OT- Where to get Apple Mac maintenance Contract?

[chrispvholmes]

Hi All,

My daughter has a MacBook Pro which has just come out of it's 3 year Applec are cover (annoyingly, we had to buy it a new PSU yesterday! (I suppose it may have cost no more than a policy excess)).

Anyways' she has some deal with her universitry or someone allied to them t hat they will pay for a maintenace / support contract (which I'd like to ge t in place before anything more expensive happens).

In my day working in the comuter retail and corporate sales sector, everyon e and his aunt sold these things, but I'm having trouble finding anything s uitable (and Apple are Savvy enough to only sell them to cover the first 3 years of the products life)..

In desperation I even tried Domestic & General's web site, but they seem to cover everything with a plug EXCEPT computers.

Does anyone have any recommendations or suggesetions for suppliers (Ideally those who would pay for it to be fixed by an Apple Authorised repairer (g etting that done when she broke the screen a year or two ago was frustratin g in the extrems), again, in my day as an Apple Authorised Engineer it was all so different.

We are in West Sussexx if that affects recommendations.

Cheers

Chris

[Tim Streater]

This reply is also going to uk.comp.sys.mac, where you may get a better response (there are people there who run Apple supply repair outfits as well as actually get paid for such repairs).

[The Natural Philosopher]

ROFLMAO!

thing after three years or when it breaks, whichever comes first.

Rather a lot of it cannot be even taken apart let alone serviced, by some strange twist of engineering design....

Apple is now a fully consumer oriented company and as such their after sales service and even ability to service has been sacrificed on the altar of saleability and proprietariness.

and

[The Natural Philosopher]

If I were such a person, I would not sell a supprt contract though.

In so many cases it is 'throw away and buy a new one' and the actual cost and risk of that is better borne by the muppet who bought the stuff in the first place

[RJH]

Of no particular interest to you now I'm afraid, but I'd always check with Apple before fixing something (just) out of warranty. A mate's 27" iMac went dead after about 40 months. He took it in to an Apple shop for diagnosis/repair and they just swapped it over for a new one.

[Huge]

Apple fixed my many-years-out-of-warranty Macbook Air for nothing ...

[Tim Streater]

I would, if it could be priced right and was limited to extended warranty type stuff. IME, the fault rate is low enough that such ought to be money for old rope.

Personally, I wouldn't bother with a service contract for failure, given that since I started buying them in 1990 or so, I've not had a fail that could be blamed on the machine itself.

I've had a disk controller failure after a thunderstorm (in 1994) and a screen failure on a lappy (after I put my elbow through it) in 1998.

Nothing since then, although a couple of external drives from the likes of LaCie have eventually started having noisy bearings.

YMMV, of course, although if you've not owned any you can't really judge.

Insurance against theft, accidental damage, is of course another matter.

[Tim Streater]

Certainly some people might. What of it.

I see you removed uk.comp.sys.mac, which I have restored to the NG lineup. I hope it's not because you're worried that people with actual experience of repair might chip in and say "Balls!".

[John Rumm]

I would suggest finding an independent repair outfit if and when it needs it.

Apple seem to price spares at a level where its generally non economic to use them outside of warranty repairs by their own approved repairers. Which means realistically you only have independent repair outfits that apple does to little to support.

[whisky-dave]

ecare cover (annoyingly, we had to buy it a new PSU yesterday! (I suppose i t may have cost no more than a policy excess)).

that they will pay for a maintenace / support contract (which I'd like to get in place before anything more expensive happens).

one and his aunt sold these things, but I'm having trouble finding anything suitable (and Apple are Savvy enough to only sell them to cover the first

3 years of the products life)..

to cover everything with a plug EXCEPT computers.

ly those who would pay for it to be fixed by an Apple Authorised repairer (getting that done when she broke the screen a year or two ago was frustrat ing in the extrems), again, in my day as an Apple Authorised Engineer it wa s all so different.

You could ask in uk.comp.sys.mac

[Brian Gaff]

Well I seem to recall that Apple used to do them, but they were hardly cheap. After three years a portable computer is probably near its life expectancy keyboard wise if I know mac grotbag keyboards the direction keys tend to go first.

I am afraid I do not much like macs. Brian