Getting A Cheap AppleCare Protection Plan For Your MacBook
If you are a sane MacBook owner like me, then you probably burnt a lot of sweat to pay for your machine. Apple’s products are expensive, no doubt, you buy them only if you think they’re worth it. I took a decision last year to spend my parents’ precious money on a MacBook rather than a Dell, and that choice was difficult enough. I’ve had a fair share of problems (1-2-3-4-5) with this MacBook but that does not make me regret my decision. I am totally in love with this machine, or a better choice of words would be that I am too dependent on it. I need to protect it, and that’s why I need insurance. Sadly, in Apple’s case, that too comes at a heavy cost.
Apple provides something called an AppleCare Protection Plan (APP), which extends your 1 year warranty and makes it a 3 year warranty, 3 years from the date of purchase. Effectively, you pay for 2 extra years. It also gives you complementary phone support for 3 years. The price of an APP for my 13″ MacBook in India is above Rs 13,000 inclusive of taxes. Now I don’t know about you, but that seems to me a hell of a premium to pay for warranty. I bought my MacBook for Rs 54,392. That means that the cost of warranty is over 23% of the price of the product, which sounds absurd. This put me in a tough position, I knew I would need this warranty in the future, because I have experienced problems earlier. If this machine goes down when I have no warranty, the individual parts are too expensive for me to afford. And neither would I be able to afford a new machine. In short, I was royally screwed.
Then I talked to xAbhishek. He owns a MacBook Pro, and I asked him how he gathered up the courage to pay up a hefty sum for his APP. He told me that I could get an APP agreement for my MacBook much cheaper than the prices at the Apple Store, on eBay. He himself bought his APP from a similar source.
How this works is that these sellers on eBay do not ship out the actual boxes for the APPs. Once they receive the payment, they send you an email which contains the agreement code. You can then register this code online on Apple’s official website along with the serial number of your MacBook. Even if you actually purchase the APP box, you would have to take out a card inside it which contains an agreement number, which you have to register online. The box also contains a DVD for TechTool Deluxe, but once you have registered your code online, you can download TechTool Deluxe from here. So far it seems easy.
The problem here of course is of trust. I am sitting here in India, the seller is probably somewhere in Nigeria, I don’t know who he is, if he will ever send me that email, if he does, what if the code is already used, or is fake. Your money is gone, its a blind shot. Well the good news is that you’re not throwing arrows in the dark. eBay has a feedback program, only users who buy from a particular seller can leave feedback. This makes it difficult to fake reputation. The seller I bought from, macman812, has sold thousands of Apple products on eBay, is an old member (since 2003), has 100% positive feedback from buyers. The only method of payment that this user accepted was PayPal, which is another thing to look for because PayPal has something called buyer protection. Also, the description of the product was convincing enough. In the end, it is a risk that you have to take, no matter how many safeguards are in place.
I bought the APP for $118, which on conversion to INR, cost me Rs 5892. I saved over Rs 7000, and though I faced a few issues initially, everything worked out well in the end. Now I have a 3 year warranty for my MacBook, and it only cost me 10.8% of the price of my MacBook, which seems to be extremely reasonable.
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puneet on 
July 1st, 2009 at 3:17 am
I don’t think warranty extension is any cheaper with other brands. My friend paid 15k for his hp.
July 1st, 2009 at 9:51 am
And Dell’s costs 12k. They’re all overpriced as fuck. >:(
July 1st, 2009 at 1:37 pm
eBay itself has a buyer protection programme. Any purchase up to Rs 50000 (I think) is protected.
July 19th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
Even I have recently bought a 13″ white Apple Macbook and I am looking for a fair deal on the APP for 3 year warranty. How has your experience been with the carepack you bought? I am slightly apprehensive about it as I have never made any dealings on ebay earlier. I searched for the products available with the seller, macman812 mentioned by you and I was able to find an APP only for Mackbook pro. I’d be more than glad if you could help me out with this.
