I would get AppleCare.  It is definitely worth the extra cost.  I bought a PowerBook two years ago and just after the complimentary one year warranty (about 4 days after) was up, I had a problem with the combo drive on it.  I sent it off and had it back in perfect condition within 3 days.  I know the iMac is built differently, but you have to plan for the worst.

What about that problem with the capacitors that expand and break each other?

Can’t rememmber the details, but anyone (Rutter?) - if you’re reading this: fill us in. Is Mark’s G5 in the ‘at risk’ sector?

Andy.

I’m a fan of Apple Care for such an expensive product. My iBook’s logic board recently went kaput; if I hadn’t had Apple Care, it would’ve cost almost as much as a new iBook to replace!

I bought a mac mini at the end of june. at the end of august (the 25th to be precise) it broke down. on the same day i took it to the repair shop.

I’m still waiting for them to call me.

the minimum delay was 31 days, so now its been 10 days since they should at least be working on it.

I also bought Applecare when I bought my Powerbook, which is my primary business machine. So far nothing has happened to it, but it is extremely nice to have the peace of mind knowing that if something goes wrong my downtime will hopefully be minimized.

But that’s a powerbook, which has the potential for a lot of bad things to happen to it, since it’s being tossed around all day and sometimes even packed onto airplanes and such. For a desktop… I don’t know. Might not be as worthwhile, but I suppose it depends on how much risk you can tolerate. If it’s your #1 machine, and you can’t work without it, then by all means, I would recommend protecting your new asset. If it’s your homework box, then, meh… maybe not.

Yeah, I believe the issue I’m thinking of is a video problem.

In fact a little Google brings up:

http://www.pbase.com/johncoggi/image/40667989

...so it looks like this may not be an issue for you. Yay!

I would recommend it—I’ve had some funk with the 3 imacs in our office, the warranty paid for itself already in each of them.

I’ve never done it with towers, those were easy for us in house geeks to tweak and manage as needed.

In the end, I always recommend the warranty for imacs and server equipment—it’s a lifesaver when you need it.

You have to consider your upgrade cycle, too. I know that because I’m expecting my G5 Powermac to last me for 3-4 years, I got the Applecare - I didn’t get it for my Powerbook, which is a refurb from an older line that I know I’ll only have for 18 months - 2 years.

I’ve had Applecare for almost all my Macs over the years - probably at a total cost of over $1000AUD - and it becomes worth it as soon as one laptop logic board dies, or 1GB of RAM bursts into flame just afer you’ve paid your tax bill…

My one and only dealing with the Applecare crew was a bit of a mixed affair. I’d had a G4 400 for two years so there was still a year of the warranty to go. The problem arose when I first switched to broadband many moons ago and the machine couldn’t get a signal.

At first I thought it was the ISP who was at fault - not least helped by the fact that the Applecare people on the phone assured me it simply couldn’t be anything wrong with their wonderful Mac after conducting a few rudimentary diagnostics.

It went on for almost a fortnight, the ISP blamed the Mac, Applecare blamed the ISP. In the end I took it to my local AppleCentre who immediately diagnosed a faulty Ethernet card.

Apple were soooo snotty when I informed them of this but eventually - yes, I still had to pester them - agreed to take the machine back and fix it.

Whilst the machine was away another lady from Applecare rang and apologised profusely for all the problems I had had. She simply couldn’t understand why the machine hadn’t simply been taken away in the first instance to be fixed. Since then, I’ve had no further problems with it.

It was nice to get a machine that was two years old fixed under warranty despite all the hassle. But the message seemed to be that you have to have the right person on the phone if you want a decent service, like a lot of places.

If it’s your primary business tool, I’d say take Applecare to minimise the risk and know you have a guaranteed solution.

But my ‘non commercial’ thinking has always been once you’re out of regular warranty, why go to a main or authorised dealer for a service/fix?

I happen to know a local-ish (Bristol) guy that fixes all things Apple for a living, so I’d probably give it to him to work on as I could survive with my Wintel box in the meantime.

