AppleCare – My Argument For Buying the Extended Warranty
One of the things I like most about Apple is the customer service. While my shop repairs Apple products, we don’t handle warranty issues for Apple. However, when I recommend an Apple product for purchase by any one of my clients, I always recommend that they purchase AppleCare, the warranty program they offer for their products. Not only does Apple support boast short wait times and fast turnaround on repair services, but I can always understand the support representative clearly when I speak to them: an aspect that many customer service departments cannot profess. I’ve been an AppleCare customer on my various products for the past six years and today I’d like to share my most recent experience as proof that there are companies out there that care.
My 27” iMac, a year-and-a-half old, recently had an issue where my iTunes started performing badly after an update. I called into AppleCare support to see if they could help. After some preliminary troubleshooting, it came to light that my computer was up for a warranty replacement for a recalled part: the hard drive. We setup the service call for an onsite warranty repair (the norm for any desktop computer) for two days later. When the technician visited he replaced the hard drive and allowed me to keep the old one for restoring my data easily; this allowed me to forgo the extra step of backing it up first. I should note that I asked specifically for this when we scheduled the service call; typically the hard drive would be swapped out and that additional backup step is necessary. After about an hour of use, I noticed that the fans became loud… very loud. It sounded like I had a jet taking off on my desk. I called in again to AppleCare, albeit a little less calmly, and expressed my discontent. Another service call was scheduled, but being the Christmas holiday, the earliest availability was for the 26th.
On the second trip, the technician was sent with a host of fans, temperature sensors, and cables, and all were replaced. After we booted it up, it took about an hour before the fans became overwhelming and my third call was placed. By this time, I was livid and my demeanor on the phone was less than friendly. The service agent placed me on a brief hold (no more than three minutes) to consult with their superior. When they returned to the call, I was pleasantly surprised by their solution: they would replace my iMac with the latest model. If you read my previous article about the new iMac, you know that there are some extreme new design changes for this line of devices, and my “antiquated” iMac would be replaced with the brand new 27” model with corresponding processor and storage. Knowing that there are some delays in the shipping and order fulfillment of the new 27” models, I expressed my concern, but was assured that my situation would merit getting one of the first available units. A week later, I had my new 27” iMac, a beauty to behold on my desktop.
I deal with technology on a daily basis. One aspect of this is dealing with technology warranty companies on a daily basis, and I have never had a warranty experience like this. Normally, companies will go to extraordinary lengths to “fix” the problem, never offering to replace the whole unit, much less with a newer and better one. As such, I highly recommend that anyone with an Apple product get AppleCare.
Yes, I am an Apple guy and yes, I find the products to be aesthetically pleasing and reliably functional, but pretty looks only go so far. A true test of a company’s character and customer service is revealed when their products fail. As a technology consumer, Apple has proven themselves to me and earned a customer for life.
