Mac owners come in and listen...

mantis

Whats up everyone?
I just had a problem with my Macbook Pro. No fault to the computer one of my kids spilled something on the keyboard and made some of the keys sticky. They all work but a few of the back lit keys don't light up.

So I took it to the Apple store and they said they don't onsite repairs yet on the new Macbook Pros they have to send it out. Ok I said lets do it. I told him about something got spilled and the keyboard is not lighting up correctly.

I got a call today from the repair center with a 1244.99 repair bill. I almost fell out of my chair and asked" what is wrong with my computer that it takes 1244 dollars to fix"? They told me that the keyboard needs to be replaced, ok I knew that, the heat sink , What??? heat sink? Then the LED display also has to be replaced..... WHAO WHAO WHAO!!!!! How the hell is something wrong with the Display from something getting spilled on the keys??? They said there as a sticky something on the joint where you open it up. Man tell me I'm crazy but I feel like I'm getting hammered. How the hell is something wrong with the display? It works like new , it's only 4 months old and nothing got on the screen. They said down the road something could go wrong and they would now be responsible as there repair has to be 100% or nothing.
I talked to 3 different people including the Manager there and they would not put on the tech who checked my computer out. They said they work in Electrical static free rooms and no phones can be in there or they can't stop working to talk to anyone.
So they sent me pic's of what they found, I know what it looks like I own it. The pic's showed alittle something on the outside case where the computer folds. I can wipe that right off and all it good.

So what do you guys think about this? I feel I got **** service and a poor explanation.
I'm pissed off.
Dan

Jstas

You bought a Mac. Suffer the consequences.

I'll bet that in true Mac fashion, they have already performed the repairs and are going to hold your MacBook ransom until you pay the repair bill. You can ask to have it returned unrepaired but they will either tell you the work is done, they cannot put the broken parts back in due to some liability excuse or they will tell you that if they send it back, they will void your warranty.

Here's a sad Mac face for you:

:-(

PhantomOG

$1200 repair???? How much does a whole new one cost???

That sucks. Good luck.

Refefer

Wow. That's about as much of a rip as you can get.

Early B.

What does your warranty say about this?

timlitton

Early B. wrote: »

What does your warranty say about this?

I'd have to presume that damage from spilled fluids wouldn't be covered under the warranty.

If the thing works except for the key lights, I'd tell em to send it back. I know in my town, there are 4 or 5 independent Mac shops. You might be able to get a place like that to repair it out-of-pocket. They'd probably be a lot more sympathetic to your plight.

shadowofnight

Out of warranty ( Expired or owner fault repairs ) are handled as follows.

http://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro/service/


"If your warranty has expired, you still have access to all available service options, but you will be responsible for the cost of service, including parts, labor, shipping (if any), and applicable taxes. AppleCare or your local AASP or Apple retail store representative will provide you with an estimate of service costs before receiving your authorization to perform service. "


Notice it says before receiving your authorization to perform service.

I would tell them send me my damn laptop back...period.

Sherardp

I feel bad for you, 1244.99 is just 300 clams shy of buying a new one. Not sure what to tell you as I'm sure you need it. But if you signed any consent forms prior to sending it in then you're probably liable for expenses, I dont know. I'd read any paperwork though that you may have signed before sending it in.

Dennis Gardner

Sounds reasonable to me, it could have been a $40,000 set of tires on a Veyron.;)

greg2350

I repair laptops for a living and that sounds like a bunch of BS. You dont need electrical static free rooms as long as you use a ESD strap. I have repaired many of laptops for something spilled on the keyboard and 99% of the time its just replacing the keyboard. Laptops are pretty good about containing liquids in the keyboard at least the ones I worked on. I did repair one that the ladys daughter spilled a full glass of kool-aid on it. At first the thing wouldnt even power up I took everything apart screen,cpu out,ram out,heat sinks out, MB out, cleaned everything with alcohol dried everything real good put it back together replaced keyboard $30 good as new laptop worked perfect. Mantis there is nothing wrong with your display or heatsink, maybe the heatsink needs to be cleaned not replaced. The only thing I see costing is the display which doesnt need to be replaced and labor which shouldnt be that much I can disassemble a laptop and rebuild it in about an hour. Did they allready perform the work? If you can buy the keyboard I would fix it for free for ya.

bobman1235

HOly schnikies that is a lot of money. I'd definitely get a second opinion if possible. No way it could be MORE than that.

bevo

I have had nothing but the best service for my macbook, and Iphone.
My macbook's dvd drive stopped working because my 2 year old put 2 disks in it. I sent it out on a wednesday, and had it back on friday, at no charge.

My wife's iphone got the white screen, and they had her a new one here the next day at no charge. All I had to do, was send back the broken one in the box the new one came in.

