Is proof of Apple Care purchase actually required?

November 26, 2018 8:59 PM

I'm in the market for a used MacBook Pro, and have found one for sale that includes AppleCare coverage for another 13 months. Apple implies that a transfer involving original receipts should happen, or that said receipts could be required during repairs/service. Will that actually ever matter?

Basically the seller doesn't want to mess with the transfer, and I suspect doesn't have the original paperwork. It's also possible that the seller doesn't know the name of any original registration - this is via a bulk reseller and I assume they just don't bother tracking that information because, as they say, "warranty coverage follows the machine."

I can verify via the serial number that the AppleCare is active. I do trust the seller and am not concerned about the possibility of them cancelling coverage for a refund or anything.

Will Apple ever request that paperwork or is this just something they say but never actually comes up?

posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

Best answer: Hi, owner of an Apple reseller/service provider here. Independents like us — and I'm about 99% sure the Apple Store itself — go with what Apple's own database says. That is, we take your serial number and plug it into a tool that checks against Apple's own database (you're using a user-friendly, public-facing version of it on apple.com, in fact). We don't care what paperwork you have or don't have, who originally purchased the coverage, or whose name it was originally in. If that database comes back saying you have coverage, then you — the person with that machine in hand — have it.

tl;dr: You're safe.
posted by CommonSense at 9:46 PM on November 26, 2018 [3 favorites]

Best answer: When I sent mine in after visiting with the Apple genius bar (twice) they just looked me up by serial number.
posted by Crystalinne at 11:22 PM on November 26, 2018

Best answer: Yup. It's all serial number based. As long as you have that, Apple Care will work.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:18 AM on November 27, 2018 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I haven't actually had to show any paper to obtain AppleCare service in... more than a decade, certainly. They used to have a paper "warranty card" type thing, but that was in the 90s.

The only reason I can imagine the receipts mattering is if the unit didn't show up in the database and you basically wanted to challenge Apple's records.
posted by Kadin2048 at 8:10 AM on November 27, 2018

Response by poster: Awesome, thanks everyone!
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 10:28 AM on November 27, 2018

In the US, if you can convince the seller to provide you with the serial number, you can verify if they are correct about the remaining warranty here...
posted by jkaczor at 11:46 AM on November 27, 2018

Proof of purchase would matter if it was reported as stolen to Apple, or if you needed activation lock overridden on an iPhone, that sort of thing. So there are cases where it would matter. But generally, you shouldn't need it.
posted by tubedogg at 4:52 PM on December 1, 2018