Ouch!
If you bought your iPhone 3GS on or close-to the launch of the device in New Zealand (July 11th 2009), then your twelve-month manufacturer warranty is about to expire. If you’re not planning on buying an iPhone 4, then you may be interested to know that you can extend the original warranty to cover your purchase by a further year by purchasing an iPhone Applecare package at any time up to the last day of your original warranty. ‘Read on’ for more.
Yes, this escaped our notice until today (great timing, huh!) but Apple’s Applecare extended warranty for iPhone can be bought at any time while the original 12-month warranty is still valid. Priced at $129, the package gives you two years of telephone support and repair / replacement from date of original purchase. It covers the phone itself, the battery, and even the ear-buds which are worth $55 all by themselves.
Given that out-of-warranty iPhone repairs can be very costly, and in-warranty repairs are actually usually a replacement for a shiny new / refurbished unit, this is definitely worth some serious consideration.
Your iPhone lifeline?
Some will tell you that extended warranties are evil and that the Consumer Guarantees Act already gives you this coverage, but there are some important things to take into consideration here:
- The Consumer Guarantees Act won’t cover you if you purchased your iPhone for business use.
- The Applecare package gives you phone support for your device – the CGA can’t force Apple to give you that.
- You quite often have to ‘fight’ for your rights under the CGA. If your phone is damaged and you just want it repaired, the last thing you want is to have to pay for the repair up-front and then battle to get it back at a disputes tribunal. Sometimes it’s just easier to have peace-of-mind in the shape of an extended warranty.
The Applecare Protection Plan package is available via the online NZ Apple Store at the link below. Make sure you check out the full terms of the package to make sure it’s right for you.
– Applecare for iPhone
Cheers for the heads up. My contents insurance will cover defects if the CGA won’t, though. AppleCare is obscenely priced.
(Mak has made 222 comments)
Thanks I have just updated me and the mrs 32gb 3GS
(iphonedj has made 1 comment)
Alternatively PhoneInsure for on account Vodafone customers for 9.95 per month exc GST. Yes more expensive but covers non warranty impact and liquid damage.
Excess is $125 for the first claim in a 12 month period and goes up if you have more than one claim in a year but the premium remains the same.
The number of handsets that end up impact or liquid damaged is massive and phone insure is a great way to resolve this if your contents or company insurance doesn't cover it.
Search phone insure on the Vodafone website.
(Topes has made 66 comments)