speaker system
Included power cord

For iPhone:

Your iPhone
Battery (if it depletes by at least 50%)
Included earphones and accessories

For iPod:

Your iPod
Battery (if it depletes by at least 50%)
Included earphones and USB cable

For iPad:

Your iPad
Battery (if it depletes by at least 50%)
Included USB cable and power adapter

For Apple TV:

Your Apple TV
AirPort Express Base Station, AirPort Extreme Base Station, or Time Capsule (if purchased 2 years before your ATV purchase or during your APP coverage)
Included Apple Remote and power cord

SW and APP also include Software telephone support for Apple software products

How to Purchase APP:

If you purchase your APP at the same time as your Apple product, be it at the online Apple store or a retail Apple store, you are normally auto-enrolled for the extended coverage.

If you purchase at the same time (in the same transaction) and are not sure you were auto-enrolled, you can check your coverage status here: https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWarrantyDynamic.do
If your APP was not auto-enrolled, you can register your plan here: Apple - Support - AppleCare Products Overview

As mentioned, the AppleCare Protection Plan (extended warranty) can be purchased at any time during the first year of complimentary coverage of your Apple product. You do not need to purchase APP at the same time as your Apple purchase (unless you are buying HE price APP, which will be explained below)

You can purchase APP in a number of ways, online from the Apple online store (Apple (United Kingdom) - Support - AppleCare ) or any Apple Authorised Reseller (online/instore) and the Apple retail stores.

Current prices for APP products are as follows (correct as of 04/01/2012)

iMac - £139.00
Mac Mini - £129.00
Mac Pro - £199.00
MacBook/MacBook Air/13” MacBook Pro - £199.00
MacBook Pro 15” and 17” - £279.00
iPad - £69.00

Apple Display - £69.00

iPhone - £61.00

iPod Touch/iPod Classic - £40.00
iPod Nano/iPad Shuffle - £26.00

Apple TV - £26.00

HE APP:

As was alluded to above, like the general Higher Education discount for Apple products, qualifying customers can also get heavily discounted APP for the following products (Please note, you can only get the HE APP price if you buy it at the same time, if you choose to buy APP at a later date, you are liable for the full regular price*)

This is recommended if purchasing in-store, however if you purchase from your respective HE store, you can make further savings (as detailed below)

Prices are correct as of 06/01/12

Apple laptops - £48.00
iMac - £45.60
Mac Mini - £36.00
Mac Pro - £54.00



HE price APP is exactly the same as the regular APP

*As mentioned, if you buy the Apple Care separately but if you do online via your HE store you can still get a discount but it is advisable to get at the same time as the pricing is as follows:

Prices are correct as of 06/01/12

MacBook Pro 15" and 17" - £220.80
Macbook, Macbook Air, Macbook Prop 13" - £157.00
iMac - £110.40
Mac Mini - £102.00
Mac Pro - £157.20

Apple Display - £54.00

iPod Touch/Classic - £31.20


Complimentary HE Agreement coverage from online HE stores

When purchasing from a HE online store, eligible agreements allow for the user to gain 1 years telephone support and 3 years hardware coverage. Alongside this, you can opt to pay for the AppleCare Protection Plan Uplift which extends the telephone support to 3 years as well as global repair coverage that is offered in under full APP (prices for this is the same as the in-store price for HE price APP.

Other Purchase Channels:

While APP is excellent value for money and provides first class service, unless you're a HE customer it certainly is not cheap. Whilst I personally would recommend purchase through official channels; you can purchase APP through additional third parties.

Ebay sellers: A popular route for many users is obtaining APP codes or packs from sellers on ebay. There are considerable savings to be made and many users have reported no problems. However do remember to always check feedback on previously sold APP products and search forums for recommended sellers. One issue to be weary of is that a minority of sellers will sell codes that were electronically generated and thus when you enter it on Apple's website it appears to work. However, several months later, Apple will discover the forgery and cancel your coverage, by which time you may have already left positive feedback or the chance for an ebay/paypal dispute and refund has expired. Furthermore it should be noted that in a very small number of cases, it has transpired that some sellers when selling APP in digital form only, will provide you with a genuine product but will then get their genuine purchase refunded by Apple and so leaving you in the lurch/unaware until you need to require APP service

Cex: Another method is to use your local Computer Exchange who may often have sealed boxed APP products on sale for considerably less than at official channels. As above, always use caution and common sense when making such purchases.

