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Genius stole my Space Bar contacts!

miniConvert

miniConvert

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Mar 4, 2006
3,264
3
Kent, UK - the 'Garden of England'.
I'm so god damn angry.

My local service centre made a hash of my last keyboard repair, so this time I took the MBP into the Genius bar of Apple Bluewater.

The space bar squeaks. The Genius took it off and 'reseated it' for me.

Fine, I thought.

I've gotten home and now my space bar only works if I press it right in the middle. Angry, understandably (I've already had the whole keyboard replaced once), I figured out how to pop the key off for myself and took a look under it.

The 'Genius' has 'fixed' my space bar by removing two of the contacts! He's just left me with the middle one! No wonder it doesn't work properly!

I mean what the hell was he thinking? He could have at least given them to me! They're probably in the bin now.

Oh it's just pitiful and amateur, after all the trouble I went of booking an appointment and travelling to the store. So now that's my local service centre and my local Apple store who have let me down. I could scream, I love this MBP so much - best laptop I have ever owned and used - but this is getting ridiculous.
 
ouch that's terrible. I would call up apple and have it shipped out for a new keyboard... Better then driving, and making a big scene IMO since you live far.
 
I have had bad experiences with the geniuses myself seem to get a good response when I call them to solve a problem
 
Stole is a bit harsh. F'ed up is at least more accurate. I'd call them. Clearly he made a mistake but to steal something like that is stupid.
 
Thanks - I guess I should get some sleep and try and sort it out when I wake up. Hopefully I'll be a little less angry by then...

Bloomin' hopeless. I've gone from typing with Tweety Pie under my space bar to typing with very little under there at all!

Edit: jessica - I'm not saying he climbed in my bedroom window and took them from me in the middle of the night, I'm saying I took in my MBP and his 'fix' was to remove parts from it and then give it me back. If you think 'stole' is a bit harsh then I'd invite you to travel back to the Apple store and talk to the moron there on my behalf. :) Fancy thinking you can just remove parts - did he not have an inkling that they were put there for a reason?
 
He could have had a bad day and forgotten to replace the contacts after removing/cleaning the space bar, then reassembled it thinking hoorray, no more squeaking.
 
The store aren't picking up. I know they're open, but I've spent about half an hour calling and no one answers. I guess I'll try again later, or failing that tomorrow.

Ultimately I think the easiest resolution will be to try and get my local service centre to replace my keyboard again. I have reservations about using them because, last time I did, a clip wasn't put back properly that led to the deformation of my CD slot. However, I find it incredibly unlikely that Apple Bluewater or Applecare will just send me the contacts that the damn Genius pinched.

Jiddick - you could be right, there. But I believe that this 'remove two of the contacts' practice could be more widespread, a 'quick fix' for a problem they get often.
 
I am way too plugged in.

I thought this was going to be a story about them fixing your laptop and finding out your myspace page and stealing your contacts(friends) and talking to them.
 
Calm down folks.
There is only supposed to be one contact on the spacebar.

It's still annoying it doesn't work, but you might just need a new keyboard. I don't think he actually removed anything.
 
Hockeypuck said:
Calm down folks.
There is only supposed to be one contact on the spacebar.

It's still annoying it doesn't work, but you might just need a new keyboard. I don't think he actually removed anything.
Click to expand...
That's interesting, thanks. You may well be right. I just don't understand what else he could have done to turn my otherwise perfectly functioning space bar into a semi-useless see-saw. It'd make sense if there were supposed to be 3 contacts. If there's only supposed to be one then I can't work out what he'd have done at all.

Oh well, I emailed my local service centre in the end (sigh) and asked them to order me a new keyboard. Hopefully I'll hear from them tomorrow.

Thanks for bearing the brunt of my anger :)
 
I mean really, it sounds like he put the spacebar back on there wrong, which is bad, but I don't think he stole anything with any malicious or corner cutting intentions :)
 
It's a little tricky to put back on, and there is definitely only one contact. Anyways, make sure that you have the top metal part under first, and then slide in the bottom part.
 
^^ Yeah, of all the keys, the spacebar is a major PITA to get on and off correctly -- even though there's only one contact, as stated above several times, there're mating points on the sides that stabilize the key and make it work properly across its width. It took me several tries to get my spacebar on correctly when I removed it.
 
Mhm, I'm pretty sure that it's on correctly (with the metal bits correctly seated into the two metal brackets at the sides and then all the plastic clips popped back together). Unfortunately the key still isn't right (though it works better at the edges this time) as it doesn't have much travel any more.

Hopefully the local service centre will be able to replace the keyboard, but they haven't gotten back to me yet so I guess I'll just have to wait and hope.

I've always been a bit sceptical of the MBP/Powerbook keyboards. I'm pretty convinced now that they could do with a redesign!

Ty for all the advice.
 
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