Tips about warranties

As I was ordering a new Powerbook I thot about these:

- Warranties on Mac portables (iBook, Powerbook) are worldwide; for desktop computers (G5) they are not. So you can safely buy a portable in the US where it is cheaper and use it anywhere. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this for a desktop unless you don't intend to have it serviced in Europe. On the other hand, most desktops don't see near the kind of abuse that a portable does.

- Apple has changed it's policy on PowerBook repairs (probably iBook too, but we don't have one so I don't know). There are now only two options: Repair the entire "top" section (screen, connections, latch, hinges), or the entire "bottom" section (everything else). Prices are quite high, I think for us in France it's something like 400 or so euros for the top and 600 or so for the bottom.

- Out experience is that they are very picky for warranty work. If your portable has any dents in the top or bottom, chances are fairly good they will refuse warranty service. On Marjorie's PowerBook, there was a very small dent in one corner of the bottom part and so they refused to fix a broken hinge under warranty. They advised us to always store the Powerbook with the hinges down to avoid problems.

- Given the above, the extended warranty is a good deal for portables, and not a good deal for desktops. This is also reflected in the price, which is higher for portables than for desktops. You can wait until the end of the first year of warranty before buying the extended.

Russ