Please note, that to fully register an APP agreement you need both the enrolment number (found inside the APP box or on your receipt if you purchase in store at the same time as a mac) and also the AppleCare Agreement Administration may also require the original sales receipt of the plan from either Apple or one of it's Apple Authorised Resellers.*

* If the serial is alphanumeric, you will normally not be required to provide proof of purchase (although of course, Apple may reserve the right to do so). If the code is numeric (Apple's older serial system) then you will be asked for proof of purchase as described above

Also avoid APP boxes which state 'Auto-Enrol' if they are sold separately, such editions are fine if purchasing at the same time as your Apple hardware purchase but should be avoided if presented for a stand alone purchase

How to obtain SW/APP service:

When anything goes wrong, this is when your SW/APP kicks in, you can obtain service in a number of ways

1) Apple
2) Apple Authorised Service Providers

Apple:

To arrange service online, follow this link https://selfsolve.apple.com/GetWarranty.do and enter your product hardware serial number.

To get service in person, you can arrange an appointment at the Genius Bar of any Apple Store Apple Retail Store (United Kingdom) - Genius Bar

Apple Authorised Service Providers:

If you're not near an Apple Store or arranging service online is not convenient you can get service from an Apple Authorised Service Provider; to find your nearest provider follow this link to Apple's official directory: Apple (United Kingdom) - Resource Locator

Express Lane:

For APP customers you can cut down on form trawling by using Apple's Express Lane service: https://expresslane.apple.com/GetproductgroupList.do

Transfer APP, How to:

Should you decide to sell your Apple product and you still have time remaining on your APP, you are permitted to make one permanent transfer to another customer, it is described in the APP T&C's:

10. Transfer of Plan
(i) With Transfer of Covered Equipment to New Owner. Subject to the restrictions set forth below, you
may make a one-time permanent transfer of all of your rights under the Plan to another party, provided
that: (a) the transfer includes the original Proof of Purchase, the Plan's Confirmation and all of the Plan's
packaging material, including printed materials and these Terms and Conditions; (b) you notify Apple of
the transfer by sending or faxing notice of transfer to Apple Customer Support, Hollyhill Industrial Estate, Hollyhill, Cork, Republic of Ireland (fax number: +353 (0)21 428 3917; and (c) the party receiving the Plan accepts the Terms and Conditions of the Plan. When notifying Apple of the transfer of the Plan, you must provide the Plan Agreement Number, the serial number of the Covered Equipment being transferred and the name, address, telephone number and email address of the new owner.

(ii) With Transfer From Original Covered Equipment to New Covered Equipment. You may make a one
time, permanent transfer of the coverage under the Plan to a new Apple product that is owned and
purchased by you within thirty (30) days of the Covered Equipment purchase. The new product must be
eligible for coverage under the Plan and at the time of transfer both products must be covered under
the Apple one (1) year limited warranty. Apple will issue a Plan Confirmation for the new product, which
will then become the Covered Equipment. When notifying Apple of the transfer, you must provide the
Plan Agreement Number, the serial numbers and Proof of Purchase of the products being transferred by
sending or faxing, where available, notice of transfer to Apple as set forth in the section immediately
above.


Please note: for the above, if you purchase APP in the same transactions as your product, your receipt/invoice acts as the certificate as mentioned in the excerpt.

AppleCare and AppleCare Protection Plan T&Cs:

SW and APP t&c's can be found here:

For SW: Apple - Legal
For APP: Apple - Legal - Service Products
 
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Two notes:

1. APP via eBay
IMO, this must be highlighted as a significant risk of forgery. eBay sellers often just sell codes delivered via email and claimed nothing else is needed. This is not true - see (2) (next). This warning is even stated on eBay's Reviews & Guides.

2. Registering APP
As stated directly by Apple here. The enrollment number is required as found on the APP box.
 
Two notes:

1. APP via eBay
IMO, this must be highlighted as a significant risk of forgery. eBay sellers often just sell codes delivered via email and claimed nothing else is needed. This is not true - see (2) (next). This warning is even stated on eBay's Reviews & Guides.

2. Registering APP
As stated directly by Apple an Apple Authorized Resellerhere. The enrollment number is required as found on the APP box.
3. Proof of purchase of APP from Apple or Apple Authorized Reseller
As requested of this guy when trying to register a package purchased from CEX http://www.avforums.com/forums/13415331-post95.html
Which appears to put the kibosh on any cheap second hand APP even ina full sealed retail package.
 
Nice one dc, some great info there.

I've added a link to this thread to the main sticky:
http://www.avforums.com/forums/appl...1-0-guidance-current-potential-mac-users.html

(Can't really make all the useful threads linked in there sticky threads otherwise it would take up half of the board :D)

Nicely done! :smashin:

As long as the 'regulars' to this board point people to this thread it should save a lot of dup posts.

