Relatively little fuss and muss.

iMac was bought in Late 2009 with American Express, No Applecare. 6 months after Apple's one year warranty expired iTunes started randomly pausing and un-pausing songs for a few seconds, sluggish performance. Ran Disk Utility. Failing drive indicated. Ouch. But wait! Amex automatically doubles the manufacturer's warranty. I'm still covered. Just have to go through Amex.

Fax to Amex: iMac receipt, billing statement with the iMac purchase, Apple one year warranty, and $460 repair estimate from Apple Genius Bar to replace the 1TB drive. (Costly, i know. But hey it's covered warranty service)

Within 36 hours Amex eMails me an authorization for the Apple repair in full. A $460 credit is applied to my Amex account immediately before the repair is even done. I call Apple store to proceed with the repair. The Apple store calls back in 48 hours to tell me the repair is done and ready for pickup. 90 day warranty on the drive.

First experience with SuperDuper restoring a backup external drive to the internal drive. Took a couple of hours. No problem. Didn't even need instructions.

Kudos to American Express Blue and SuperDuper!

$460 for a new hard drive?? that sounds waaaay out of line.

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Labor.

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DP
Labor.

well yes, but it still sounds way out of line. I wonder how much an independent shop would charge.

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A few years ago, daughter bought an iMac with my Amazon Chase Visa card. A few weeks before the end of the second year it went kaput, and Chase covered the $800+ to replace the motherboard. Since most failures occur in the first year or after several years when Applecare is no longer in effect, I see no need to buy Applecare if the item is bought with a credit card that doubles the warranty period.

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DP
Labor.

$389.06 Hard Drive, 1TB, SATA, 3.5", 7200
$39.00 Hardware Repair-Level 1


At that price, you would think they would at least buff out the 2-inch suction cup marks left on the glass when they returned the iMac to me
At least there was not one speck of lint under the glass. Is this why there is no factory matte screen option on the iMacs? The suction cups won't stick to the matte screen? *shrug*



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/17/2011 08:39AM by 3d.

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mattkime
$460 for a new hard drive?? that sounds waaaay out of line.

Well, that is consistent with the figures on my warranty replacement of a drive on my iMac about 2 weeks ago. The drive was listed at about $300 on the sheet, plus a labor charge. This was on a 2009 i7 I bought as a refurb last August. Put this info together with the recent changes to Apple iMac's to require Apple ROM'd drives to have the cooling system work properly and you can see why many are not happy. Okay if you are still under warranty or extended with Applecare, but expensive if you can't go to a third party for a replacement. Apple can list the price of what would be a $75 drive elsewhere at whatever they want, and even the independent shop would have to pass that price on to you.

The drive price is high because they are not going with a new retail boxed drive; it is a service part.

the protections Amex provides is why all electronics and any other pricey purchase is made with THAT card.

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If you want to fix our country, work with us in the states. statesproject.org

"Success isn't about how much money you make. It is about the difference you make in people's lives."--Michelle Obama

FYI - The AMEX card will double the manufacturer's warranty up to an extra year. If you buy an extended warranty (AppleCare, Squaretrade, etc.), the AMEX coverage will kick in after the other warranty expires.

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mikebw
The drive price is high because they are not going with a new retail boxed drive; it is a service part.

That's absurd. Now we know why many people complained so loudly about Apple again attempting to disable our ability to change the drive in the most recent iMac revision. $389.06 for a 3.5" 1TB 7200rpm spinning platter? $60 drive costs over fix times as much if it comes from Apple? Nice people.

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graylocks
the protections Amex provides is why all electronics and any other pricey purchase is made with THAT card.

I agree.

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silvarios

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mikebw
The drive price is high because they are not going with a new retail boxed drive; it is a service part.

That's absurd. Now we know why many people complained so loudly about Apple again attempting to disable our ability to change the drive in the most recent iMac revision. $389.06 for a 3.5" 1TB 7200rpm spinning platter? $60 drive costs over fix times as much if it comes from Apple? Nice people.

It is what it is. All their service parts are expensive, but of course nobody would actually pay for an OOW (out of warranty) replacement of a hard drive out of pocket; much cheaper to buy that $60 drive and pay someone $100 maybe to install it, or DIY.

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mikebw
It is what it is. All their service parts are expensive, but of course nobody would actually pay for an OOW (out of warranty) replacement of a hard drive out of pocket; much cheaper to buy that $60 drive and pay someone $100 maybe to install it, or DIY.

But Apple has taken steps to prevent you from doing it yourself. How can I accomplish that with the new iMac? Hence my comment.

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DavidS
FYI - The AMEX card will double the manufacturer's warranty up to an extra year. If you buy an extended warranty (AppleCare, Squaretrade, etc.), the AMEX coverage will kick in after the other warranty expires.

IOW if I buy Applecare for a three-year warranty from date of purchase, I am fully protected during the fourth year by AMEX coverage? Are you certain of this, DavidS?

Thanks.

> American Express extended warranty saved my iMac

No, it saved you.

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Saint Cloud, Minnesota, where the weather is wonderful even when it isn't.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/17/2011 11:15PM by Speedy.