I wanted to correct the story on the replacement deal at CompUSA. I work for a division of CompUSA and used to be a Mac Tech in one of their stores. The replacement plan works like this, if your product fails you bring it in to us and we determine whether it is more cost effective to replace or repair the product. If it cheaper to replace it than repair it we then put it in for replacement and are replacement SKU and dollar amount. If the customer wishes to upgrade they can take a gift certificate and apply it to the purchase of anything else in the store. The plan is not a trade in and trade up plan. I do not want your readers to go into a CompUSA and purchase the replacement plan and be disappointed when a few months or years later want to upgrade and told it does not work that way.
I wanted to correct the story on the replacement deal at CompUSA. I work for a division of CompUSA and used to be a Mac Tech in one of their stores. The replacement plan works like this, if your product fails you bring it in to us and we determine whether it is more cost effective to replace or repair the product. If it cheaper to replace it than repair it we then put it in for replacement and are replacement SKU and dollar amount. If the customer wishes to upgrade they can take a gift certificate and apply it to the purchase of anything else in the store. The plan is not a trade in and trade up plan. I do not want your readers to go into a CompUSA and purchase the replacement plan and be disappointed when a few months or years later want to upgrade and told it does not work that way.
Some products have replacement warranties; all peripherals (hard drives, sound cards, video card, mice, etc.), printers, digital camera and MP3 players. With the replacement plan the same thing goes as for any computer system CompUSA sells, the product MUST be defective to be replaced. So if I buy an iPod today and iPod II is announced at MacWorld next week I could not walk into CompUSA and trade up to the new unit.
Another reader follows up:
CompUSA has "replacement plans" for many items, Mice, sound cards, video cards, Printers, scanners, monitors, PDA’s, (camera’s .. I think). The maximum length on Replacement plans is 2 years, (but they do have some repair plans for 3years, and will almost always just replace the item since repairs dont pay on small ticket items).
But even on those replacement plans its not the $$ amount that is important but the items specs, they will replace the product with one has at least the same specs, i.e. an iPod if BROKEN will be replaced with either the same iPod or if thats NOT Available with a newer model, and if Apple stops making the iPod it would be replaced with another vendors that has similar specs (5GB HD,etc) And the unit has to be BROKEN, not that just for any reason (think about it.. Do you think any store for $30 will give you a newer model 2 years later, and credit you the difference in price on an item like the iPod).
CompUSA does have a TAP plan available (Technology Assurance Plan) for Computers, printers, and monitors (Its based on the price of the system and will cover either just the tower or the whole system if its in the available price range).
There are 4 levels of plan available Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze (the Platinum and Gold give really nothing to the Mac user). With these plans CompUSA will Repair your system for 2 or 3 years (depending on your plan) If they CANNOT or CHOOSE not to repair your system they will then replace it. They will replace it with a system that at least matches the spec’s. I’ve seen LC’s replaced with iMac’s before, But I have also seen a Beige G3 with AV Card and built in Zip replaced with an iMac (yeah it was a faster G3 processor but wasn’t a tower unit).
CompUSA also has LapTop Kits available for portables, I always buy these instead of Applecare since it covers the screen against breaking for 2 or 3 years. These again are Repair (or if unable replace) plans.
I think CompUSA’s plans are a GREAT value (even over applecare, since AC has many exclusions TAP doesn’t) since even motherboards can run $400-$800 on apple systems.
But it is not a magic way to get a new system everytime a new model comes out. I would suggest that you tell the person who wrote the story to go back to the store and get a TAP booklet, it has all the info on all plans. They should be available at the customer service desk or are in all the PrinterPacks, LapTop Kits, etc that are around the store.
