How does Apple Care work? Can you apply it to a laptop post purchase date

[holden j caufield]

I'm not a Mac guy but my sister wants a macbook air. She's not technical and doesn't want to pay full price so we found some housewife who is getting a new one and selling the old one. I asked the original owner but she is clueless about this stuff as am I.

My question

1) are there any known issues I should look for?

2) if there is apple care warranty do I need her to transfer it or does it follow the machine and how do I make sure she can't icloud lock after selling it to us.

3) can I buy apple care after the fact and how do I activate it, can I only apply it to ones with apple care what about one with expired warranty, and will I need to bring it into an apple store.

I'd like to cover all our bases so she doesn't end up buying a paperweight.

 

[TheStu]

1: Without knowing what model of MacBook Air it's hard to say what the known issues are. I don't know of too terribly many for the latest Airs, it's a fairly mature product line.

2: New systems get 1 year of coverage included. AppleCare extends that to 3 years. iCloud lock is only something you have to worry about with iPhones and iPads.

3: Within the first year after purchase, you can add AppleCare to the product to extend the warranty to 3 years. AppleCare on computers does NOT protect against accidental damage. If the warranty has already expired, any repairs to the system will have to be out of pocket.

 

[holden j caufield]

Thanks TheStu, so I don't need to get the other party to go the apple store to transfer warranty, the warranty is under the machine and not the original purchaser?

 

[TheStu]

Thanks TheStu, so I don't need to get the other party to go the apple store to transfer warranty, the warranty is under the machine and not the original purchaser?

It should be tied to the serial number. There's a tool here where you can check if the serial number is under warranty or not.

 

[JAG87]

1: Without knowing what model of MacBook Air it's hard to say what the known issues are. I don't know of too terribly many for the latest Airs, it's a fairly mature product line.

2: New systems get 1 year of coverage included. AppleCare extends that to 3 years. iCloud lock is only something you have to worry about with iPhones and iPads.

3: Within the first year after purchase, you can add AppleCare to the product to extend the warranty to 3 years. AppleCare on computers does NOT protect against accidental damage. If the warranty has already expired, any repairs to the system will have to be out of pocket.

2: Not quite, Find my Mac can lock up and wipe remotely. It's advised that the op either watch the previous owner disable FMM and log out of iCloud on the machine, or do a PRAM/NVRAM reset afterwards, otherwise he could have a nasty surprise later on.

 

[RossMAN]

2: Not quite, Find my Mac can lock up and wipe remotely. It's advised that the op either watch the previous owner disable FMM and log out of iCloud on the machine, or do a PRAM/NVRAM reset afterwards, otherwise he could have a nasty surprise later on.

Agreed, I would be extremely cautious.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2413799