AppleCare – Image Credit: Apple
People affected by the LA wildfires who lost their Mac to the flames shouldn’t use AppleCare to replace it. They’d have better luck with homeowner’s insurance.
The wildfires ravaging California and Los Angeles has involved evacuations of residents out from affected areas, as well as the loss of property. Homes, businesses, and personal belongings have been destroyed by the blaze, with thousands of people affected by it.
However, when it comes time to replace their possessions, Mac owners may start to think that they will be covered by AppleCare. In the vast majority of instances, it won’t be of much assistance to fire victims.
A lack of coverage
Like many other warranties, repair agreements, and insurance policies, Apple has a lot of terms included in its AppleCare Repair Agreement for Mac that dictates what does and doesn’t count for repair. A similar restriction apples to the iPhone as well.
The terms of what is and isn’t covered by the plan are quite distinct and straightforward. Beyond the list of what is covered by the plan, the document includes what it doesn’t cover.
The list, section 4 under “What is not Covered?,” lists off specific scenarios. While some are items that don’t really apply to a fire, such as “preventative maintenance”or consumable parts, some certainly do.
The second part lists damaged caused by “accident, abuse, misuse, liquid contact, fire, earthquake or other external causes.” The terms “accident,” fire,” and “liquid contact” are the main elements at issue here, with the latter caused by fighting the fire.
Submitting for a repair or replacement on a Mac salvaged from a housefire intact will end up in failure, even if it seems to be fine externally.
If you were evacuated as a precautionary measure and your house remained untouched by the fire, your home may also become an undefended target of theft.
Again, the “not covered” list explains it cannot deal with “lost or stolen” hardware. “This Plan only covers Covered Equipment that is returned to Apple in its entirety,” it states.
Check your insurance
A better, and more likely to be accepted, route is to go through insurance. Mac users with an up-to-date home owner’s insurance, or renter’s insurance, should be able to make a claim on their hardware, as well as their other personal belongings.
This is a similar case when it comes to a Mac used for business purposes. So long as there is insurance against property owned by the business, the insurance should process the claim for the business asset.
This advice can also apply to people traveling in the area. If travel insurance was taken out for the journey, there will usually be terms dictating what happens in the case of property damage or loss.
While AppleCare may seem less useful for Mac owners dealing with the fire and the loss of their home, it’s worth remembering that it’s not a full-blown insurance plan. It’s intended to make sure that, if there happens to be a problem with your Mac, you’ll be covered in most typical situations.
For everything else, insurance should cover it.
Other efforts
While Apple isn’t going to replace Macs and MacBooks lost to the fires, it is still making an effort to help out.
For a start, Apple Card users in areas deemed a natural disaster zone by FEMA can apply for delayed payments. After contacting Apple Card Support, a payment can be skipped and no interest will accumulate to the affected user.
Apple is also donating to “support the victims and recovery efforts on the ground” under its usual emergency measures, CEO Tim Cook said on January 9.
