Finally getting round to getting an iMac.
Once I’ve made decision on spec (minefield) is there generally a better retailer to get it from?
John Lewis try and fix it themselves rather to go to Apple.
Apple know their product better than anyone, but KRCS have a good rep too.
Not sure if warranties vary between them. Doubt there’ll be much in it pricewise so service could be the clincher. Jigsaw an option too – any Macheads out there speak up from experience please! 😳

I got mine direct from Apple, but I would have gone with John Lewis too. One thing to look at is the Apple refurbished. Typically you’ll get exactly the same product as the main site but with fresh keyboard mouse and HDD if applicable from the person who used it for X minutes and returned it. You get the same warranty as “new”.

I would have got mine from there if they had any in stock at the time.

Clicky Link

+1 on a refurb. PC WORLD also better than you might think.

Brought all my previous direct from Apple though this MacBook Air was an impulse buy in Waitrose.

There’s not much difference price wise – interestingly Apple themselves only warranty iMacs for 1 year (option at cost to do a warranty package beyond 1st year) – KRCS and JL both do 2 years as standard with KRCS using Apple authorised techy bods should anything go tits-up…2 years has to be better than one surely.

If you’ve got a student/academic/teacher in the house get them to buy it from the Apple education store. On top of the discount you also get the 3 year warranty included for free.

Spec is interesting now. The best value was always the bottom of the range, then add RAM yourself. I’d still say the same – real decision is retina or not.

Unless you’re doing some really intensive video work my guess is the processor isn’t the thing that will hold it back when it gets towards the end of its life. DO upgrade to a fusion drive as that makes a big difference.

Buy from John Lewis, get 2 year warranty, think they actually pay UK taxes if that’s important…

And you can still get repairs done in the apple store – new screen + “a” key fitted for my Macbook recently.

And you can get your order delivered to / collection from your local Waitrose.
(Winning STW + Apple + John Lewis + Waitrose combo!)

+1 for finding a student or teacher to help get a discount.
I got 10% off my iMac and 3 years Applecare for a minimal amount (about £20 as opposed to £140). This was in the Apple Store – for some reason the discount was slightly better in store than on the Apple website.

…and 3 years Applecare for a minimal amount (about £20 as opposed to £140).

Be aware that if you pay for Applecare on top of the included 3 yr education warranty all you are are paying for is extending telephone support from 90 days to 3 yrs. The actual warranty is exactly the same whether you buy the Applecare or not.

Ah well, it seemed like a good deal 🙂 This was three or so years ago, & I did end up using both the warranty and the phone help about 1 1/2 years in for a faulty wireless keyboard and mouse, so probably worked out well for me.

Depending on the spec you’re after I have a 4 month old 27″ retina iMac I’m selling that has AppleCare. Drop me an email if you’re interested 🙂

I opted to purchase via Apple direct and take the apple care. It makes it much clearer if there ever were any issues just to book an appointment at one of their stores and they are the only people whose job it is to fix it, no intermediary companies or people.

Somouk – I’d be interested in that if the price/spec was good.
No email in your profile that I can see though! Can you email me instead?

Just dropped you an email with the full spec and info.

I would only buy one on line, preferably from the referb store.

The reason for this is that you get a much better warranty. I took my 5 year old imac into the apple store because the hard drive failed. I had bought it from the referb site online.

The chap in the store said that it would be replaced free of charge and the data transferred onto the new HD. He said that if I had bought it in store then it wouldn’t be covered. The online store warranty is a European one and not a UK one which is superior.

Personally I would buy from John Lewis as not only do they do a 2 yr warranty but Apple are a bit of a nightmare to deal with if you have a hardware problem. My Macbook stopped working beginning of December and telephone support agreed it was a hardware issue. However they insisted I take it to the local Apple store, 50 mile round trip. I could not post it to them and I had to make an appointment with the Genius bar and the earliest appointment was 7 days later. Even though my wife works almost next door she could not just drop it in. Bloody stupid. Needed up taking it to an authorised service centre but all in all a hassle. If I had bought it from John Lewis then just a simple trip to the post office to send it back for a repair.

Also the whole Apple 1 year warranty or Apple care thing is a load of rubbish. If you ever have problem just ring them and say you did a recent software update and now have a problem and they will give you free technical support. Hardware wise, consumer law covers you for 6 years. Even says so on their website http://www.apple.com/uk/legal/statutory-warranty/

I would only buy one on line, preferably from the referb store.

The reason for this is that you get a much better warranty. I took my 5 year old imac into the apple store because the hard drive failed. I had bought it from the referb site online.Although I would always recommend the refurb store (I’ve bought a number of Macs for work and never had a problem) they do only come with the standard 1 year warranty – it says this right at the top of the first page in the refurb store.

Perhaps you had one of the iMacs that was subject to a HDD recall? Or possibly just got lucky!

One thing to bear in mind is that electronics are now covered by some kind of 6 year warranty taking into account wear and tear but the agreement is with the retailer you bought it from. Apple rarely quibble this, I had my 5yr old iMac’s superdrive replaced FoC by Apple under this agreement no questions asked.

I suspect the other retailers may not be quite so accommodating.

EDIT – that’s online as well as instore and it does cover the Apple refurbed stuff too. (My iMac was a refurb).

Might not be applicable, but the cheapest way I found to to buy Apple stuff (other than refurb, which is always worth a look) was through my employee rewards gateway – I could buy 4 vouchers for Currys / PCWorld at 8% off. Think the largest voucher was £100 so £32 off a £400+ purchase. Not brilliant, but better than the direct discount offered with Apple of 2% in the same gateway.

