Re: [NTLK] Off Subject Apple(Doesn't)Care

From: Ken Whitcomb <ken_at_imageguild.com>
Date: Thu Jul 16 2009 - 16:36:53 EDT

I agree with Morgan about holding off on the display replacement at
that price. Bringing it to your local AASC is sound advice. This is
the first time I've heard of something other than abuse not being
covered by AppleCare.
The company that I use to perform authorized Apple service work tells
me that at times their hands are really tied when it comes to warranty
work.
For other than display repair or replacement, I've used the flat-rate
repair service from Apple. The last time I used it, the cost was just
under $400 for a notebook. They will repair or replace anything that
is wrong, with the exception of a display (there are almost certainly
other restrictions as well, but that's the significant one in my
memory). One note of caution regarding this repair service (which
requires the unit be shipped to an Apple repair center, not performed
by an Apple Authorized Service Center) is that they will return the
unit without any work having been done on it, if there is anything
that is not stock (RAM, HD, etc.).

I have a G4PB that needs to go in to fix a couple of issue right now,
that I can't send in yet because the original HD crashed and I need to
send that to a data recovery service in order to get some important
photographs from it, and I don't have the cash for that work in my
budget at the moment. So once I can get the photos off the bad drive,
I can place it back in the PB and send it in for flat-rate repair.

If I were you, I'd find a replacement display on eBay and swap it out
myself if I couldn't convince Apple to fix it under Apple Care.

Good luck,
ken

On Jul 16, 2009, at 1:50 PM, Morgan Aldridge wrote:

> On Thu, Jul 16, 2009 at 1:23 PM, D. Matt Dair<dmdair@mac.com> wrote:
>>
>> I have purchased 5 new Macs and 4 iPods over the last 10 years. All
>> with AppleCare. On 3 previous occasion I have had units serviced
>> under
>> the plan without issue, so I cannot say all my experiences with
>> AppleCare have been bad. I do have to say that this experience my
>> make
>> me rethink investing in Applecare contracts.
>
> I'm sorry to hear about your MacBook troubles.
>
> I'd highly suggest _not_ paying the $800+ and having them just return
> the MacBook. It's very likely that you'll be able to bring it to a
> local Apple Authorized Repair Center and have them perform the repair,
> sans the display swap (more on that later), without sending it to
> Apple. Many repair centers will keep parts such as displays stocked in
> case of emergency or may have a parts machine with a good display that
> they could install without ordering that part from Apple. I would
> think the rest of the repair should be covered under the AppleCare.
>
> A local repair center will be able to honor the AppleCare warranty and
> also give you a second opinion on whether it's accidental user damage
> (hopefully not). In the past, I've seen some LCD pressure issues be
> caused by tight/defective hinges, but I don't know if that's possible
> with MacBooks.
>
> Morgan Aldridge

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Received on Thu Jul 16 16:37:06 2009

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