Dented MBP + AppleCare Question

[dietzg]

Hello all.

About two months ago the bottom left corner of my MBP got dented. Everything has been working fine since then. However, I was wondering what would happen if I were to take it into an Apple Store for servicing under AppleCare if hardware failed in the future? Would they charge me for a repair and blame it on the dent, ruling it "accidental damage?"

Is it possible to bring in my mac to the Apple Store, have a genius look at it and log the serial as "working" so that in the future, if anything happens, they can't blame it on the small dent in the corner?

edit: Here is a quick picture I took of the dent with my cellphone. Don't have my digital camera around.

 

[WildCowboy]

Whether it would be covered or not depends on a lot of things...how bad the dent is, what the problem is, how kind the service person is, etc.

And as far as I know, they won't "certify" a machine as working after it suffers physical damage. You just have to take your chances if you have a problem.

 

[f1]

No, Applecare won't cover that. Dents don't just happen by themselves, they're caused at the fault of the user, so your out of luck on that.

 

[heatmiser]

Does this mean his AppleCare is effectively useless now? As in, could someone @ Apple point to the dent and exclude him from service on a future problem due to said dent?

 

[kaiwai]

Does this mean his AppleCare is effectively useless now? As in, could someone @ Apple point to the dent and exclude him from service on a future problem due to said dent?

Applecare covers acts of god and shoddy product - not stupidity on behalf of the user.

 

[fs454]

No direct answer as of yet. I have a pretty nasty dent too and am wondering the same.

If the dent is there, but the hardware failure spontaneous and not caused by the dent, will apple blame the dent for the failure and not cover it?

 

[heatmiser]

If the dent is there, but the hardware failure spontaneous and not caused by the dent, will apple blame the dent for the failure and not cover it?

Yeah, that's what I'm curious about. Because it sort of makes AppleCare seem kind of sketchy if they can randomly spot-check your gear for dents and use that to refuse to treat whatever goes wrong without charging you.

 

[thagomizer]

Your dent is in the area of the hard drive. If the hard drive fails at a later date, it would be pretty hard to convince Apple that the failure didn't happen as a result of the dent (even if it wasn't). If it's something else, I'd guess it's up to them... just hope you get a good AppleCare rep on the phone.

FWIW, you can ask for a pro-rated refund of your AppleCare at any time. I'm not sure how they figure out how much to give back, but you can get some of your money back.

 

[tsvb]

No, Applecare won't cover that. Dents don't just happen by themselves, they're caused at the fault of the user, so your out of luck on that.

Did you even read the thread?

 

[kaiwai]

Yeah, that's what I'm curious about. Because it sort of makes AppleCare seem kind of sketchy if they can randomly spot-check your gear for dents and use that to refuse to treat whatever goes wrong without charging you.

Good question; have a chat to Apple; then again, there isn't much depth to the picture; if you can pass it off as fair wear and tear, its possible, so there fore any damage inside would come under that, but with that being said, it all depends on the individual looking at the machine. You might get a nice guy or you might get a little hitler with too much time on his hands - its the luck of the draw.