Another botched repair job...

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My Macbook is two months old and it's already been in for repair twice already. I'm quite disappointed with the quality of both the Macbook and the repairs that have been done at Apple's repair center.

Last February, I noticed that the battery on the bottom of my Macbook was sticking out from the bottom a bit. Ok, no big deal.... My g/f and I were visiting friends and happened to be near an Apple Store. I stopped by the Apple Store to have them look at it. I had also noticed that the mouse button was not clicking right and was "spongy" (if that makes sense) so I had them look at it as well. The Mac Genius there replaced the battery, and made a note in the system about the mouse button. It wasn't critical but if I ever needed to send it in for repair, I'd like to have it fixed, and the repair staff was more than accommodating. On that same visit, we purchased 3 AppleCare enrollments....for my Macbook, my g/f's Macbook, and our Mac Mini.

In the next few days, I had tried to calibrate the battery and in the process of doing so, the computer started to "shut off" on me during the process instead of going to sleep. I followed the instructions to the "T" on the Apple website (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86284) and the unit was still shutting off instead of sleeping. To troubleshoot, I swapped batteries w/ my g/f's Macbook and the issue went away, so at first it seemed to be just a bad battery. Again, no big deal... I called Apple and the AppleCare representative was very nice and agreed that it sounded like a bad battery. He sent me a replacement battery overnight and I was back in business.

The next day, I tried to calibrate the battery and the computer still "shut off" on me. I called AppleCare and the rep said, "....it's definitely not supposed to be doing that.....we would like to 'get our hands on it'", and I was sent a box to have it repaired. The rep also asked if there was anything else that Apple should look at while it was there, and I pointed out that the mouse button was "spongy" and there was a white "cloud-like" thing in the screen. He notated it all on my repair and said I would get the box in a few days. Once I got the box, I sent it out, and I got the computer back that Friday.

When I got the computer back, the Macbook looked like it came back in pretty fair (not good or bad) condition; it had a small "gouge" in the battery latch on the bottom, but it wasnt a big deal and I figured it was too small to worry about. The repair sheet said that they replaced the LCD, keyboard/mouse (top case is what it said), and the internal battery cable. The Macbook fired up just fine and was glad to have it back in good shape. In the next few days, I was using it and when the power fell to around 2% it "shut off". I thought they had fix it from the last repair so that it wouldn't shut off, but go into "sleep mode" when the power ran down. I charged the battery full, and then tried to calibrate it to test that the issue has been resolved, but it wasn't. Again, I put my g/f's battery in to test it, and it worked fine.

I called AppleCare (again) and spoke w/ a very nice gentleman named "M" who said it was probably a bug, and he would need to get more information. I went through the motions w/ him (SMC Reset, PRAM reset, etc.) and even ran a data capture utility that he sent me so that he could report the bug to the "powers that be". It's not a "critical" issue but it still hasn't been fixed yet, and it was the only reason I sent it in initially.

Well, this last weekend I was putting a CD into my Macbook and noticed on the eject that it was having a hard time trying to get the disc out. It sounded like it was "stuttering", so I took a closer look and noticed that the top-half of the drive appeared to "bow" towards the bottom half. On my g/f's Macbook, the disc goes in and out of the machine smoothly, but on mine it appears to have been pinched and the drive doesn't function properly. I called AppleCare (again) on Sunday and spoke to "T", who was very pleasant to work with, apologized for the inconvenience, and offered to send out a box for repair. The computer went out yesterday (Wednesday) and this morning I got an e-mail, telling me that it was at the repair center along w/ my repair status. The repair status said that it is pending shipping, so I called AppleCare this morning to find out what was fixed. To be honest, I thought that it was a little "took quick" to have been repaired.

The rep I spoke with was very nice and I told him I was calling to see what they ended up fixing on the computer. He was reading the repair notes for my Macbook and pointed out that the case was repaired, and that they found it was "misaligned" and "missing screws" from the original repair. It's not the rep's fault (he was very nice actually), but what has me really unhappy w/ Apple is that the repair was botched before it was sent back to me originally, and that's not right.

Granted, nothing is perfect, but both my g/f and I have had terrible luck w/ things coming back from Apple, and needing to go back for repair again. When my g/f got her original Macbook back from repair after having the screen replaced for a flickering display, it had horizontal lines scrolling down the screen. Apple finally had to replace the computer and thus far it has not had any problems; hopefully we do not need to send it in anytime soon.

Anyway, the computer is on its way back today but that still does not make up for the mistakes that Apple's repair facility has made in both our cases. If it was a simple "case misalignment", I would've been fine w/ that; the part that makes me upset is the "missing screws". There appears to be zero quality control, and I seem to take better "care" of my stuff than Apple does.

