Applecare ruined my Macbook

[charkshark]

My Macbook was quite scratched as well coming out of repair, I really didn't want to deal with them much longer than I already did, so I just dealt with it. It is quite unfortunate the way they are handling these computers, I treasure mine, and keep it in perfect condition (excluding what they did to it)

 

[Nicolasdec]

I just hope that they fix your laptop.

 

[macenforcer]

First of all the OP has a valid point. I would be very pissed.

Secondly, I don't see why so many members here are so stuck up and rude, I mean really, get over yourselves.

As far as apple care is concerned, its a blatant ripoff. People on this forum like to chant about how great applecare is but let me tell you something, its a scam. Has been a scam since its inception. You are paying 20% the price of the computer what IBM and DELL include for free or at least a very minimal charge. $350 for a laptop warranty should include some serious butt kissing on the companies part if anything was to go wrong. I think for that money they should just exchange your computer for a new one on the spot. They charge you up the gazoo for a warranty then hire dumbass kids to fix the systems when they come in for repair. Ever seen one of these techs? They barely know how to turn the computer on. Its quite amazing how little they know.

Look OP, its simple. I know its taken care of but for others reading this you simply call calmly and ask for it to be fixed. If the give you any slack RIP EM A NEW ONE! Thats how its done in the real world because when you call somebody you get 50% personality and 50% company. Sometimes yelling at the person on the phone erases the 50% personality and you get all company and according the company the policy is take care of the problem.

Good day.... I said GOOD DAY SIR!

 

[mick4394]

Well, it only took about two weeks to get my Macbook serviced, send it back for a new case after they destroyed the first, and have it returned.

At this point, I guess I'm happy with the results. The condition of my new casing still isn't as good as my first. There are a couple of good sized scratches and it's a bit warped in one spot. But, I'm going to have to give up and declare Applecare the winner in this game of wills. I just don't have it in me to spend another week without my computer. Really, at this point, the flaws are so small it wouldn't make much sense to complain. Believe me, if it looked as bad as it did before I sent it back, I'd have no problem complaining again, but this just isn't worth the trouble.

They did their best, which isn't as good as I would like, but I guess it's good enough.

 

[panzer06]

Well, it only took about two weeks to get my Macbook serviced, send it back for a new case after they destroyed the first, and have it returned.

At this point, I guess I'm happy with the results. The condition of my new casing still isn't as good as my first. There are a couple of good sized scratches and it's a bit warped in one spot. But, I'm going to have to give up and declare Applecare the winner in this game of wills. I just don't have it in me to spend another week without my computer. Really, at this point, the flaws are so small it wouldn't make much sense to complain. Believe me, if it looked as bad as it did before I sent it back, I'd have no problem complaining again, but this just isn't worth the trouble.

They did their best, which isn't as good as I would like, but I guess it's good enough.

It is very sad for me to read the contents of this thread (and many others on different forums). The fact that we must balance the value of our time against the quality of the products and services we receive is extremely disappointing.

I personally received a refurbished Macbook 2.0 as an early Christmas present. It was poorly packed and had a simple plastic sack held by adjustable Styrofoam. During shipment, the rubbing of the Styrofoam created a banded blemish 3 inches wide on the right side across the top and bottom of the case. I was very disappointed and was tempted to return it. However, after installing everything and using it for 12-16 hours a day for a couple of weeks in Windows and OS X, I decided to buff the scuffs out with a very soft cloth myself.

The point being that I was more afraid to send back a perfectly working system to fix the cosmetic blemish for fear it would come back in worse shape than the visual annoyance the blemish caused.

How did we get to this place? There is no way it should be acceptable to spend even $10 (not to mention $700,$900 or $2000 or more) to buy something and have to worry about what level of defects will be acceptable against the time it takes to have them corrected.

From the sheer volume of complaints I’ve seen here and elsewhere, I am astonished how bad it has become. This problem permeates modern society and is not unique to Apple. Apple is just the latest vendor to succumb to the need to push product out the door, with higher and higher levels of defects making it into the consumer’s hand. So long as (high) profit and shareholder value is more important than producing the best (not simply acceptable) products this situation isn’t going to get any better.

I don’t know what the answer is, since many of us simply cannot afford to be without our products (often repeatedly) to repair something that should never have been “broken” in the first place.

Merry Christmas everyone

PS Really, really love this little MB!!

 

[mick4394]

It is very sad for me to read the contents of this thread (and many others on different forums). The fact that we must balance the value of our time against the quality of the products and services we receive is extremely disappointing.

I personally received a refurbished Macbook 2.0 as an early Christmas present. It was poorly packed and had a simple plastic sack held by adjustable Styrofoam. During shipment, the rubbing of the Styrofoam created a banded blemish 3 inches wide on the right side across the top and bottom of the case. I was very disappointed and was tempted to return it. However, after installing everything and using it for 12-16 hours a day for a couple of weeks in Windows and OS X, I decided to buff the scuffs out with a very soft cloth myself.

The point being that I was more afraid to send back a perfectly working system to fix the cosmetic blemish for fear it would come back in worse shape than the visual annoyance the blemish caused.

How did we get to this place? There is no way it should be acceptable to spend even $10 (not to mention $700,$900 or $2000 or more) to buy something and have to worry about what level of defects will be acceptable against the time it takes to have them corrected.

