Well I've heard people argue the opposite. They say that, as of fairly recently, desktops are covered internationally too.

The Mac Mini APP page at the Australian Apple store seems to suggest it's now international repair coverage.

"The AppleCare Protection Plan extends the complimentary coverage on your Mac to three years of world-class support. The plan includes expert telephone assistance, global repair coverage, onsite repairs for desktop computers,* web-based resources, and TechTool Deluxe from Micromat—all for one economical price."

Cool. It used to be only for portables so I assumed it remained the same. Anyways, it also says

We recommend you purchase the AppleCare Protection Plan in your country of residence as each AppleCare Protection Plan has terms and conditions specific to consumers of the country or region where offered.

So you don't have to buy your APP in your country.

Not sure if this has already been mentioned but;


Is not true. Ive made probably about 15 calls total in this 90 day complimentary period and every single tech has been australian. i even chatted to one guy about their (as in the tech support) location, and the guy mentioned to me they are located in sydney (city).

there was one time i spoke to an indian woman, and she could have easily been here in sydney.

ive been totally blown away by the apple phone support. ive never had to wait on hold in queue, always call up and get a tech support straight away. i think there was one time i called at 9.10 am (10 mins after they open) and i had to wait a little, but thats probably when they have least staff.

btw question... when apple store opens here in sydney, to take it to the genius bar (im assuming theyll be having a genius bar, right?) - will i be required to have APP?

To be seen at the Genuis bar, you don't even need a valid warranty. Take your product, they'll have a look and tell you what to do next. If it requires repair, then what happens next depends whether you have a valid warranty or not. If you do have a warranty (be it the original 1 year or the extra 2 years APP gives you), then you're covered - give em the machine and they'll fix it. IF it's out of warranty, they'll happily fix it, but it will cost ya!

After repairs, you get to see on the receipt on how much the actual warranty would have cost you. I remember seeing a logic board repair costing nearly 2k for the replacement of the logic board and the labour for that... luckily it came down to $0 for having APP

^ Really?

I've never seen that before.

Is this in Australia?

A good electronics manufacture would have a failure rate of 3%. I will take my chances.

Not so. I had a refurb. which was purchased in the U.S. I got Applecare for it just before the 12 month warranty expired.
I'm glad I did- it suffered from the well-documented lower RAM slot problem (15" PB G4), where the machine would no longer recognize RAM in the lower slot.
The screen was also replaced at one stage, so I certainly got my money's worth with Applecare.

Thanks to the info on this thread was able to buy app care from ebay USA for my Macbook yesterday for $170 US.
Rang Apple Aus and registered no problems.
A saving of about $240, thanks again Mactalk.

No problem

One other thing to consider is what my family have started doing, we self insure. We agreed to pay the same RRP requested by Apple into an online savings account.
We have between 2 households
2 iMacs
3 Macbooks
2 AppleTVs
4 iPods
2 Cinema Displays
1 Mini
+ Growing
Not all things are self insured but if they were the total in the account would be just under $2500. The interest should be about $600 over the 2 year life of the products after the 1st year warranty.

The total fund then stands at around $3100 for repairs. But the best thing is the money is ours not Apples. We risk expensive failures depleting the fund completely but that is not highly likely as the product spread is quite wide. The longer we use the fund the better it becomes. My next upgrade will require me to input more money into the fund but if I want at any time I can un-insure and get my money back minus part of anyones claim(s).

You can also add other things non Apple for greater coverage.

Huh?

So you're essentially spending twice the amount on each Apple product you buy?

If so, why? Applecare only sets you back $419 for the MacBook - you're covered for an extra 2 years. Now, a MacBook logic board replacement (out of warranty) would set you back, what, close on $1500 - close to the cost of a new machine anyway? That far outweighs the cost of the AppleCare, in one hit...

Not sure I understand this self-insurance business. AppleCare seems like the way to go.

It's the exact same reasoning that insurance companies. Apple charge $1500 to fix a motherboard or whatnot because that's what it costs. The reasoning is that you might get 1 in every 1000 motherboards fail. If there is 50% takeup of applecare then apple lose $1500 for every $20,950.

Same here. If one were to spend $419 on applecare for 5 macs that would be an outlay of $2095. If you save the money instead and only lose one motherboard (one in 5 failure rate) then you are still ahead if you pay for it from the 'insurance'.

This is how insurance works.... Where self funding doesn't work is if there is catastrophic failure somewhere but the likelihood of that is remote (it's still a risk though and one you have to weigh up) or you only have one or two machines

The idea of constantly adding to the balance of the account is more to help get the fund generating interest. I "could" take out my early insurance that was no longer covering anything but if I don't need to, the money stays to help the balance to a point where it gives enough interest to cover repairs. Then the principle is more of a savings account than insurance fund.

So even if I pay $1000 in insurance in that five years and my percentage of the repairs expenditure equals $800 plus interest on the account I will still have had insurance and I get $200 cash back.

The risk* is that with $2000 in the account we have failures that cost $2000 or more to rectify. Then we end up spending more money than what we should have by paying for normal extended warranties

I guess the point is if you can have insurance, that would repair/replace items the same as the extended warranties offered by manufacturers that can* return money you are better doing it this way.

* There is no such thing as rewards without risk

I generally keep my portables for just under a year and then on-sell them.
so the standard 12 month warranty is sufficient for me.

the 12" G4 PowerBook that also resides here was purchased at age 15 months and came with a 3 yr EDU warranty.
at around 24 months, optical drive shat itself just after the sound jack refused to switch to speakers and would only give sound thru earphones.

as sound jack is soldered to logic board, Apple replaced entire logic board ($1k) and optical drive all in one hit saving me (even tho it was my daughter's machine) around $1500 + (if you include labour)

so yes extended warranty is worth it - but not if you have to buy it.
whist that may sound a bit 'irish', to shell out $450 on top of initial purchase price is a turn-off.
(to hunt around for one on eBay is a less expensive alternative)

I'd only be prepared to buy extended warranty on models that have reliability issues.
(some G4 PowerBooks, early intel iMacs and so forth)

MacBooks have an excellent track record
MB Pro's not so hot.

when the new refresh appears in a couple of months, and I upgrade to a MBPro I'll surely be getting the Ext Warranty as I intend to keep that baby for a few years.