Has anyone else had similar (if not worse) situations in dealing w/ Apple's repair facility in Memphis?

Thx...

JG
 
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ask nicely for an entire replacement.

youve sent it in, and sent it in, and sent it in. You shouldnt have to be without it so much.

Find a nice rep on apple care, and deal with them. Mention all the repair/craptastic returns. Ask him to politely replace the entire unit this time around.

they cant fix it, you deserve a new one.
 
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JuanGuapo
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Thanks kgeier82, I appreciate your reply.

I have already e-mailed our original contact at Apple from our previous issues and waiting for a callback. I will post back with how good of condition the notebook came back in, and what the final outcome is.

What is very disillusioning w/ this whole thing is now I have almost zero faith in the quality of their products, and even less in the workmanship of their repairs. They never fixed the original issue it was sent in for (which they told me to do), and it in fact came back in worse shape than I sent it in; the missing screws thing really kills me.

Thanks again.

JG

I'm debating on whether I should ask for a refund on the whole thing, or at least just the AppleCare b/c I do not think there's much of a point in owning it if they can't fix it right.
 
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JuanGuapo
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Thank you for the advice, AirAddict. As a matter of fact, that is what we did when my g/'f MB needed repair and we went through a range of hoops just to get it fixed. They wouldn't send us a box to fix her backlight issue, but "required" us to bring it to an Apple Store. When we called Customer Relations, they sent us a box.

In our frustration, we shared our situation w/ [email protected] in a detailed letter (case #, names, dates, etc.) and how poor the customer service was at just getting her MB repaired. My g/f received a call two days later from their Executive Relations department.

The Exec. Relations rep expedited her repair, but when we got it back, the screen had horizontal lines in it. I took some video of it w/ my Canon Powershot and told her that I could e-mail them to her if she needs to verify. She was nice but takes a long time to get back to us about anything (usually 2 days), but in the end she replaced the MB w/ another one; so far it has been fine.

I have already taken the time to e-mail her about my situation (looks similar to what I posted) and she has not gotten back to me yet. We'll wait and see.

I opened the box yesterday and saw that they had to replace the superdrive (I'm guessing it was damaged) on the repair sheet; it appears that not only was it missing screws and misaligned, but the tech had damaged the drive as well. Anyway, it's smooth and perfect on the side but my g/f was quick to point out, "There seems to be an aweful lot of scratches on the top of it...". Her MB is a few months older than mine, and it looks "newer" and has far fewer scratches; it appears they scratched the heck out of it when it was at the repair center.

After I got the rest of my data (already backed up anyway) off of it, I put the original RAM back in, ZERO'd the HDD, and I put it back in its original box. The box is now sitting next to my computer desk, waiting to see what Apple is going to do about it.

Thanks again....I'll let you know what happens.

JG
 
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good luck, but i would not settle for another repair. its FAR time for a replacement.
 
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JuanGuapo
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Update!

Just got a call from our contact at Apple. We spoke for close to 30min about what went on w/ the MB and why this has been a pattern. From what I gathered, it is rare but I'm not the only one who has had "issue" w/ repair quality. That makes me feel better that they're at least honest about it, but it also makes me feel somewhat worried about sending my computer in for service. She assured me that any issues like this would be handled in the most expedient way possible, and to call her directly if they're not. That's pretty comforting, I thought.

She offered either a complete and full refund, or an upgrade to the black Macbook. I took the Black Macbook and am currently awaiting Fedex labels for the one I have now. She asked me for pictures of the cosmetics that were incurred by the repair center, and she would be working to make sure it never happens again.

Whether or not it does happen again, I am pleased w/ how serious she seems to take any issues we (my g/f or I) have w/ Apple and it's why I went w/ another MB. I don't know what the future holds but I think she did the adequate thing in not only replacing the computer, but offering compensation in the form of an upgrade.

Hopefully I will not have any problems in the future (knock on wood), but at the very least I have a contact who is willing to go above/beyond the call of duty.
 
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JuanGuapo
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MB came last night...my g/f picked it up from FedEx while I was at work and left it for me on the couch. She went out for the evening w/ some friends and I stayed in to check out the MB.

I went over everything and so far as I can tell, everything is where it is supposed to be and it boots up just fine, and no dead pixels.

While I am not confident that I will have this issue again in the future w/ their repair center, I think that Apple made up for it (as they should) and then some... They could have just said "another repair" or "replace it like-for-like" but the rep we worked with felt (in her words) "compelled to offer" an upgraded model as compensation for the shottyness of their depot.

In the end...

Apple = A+
Flextronics = D-
 

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