Apple(I don't)Care

I got a call today from a lady working for Apple Computer. She asked me how I was enjoying my new iPod I bought in February. I told her it was working fine, except for the fact that they forgot to engrave it with the birthday message that I requested, since it was for my wife. She then went into a sales pitch for the extended warranty. I was pretty irritated, particulary because it was the second time in a month that they've tried this on me. I didn't buy the warranty on purpose, they're not going to sell it to me over the phone, especially the second time.

What's worse, is that both representatives either didn't know what was covered under the standard policy, or they were lying. I think it's probably a combination of the two. I was told that if I bought the Apple Care, they'd be willing to fix the fact that it didn't get engraved. If that was an option, I should have that for free with or without the extended warranty. It was their fault that they didn't do it in the first place. I was also told that my warranty had expired. I called her on that. My 90 days tech support had expired, but I still have the rest of the 1 year parts and labor. She told me that labor isn't covered unless I buy the Apple Care, which is a lie. I did the Platinum card trick anyway, so I've got parts and labor for 2 years without the Apple Care.

It really makes me mad. They've called me trying to sell me a two-year, $70 extended warranty on a $200 item, when the first year is covered anyway, and both are covered with my extra credit card protection. Apple Care tech support sucks anyway, at least in the 4 times that I've had to call them. I wanted them to help me set network a printer hooked up to my Windows desktop so that I could print from my Powerbook wirelessly. Neither of the two techs I talked to knew how to do it. I eventually figured it out on my own.

Another time the motherboard in my first iBook went out. It was part of a worldwide recall. I had only had the thing for 6 months, but the guy was trying to tell me it was out of warranty. I told him it didn't matter, because it was a recall and Apple was supposed to fix it for free. He looked it up, and realized I was right. Then he told me that in order to diagnose the problem to see if it was actually the problem, it would cost me $50, because I was out of warranty. Disgusted, I hung up, redialed, and talked to another tech that authorized the repair for free. Guess it depends on who you talk to.

If you have any doubts as to why the warranty is a bad deal, think about my iPod situation. For a $70 warranty, it is worth it to Apple to pay someone to call me, TWICE in one month, and try to sell me the warranty, with a success rate that on the average customer is probably around 5%. Add in the costs of how much it takes to run a call center, and the expenses that occur when they actually have to fix the things, and when you consider it's still worth it to Apple to do that, you've gotta know they're betting on not fixing the thing.

Of course, there's always the chance that you'll get your money's worth out of the warranty, but there's a chance you'll get eaten by squirrels too. I don't know about you, but I don't have a squirrel-related death rider on my life insurance, and I don't buy extended warranties either.