Oh well I am glad to listen to great macs service as I just got my new MBP pro to replace my died Dell laptop (it last only another year and after my warranty ended)

I dont know if in all European countries all warranty is valid for a 2 year period, but in mine it is. I went for a brief search and saw that in spain they too have 2 year warranty and probably france and germany too as many other countries should be similar. Probably all countries submitted to the European Union standards have that rules.

In UK i dont know, but i believe its only one year.

We dont pay more because of that. But that USD to EUR conversion rate made for instance XBOX360 and PS3 more expensive here because SONY and Microsoft dont convert USD to EUR at current currencies … the same happens to games and software at times.

UK uses to be more expensive than other EU countries due they still dealing with pounds, while other countries have adopted the euro currency.

Sometimes there’s products (electronics and tools) than come with 3 years warranty (mostly from germany as they are top reference in reliability). 2year period supported by the store and the extra year supported by manufacturer. Its very common to see german products with 3 year warranty.

For instance when XBOX 360 came out with a 6 month warranty and then extended to 1 year by Microsoft, that would be illegal and Microsoft is demanded to support products over 2 years or they can’t do business. So while US dudes were desperate with it, we simply returned consoles and expect new ones.

The same happens in Apple products …

So since i believe companies aren’t making products for two markets with two warranty times, i believe that if they only made 1 year warranty products they couldn’t sell them here.

I remember now i had 2 CRT’s from LG fixed within warranty period at 1,5 years i bought it.

I saw recently the wallmart of yours style of warranty extend programs being copied here and they have some success on laptops and more expensive electronics. On 400€ bellow, after two years … you better save more for new one …

In my country warranty is 2 years minimum, and i hadn’t much problems with stuff even a couple years after it is over … I only had a trouble with a laptop screen lamp, and it was within 2 years of warranty.

Macs – even if you don’t take Apple Care one can go down to Apple store for support and hardware defects are covered and replaced within one year.

Talking to a Human at a Company store is much more re assuring.

Normally people don’t pay extra for special warranty so that’s why those situations are not comparable. But ofcourse for those prises you expect to have a good service.

If you want to compare the service experience with Dell’s, you need to consider that Dell, like Apple, has different support options.

For example, my last Dell laptop experience (I have 3-yr at-home service) involved a similar 10-minute phone call with an experienced tech. A special Dell keypress boot sequence debugged the hardware issue in tones he could hear on the phone and knew exactly what was wrong immediately.

In LESS THAN 24 HOURS a Dell tech was in my kitchen, and replaced the graphics card for free while I ate lunch.

Leaving the house and waiting in line at the mall wasn’t even part of the process.