You should pop for the AppleCare. A buddy of mine just gave me his G4 iBook two months ago. After two months of bliss, logic board dies. It’s nearly two years old so I’ll have to come up with $300 to fix it. Even though other G4 iBook users have had the same logic board failures that G3 iBook users had.

As a rule I never buy extended warrantees for anything, but I would make an exception in this case. I didn’t buy Applecare for any of my previous Macs, and in each case I regretted that decision because they all developed significant hardware problems after the initial warranty expired. So when it’s time to replace my current PowerBook G4, I’m getting AppleCare. I love Macs, but either I’ve had bad luck or else Apple has a quality control problem. All my recent Macs (Mac Classic, iMac, iBook, and this PowerBook) either came with or developed serious hardware defects, so I’ve come to expect it.

How come so many Mac computers have problems? I thought there would be more problems on a PC...I use a pc and for me, Mac represents high quality!

Melvyn, I share your concern ;-)

Apple is brilliant at industrial design and the Mac operating system is fantasic (I have not had a single crash in OSX in about four years now, although to be honest I could say the same for Windows 2000 Professional and XP Professional). But I do think they have a problem with hardware quality control. I read one survey that reported a 40 percent failure rate in the first generation G5 iMacs.

PC makers have their own share of hardware issues, but I’ve owned two IBM ThinkPads that have been incredibly reliable and trouble-free, far more so than any of my Macs. That won’t stop me from buying Macs in the future, but I do think AppleCare is a wise investment.

I bought Applecare along with my iMac G5, and while I haven’t needed to call upon it yet, there’s no doubt in my mind that I will have to before the 3 years is up.

Trust me, I’ve seen lots of Apple hardware problems. If it was a Powerbook or iBook, I’d insist you bought it (hell, I’d drive to your house and camp in your front garden until you did). However, because it’s an iMac, I’d only recommend it.

All depends if you know one of those rare species called a Mac technician who can cheaply fix your computer. Luckily I do and for a problem with my G5 Imac whioch Apple quoted as being over ?300 to fix the Mac technician was able to remedy for a mere ?15.

If you want his number Mark I can provide it to you. He’s Cardiff based and also doesn’t mind answering all sorts of Mac related queries.

For me it’s like taking your VW car to a VW garage or going to a small specialist firm.

Apple chanrge far too much and they’re support is pants!!!

Thanks for reminding me. I just got myself one right after I read your post.  I have a PBG4 12inch and the display showed a hairline pixel thin vertical line.  I had a great service experience (read more: http://www.noeluvia.com/archives/000426.html) so I got one just in time.  I’m seeing some signs of deterioration on my PB anyway.

Yes! Buy it. I bought it for my last powerbook and the screen died twice. Giot it fixed fast and free both times. It is worth the $$ if you plan to keep that G5 around.

Helped me out too as I’m looking at a new Powerbook soon (now with AppleCare added!)

Go the AppleCare.

Literally the day after my exteneded warrantee kicked in, my powerbook needed a refit, phew, talk about dodging the bullit.

Seems like you bought your iMac about month before I bought mine. I’m about to get AppleCare simply because I haven’t got much faith in the reliability of Apple’s consumer hardware - I’ve had issues with my iBook and, as Andy Hume mentioned earlier, issues with the iMac requiring a logic board replacement thanks to dodgy capacitors.

That said, the service I’ve had from AppleCare so far has been dreadful. The trick is to buy AppleCare but go to your local Mac specialist and get them to fix a problem under AppleCare cover.

Hi. Hows does AppleCare work? Do you pay this monthly or its just one time payment?

I’d like to ask, supposing I bought my Mac from another country (with the usual 1 year warranty only it’s honored there) then I came back to my own country. I’d like to have warranty without going back to the country where I bought it. Could I just buy AppleCare in my country and I will have 3 years warranty which in the event that the Apple parts don’t work they will replace or service it here within in those three years. Is this how AppleCare works?

Under normal use, does Applecare replace parts (apple parts) without charge, without diagnostics charge too? It’s all free?