Cheers guys, as I notice any spelling mistakes or as things change, I will update this thread

Two notes:

1. APP via eBay
IMO, this must be highlighted as a significant risk of forgery. eBay sellers often just sell codes delivered via email and claimed nothing else is needed. This is not true - see (2) (next). This warning is even stated on eBay's Reviews & Guides.

2. Registering APP
As stated directly by Apple here. The enrollment number is required as found on the APP box.

3. Proof of purchase of APP from Apple or Apple Authorized Reseller
As requested of this guy when trying to register a package purchased from CEX http://www.avforums.com/forums/13415331-post95.html
Which appears to put the kibosh on any cheap second hand APP even ina full sealed retail package.

Yeah, I wasn't sure how strong I should be about warning about the dangers of this problem and I did see that thread, I will add it in :smashin:
 
Looks real good, spot on, just a few missed things:

If your a HE student and you purchase it online at your institutions network via apple.com/uk/go/save or over the phone, three year hardware coverage is still included and one year phone support for free. And last time I checked, APP wasn't global coverage for iMacs.
 
Looks real good, spot on, just a few missed things:

If your a HE student and you purchase it online at your institutions network via apple.com/uk/go/save or over the phone, three year hardware coverage is still included and one year phone support for free. And last time I checked, APP wasn't global coverage for iMacs.

well I think it depends on your university network, on mine Tri-care wasn't offered but I will change that but imacs APP are global (dependent on country of purchase) as of the latest agreement (v5.2) that has been updated (in which they also got rid of their refuse global service clause)

also they state global coverage in plain english in their basic intro page: Apple (Republic of Ireland) - Support - AppleCare - Mac and Apple Display and imac APP product page: http://store.apple.com/uk/product/APPLECAREIMAC-102584?mco=MTYzNjAwNjQ
 
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well I think it depends on your university network, on mine Tri-care wasn't offered but I will change that but imacs APP are global (dependent on country of purchase) as of the latest agreement (v5.2) that has been updated (in which they also got rid of their refuse global service clause)

also they state global coverage in plain english in their basic intro page: Apple (Republic of Ireland) - Support - AppleCare - Mac and Apple Display

Ah they must have changed global coverage, yes as long as the Uni is part of Apple's HE agreement students will still get three years hardware. As far as I know it is still offered at the vast majority of Unis.
 
Ah they must have changed global coverage, yes as long as the Uni is part of Apple's HE agreement students will still get three years hardware. As far as I know it is still offered at the vast majority of Unis.

yep, the old global coverage rules were largely in place until the start of this year, I only noticed the change when I was trying to warn people about Apple's get out clause (and thus trying to find that clause) and to my pleasant surprise, they had given up that reserved right and yeah, I think Apple are gradually withdrawing TriCare as each separate HE agreement comes up for renewal
 
Pricing now updating to take into account VAT rate and that there is smaller HE discount if you buy Apple Care separately and via the HE store if you fail to get it for the mega discount at the same time :thumbsup:
 
obviously depending on individual stores and genius bar geek, but in my experience they are fairly relaxed when it comes to damage where it is unclear whether it's accidental or product fault :blush:
 
Can someone tell me how the 'Tri-Care' differs from the standard Applecare. I'm thinking about getting a Macbook Pro this way and am not sure whether to pay the extra for full Applecare or not, and obviously want to decide and by it all at the same time to make it cheaper!

You mentioned "2 additional years of parts and labour" so what am I missing? I live in London and am near several apple stores so taking it in isnt a problem...

Thanks
 
Can someone tell me how the 'Tri-Care' differs from the standard Applecare. I'm thinking about getting a Macbook Pro this way and am not sure whether to pay the extra for full Applecare or not, and obviously want to decide and by it all at the same time to make it cheaper!

You mentioned "2 additional years of parts and labour" so what am I missing? I live in London and am near several apple stores so taking it in isnt a problem...

Thanks

I don't know how I can make it any clearer but Tri-Care only includes 90 days phone support and 1 year collect and return, so with the other two, you pay the cost of sending it in or take it to an Apple store or authorised service provider

I personally prefer getting the HE price for full APP as that is my preference

hope that clears that up :thumbsup:
 
I don't know how I can make it any clearer but Tri-Care only includes 90 days phone support and 1 year collect and return, so with the other two, you pay the cost of sending it in or take it to an Apple store or authorised service provider

I personally prefer getting the HE price for full APP as that is my preference

hope that clears that up :thumbsup:

I didnt realise that full APP means that I couldve had my previous macbook collected when there was a problem? I'm not far from an apple store so have always just taken it in... (the last time, it could repaired within two hours and i collected it again before i went home!) Never used the phone support either, asked on places like this and if got stuck just booked genius bar appointments online...

so my computer would be covered in exactly the same way, even after im not a student, except that id have to get it to and from an apple store and i wouldnt be able to call phone support? I'd heard that some faults arent covered by the student warranty but ae if you get full APP... thats what i wanted to clarify...
 