From the sheer volume of complaints I’ve seen here and elsewhere, I am astonished how bad it has become. This problem permeates modern society and is not unique to Apple. Apple is just the latest vendor to succumb to the need to push product out the door, with higher and higher levels of defects making it into the consumer’s hand. So long as (high) profit and shareholder value is more important than producing the best (not simply acceptable) products this situation isn’t going to get any better.

I don’t know what the answer is, since many of us simply cannot afford to be without our products (often repeatedly) to repair something that should never have been “broken” in the first place.

Merry Christmas everyone

PS Really, really love this little MB!!

I love mine too. That's the problem. If I didn't love the thing, I'd have no problem kicking it and Apple to the curb.

Right now, mine is in good enough condition that I don't have a problem with it. But, I have it in the back of my mind that down the road I'm going to have to send it in for service again, and be without it for an extended period of time. It's not the greatest thing to have to look forward to, and it's not something that I've ever had to even think about with any other computer I've owned.

 

[reaper673]

After I had my MB sent in, it did have some obviously new scratches on it (it looked almost like key marks!). The applecare people apologised profusely about it when I told them, and they halved the price of an apple care extension for me! (and obvioiusly they will repair it for me if I want, but I am not too bothered about it).

While there are still problems with the thing (as I said in my other topic), if you just talk to the guys nicely then they are really good about the whole thing.

And to those of you who call the apple care a rip off, what other company offers in store repairs for computers? Dell, acer or sony dont have places where you can sit down and have a face to face with someone who knows what they are talking about! If they have parts in store, they can repair them on the day (as happened with my macbook cd drive). While I have a true lemon of a laptop, its very hard to fault apple with this as they never set out to damage mine or your laptop, and they do everything they can to sort it out!

 

[mick4394]

After I had my MB sent in, it did have some obviously new scratches on it (it looked almost like key marks!). The applecare people apologised profusely about it when I told them, and they halved the price of an apple care extension for me! (and obvioiusly they will repair it for me if I want, but I am not too bothered about it).

While there are still problems with the thing (as I said in my other topic), if you just talk to the guys nicely then they are really good about the whole thing.

And to those of you who call the apple care a rip off, what other company offers in store repairs for computers? Dell, acer or sony dont have places where you can sit down and have a face to face with someone who knows what they are talking about! If they have parts in store, they can repair them on the day (as happened with my macbook cd drive). While I have a true lemon of a laptop, its very hard to fault apple with this as they never set out to damage mine or your laptop, and they do everything they can to sort it out!

Many of us live no where near an Apple store, so the fact that they have them means nothing to us. In my case, the nearest one is a three hour (one way) drive. So, the only way I'm getting anything done is picking up the phone and shipping them my computer.

I've enjoyed using my Apple computers, and will continue to. I don't see myself giving up on them anytime soon. But, of the companies you've listed, I've owned laptops produced by two (1 Dell, 2 Sonys). I've never had a hardware failure of any kind with either. In the two months I've had my Macbook, its been in twice (admittedly once was for the scratches caused by Apple techs). My previous iBook never had to go in for service, so at this point I'm fifty-fifty when it comes to Apples.

Going from not having to worry at all about my hardware to even having to think about it is a big change. I'm not used to having to think about such things.

 

[reaper673]

Many of us live no where near an Apple store, so the fact that they have them means nothing to us. In my case, the nearest one is a three hour (one way) drive. So, the only way I'm getting anything done is picking up the phone and shipping them my computer.

I've enjoyed using my Apple computers, and will continue to. I don't see myself giving up on them anytime soon. But, of the companies you've listed, I've owned laptops produced by two (1 Dell, 2 Sonys). I've never had a hardware failure of any kind with either. In the two months I've had my Macbook, its been in twice (admittedly once was for the scratches caused by Apple techs). My previous iBook never had to go in for service, so at this point I'm fifty-fifty when it comes to Apples.

Going from not having to worry at all about my hardware to even having to think about it is a big change. I'm not used to having to think about such things.

Actually, you made me think of something. I have owned products from acer, sony, dell and HP, and only the acer laptop burnt out after a year. In comparison, my MB is pretty bad.

Hmm....

 

[panzer06]

Many of us live no where near an Apple store, so the fact that they have them means nothing to us. In my case, the nearest one is a three hour (one way) drive. So, the only way I'm getting anything done is picking up the phone and shipping them my computer.

I've enjoyed using my Apple computers, and will continue to. I don't see myself giving up on them anytime soon. But, of the companies you've listed, I've owned laptops produced by two (1 Dell, 2 Sonys). I've never had a hardware failure of any kind with either. In the two months I've had my Macbook, its been in twice (admittedly once was for the scratches caused by Apple techs). My previous iBook never had to go in for service, so at this point I'm fifty-fifty when it comes to Apples.

Going from not having to worry at all about my hardware to even having to think about it is a big change. I'm not used to having to think about such things.

Precisely my point. You shouldn’t have to actively think about potential failures. We all understand things break. We all know there is no such thing as perfection in the manufacturing process. However, we have every reason to expect most items we purchase will work as expected without unreasonably high defects or return rates.

This whole discussion of how you respond to vendors etc (angry,nice or somewhere in between), is not really the issue. The real issue is how do we collectively respond to decreasing quality control across the board. No one wants to stop buying a product that is superior in most respects but has had some QC issues just like everyone else, but we still need to let the manufacturers know we are not satisfied with the rate of defects across their product lines.

Whether a vendor has local support is important but its more important the product not need repair in the first place.

Apple is a wonderful company with great products. They are experiencing a few growing pains. I just don’t know how we help them see the light without burning way more time and effort than should be required.