hey guys i sent in my macbook pro because my isight was not being recognized and that my screen was flickering. they sent it in repair and from start to finish it took 2 WHOLE WEEKS. if thats not bad enough... they call me 20 minutes after telling me taht my mbp has arrived that my screen still flickers and taht they were going to send it back to texas for repair. this is ridiculous! i had to suffer thru 2 weeks in college without my mbp and i just decided to take it back and not fix it. now it seems like my screen is alot dimmer and there is a constant flicker. mannnn if only repair didnt take that long, or if they could actually just repair it in the store it would be alot quicker....
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Apple Repair Is Ridiculous!
- Thread starter byeehaaw
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That's pretty bad. Tell Apple Support you need your computer for college classes. Be firm, but polite. If you scream at them, that will get you no where. If they give you an excuse, ask for a replacement MBP. At the worst, they can say no. Hopefully that will help you. If it doesn't, sorry. 
That's pretty bad. Tell Apple Support you need your computer for college classes. Be firm, but polite. If you scream at them, that will get you no where. If they give you an excuse, ask for a replacement MBP. At the worst, they can say no. Hopefully that will help you. If it doesn't, sorry.
You guys may think that it doesn't take that long to repair a notebook, but sometimes it is just really hard to find the problem. There are a hundred/thousands of working parts inside a notebook and any of them can go wrong. It is the technicians job to narrow down the cuprit, and eliminate the issue....but sometimes it is just difficult to do in the demanding time frame given by consumers. Sometimes you just have to be patient. Things go wrong, parts have to be ordered, and you can't expect to get a new computer everytime something goes wrong.
Oh come now, let's be reasonable. I don't care how tricky the problem was to find (I doubt it was at all), it didn't take a tech working on it 10 days or even half a day to fix it. I find that there is a real probably with people blindly defending mac on this forum. It feels like I"m on a ford forum full of die hard brand loyalists.
Well, personally, not to defend Apple or anything, but all the notebook I've sent in for repairs, Apple is not too bad and is above par. My Sony VAIO had its screen replaced in 2003 and it took 2.5 months. I was basically dropping in everyday to see if it was ready.
I know it is hard without a computer, and Apple is pretty good with their service. If you ask firmly but politely they will definitely help you out.
I am not blindly defending apple... I used to be a notebook repair technician for Sony and Asus...so I have experience on the other side. Take it easy. I am just reflecting and making sure that we talk about all sides. This is a forum after all.
And you don't really know how long it takes sometimes to find problems and to fix issues...you have to put the notebook back together to test it right? Well it takes a good 20 min to dismantle a notebook completely and another 20 to reassemble (if you know what you are doing, if you don't make a mistake, if there is no other issue with the notebook). This is not considering the testing time, part replacement and testing afterwards. Sometimes when we repair something, its actually another part that is faulty and you have to open the notebook up again. I've had to put notebooks aside because they can be frustrating to isolate the problem. What seems like a simple issue, can be tied to the screen itself, the LCD cable, the LCD inverter, the motherboard, the connections on the motherboard, the video card, the heatsink around the video card, etc. And sometimes, through bad luck, the tech may replace a faulty screen with another faulty screen. A search on the forums will show that this has happened many times before. If the tech is good, he or she will thoroughly test and catch and fix the problem before it reaches the customer...
So to the OP, I am sorry it is taking so long for you to get your notebook back... I understand as I am a student as well. However, we can't just jump to conclusions that Apple repair is just horrid and that it is reflective of their care in general. Technicians are, afterall, human.
Don't jump to conclusions if you really don't know...
I believe the person you quoted was just trying to put "perspective" on what it can take.
Consumers think (not just Apple users, ANY CONSUMER, including myself at times) repairs should be instantaneous when they really are not. In the PC world (I have worked as a tech before) your pc can sit in a queue. Yes believe it or not there just might be other computers waiting to be repaired. Don't think your the only one there with issues. Then when they get to it it can then take a while to (as the poster said) find the actual problem. Carefully swapping parts in and out until it's fixed. Then the joy of packing it back up and sending to the people that ship it out. Oh and you know UPS/FedEx/DHL etc are warp speed of light transports and are every so careful handing each package like it was an egg on a spoon.
