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Why get Apple Care?

I have been getting Apple Care on all the Apple Products I purchase. I have a MacMini, MacBook Pro, (2) iPad Pros and iPad mini. The wife and I both have the latest iPhone Pros. I am an Apple junkie to say the least.


I have never had anything but great experiences with Apple Support until today. My MacMini (still under warranty through Apple Care) has an issue as 2 of the 4 thunderbolt ports have stopped working. After doing some diagnostics with Apple Support over the phone, I am told I need to bring the MacMini into a service center. Problem is, the closest service center is 2 hours each way and I can't do that at least for the next month as I am working. Usually I always just ship things for service to an Apple service center. They are saying that's not an option with the MacMini. WTF? Why not with the MacMini? This is insane and I am so disappointed with Apple. In the future, I will reconsider getting Apple Care as it's totally worthless to me.


And as a note, it's not like I live in the middle of nowhere. I live in a coastal city of 125,000 people.

Posted on Jun 17, 2021 3:39 PM

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Posted on Jun 17, 2021 5:11 PM

FWIW, like you I have had exceptional experiences with all of my Mac products. I've pretty much have had every Mac mini model since they first came out. In my case, it wasn't with a mini, but with a 2020 MacBook Pro. It had experienced an unintentional water spill which ended up requiring that the logic board, display, and keypad be replaced. If I didn't have AppleCare+, that would have set me back the cost of a new notebook ... and this one was less than 2 months old. So, in my case, AppleCare+ "saved my bacon." Albeit, it was still a bit expensive bacon at that. ;)


I live in a very remote area where driving to an Apple Authorized Service Provider is just not feasible so I relied on Apple's mail-in repair service ... which was available for my notebook. Being that both this notebook & mini are relatively similar, at least, weight-wise, I do find it odd that they don't accept minis for this service. Of course, now, I'm going to have to keep my fingers crossed should one of my mini's do ever need a repair.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 17, 2021 5:11 PM in response to jbwest

FWIW, like you I have had exceptional experiences with all of my Mac products. I've pretty much have had every Mac mini model since they first came out. In my case, it wasn't with a mini, but with a 2020 MacBook Pro. It had experienced an unintentional water spill which ended up requiring that the logic board, display, and keypad be replaced. If I didn't have AppleCare+, that would have set me back the cost of a new notebook ... and this one was less than 2 months old. So, in my case, AppleCare+ "saved my bacon." Albeit, it was still a bit expensive bacon at that. ;)


I live in a very remote area where driving to an Apple Authorized Service Provider is just not feasible so I relied on Apple's mail-in repair service ... which was available for my notebook. Being that both this notebook & mini are relatively similar, at least, weight-wise, I do find it odd that they don't accept minis for this service. Of course, now, I'm going to have to keep my fingers crossed should one of my mini's do ever need a repair.

Jun 17, 2021 3:52 PM in response to jbwest

jbwest wrote:

"...Problem is, the closest service center is 2 hours each way..."


You're lucky. Mine is 2 hours one way and 3 the other! 🤣

Sorry. Not laughing @ you.


Yes, you'd think that as small as the mini is it would be no problem to allow you to ship it. I wonder why they say it's excluded from that option.?


Well, aside from the inconvenience bestowed upon you in this particular incident, the Apple Care does give you the extra couple years of warranty service should you need it. I hope things work out and the fix is easy.


Cheers!

Jun 18, 2021 6:25 AM in response to Tesserax

It's unbelievable they won't let me ship it. Especially with Apple Care plus still active. They should find a solution to this bad policy, but in a very unlike Apple stance they didn't seem interested in figuring out a solution. Just drive 4 hours.


I shipped a MacBook Pro in once several years ago for repair with no issues.

Jun 18, 2021 2:41 PM in response to jbwest

Is there a nearby Authorized Apple Service Provider closer than an Apple Store?


If not contact the closest one directly as them about shipping.


Also, call again. Getting a different rep can get you different results as

not all people that answer your call are fully up to snuff on policies or

fully knowledgeable beyond their scripts, just like any other company.

Also, ask to get your case bumped up to a second level rep if you still

get the same result.

Why get Apple Care?

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