I think most (if not all) iMacs come as standard with a traditional HDD rather than a Fusion (Hybrid) or Flash (SSD) drive. This is one option I would tick because it makes a big difference to the overall performance/responsiveness of the machine. Unfortunately retailers like John Lewis only tend to sell the standard models and “configure to order” models are only available through the online Apple store.

Got an independent to quote a build…comes with standard Apple 1 year but he said due to European law it’s effectively 2 years…you have to fill in a form to claim (only for personal users). Won’t be using them anyway as most expensive of all 4. Sound about right?
Going i5 with 8GB Ram/1 TB Fusion drive/Radeon M390 card – will add own ram…16GB Crucial ram is only about £65 to take it to 24GB. What 3rd party ram do you guys use?
Can’t believe on a mountainbiking website asking this sort of shit…I’m THE least techy person I know 😆
Decision time is looming and I’m still undecided…tell me who I should use 😕

I suggest many of you pop in to your local Apple store – they ALL offer 2yrs warranty.
Ask nicely and they will point you to the exact page where it clearly states this.
Thats before the 6yr EU electronics that came in recently.
Its the same warranty that meant I bought my Pro from Apple rather than JL the other side of the shopping centre.
The only time I’ve found JL cheaper is in store selling off returns that they’re trying to say are new but shop soiled (gives it away when you look at the hardrive’s name and it says “Fred’s macbook”. That and they actually had a very poor knowledge of the product despite a massive tech dept.
Walked back across to Apple and had the top 13″ Pro Retina in my hand with the superdrive, magic mouse and trackpad for the same as JL wanted for for the Pro alone that had been returned the day before.

I didn’t think you could add RAM to them but here is the link:

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201191

I would be going with Crucial RAM as I’ve always used that and never once had issues with it.

Apple education store if you can get someone who has access to a uni website. That’s what i did with mine and got £200 off. And they asked no questions re. whether i was actually a student or not

On the latest 21.5″ models replacing RAM is very difficult and costly unless you fancy doing it yourself. Removing the screen etc.

I agree with hammyuk. When I bought my macbook air last year I was basically told Apple would look after the product for the 6 years as long as there was no signs of abuse etc. I also managed to get the student discount from the guy despite not being a student. I guess he was just trying to meet targets!!!

My Apples always come direct from Apple.

My parents thought they’d save £50 and buy their last one from Amazon. Something expensive failed in the screen after 4 years. Amazon didn’t want to know. Apple said they’d have replaced it if it had been bought from them under the 6 year rules, but as it wasn’t, here’s a bill for £500 quid.

I’ve always had excellent support from them in store in the past. Vastly better than any other retailer. When they replaced a cracked screen (insurance job) on a plastic Macbook, they replaced the entire case and keyboard as “it looked a bit dirty” according to the chap in store. They reinstalled OS-X for me a few years back after I upgraded the HD in a MB Pro to one that wasn’t even supported. All free in store.

The 6yr rule applies to Amazon as well. Retailers can’t wriggle out of things by saying it is the manufacturers decision. All warranties are with the retailer, who does the work and pays the bill is nothing to do with he customer. Your contract is always with the retailer and not the manufacturer. All these companies try and wriggle out of things but you just have to demand your rights

[edit]didn’t read thread properly![/edit]

Prob going to go with Apple as opposed to JL or KRCS.
Would it be utter madness to buy a new iMac without the Applecare plan at £140?
I suppose in the big scheme of things it’s not a lot but still gutting to have to cough up that bit more all the same…

Question re: warranty etc.
Just read something that implied that if you have Applecare, basically you can’t use 3rd party RAM – like Kingston or Crucial – it has to be Apple’s extortionately priced RAM – can any Macheads confirm this? Was about to buy via Apple themselves but this revelation has got me wondering again now 😳

@rascal afaik user added RAM does NOT invalidate the warranty. Apple don’t make RAM or indeed any of the internal components so I don’t know what they can insist on. Put your own ram in and of the machine dies put the original ram back in then return for warranty ?

I have never bought Apple care and have had them replace stuff in the rare instance there has been an issue (1 of 3 Apple TV’s had a HDMI connection issue, nomissues with any other kit) I bought Apple care for my student daughter’s MBP as it was £20 and a good chance the machine would get some abuse.

Some useful info on how easy or impossible it is to upgrade your imac memory depending on model:-

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/imac-aluminum-tapered-edge-faq/how-to-upgrade-imac-ram-aluminum-2012.html

Here’s a video on how to upgrade the RAM on the latest model of 21.5 iMac. If you don’t fancy doing it yourself an apple repair retailer labour cost will take the overall cost unto what apple initially would charge for say 16gb of RAM.

Has anyone done this themselves?

I never buy applecare (or any other ridiculously overpriced extended warranty on electrical goods). Waste of money. The warranty is good for most genuine faults (which will turn up quickly) and your EU rights give useful cover for 6 years or whenever we leave the EU, whichever comes sooner. Probably about 3 years then. That’s another “benefit” to look forward to, that I hadn’t thought of…

Over the years I suppose we must have saved enough to buy a new apple from all that we’ve not spent in applecare fees.

Costco is an option worth looking at. On electrical goods they offer a 5yr warranty, don’t see why they wouldn’t for Apple stuff. my brother bought an ex-display TV from them for buttons which still had the 5yr warranty, no remote (it had been lost) and looked a bit heated up. After 6 months he had a problem with it and they just replaced it with a brand new one of the latest equivalent model, no questions asked.