The Trouble with AppleCare
Should you buy it or not?
My wife did something she says she never does.
We bought a refrigerator for our new home three years ago, and she says we forked over an extra four hundred dollars for the extended warranty. More on that later.
Most of these warranties are dangerous, full of fine print that would keep you from ever being able to take advantage of the plan if something goes haywire on your product.
Car dealers make a boatload of cash on these warranties because they know we will walk away unclear on what it covers and will likely not bring our car to be serviced there anyway. Every time you do, they always find something extra to fix that’s not in the plan.
Cell phone protection plans for Androids are also pretty bad. The plans through your carrier, like Verizon and AT&T, typically use a third-party insurer, most likely Asurion. They make you jump through hoops to file a claim, and you usually end up with a refurbished phone. You could also wait two weeks or more for a replacement. Imagine being without your phone for that long.
Even AppleCare has some flaws.
Granted, they can handle their repairs in-house through the Genius Bar, and if you hang around their stores, you can see firsthand how easily most problems are addressed.
The trouble with AppleCare is the cost.
They get you in a couple of ways. First, they try to convince you that it will save you money in the long run because, at some point, you’re likely to damage your device. It’s a case of “better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.”
They will then show you the “savings,” and there’s a reason I put that in quotation marks.
On its website, Apple states that repairing a cracked screen on an iPhone 14 Pro Max will set you back $29 with AppleCare and a whopping $379 without it. See? Look at the money you’re saving!
But here’s the thing. Apple has complete control of its cost of repairs.
Being a luxury brand, their repairs come with a luxury markup. Since no third party is involved in the physical maintenance (theft and loss are covered by AIG), Apple can charge whatever they like.
I know, I know, it’s expensive to manufacture an iPhone, yadda, yadda, yadda. But the prohibitive cost of non-AppleCare repair work practically forces you into buying the protection.
Not even half of Apple’s customers purchase AppleCare.
However, it is mentioned with every transaction. Employees are given kudos for having a good AppleCare percentage of sales.
The other problem is how Apple is handling Right-to-Repair laws. States like Minnesota and Colorado have signed bills forcing manufacturers to improve the repairability of their devices.
Apple’s response fell far short of making self-repair easy for consumers. The need to rent a particular device and use only their parts makes things difficult for DIY’ers. They are slowly making things better. Just last week, they announced updates to their System Configuration software. It’s a step, but not far enough.
Apple hasn’t been blind to how consumers feel about all of this. But rather than lower the cost, they chose to break the price of AppleCare into smaller monthly payments. It seems to hurt less that way, but you’re still paying the price.
Should you buy AppleCare? Absolutely.
Apple’s not going to cut us a break anytime soon. If you want to drive a fancy sports car, you will have to buy fancy insurance.
Remember I mentioned not everyone gets AppleCare? It’s been said every buyer of AppleCare is someone who broke their device without it.
Every day, dozens of people come in and are hit with a hefty bill. Rather than pay, some people choose to live with their broken phones, even ones where you can see the parts behind the screen.
You’d better believe they buy AppleCare next time.
I concede AppleCare may be a great deal in the long run. But upfront, it makes my wallet cry uncle.
I’m happy to say the repair of our refrigerator cost us nothing. Parts and service were all covered. But we had to live with our food in a cooler for two weeks.