Caveat Emptor - AppleCare via eBay
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 12:00PM I've previously bought Applecare for various Macs at hugely discounted prices via eBay, from a couple of reputable eBayers of good standing.
These have previously been accepted by Apple and the AppleCare agreements have gone through without a hitch.
So, with my Mac mini approaching the end of it's 12 month warranty period, I had a quick look on eBay for any bargain AppleCare agreements. I found one from an eBay merchant with a good record and they confirmed that the AppleCare was not just a number, but a legitimate boxed version, fully sealed.
I week or two later, the sealed AppleCare box arrived and I duly set about registering the AppleCare agreement.
To my surprise, I consequently received an email from Apple requesting a copy of the original valid sales receipt documenting the purchase of the AppleCare Protection Plan from Apple or an Apple Authorized Reseller.
It would appear that proof of purchase via eBay (or any other online auction or classified advertisement service) is not sufficient. I've sent off the request to the eBay merchant and if it's not forthcoming, I'll be requesting a refund,
So, does that spell the end of cheap AppleCare via eBay?
I hope not.
But in future, before you enter into any arrangement with eBay or similar, you might want to confirm in advance that a copy of the original valid sales receipt documenting the purchase of the AppleCare Protection Plan from Apple or an Apple Authorized Reseller is available, otherwise, forget it!
Update: I've been in touch with the eBay vendor and she bought a bulk load of AppleCare packages from another eBay merchant. Mine is the first to have required proof of purchase via Apple. She has agreed to refund the cost of the package on return.
Looks like I'll be sticking to Apple and Apple authorised resellers for my AppleCare in future.
Final Update - The eBay vendor has refunded my money and is confused as to why this has affected me and no-one else from the batch of AppleCare products she has resold.
Bottom line for me now is that I'll be buying my AppleCare from Apple or Amazon - pity!
Reader Comments (14)
Wow - thanks for the find - that is how I always do my AppleCare - much cheaper through eBay.
I recently considered buying an iMac AppleCare package on eBay that was half of what it cost through Amazon. It seemed to be in the "too-good-to-be-true" category, how could that be real?
I wasn't keen on finding myself in another fraud investigation after having gotten badly burned on an iTunes Gift Card purchase several years ago (this was from a third party seller on Amazon, I ignored his request for my iTunes account username and password to "try to fix it for me"). I noticed all the Amazon sellers quit selling discounted iTunes Cards right after my fraud experience.
Thanks for this advice on the original receipt. It will be interesting to see if these eBay retailers continue selling AppleCare. It is funny to see the photos of boxes of AppleCare in the auction listing, and then in the description it says they will email you the code rather than ship the box.
And now, back to the countdown to the "Back to the Mac" event. ::grin::
I am not fine with Apple's way in this matter. :( If I buy Apple Care, it should not be a question where I have bought it as long as the Apple Care Protection Plan is the real deal and no "number fraud". Why should this be my problem?
I do not like the way Apple is handling this. And I doubt, if this would stand in court.
People, who have spent hundreds if not thousands of Dollars for Apple products and who deal with a defective Apple product and have bought a valid Apple Care plan should be covered no matter what. This just isn't right.
Odd, a colleague in the US tells me that no such checks are being made there, as yet anyway. Wonder if there's just a 'dodgy' batch of Apple Care numbers that they're double-checking on?
I got burned by a third party vendor on Amazon. All seemed to go fine. The vendor had good ratings on Amazon…
A few months later I sold my Mac and wanted to transfer Apple Care coverage. I was then told that my Apple Care coverage was not legit. While I did have receipts from the seller, Apple refused to honor the coverage. They accept only receipts from authorized resellers to be proof of purchase.
All they would offer me was the opportunity to buy Apple Care even though my machine was now more than 1 year old.
I bought 3 APP's for iPhones about 4 weeks ago on Ebay and paid via PayPal.
The seller had over 7000 transactions with 100% positive feedback.
The first APP went through fine, but the 2 others i entered about 2 weeks later and they were denied by Apple. I sent an email to the seller, let's see what happens.
I do hope they don't start that with MobileMe renewals as well, I can't justify full price for that each year, I would hate to lose my .Mac email address though :(
Terry
So - I recently checked the status of my Macbook Air I bought last year which I got covered under AppleCare and I received the confirmation that everything went through great a year ago.
Apparently Apple is going through and finding eBay AppleCare plans and unregistering those machines!! So I discovered this as I'm selling the laptop now to get the new MacBook Air and it is a great thing to have 2 years left on AppleCare when selling.
So needless to say I will be talking to Customer Relations on Monday to fix this problem - I could understand if I just now got a Macbook and they reject it, but to go back and look at every machine registered and to not notify customers that they are doing this is very slimy and unApple like.
I'll let you know if Customer Relations helps with this - but for those with machines already registered I would double check your status too!
So,
A quick update - apparently the original purchaser and seller of my AppleCare on eBay requested a refund from Apple a few months after I purchased it from her. So another reason to caution eBay sellers. I'm still working with Apple on getting this sorted out but I hope all goes well
I thought that Apple would accept the serial number from the box as proof of purchase if a receipt wasn't available?
That's the problem, they have the serial number/applecare agreement number but still want the proof of purchase.
Don!
I've got a great update.
Today behind the scenes someone high up and magical reinstated the AppleCare that I've been on the phone with them for over 5 hours trying to get resolved.
Basically, they were trying to get a hold a receipt 3 people down in the line of the selling history of this AppleCare. I bought it off eBay and originally that receipt worked. The person I bought it from got it off Amazon MarketPlace and they apparently got it from a University Store. So Apple wanted the University Store receipt - which is just totally ridiculous.
Apple is really trying to force people to buy everything from Apple directly by putting up this big ordeal and I will be buying mine from places outside of eBay from now on!
So I did get it resolved and another change with AppleCare - a GOOD one!
You no longer have to transfer ownership with Apple! So in the past there was a pretty big process of trying to transfer the machine and AppleCare over to the new owner.
Now they don't care as long as the serial number has AppleCare they don't care who has the machine (makes theft more scary, but for selling a ton easier!!!!!)
Thanks again for bringing these things to light.
FYI:
http://reviews.ebay.co.uk/BEWARE-OF-EMAILED-APPLECARE-APPLE-CARE-PROTECTION-PLANS
FYI:
http://reviews.ebay.co.uk/BEWARE-OF-EMAILED-APPLECARE-APPLE-CARE-PROTECTION-PLANS?ugid=10000000017132136