Buying a Macbook Pro in US for use in UK

kalaika

kalaika wrote: »

Also, any manufacturer's warranty that comes with the laptop may not be valid in the UK as it may only apply to the USA and Canada. This will mean that if you need to make a claim on it, Apple UK will probably not honour the warranty.

Leopard wrote: »

Please don't make misleading assertions like this in a public forum.

But if you had taken my entire post, you will see that I said that it may not be valid (based on my experience of warranties on electrical items in general). As isofa has already pointed out, it turns out this does not apply to this case as Apple have a worldwide warranty.

It's still a valid point that the OP needed to consider when buying abroad though (isn't it better to be thought about warranties and checked it's ok, rather than not thinking about it at all?)

Leopard

kalaika wrote: »

But if you had taken my entire post, you will see that I said that it may not be valid (based on my experience of warranties on electrical items in general). As isofa has already pointed out, it turns out this does not apply to this case as Apple have a worldwide warranty.

It's still a valid point that the OP needed to consider when buying abroad though (isn't it better to be thought about warranties and checked it's ok, rather than not thinking about it at all?)

kalaika,

I am one of the apparent minority on here who does read and consider postings before responding to them, despite the daunting task of wading through the appalling illiteracy and incoherence with which most of them are written. So, I did take your entire post into consideration.

My protestation arose not from you writing, in a general sense and with worthy intention, that a manufacturer's warranty may not be valid in another country but from you then writing, specifically and incorrectly, that Apple U.K. "will probably not honour the warranty" on a laptop purchased in North America. (Even though I do realise that the latter assertion was founded upon the generalised and unspecific premise of the former.)

I do agree that it is prudent to investigate the geographical (and other remedial) scope of a product's warranty before purchasing it, particularly if it's an expensive item, but I felt that you had crossed the line between making that point in a general sense and impugning specifically the honouring of an Apple international warranty in Britain.

In doing so, you could have misled and deterred potential purchasers of Apple products - and that seemed worthy of reprehension.

But we were both trying to help the OP.

kalaika

OK, my apologies for saying that it probably wouldn't be honoured. My intent was to get the OP to check that his warranty would be valid, not to indicate that it wouldn't be.

At least the OP knows his US warranty will be ok in the UK...

snowyowl

Thank you all so much for taking the time to reply, you've been incredibly helpful. Very much appreciated. :T

BikerEd

As someone who previously had a US-sourced MBP supplied by my employer I can confirm that the differences are minimum and that Apple UK have no problems whatsoever supporting and performing repairs on a US-sourced machine. Don't forget to buy the Applecare warranty on eBay. You can currently get this for around £90 buy-it-now for a 15" or 17" Macbook Pro.

Leopard

BikerEd wrote: »

As someone who previously had a US-sourced MBP supplied by my employer I can confirm that the differences are minimum and that Apple UK have no problems whatsoever supporting and performing repairs on a US-sourced machine. Don't forget to buy the Applecare warranty on eBay. You can currently get this for around £90 buy-it-now for a 15" or 17" Macbook Pro.

That's very good advice - but only buy it sealed in a box, from a U.K. seller with a decent Feedback score. That way, the printed user agreement will (should...) be the British version and you will qualify, thereby and additionally, for in-home call-out cover in the United Kingdom - probably throughout Europe, too - which you won't get by right under the initial one- year International warranty issued with a Mac that's purchased in North America.