Extended Warranty: Chase Bought Me A New MacBook?!

Last Updated on March 8, 2024 by CreditFred

This is a story of how my problem-plagued and out-of-warranty Mac was mostly reimbursed by Chase simply because I had put the purchase on my Chase Sapphire Reserve.

The Backstory

In fall 2018, I bought a new MacBook Pro for graduate school. Back then, I didn’t have a sophisticated understanding of all the perks and benefits of credit cards, so I simply put the ~$1800 purchase on my main card – The Chase Sapphire Reserve.

The laptop purchase is considered a non-bonus category, so I only earned 1x on the purchase (~1800UR pts). I actually regretted not putting the purchase on a new card to get a new signup bonus or even the Chase Freedom Unlimited to get 1.5x (~2700 UR pts).

However, almost 2 years later when my Mac started showing a series of issues that Apple refused to resolve, Chase stepped in and covered my losses. Read on to find out more!

The Problem

The 2018 MacBook Pro models were plagued with a series of issues, ranging from faulty butterfly keyboards to fans that start spinning wildly for no reason, causing everyone in the lecture hall to stare at you. Some of these issues were resolved by software updates over time, and I was able to get my keyboard replaced under Apple’s warranty.

However, the problems didn’t stop there. My Mac started having random shutdowns and suffered from performance issues affecting my productivity. After two more trips to the Apple Store, I was told that all diagnostics passed and there were no hardware issues. My Mac soon lapsed its warranty period and I was completely out of luck. I was even told that since nothing was “faulty”, Apple would not attempt to service the machine or even replace it at a cost. My only recourse was to buy an entirely new machine.

The Solution

This is when I remembered that my Chase Sapphire Reserve comes with a perk called Extended Warranty.

I called the number listed on the website and described my situation to the phone rep. Not only was I connected to an agent right away, but she was also incredibly helpful and informed me that my situation should qualify. The only thing they needed from me was to get a repair quote from an authorized repair center.

After hanging up, I made an appointment at the closest Apple service center and brought my machine over for diagnostics and obtained a quote for estimated repair costs.

Then, I filled out the claims form and submitted the following items:

• Original receipt
• Statement showing purchase on my Sapphire Reserve
• Description of Claim
• Quote from Authorized Repair Center

After a few weeks, I received an email informing me that my claim was approved! I was reimbursed the full amount stated in the quote estimate at approximately $1300!

I ended up using the reimbursement and rebate from my old machine to basically upgrade to the 16″ MacBook Pro with little-to-no cost.

This time, I remembered to go through a shopping portal to earn an additional 2x, netting me a total of 3x back (over 9000 UR points, worth at least $135)!

Of course, I once again put the charge on my Sapphire Reserve for its incredible protection benefits.

Summary

Many are afraid of credit cards with annual fees but pay extraneous amounts for things like travel insurance or AppleCare+. However, other than the surface level benefits of credit cards like lounge access or point earnings, it is also important not to forget about lesser-known benefits such as Extended Warranty or Purchase Protection, which in this case alone already pays for the $450 Annual Fee MANY, MANY times over!

Also worth noting is that this perk is not limited to the Reserve alone, as even the $95 Chase Sapphire Preferred or $250 Amex Gold cards both offer similar benefits!