Buying Applecare via Ebay

[PDLM]

A replacement equivalent laptop would cost about HK$10K, so getting it fixed is clearly the cheaper option. And cheaper also than it would have been to pay for extended warranty for those 5 years.

[jgl]

My T41 came with a 3 year warranty by default. When this came up, I extended by a year, because the T41 series has a known design problem- the chasis is insufficiently rigid, which on some machines causes the motherboard to flex slightly and eventually unseat the. I'm on my 4th free motherboard thanks to the warranty.

Anyway, the extended warranty worked out at (off memory) about a grand for a year, so I'd imagine that 4 years of additional warranty should have cost 4k.

Generally, I agree that extended warranties are a bad idea. However, there are times when they actually do make sense. One situation is as above- when the product has a better than average chance of failure. Another would be to cover loss if the buyer tends to lose things like mobile phones.

[PDLM]

Sure - if you are confident you are in a situation where for whatever reason you can "beat the average" then it can make sense.

I've just checked the paperwork, by the way. The new (reconditioned, with a 6 month warranty) motherboard was $1800, and the new hard 60GB disk was $1,200. So $3K in total, not $4K.

[wayland]

Sure - if you are confident you are in a situation where for whatever reason you can "beat the average" then it can make sense.

I've just checked the paperwork, by the way. The new (reconditioned, with a 6 month warranty) motherboard was $1800, and the new hard 60GB disk was $1,200. So $3K in total, not $4K.

ripped off imo. I'm going to replace my laptop harddrive with a 500gb one for less than $900.

My previous post about 4k being more than the value of that laptop was made after I did a quick check on ebay which showed t41's going for under $300USD

[PDLM]

Yes, but that's the second hand value of one in unknown condition, not the value of one with a Lenovo-warranted motherboard and drive.

Yes, I know I could have shopped around and got the harddisk a bit cheaper, but I'm happy to pay a premium for the installation, general refurbishment and so on by the manufacturer. And 60GB is way more space than I will ever need (I'm currently using less than 15GB), so that's fine for me.

[leedseagle]

PDLM, what point are you trying to make about insurance policies or extended warranties when you just told us you paid almost $4k to have your 5yr old laptop fixed?

Your laptop isn't even worth 4k anymore.

PDLM seems to have a vendetta against insurance companies. this isnt the first time i have read this poster's comments suggesting people refrain from taking out a sensible insurance policy

[PDLM]

It's not vendetta - I'm merely pointing out that on average you must pay more in insurance premiums than you get back in payouts, so you should think carefully before taking any insurance as to why exactly you are doing it. It only makes sense if either:
1) you are confident that you can somehow "beat the odds", or
2) you are insuring against an event which is very unlikely to happen (i.e. the chances are it won't ever happen to you) but if it did you could not afford to pay for whatever it was yourself, or
3) The "insurance" is actually not a simple risk-based insurance and is some sort of marketing lock-in by the company concerned (perhaps in a captive market, combined with pricing to make non-insurance repair more expensive than it should be, as seems to be the case with Apple).

Otherwise, it is hard to see how insurance makes sense.

[mrdollars]

Just an update:

I purchased Applecare via Ebay last week for less than half price! It worked and I am fully registered with Apple.

So - if anyone else has an Apple computer I would recommend a quick search on Ebay before you take the Applecare agreement. You will save a packet!