Long, but good info for anyone dealing with AppleCare:
I've had a bad experience with AppleCare rectified thanks to the
customer relations department.
I have a late 2008 unibody model 15" Macbook Pro. I've been
experiencing intermittent screen flickering that has seemed to have
gotten worse lately. Also my battery didn't seem to be holding a
charge as long as it should/used to.
There is no Apple store in my home town, so I visited one while
traveling and explained my issues. The Genius at the bar replaced the
battery and checked it in for a logic board replacement. As the repair
would take 5-7 days, and I was leaving town in a few days, they
arranged to ship it back to my home address. Great.
The next week Fed Ex drops off my MBP. Upon opening the box, I notice
that there is a scratch on the bottom case that wasn't there before
and that the battery door is bent slightly on one corner so that it
doesn't sit quite flush with the rest of the case anymore. At this
point I'm already upset because this is the 3rd machine in three years
that I've had come back from an AppleCare repair in *worse* shape than
it went it (all three were serviced at the TN facility). On top of it
all, the flickering was still occurring, and they replaced the
display, not the logic board.
I call up Apple and they say that I have to physically take the
machine and packaging into a retail store, or they won't accept that
there is any damage. I explain that the closest one to me is 1.5 hours
away, so a round trip would be three hours of my time and gas. They
explain that there is nothing that they can do, and if they have me
ship the machine back it will just be returned to me because of "user
damage".
So I spent my Sunday driving to the Apple store. Once getting there
the Genius is very nice, but doesn't seem to be able to do much for
me. The only part that they have in stock is the battery cover, so the
bottom case and logic board would have to be ordered. Neither the
Genius or myself was comfortable sending the machine back into Apple
for more repairs, so he wanted to do the work in house. I explain my
driving situation, and ask if it could be fixed and shipped to me. I'm
told that is only possible if it gets sent back to Apple. On top of
this, it could take 5-7 days to get the parts in, and 7-10 days to
repair once they're in because their repair team is "backed up". At
this point my choices were: check the machine in and pick it up in
12-17+ days, or go home, drive back to the store to drop it off when
the parts come in, and then drive back and pick it up when it's "fixed".
I opted to just return home with the machine and decide my next
option. The Genius ordered the parts anyways, because even if i didn't
come back for the repair they would "use them anyways".
Frustrated, yesterday I called AppleCare again and asked to speak
directly to customer relations. After a long wait a gentleman named
Josh answered and I explained my situation. He put me on hold then
came back and offered me a new machine in exchange for my current one.
He picked out a new model with the same RAM and HDD and slightly
faster processor as my current machine and told me that someone would
contact me within 24-48 hours with the exchange details. Last evening
Melissa from Apple called and set me up with the exchange paperwork
that I had to sign and email back to her.
I wanted to make sure of the machine that I was getting so I looked up
the model number and noticed that the video RAM was 256MB while my
current machine has 512. Called Melissa back and she apologized and
bumped the machine up to the 2.8GHz model with equal RAM, VRAM, and a
larger 500GB HDD.
Got my tracking number this morning, get the machine on Thursday.
Moral of the story: Apple quality control has gone downhill (10
repairs on 5 machines in 3.5 years), but their customer relations
department can fix your problems even when everyone else says no.
rick
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