Both of my products are under warranty though, and I just happened to buy the extended warranty for the macbook, so that I get could tech support for the mac os.
I also bought photoshop elements from the mac store. 1 month late I learned that a newer version was being released, so I called them and asked why they were still selling the older version at full price. They told me that when the new version was released that I could upgrade for free. They sent me a conformation number and I downloaded it for free just like was promised.


Direct tv gave me my biggest ****. They charged my card 1400$ to install and activate their service. I cancelled within 24 hours, and they gave me 700 of it back. They charged me twice for everything, and held my deposit they had me put up for the 3 hd receivers.

John30_30

What greg2350 said- Laptops are laptops. Cupertino must be feeling the Recesh too, and are counting on you to bail them out.

Offer them 100 for diagnosing it, and see if they'll ship it back to you as is. Then give it to a regular guy to clean up.

mantis

The laptop is only 1999.99 brand new. I just purchased it 4 months ago. It's under warranty but Spills are not covered. I'm cool with paying for a repair due to fault of my own but replacing my LED screen display is un called for . I'm really pissed.
I'm gonna look up local authorized repair centers in my area and have them fix it or I'll get a new keyboard and Install it myself. Eff Apple's repair center.

Dan

cnh

Hey Mantis,

That does sound OUTRAGEOUS. And I'm sure your screen is fine. Sounds like a scam to me. I've seen people spill things on their computers before and even had them work fine after everything dried out. Guess it depends on what the spill is. My son accidentally put his cell phone in the washer and after it dried out it worked fine...if you can believe that?

I'd take your laptop back and refer it to some of the independent shops alluded to above. Heck, see if it actually works now!

cnh

AsSiMiLaTeD

Well at least you'll admit it publicly. Most Apple people are too fanboyish to ever admit publicly that their lord and master and creator of all that is good would ever do such a thing. I had a friend a while back who had almost the exact same scenario but he refused to believe that Apple had done anything wrong.

Sure, they don't have to fix it for free if you spilled something on it, but they also don't have to hire a large gorilla to **** mount you just for sending it in. If you know the damn thing works and the screen is good then you shouldn't have to pay to get that replaced, period. That would be like me taking my car in to get the brakes changed and they come back and tell me 'well your tranny is shot too, and we can't change your brakes unles we change that as well' - literraly, that's a good analogy.

Before someone miscontrues my statement into an anti-Apple statement, let me say two things. 1 - That's not my intention. Companies like Dell are just as **** as Apple, it's just that you never hear a negative word about Apple, and it's not because they're perfect, it's because of their goddamn fanboyish owners. 2 - I hate all PC manufacturers equally, not just Apple.

mantis

I have no loyalty to any product that tries to screw you. I'm terribly scared from this and It's hurting my ability to buy any more Apple computers.
I went to Apple to get away from all the damn problems that come from owning a Windows based Pc, and Vista really helped me move over there but if they are going to just flat out screw me on a repair then I'm done with Apple.
It's sad as there computer didn't fail, my kids failed it but one spill and it costs 1200 bucks.. thats almost as much as a new one . It's only 4 months old and I know for a fact nothing is wrong with the screen. It has a few drops in the bend point which doesn't mean replace the entire effing screen.
I have not been this mad in a long time. last time I switched to Apple due to all the problems with Pc, Hopefully Windows 7 gets it right and all will be right in the world.
I type this from my Imac which has been solid since day one. it's alomst 2 years old and it performs exaclty the way it did from the start. No Pc windos machine I owned ever did that. But none of that matters if they want to screw you.

I talked to the manager and when he said I could not talk to the tech who looked at it, I was out at that moment. He is suppose to call me and email me tomarrow about a more detailed reason for the high repair bill. I plan on getting it back and having a local shop swap the keyboard.
So anyone tell me how a Heat sink goes bad by spilling something on it? If you know anything about a heat sink, they are made from aluminum and take heat from something and dissipate it. It is not possible to get it wet and O now it needs repair.

I now think all computer companies SUCK

Dan

mantis

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

Well at least you'll admit it publicly. Most Apple people are too fanboyish to ever admit publicly that their lord and master and creator of all that is good would ever do such a thing. I had a friend a while back who had almost the exact same scenario but he refused to believe that Apple had done anything wrong.

Sure, they don't have to fix it for free if you spilled something on it, but they also don't have to hire a large gorilla to **** mount you just for sending it in. If you know the damn thing works and the screen is good then you shouldn't have to pay to get that replaced, period. That would be like me taking my car in to get the brakes changed and they come back and tell me 'well your tranny is shot too, and we can't change your brakes unles we change that as well' - literraly, that's a good analogy.

Before someone miscontrues my statement into an anti-Apple statement, let me say two things. 1 - That's not my intention. Companies like Dell are just as **** as Apple, it's just that you never hear a negative word about Apple, and it's not because they're perfect, it's because of their goddamn fanboyish owners. 2 - I hate all PC manufacturers equally, not just Apple.

