Repair Strategy

We strongly recommend you have a plan for if your daughter's device fails, or is damaged or lost.

This could be a warranty which covers repairs, or an insurance policy that covers accidental damage. Or perhaps an additional spare device. It is important that if something unfortunate were to happen, a device can be repaired or replaced quickly so as not to interrupt your daughter's studies.

Warranty and Insurance are not the same thing.

Warranty

In Australia, any laptop or device you buy comes with a two year manufacturers' warranty to ensure it is free from defects and poor workmanship. This applies only to devices purchased whilst you are in Australia and includes online retailers that sell to the Australian public even if their business is located overseas. If you buy a device whilst travelling abroad it is not subject to Australian Consumer Law and will likely not be covered for two years.

Whilst Apple have wording that states their devices have one year of warranty, the Australian Consumer Law overrides this and provides two years of cover. If you purchase a new Apple MacBook it is highly recommended to also purchase an AppleCare+ protection plan. If you want to buy a plan for an existing MacBook, check it's eligibility here.

Issues typically covered by warranty:

  • Faulty hard drives

  • Noisy fans

  • Power or battery issues

  • Dark dots on the screen (dead pixels)

AppleCare+

If you purchase a new Apple MacBook it is highly recommended to consider an AppleCare protection plan. AppleCare+ will cover up to two instances of accidental damage per year with an excess payable for the type of damage.

When purchasing a Mac new from Apple, you receive a complimentary 7 day AppleCare+ plan. After these 7 days you should go back to Apple and purchase a full AppleCare+ plan.

If you want to buy a plan for an existing MacBook, check it's eligibility here. To find out the details of an existing AppleCare+ plan you have purchased and what it provides you with, follow this link: https://www.apple.com/au/legal/sales-support/applecare/applecareplus/au/mac/

Issues typically covered by AppleCare+:

  • Unlimited incidents of accidental damage

  • Cracked screens

  • Damaged keyboards

  • Liquid Damage (included in newer policies)

Insurance

Purchasing insurance is a personal choice – but is highly recommended. Whilst there's lots of policies out there that covered every situation, the most typical one in a School environment is accidental damage. Often if you're buying a new device you will have the option of getting some sort of insurance policy, however this may provide too many or too few options.

There are several other companies that specialise in education device cover, iBroker is an example. If you purchase new via the CompNow purchase portal, 3 years of insurance is included with a fixed $100 excess payment per incident.

Issues typically covered by a policy that aren't covered by AppleCare+ ;

  • Fire

  • Lost device

  • Theft

It might be plausible to add the device to your home and contents insurance, but be sure to read the fine print to ensure it is covered within the context it will be used, eg, on the College campus. If you elect to get more things covered, such as fire and theft, the policy will cost more.

Liquid Damage

One of the most frequent issues seen by the IT Department staff is laptops that have had liquid accidentally spilled on them. Liquid damage is not covered by a warranty.

If you have a water damaged device it is extremely obvious to a repair technician and your warranty will be void. Even if you have dried it out completely there will be residue throughout the internals and some manufactures actually put in a type of litmus detector that will indicate if liquid has been present.

If you have accidentally spilled water onto your device TURN IT OFF IMMEDIATELY and place it upside down in a dry area and be prepared not to turn it back on for 48 hours. Here is a good article on what to do following a liquid spill.

To find out if your AppleCare+ policy will cover liquid damage, please refer to this Apple Support page which describes what is available based on when you purchased the AppleCare+ policy: https://www.apple.com/au/legal/sales-support/applecare/applecareplus/au/mac/