Interesting — while I certainly had a good experience with my iPod replacement over the weekend, it turns out that the iPod warranty would have allowed Apple to charge me $30 to get me back in business, ostensibly for “shipping and handling.” (Note that the Genius didn’t attempt to charge me, nor did he attempt to charge any of the other people who replaced their iPods while I was in the store.) I agree with the person who mailed the info into Macintouch — the notion of a warranty that adds some sort of service charge halfway through the warranty term feels dirty, and certainly makes the warranty a lot less valuable. Also, the charge means that adding an extended warranty to your iPod isn’t $59, it’s actually a minimum of $89 — you have to pay the $59, and then each time you need to send your iPod in for service, you’ll have to pay another $30. Bleah.
(By the way, is this the right place to beg Macintouch’s Ric Ford to create permanent links to entries of his? The link above will only work until the item leaves the front page of Macintouch; then, I’ll have to dig through his search engine and archives to find a link that might continue to work.)
It is $59. Your math is wrong.
If you buy the AppleCare for iPod before the first six months is up, there will never be a shipping charge.
If it is past the first six months, buying the AppleCare is smart. You are essentially paying the $30 s&h, and then a $29 extended warranty for at least another year. That warranty covers all s&h.
Apple’s iPod Limited Warranty is one tech support call in the first 90 days. After six months there is a s&h charge of $30 (this is both ways) for repair/replacement.
Apple’s AppleCare iPod Warranty is unlimited tech support for two years, no s&h fees at all. This is from date of purchase.
Educated yourself before you educate the world.
• Posted by: Spider on Nov 22, 2005, 10:47 AMYou appear to be correct; I just tracked down a friend’s AppleCare policy pamphlet, and the language in it does seem to cover shipping and handling on warranty repairs. So it would appear it’s only the normal warranty that gets you with the $30 shipping and handling fee (still odious, but less so than both warranties forcing you to pay for what should already be covered). I’ll update my post.
• Posted by: Jason on Nov 22, 2005, 10:58 AM