If you had not noticed yet, I hold nothing back. It doesn't matter if I own it, love it , hate it or what have you, I tell it as I see it. If it's good , I praise it, if it sucks I tell everyone about it. I never understood the reason from the brand name point of view. I have gained some Brand loyality towards some products like Pioneer Elite , Audioquest and Kimber Kable. I even feel somewhat about Sony. Certain products who don't let you down again and again earn this. Polk is one of those companies that really stand out. Apple could learn a great deal from them in customer service.

Dan

Sami

mantis, for half of that repair amount, you could get a comparable spec PC. Don't want Windows? Linux works better than OSX, has more eye candy and features, and is free.

SKsolutions

That sucks. A keyboard is a pretty easy fix if you have any experience taking things apart. Getting them back together is helpful too. You can get a keyboard on ebay for cheap, make sure it's the right match, and have someone local put it in if you get stuck. I wouldn't be surprised to find a whole thread somewhere that details the installation process with pictures for your model. . . fanboys and all

Keyboard

shadowofnight

Keyboard is a piece of cake...get your laptop back...throw in the new keyboard...done deal.

LessisNevermore

Apple Hates You

greg2350

mantis wrote: »

So anyone tell me how a Heat sink goes bad by spilling something on it? If you know anything about a heat sink, they are made from aluminum and take heat from something and dissipate it. It is not possible to get it wet and O now it needs repair.

I agree the onlyway way a heatsink would be bad is cracked or broken. They just neded to clean it and put a new thermal pad on it.

timlitton

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

That would be like me taking my car in to get the brakes changed and they come back and tell me 'well your tranny is shot too, and we can't change your brakes unles we change that as well' - literraly, that's a good analogy.

True story: One day I went to get my tranny worked on and they told me my brakes were shot. They said they legally couldn't let me drive the car away as it posed a public safety risk. I could either have them fix it, or get it towed so I could fix it somewhere else. I was pissed.

LessisNevermore

timlitton wrote: »

True story: One day I went to get my tranny worked on and they told me my brakes were shot. They said they legally couldn't let me drive the car away as it posed a public safety risk. I could either have them fix it, or get it towed so I could fix it somewhere else. I was pissed.

Should have called the police, and told them there was a robbery in progress, and if they didn't hurry, there would be a battery charge as well.....:D:D

John30_30

mantis wrote: »

The laptop is only 1999.99 brand new. I just purchased it 4 months ago. It's under warranty but Spills are not covered. I'm cool with paying for a repair due to fault of my own but replacing my LED screen display is un called for . I'm really pissed.
I'm gonna look up local authorized repair centers in my area and have them fix it or I'll get a new keyboard and Install it myself. Eff Apple's repair center.

Dan

Here's a thought. Find Steve Jobs' email addy and email him your complaint. Seriously.

xsmi

Call me a fanboy. I bought an iBook from Circuit City and the night I bought it, my son spilled water on the keyboard (knocked the water over on the table). I dried the machine off in the bathroom and all seemed to be OK. Three days later, I noticed that when I woke the machine form sleep, the display would not always wake up. So I call tech support they walked me through some things that did not work. They finally had me send it in. When the machine came back, it had a new keyboard, palm rest and screen. Don't know if the two were related but in my case, the problems were solved.

bobman1235

The difference is they didn't try to charge YOU 1400 bucks. Id' say that's a significant part of the story.

xsmi

No they didn't. Why they didn't I don't understand because I did tell them about the water.

markmarc

honestly, have them send the unit back unrepaired. Then look up some local mac repair guys, many are former employees of a licensed mac repair center. You'll save a bundle.

Remember, they cannot repair out of warranty at your cost UNLESS you give authorization.

For those of you claiming this is what happens with Apple. BS!!!!!!! I've seen this crap with Dell, Sony, Gateway, etc. when it comes to laptop repairs too many times they'd rather gut than work carefully with the original parts.

mantis

markmarc wrote: »

honestly, have them send the unit back unrepaired. Then look up some local mac repair guys, many are former employees of a licensed mac repair center. You'll save a bundle.

Remember, they cannot repair out of warranty at your cost UNLESS you give authorization.

For those of you claiming this is what happens with Apple. BS!!!!!!! I've seen this crap with Dell, Sony, Gateway, etc. when it comes to laptop repairs too many times they'd rather gut than work carefully with the original parts.

Thanks man thats exactly what I'm gonna do. I purchased it at best buy, I was also considering seeing what they would do. There are a few local Mac repair places around me, I called one and he said he didn't understand why I had to replace the display if the keyboard got a spill, he said it happens all the time to laptops common thing, he said he would replace the keyboard and anything else that got damaged.

Dan