[evoLver]

I've heard differing information. I thought you could buy Apple Care anytime in the first year of ownership (for a laptop). A friend said 3 different Apple reps told her it was 3 months.

Also, if it is in the first year, will purchasing it at the end of year one give me a total of 4 years coverage, or is it 3 years total regardless of the date of purchase of the Apple Care?

[Cold Warrior]

Purchase within one year. You get three years of coverage from date of hardware purchase.

http://www.apple.com/support/products/faqs.html

[64stang06]

Your friend may have been told that her 90 day phone support was over, and that she could either pay $49 per incident, or pony up the money for AppleCare.

[mduell]

If you don't buy AppleDoesn'tCare, they won't give you tech support over the phone after 3 months.

[FireWire]

I already knew it, but this is highly ridiculous.. a mere 3 months for a very expensive product.. what a total display of disrespect... I know many el cheapo products that offer better support.. Shame on you, Apple!

[Maflynn]

Originally Posted by mduell 

If you don't buy AppleDoesn'tCare, they won't give you tech support over the phone after 3 months.

I believe they won't give you FREE tech support over the phone after 3 months.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by FireWire 

I already knew it, but this is highly ridiculous.. a mere 3 months for a very expensive product.. what a total display of disrespect... I know many el cheapo products that offer better support.. Shame on you, Apple!

Statistically, by far the most hardware failures occur very early in the life of a computer, Apple's included. Further, much phone support is for "learning the machine" which also doesn't take most people (those who can read, follow simple directions and the like) more than a few weeks. 90 days of free phone support for EVERY PRODUCT is not a trifling expense for Apple, by the way, and it may actually cost them more than the hardware repairs they need to handle in that one-year hardware warranty...

[tooki]

On desktops, "early infant failure" is the dominant failure. But on laptops, I couldn't disagree more. They suffer wear and tear throughout their life, and often need repairs outside of the original warranty.

As for support, the 90 day limit of free phone support does not apply to hardware issues -- you can call any time within the first year for hardware problems. (But if you call and say it's hardware and it turns out it's not, then you may be required to pay the call fee.)

Or just go to the Genius Bar, which is always free to visit.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by tooki 

On desktops, "early infant failure" is the dominant failure. But on laptops, I couldn't disagree more. They suffer wear and tear throughout their life, and often need repairs outside of the original warranty.

As for support, the 90 day limit of free phone support does not apply to hardware issues -- you can call any time within the first year for hardware problems. (But if you call and say it's hardware and it turns out it's not, then you may be required to pay the call fee.)

Or just go to the Genius Bar, which is always free to visit.

I agree that laptops suffer a lot more "wear and tear" problems over time, but they will still exhibit the small statistically predicted failure rate that everything else does. Good point on the phone support limit only being for non-hardware issues; I'd forgotten that.