I'm certainly not defending Apple in ANY WAY shape or form. But 10 days, let's look at it realistically.
day 1 - Apple Store receives the computer, tags it, bags it, marks it for shipment out (that's if they didn't run any pre-diagnostics that are required prior to marking the item for off site repair) and if they have their own queue, then add another day to this to be safe, so now we're on day 2. Now if it's tagged and bagged and ready to ship and they DID NOT miss the outgoing, it'll go out this day. Otherwise it's day 3 when it will leave the Apple Store. You see, Apple can do all they want as fast as they want, diagnostics take a certain amount of time to run, your place in line determines another, and the delivery/pickup man determines another time.
So let's say day 3 it goes out, takes about a day or 2 to reach Texas depending on location, so let's just say 2 days. We're now at day 5. Hmm half way done here aren't we? So now your machine has to be recieved, and processed in and take it's rightful place in queueland. Day 6 - Tech in Texas finally gets to see your machine, reads through the log, does his deal and since we only have 4 days left AND let's average 2 days delivery, that gives him 2 days to tear apart the machine, troubleshoot it and hopefully fix the repair. OHHH WAIIT, I forgot the time it takes for him to finish up, tag it bag it and send it to shipping department for their blessing so that it can go out the door. NOW considering your machine isn't the ONLY machine their doing this can take up to an average of 1 day. That doesn't leave much time for it to return to the store, get tested there to make sure that all repairs WERE done.
I'd say 10 days is about right. The above scenario isn't just for Apple, that's pretty much a safe assumption for ANY computer based off site repair. Others have had worse stories, consider yourself lucky it only took 10 days (even though part of the problem wasn't fixed)
This isn't an Apple defender here. I'm just stating basic IT business assumptions on how things work and from my own experience in IT I can say that the above scenario is 90% accurate as how things work even in the all mighty Apple.
So cut that poster some slack when he's trying to put perspective on the timeline and assure the OP that 10 days really isn't that bad. If ya'll think it's that easy how bout DIY it see how you do.
I sympathize that the issue wasn't fixed initially and THAT would be the focus of my frustration. Not the fact it took 10 days but the fact they had it for 10 days and didn't fix ALL the issues. If it needed more than 10 days then I would feel better they took the extra time, so as long as it returned with all issues fixed.
10 days (including travel) is freakin shangrilah compared to other companies repair times.
Not to mention I see no where does the previous post defend Apple in anyway, nor does my post.
I have plenty of experience with electronics, I can assure you. I was a mechanic for many years and now work for a telecommunication company. If their tech actually needed that much time to fix the problem he should be looking for a new career. As it's at apple they don't even have the excuse of having to order parts.
It is true apple isn't the worst out there but they aren't the best either. Just because many computer companies are bad, it doesn't mean we should lower our standards of expectation.
Ever repair/troubleshoot a laptop? I have. It's not as easy as it sounds. Not to mention the repair tech isn't flying over to the Apple Store to pick it up, other people/processes are in place. Still 10 days including travel is pretty damn good IMO.[/QUOTE]
ROFL I'm sorry
Again 10 days including travel, the tech probably had a day or 2 to actually look at the machine. Focus should be on why he didn't fix ALL the issues. Or maybe he thought he did based on his tests but really didn't.
People 10 days as the OP said THAT INCLUDES TRAVEL plus queue time, plus processing, so the Tech didn't take 10 days to work on a machine.
Bah, you claim Apple defenders, I'll go ahead and claim Narrow minded people.
why no loaners
Hi,
I can empathise here as my Santa Rosa MBP went in for 10 days to have a sound card replaced, I paid thousands of dollars for a new notebook and couldn't use it for half of the first month of ownership. I was lucky because I hadn't deleted my stuff from my PowerBook and was able to use that while the MBP was being repaired. If the MBP had died a day or two later, the PowerBook would have been reformatted and on eBay!
I think it would be appropriate, due to the essential nature of our personal computers in today's modern world, for Apple stores to keep a few loaners available for use by customers while their computers were in limbo.
Diligent owners who back their systems up to an external disc could easily import their data to the loaner for temporary use, and when notified that their repaired item was waiting to be collected, save the changes to an external disc and/or transfer the data to their own mac when they pick it up from the repairer.
The store could then run the loaner through a 35 pass zero disc reformat and the loaner would be fresh for reuse the following day. These units could be refurbished and sold on. It would also be a good way for Apple to get people to test drive better quality machines, and increase demand for users to update/upgrade earlier.