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I didnt realise that full APP means that I couldve had my previous macbook collected when there was a problem? I'm not far from an apple store so have always just taken it in... (the last time, it could repaired within two hours and i collected it again before i went home!) Never used the phone support either, asked on places like this and if got stuck just booked genius bar appointments online...

so my computer would be covered in exactly the same way, even after im not a student, except that id have to get it to and from an apple store and i wouldnt be able to call phone support? I'd heard that some faults arent covered by the student warranty but ae if you get full APP... thats what i wanted to clarify...

yeah, like I said, tri-care APP is simply means for the last two years, you get no phone support and you need to bring it in yourself to an Apple store or authorised service provider and then collect yourself

and yes, full APP/HE price APP includes collect and return which is handy if you don't live close to a service provider or bringing it in is simply not practical

as far as I am aware, you're still covered in terms of faults developing, it doesn't differ from the regular full fat APP, just remember, all types of APP exclude accidental damage
 
3. Proof of purchase of APP from Apple or Apple Authorized Reseller
As requested of this guy when trying to register a package purchased from CEX http://www.avforums.com/forums/13415331-post95.html
Which appears to put the kibosh on any cheap second hand APP even ina full sealed retail package.

I can confirm that although I have bought successfully on ebay previously a colleague recently purchased an actual sealed box but couldn't use it as Apple wanted proof of purchase from a proper reseller.

It turns out from late last year they changed the process. if your AppleCare number is numeric only then you will get asked for proof of purchase.

Newer ones which are alphanumeric codes go straight through and you are not asked for proof of purchase. You can't tell which sort it is without opening the packaging though.

Overall probably best to buy from proper channels. Jigsaw24 seem to have them at reasonable prices.
 
I can confirm that although I have bought successfully on ebay previously a colleague recently purchased an actual sealed box but couldn't use it as Apple wanted proof of purchase from a proper reseller.

It turns out from late last year they changed the process. if your AppleCare number is numeric only then you will get asked for proof of purchase.

Newer ones which are alphanumeric codes go straight through and you are not asked for proof of purchase. You can't tell which sort it is without opening the packaging though.

Overall probably best to buy from proper channels. Jigsaw24 seem to have them at reasonable prices.

I bought from CEX last month and successfully registered my Macbook. It was indeed an alphanumeric code supplied with a sealed box and went thru with no problem.
 
There is also a "version" which says "Auto Enroll", fully boxed, genuine, etc., which will NOT work if bought SEPARATELY. I didn't event bother tearing apart the cling-film on the box. Got fully refunded after obtaining intervention from fleabay - seller was trying to pull a fast one.
 
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ive also heard that even if you're able to register the applecare that when and if you need to use it, and the repair is worth over a certain amount, then they'll ask to see proof of purchase before fixing! id just avoid unathorised sellers unless they can supply the original receipt from apple....... and ive never found one that can!
 
good comments guys , I will accordingly update the sticky in the next few days :thumbsup:
 
regarding the HE APP costs theres lots of misinformation around ranging from free to normal price.

This guide clears this up excellently. Thanks!
 
regarding the HE APP costs theres lots of misinformation around ranging from free to normal price.

This guide clears this up excellently. Thanks!

no worries, glad to help! :thumbsup:
 
It turns out from late last year they changed the process. if your AppleCare number is numeric only then you will get asked for proof of purchase.

Newer ones which are alphanumeric codes go straight through and you are not asked for proof of purchase. You can't tell which sort it is without opening the packaging though.
.

There is also a "version" which says "Auto Enroll", fully boxed, genuine, etc., which will NOT work if bought SEPARATELY. I didn't event bother tearing apart the cling-film on the box. Got fully refunded after obtaining intervention from fleabay - seller was trying to pull a fast one.

I have finally got around to updating the sticky with this information, thanks has been left to both of you :smashin:
 
I bought from CEX last month and successfully registered my Macbook. It was indeed an alphanumeric code supplied with a sealed box and went thru with no problem.

I bought my iPhone APP from CEX (sealed box) and it registered fine. I took this route over the ebay purchase because of the sealed box.
 

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