Is buying in the US a good idea?

Question

Hello,
I currently live in the Netherlands, a small country next to Germany. In about 2 years I will go to college and will need a laptop. As I'm going to an industrial designers Academy I am going to need a laptop with quite some graphic capabilities. Apple intermediately invaded my mind with their super laptops, the mac book pro in particular. Now my question is if it's a good idea to buy the mac book pro 15" in the US? From what I've heard I won't have any repair warranty for in the Netherlands. But is this a big issue? I don't know if the mac book pro brings a lot of issues with it because it will be my first apple computer. I only have experience with apple through my ipod touch 1st gen. Whenever I had problems with that I just went to the internet and found an answer there to my problem.
It is a big difference if I buy it in the Netherlands or in the US because the price differs from the dutch price 2100 euro's (3108 dollars) for the mac book pro 2.8 GHz and in the US 2300 dollars (1554.05 euro's).
That differs 808 dollars or 545.95 euro's.
So does the mac book pro have some problems and are these easily fixable by yourself with a little internet help?
So what will it be?
buying in the Netherlands with a higher price but a active warranty. so with lower risk of a unsolvable problem?
or buying in the US with a much lower price but a chance on unsolvable problems?
please help me and give arguments.
thank you.
Message was edited by: Davinovic

Answer 1

Hi and welcome to both these forums and when you arrive to the United States. Your question concerning the warranty should be addressed to Apple Support just to make sure, but I would agree that wherever you purchase your Macintosh the warranty should be world wide. Considering the price difference I'd recommend the US. I suspect the difference in price has more to do with EuroUnion VATs than anything else. We don't have VATs here in the states, though you'll have to pay any local sales taxes (I know, the difference escapes me). Though once you're here buying online often avoids even that tax. In the US taxation is largely voluntary (ok ok, think about it). That means if you order online from a company in California and have the item delivered in, say, Indiana the California company will inform you that you have to pay Indiana sales tax on the item, but will not collect it at the time of sale. The burden of paying the tax is upon you, voluntarily submitting the tax to the Indiana Dept of Revenue. While some states are really trying to tighten this up it is still very common practice to simply not pay the local sales tax as no one is tracking this information. This sort of thing relates to the unique relationship between the Federal government and those of the individual, nearly sovereign, states.
Now as for the MBP I contend you cannot buy a more solid, reliable, fast laptop, period. Firstly, Apple is the number one computer company in consumer satisfaction. AppleCare is worth it. I've had several experiences personally and with friends and family with Apple's warranty fulfillment and it is totally awesome. The MBP itself is state of the art, sleek, and the best industrial design out there (OK Sony comes close, but no one else does). The OS is virus free and very easy to use. You can run Mac OS X, Linux, Unix, and Windows of any flavor, so if you absolutely have to use some vertical market Windows based program it's easy as pie to launch bootcamp or other VM OS and you're in windows.
I got my first Mac back in '86 and haven't even considered another OS (I did have a PowerComputing clone for a while and frankly even then Apple was better built). The average PC lasts about 2.5 yrs. The average Macintosh about 4.5 years, more than enough to get you through college.
Keep hitting these forums as you'll find a wealth of information and thousands of helpful hands.
Again, Welcome!