All sounds too easy to me, too easy to boost repair service from quite good to extremely user considerate and a major point for attracting switchers.
Tell me what I don't see here that makes me wrong about this.
Hi,
I can empathise here as my Santa Rosa MBP went in for 10 days to have a sound card replaced, I paid thousands of dollars for a new notebook and couldn't use it for half of the first month of ownership. I was lucky because I hadn't deleted my stuff from my PowerBook and was able to use that while the MBP was being repaired. If the MBP had died a day or two later, the PowerBook would have been reformatted and on eBay!
I think it would be appropriate, due to the essential nature of our personal computers in today's modern world, for Apple stores to keep a few loaners available for use by customers while their computers were in limbo.
Diligent owners who back their systems up to an external disc could easily import their data to the loaner for temporary use, and when notified that their repaired item was waiting to be collected, save the changes to an external disc and/or transfer the data to their own mac when they pick it up from the repairer.
The store could then run the loaner through a 35 pass zero disc reformat and the loaner would be fresh for reuse the following day. These units could be refurbished and sold on. It would also be a good way for Apple to get people to test drive better quality machines, and increase demand for users to update/upgrade earlier.
All sounds too easy to me, too easy to boost repair service from quite good to extremely user considerate and a major point for attracting switchers.
Tell me what I don't see here that makes me wrong about this.
Thanks KKat, the entirety of your post hit the nail on the head exactly. Since we know Apple is a huge company, obviously Queue land will be huge as well!
As to lowering expectations and the like...I would like to know what company we can deem as the one who sets the bar, with laptop repair times of (insert reasonable waiting period here). If it is not Apple, then I don't know what other company in all honesty.
So, it isn't lowered expectations....its realistic expectations.
yea i thought i said 14 days anyway... but the problem was that it was sitting in the apple store for a good 5 days. Apple sends with overnight shipping. they told me on saturday taht they would package it up and send it out. i called up everyday to check up on the status, and the package arrived on friday. i know the apple store is busy but taking taht long to ship out is a little annoying, but its another issue taht bothers me. i waited 14 days for it to be sent out again with the same issue it left with. my isight didnt even workw ith photobooth when i recieved it back. it was better in a sense that the computer acutally recognized that an isight was detected but photobooth still did not work. i decided to install my leopard. it was hard recieving leopard in the mail and not being able to have my mac to install it on. anyway i installed it and now my photobooth works but there are still some issues. the isight sometimes just goes dim and its all messed up. now i have an even worse issue. i get it back and the screen flickers like no tomorow. i guess i shoulda left it for them to ship it back out but i just couldnt handle another 10-14 days without it whent he problem should have been fixed the first time around. the thing that really bothers me is that hte apple store called me up the day after i dropped it off because they were going to replace it at the store, but they said they found screen flickering and were going to send it to the faciltiy to get it fixed. i get it back with only one of the problems being fixed. ugh!!! dont get me wrong i love apple.... its just i get frustrated ahhhh
I'm sorry, it was my fault for creating that misunderstanding. In one of my previous posts I refered to it taking 10 days to fix as I was taking into accound 4 days for shipping back and forth. Hang in there, i do feel for you, I'd be as mad as hell too.
How happy would you be with your car if it just arrived broken and then the dealer took two weeks to fix it. When you asked about why this out rage happened they simply replied that they are a massive dealership and they have turned out a lot of faulty vehicles that year so they were backed up. Then just incase you were thinking of switching to x brand down the street, they informed you that their dealership is run even worse so you shouldn't be angry at them.
since im at school im debating on whether or not i should drop my laptop off at an aasp instead of waiting to go back home to go to the apple store? do you think the process will take longer or shorter than if i were to go to the apple store and do they do instore repairs or do they only send out?
Depends on the store. I took my unit to Apple store in Pasadena. They told me 5 days to repair. I was a bit shocked but I did not express my shock. I said, ok. The guy at the store called me the next morning to tell me it was fixed. (Fan replacement).
My work revolves around computing so I have two MBP and have always owned at least two in case one takes a dive. They are not that expensive now so it really is feasible to own two.
I once waited a month for a warranty hard drive replacement on an iBook, because the tech let his Apple certification lapse. This was at a university computer store. Fortunately he put in a replacement drive and has been keen on all other issues, but using a temporary hard drive for a month was slightly painful.