I love me some Applecare

For months now my headphone jack hasn't been working.  It stopped back during the holidays, but I didn't want to go to Apple during Christmas time.  That's just asking to get run over by an irate shopper.  So I finally got myself an appointment to go there and get my computer fixed before my Applecare expires in August.  Of course, today my headphone jack mysteriously started working even though I check it at the beginning of the week and it was still out of commission.  Thankfully the technician believed that it wasn't working.  The plastic casing at the edge of my laptop was also beginning to crack from opening and closing the laptop.  This happened when I first got my computer and was using a pretty plastic case cover.  My guess was that the case just added weight that wore down the durability of the plastic.  Maybe I'm just hard on my computer or maybe it's a common problem since the tech didn't seem phased.  Anyway, besides the semi-functioning headphone jack and cracking plastic, the button of my mouse was sticking as well.  This was entirely my fault.  I had spilled wine on it months ago.  I thought I had cleaned it well enough because there didn't seem to be any damage and it wasn't sticky, but recently it started to get really difficult to press down.  Dust must have gotten into it and stuck to the sticky bits of wine that I couldn't quite clean out.  I explained this to the technician and told him that it didn't bother me since it was my fault, I didn't want to pay out of pocket since spills aren't covered under warranty, but he said that because the case was cracking anyway they would replace the whole keyboard panel.

Originally the tech said that it would take three to five days.  Oh you should have seen my face.  Five days without my computer?!  I work from home and use it from 9-5 everyday plus whatever extra time I spend futzing around on it after work.  I resigned to use our family computer.  By the time I got all the way home and was trying to figure out why stupid Windows 7 wasn't loading, Apple called back to say that my computer was done. Woopie!  I stand behind my idea that there are little magical elves working behind the big doors to fix things with a quickness.  (My friends all laugh, but most likely think I'm crazy.)  It took me longer in travel time back and forth than it did for them to fix the laptop.  It pays to live near Apple HQ.

After I had a potentially dangerous situation with my warranty running out on my first Apple laptop, I always get Applecare now.  It pays for itself.  Literally.  When I bought this laptop two years ago it was an extra $300.00, which seems like a lot but I have brought my computer in a few times for other fixes.  This was a major fix and I had one previous to this.  In the past I had to get the keyboard panel replaced because the plastic was cracking, as I previously mentioned.  I also had to get the cd/dvd drive replaced because I forgot that I was burning a cd, closed my computer, and proceeded to pick it up and move it around to put in my backpack.  Moving your laptop while it's reading or writing a cd is bad news.  Moving it, turning it vertically, and shaking it around a bit is very, very bad news.  I totally broke the cd drive. Woops.  So that had to be repaired.  I'm pretty sure that Applecare paid for itself after replacing the first cracked case and cd drive.  Then I needed a new power cable, so that was $60.00 under Applecare.  And now today the grand total after getting a new logic board, keyboard panel, and hardware repair, the grand total was $577.64; all covered under Applecare.

So now I practically have a new computer.  The outer case is still the original, but tt is no longer nail polish speckled, discolored from nail polish remover, sticky from wine, or falling apart.  ...Yet.  It is a well known fact that I break computers.  I think that all of the problems I've had with this computer minus the headphone jack, were my fault because they all seem to be because of my negligence.  I have yet to have any problems with the operating system, but knock on wood.  The moral of the story is, get Applecare!  It's so worth it, especially if you're like me!