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yvonnars

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 30, 2012
12
0
Hi guys

Sorry about the wall of texts but I want to give all the information I have.

My macbook keeps on freezing since I picked it up from apple store after a display replacement. The staff at the Apple store aren't exactly helpful and don't want to take responsibilities for it or help at all. I'm not sure what I can do. I've always only had good experiences with Apple products and their Genius bar but this time I'm really unpleased.

I have the early 2013 macbook pro with retina display, 15 inches, the $2k one with integrated graphics card, running 10.9 Mavericks. I noticed the screen hinge was a bit loose so I took it to an apple store to have it looked at. Besides this everything was fine about the computer. The genius bar guy told me it wasn't something they could just tighten because of the design, but he found some coating on the inside of the screen coming off, and said he would just have the entire display replaced since that would be covered by some quality control program Apple has, and that would just give me a new hinge that would be tight. So I agreed to that. He did the standard tests at the Genius bar through thunderbolt port, everything passed and I left it at the store.

I picked up my laptop two days later, the display didn't wobble anymore so I left the store. However when I tried to run any games or play YouTube videos my computer would freeze completely. I took it back to the Apple store they suspected it was a software issue and reinstalled the OS. That didn't fix the problem. At the beginning it would only freeze when I tried to run games/youtube, then after messing with it a while to see what would freeze it, the computer couldn't even get to desktop without freezing from a normal start up EVERY single time. The CapLock key was still responsive when the computer froze though. Then the guy at the genius bar did the Genius bar tests on the computer again, it passed all tests, so he restarted the computer, but he had held down the option key when starting, and just tapped into the normal boot drive. This time the computer didn't freeze at all even with bunch of intense programs we ran on it (this was very strange and the only difference was he held the option key when starting). He tried looking at the error log but there wasn't any error logs. We then did a normal restart without holding option key, then the freezing happened again. He tried to log into safe start mode so he could try to look at error logs from the freezing, but the computer would try to load into safe mode halfway, then screen went black. So he said he suspect it was the graphics card but since it was integrated into the motherboard they'd have to replace the motherboard. He said he'd look into options as if they could cover it, if not I would have to pay $600+tax, so I left the computer there with them. The whole time he insisted it was just a bizarre coincidence that the graphics card broke at the same time as the display replacement, and not caused by the replacement.

So I went home, and later the day I got a call from their manager saying they weren't sure what was wrong with my computer, they ran all the tests they had and it passed everything. (She mentioned something about they have some special tests they do before releasing computers back after repairs). And in order to figure out what was wrong with my computer I'd need to give them permission because there would be cost associated ($600 for motherboard or $400 for replacing the panel attached to the battery). I was shocked and found it completely ridiculous that they kept stressing the computer breaking was just a coincidence, and pretty much suggested keep swapping out parts until the computer works even though it passed all the tests and I should pay for it. I got really upset with her and told her I needed a minute to think about my options and maybe I'd just buy a new computer elsewhere instead, that's when she suggested they'd run more tests (which the computer passed all according to a later phone call telling me to just pick it up and use it) and look into more options with Apple Care to see if the costs would be covered.

At this point it's not even about money anymore, because the computer passed all the tests they could do at the Apple Store, which is pretty much the only measure they have to check functionality of the computers. So based off these tests my computer is fine, and if they replaced all parts of the computer it would still just pass all the tests but there's no guarantee it would not freeze and be functional. It's been a week now and I'm not sure what I should do at this point, as everytime I called the Apple Store they've always said they'd get a technician to call me back, but they haven't called at all since the phone call telling me to just pick it up and use it. I can't just use it, it doesn't even get to desktop before freezing up completely.

Could someone point me to the right direction as what I should do in this situation?

Thank you for your time reading!
 
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