Thank you!
July 19th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
@Sachin
My experience with the APP was good, and everything worked out fine in the end. In fact, a few days later, I bought another APP for my friend from the same dealer.
If the seller is not offering a warranty for your MacBook right now, you can either wait for 2-3 days, after which, most probably, the seller would put up the product again, and then you can buy it. Or you can choose from any of the other sellers out there, keeping in mind the points I highlighted in this post. You are sure to get a good deal on eBay. The first transaction on eBay is always scary, as there is the issue of trust, but you’ll get over it soon enough. If you be alert and take necessary precautions, I don’t see a reason why you’ll have a bad experience there. Read my post again, and you should have what you need.
July 25th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Thanks so much Apoorv! I’ve just got a new mac and now i’m probably gonna buy the warranty from ebay next month…I’ll be sure to post my experience here
September 2nd, 2009 at 9:33 am
One of my friend’s Sanjay Malik got cheated on this. He did get the code but was unable to register his plan(it says plan already registered). When he contacted Apple, they said since it is bought from eBay, we can’t help. Also, the Mac dealer from where I buy the machines UC systems has told me that they can’t offer ONSITE if plan is bought thru eBay or any country outside India.
Can you let me know about buyer protection program so that I can ask him to claim his refund, if eBay can do the same.
Hope, you all will be careful.
November 17th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
Hey I got it through the same seller after reading your blog and it was amazingly hassle free…the cost is less than 6k and I really must say that ‘Apple’ has got to be smarter than this…How can you sell APPs at 13k and 14k when they are available at less than half the price on ebay and Amazon? But otherwise, my Mac experience has been awesome…any day it is Mac over PC for me!
Thanks Apoorv for sharing this ’scoop’ with us
@ Manoj
The key is to buy it from a seller with good feedback and a clean track record (a few years to be safe)
@ Apoorv
Do you know if Apple offers on site service in India for desktops? I have an iMac and the nearest service centre is 60 km away.The website doesn’t mention anything specific either
November 17th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
@Aditya
It is a rare moment when I am able to help somebody out. More importantly, a reader coming back with positive feedback. Thanks for considering me trustworthy enough.
About iMacs, I honestly don’t have a clue. One thing I know for sure is that there is no onsite warranty for MacBooks. In the US, the warranty for iMacs is onsite. Link – http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC245LL/A
November 17th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
@Aditya
Ok I found this. http://images.apple.com/legal/applecare/docs/APAC_APP_English_ZAv5.1.pdf
This PDF contains the terms and conditions for AppleCare plans in Asia.
I’m highlighting the paragraph that talks about onsite warranty.
“Onsite service is available in some countries for many desktop computers if the location of the Covered Equipment is within 50 miles/80 kilometers radius of an Apple authorized onsite service provider. Onsite service is not available for certain parts, the service for which is available
under Do-It-Yourself Parts service described below. Onsite service coverage may be less in certain countries as described in section 8 below. Apple will dispatch a service technician to the location of the Covered Equipment. Service will be performed at the location, or the service technician will transport the Covered Equipment to an Apple Authorized Service Provider or Apple repair service location for repair. If the Covered Equipment is repaired at an Apple Authorized Service Provider or Apple repair service location, Apple will arrange for transportation of the Covered Equipment to your location following service. If the service technician is not granted access to the Covered Equipment at the appointed time, any further onsite visits may be subject to an additional charge.”
