vowe dot net :: Appnon

Seeing the Apple logo makes me feel like sharing my experiences with Apple Europe's repair service. I sent in my iBook that was affected by the "logic board problem" -- the graphics chip freaked out after a while and produced funny patterns on the screen.
The computer returned after 5 business days. They added a number of nasty scratches during repair but took away one of the rubber feets in return. The lower case wasn't aligned properly to the middle part which was in line with the fact that the lid (screen) wasn't aligned either.
Went to my Apple dealer who confirmed that an iBook should not look like that. Called Apple, sent it in again. Received a call from a service agent yesterday who informed me that according to the repair agent, the case was scratched before and the alignment of the different parts of the case is within the specs. Still waiting for his supervisor to call me back.
What are your experiences with Apple's repair service?

Joerg Richter, 2004-12-10 13:36

Not with the iBook but with the iPod. Service was flawlees. They sent a box which I returned with the iPod. Box arrived Monday, sent out Tuesday. Returned Friday with the iPod repaired. There was no physical difference on the outside.

Volker Weber, 2004-12-10 15:11

Update: Received a callback. After a very, very long discussion, Apple agreed to repair the iBook free of charge.

Joerg Richter, 2004-12-10 15:49

Had my PowerBook FW800 sent in for harddisk, screen and keyboard replacement.

The IBM/Hitachi harddisk just died after running for little over a year, and they did not want to replace it free of charge. I asked to speak a supervisor and asked him why I should pay more money for an Apple-delivered IBM harddisk with 1 year of warranty if I get the same unit at some shop around the corner for half of the price with 3 years of warranty. Got a customer satisfaction and a dispatch code, everything fine.

When asked about also fixing the display (white spots phonomenon) in terms of the display exchange program, they refused. When the PowerBook was in repair, I called the support line, got a technician on the line who said "no problem, will be done".

When the PowerBook arrived in their repair facility, it had to wait for more than a week and a phone call to be opened and looked at. After this phonecall (on a Friday, 14:30 CET), the repair status went suddenly to "in repair", on Monday 6:30 CET the unit was handed over to UPS, on 12:30 it was on my doorstep.

The display starts to fade away on the lower left corner, so I'll need to turn it in again.

The Powerbook chassis has several nasty scratched on the bottom, but I simply don't care.

The grey band on the lid/display is not fitting well. The lock of the lid does not close correctly, does not hold the PB shut.

All in all I'm pretty pissed, as you can imagine...
But I do not want to have a PC again.

Karsten W. Rohrbach, 2004-12-11 02:01

Karsten, I know what you're talking about. Any other computer manufacturer would have been out of the game after my experiences. But I'm still considering buying a desktop Mac. Sometimes I'm not sure if Apple computers are really great or I'm just a victim of their marketing.

Joerg Richter, 2004-12-11 13:37

I had to send in my 12" PB about 2 weeks after I bought it. The CD-ROM drive just didn't eject a disc. In addition to that, the display had a white spot and so I told my local dealer to put that on the "to do"-list as well. When the PowerBook came back, it had: the display repaired, the bottom part of the case was (and still is) twisted. But the best part was, that the CD-ROM drive Apple pretended to have "repaired and checked" was not ejecting the first disc I inserted. The Book had to be sent in again and after that and a call with the customer service in which I "explained" my frustration, it returned still twisted but working. Now (12 months old) it has a very small bright spot on the display again, but I will not give it away again, unless it's absolutely inevitable.

Henning Störk, 2004-12-11 14:32

A good friend of mine sold me his old 12" powerbook... and as i had been thinking of moving to a mac for a wile, thought this a graet oppatunity to get started.
I did notice some very small white patches (bright spots) around the middle of the screen when i went to collect it but they didnt bothere me to much.

But after using the powerebook for over a week, i have noticed a much larger bright spot along the bottom right of the screen...

Just wondering if anyone knows if ther is anything i can do about this as my mac is second hand.. also will the bright spot just stay the same size or is it going to expand and take over my whole screen?

Thanks
Jim

Jim Kent, 2007-05-16 10:12