This is the paragraph that deals with Indian laws
“India: Parties to Contract – Apple India Private Ltd at 19th Floor, Concorde Tower C, UB City No. 24, Vittal Mallya Road, Bangalore 560-001, India (“Apple”). Cancellation (Section 5) – Cancel by sending written notice to AppleCare Administration, Apple India Private Ltd at 19th Floor, Concorde Tower C, UB City No. 24, Vittal Mallya Road, Bangalore 560-001, India. If you cancel more than 30 days after your receipt of this Plan, you will received a pro-rata refund of the Plan’s original purchase price, less (i) a cancellation fee of 1,300 INR (India Rupees) or 10 percent of the pro-rata amount, whichever is less and (ii) the value of any service provided to you under the Plan. Transfer (Section 6) – Transfer by sending written notice to AppleCare Administration, Apple India Private Ltd at 19th Floor, Concorde Tower C, UB City No. 24, Vittal Mallya Road, Bangalore 560-001, India. General Terms (Section 7) – This plan is offered and valid only in India. The laws of the Republic of India govern this plan.”
November 17th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Hey thanks for looking this up…I’ll clarify with Applecare next time I talk to them about the On site warranty to get a clear picture on this…do write more about Mac and OS X if time permits…there aren’t too many people from India blogging about Mac.Maybe you could write a new post about Snow Leopard? I got it for 9.95 US$ under the UptoDate program but I haven’t got around to installing it as yet!
PS – An interesting anecdote, Apple does NOT use a Serial No. genuine validation process like “You-Know-Who” to validate Mac OS, essentially leaving it to the customer’s conscience.So yes, one can install from the same OS X disc to 100 Macs and it’ll still work.But just the fact that Apple is nice enough to trust us deters most from doing so!
November 18th, 2009 at 12:37 am
@Aditya
Well, more than being nice, I see that Apple doesn’t implement a copy-protection feature in their software because they simply don’t care. Do you know how much money Microsoft puts in to implement copy-protection features in their software? That figure is so huge, you might even think that it costs more than the actual development of the software.
If you see Apple’s profits for last year, you would know that around 55% of its profits come from selling Macs. Apple earns more than enough to cover the losses from piracy of their software. That is why, from a business point of view, it makes no sense to spend money on such useless security.
And BTW, could you elaborate more on how you got the Snow Leopard upgrade for $9.95?
EDIT: Spelling and typos.
November 18th, 2009 at 12:55 am
I get your point Apoorv, and about the upgrade, I got it very cheap because I qualified for the ‘UptoDate’ Program which covers Macs bought after June 8th, 2009.For existing Leopard users, I believe the upgrade costs a little more (about 30$)
Check out this link for more details on this
http://www.apple.com/in/macosx/uptodate/
December 14th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
I have a MBP 15.4 refurbished which I purchased from US online Apple Store in mid August 2009.
Planning to get a APP for it, which costs 18,300/- here in iStore.
Question is, if i get a cheaper option in Ebay, should I go for it? Will it be problematic? Dont want to spend money and find out what I have brought from ebay is not valid.
Any help in this regard is greatly appreciated.
Thanx
Vijay
December 14th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
@Vijay
Read the post again, and all the comments, your question has already been answered here.
December 14th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=690859&page=21
One of the forums running around on the net that makes me very sceptical.
there are quite a few such arguments…
thats y i posted the query.
December 14th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
This doesn’t look too good…and I’m having second thoughts about buying an APP again from ebay..any more views on this? I just read page 21 of that forum..if there’s anyone who could read up more on this and post here it’ll be great! What do you think about this Apoorv?
December 14th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
I read a few more pages and I’m still undecided…macman812 has made a strong case for himself…but the counter arguments are equally effective…it seems that Apple carries out random checks and can ask you for the serial no. on the box (which is not shipped by ebay sellers) or a receipt from an authorized reseller (paypal and ebay receipts not accepted) So we might be lucky and still get our 33 year coverage, but it doesn’t mean that this ebay purchase is risk free..I certainly would exercise more caution next time
PS – Macman812 also says that he’s ready to ship the box for an extra 25$ if a customer asks him for it.Food for thought!
December 14th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
Typo – 3 year coverage!
December 14th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
I see the points made there and many of them are valid. I just hope that I don’t become a target of the random sweeps by Apple. If you’re so skeptical, and want complete satisfaction of mind, shell out double the money and buy your APP from Apple.com.