PowerBook saga: longest Apple repair ever?

Where to begin...

Basically my HD died. I heard the *click* *whirr* of death, it wouldn't boot, lost everything.

So I took it into the Apple reseller to claim a warranty repair. This is a 1.25GHz PowerBook, still has AppleCare until September this year. It was booked in on the 21st of January.

After not hearing from the store for a while, I sent them an email asking what was up. They said they didn't have the part, and suggest that I call Apple Customer Care. So I did that on Thursday last week. After 27 minutes on the phone all I find out is that they were shipping the part on Friday (last week) and that it should be at the store on Monday or Tuesday this week.

And surprise, surprise. It's Wednesday now, and no call from the store. So I give them a buzz, they say the part is still not in, and that it's showing as being on backorder. At this point I'm thoroughly disappointed.

So today (Thursday 16th Feb, 06) I give the store a call, and see if i could get my PB back and try taking it to another store that might have the part in stock. And now it gets interesting... NO APPLE RESELLERS KEEP PARTS IN STOCK?!!! Apparently all service requests go straight to Apple and get in their queue. So now I call Apple Australia again to see what the hell is going on. This time after 28 minutes on the phone I find out that they still have the part on backorder!!! NO APPLE RESELLERS HAVE THIS PART, APPLE THEMSELVES DO NOT HAVE THE PART (A HARD DRIVE)!!! Now all they can do is wait until this shipment comes in on next Friday!!.

That will be at least 35 DAYS until I get my PB back. Just to get a new hard drive put in.

This is absolutely ridiculous! How the hell am I supposed to get any work done? So much for Apple's in small business!

And to top it off... I've been looking for a 2nd hand PowerMac G5. Now it looks like I'll have to look faster just so I can get some damn work done around here. This has REALLY PISSED ME OFF. I can't believe that I'm really considering buying a PM. But one thing's for sure - I'm not too worried about getting AppleCare again. Sure, you won't pay for repairs, but you won't have your Mac back for more than a month either!

So - is this the longest Apple repair ever, or what!? It's got to be a contender. If there is any longer than this... I really do feel for those customers.

(ps - the forums need some really evil looking flaming emoticons. any combination or amount of the current ones cannot possibly convey how absolutely furious i am about this.)

but how do I take it to Apple directly? Remember in Australia there's no Apple owned stores, they're all just resellers.

Also, I didn't exactly 'purchase' the AppleCare either. I purchased this PowerBook while I was a student, when they still gave 3 year AppleCare with education purchases. Nonetheless, I still am a customer who has AppleCare. Although that may mean more messing about... for some reason the people at Apple said that the AppleCare on my PB wasn't showing on their system?

The AppleCare doesn't somehow expire when you stop being a student, does it? I damn well hope not. But I've got to check all the in's and out's of this.

Now tell me more about the perfect complaint... I think I might just call them up again and explain that I've got work to do and a business to run. Should I try and tell them to give me a new PB? That seems a bit pushy... maybe I should just let them decide what to do? But what if they don't decide to do anything and give me the "I"m sorry, but there's nothing we can really do"? I need something else to say to them.

Thanks for all the ideas and help, I want to do everything possible to expediate this process.

okay, i will call Apple Customer "Care" again today. Thanks for that number Jovian9 - but remember - I'm in Australia. or maybe that's my big mistake?

That sounds a bit nasty Mr. Mister. Did they even tell you what they were doing? Well, at this point I really don't care what happens, if I get a refurb PB back, as long as it works. Also as long as it's got 1.5GB RAM. For some reason the repair tracking sheet only shows it as having 512MB, but I added another 1GB after it was purchased.

iGav - did you have a spare Mac? I've just got a couple of spare PC's here... so I can do a very limited amount of work only. Did you follow that up with Apple? What lame reason did they give for that one?

Okay... i've got to do some stuff first, hopefully I can calm down. Here's to being polite but firm.

Also - they say to buy a car at the end of a week, right? So being Friday now maybe they'll cave in and send me a PB.

damn.

and here i was thinking this was an isolated case. so were they all HD's? i'd like to know why Apple can't have the HD's in stock. if it's such a common thing... why don't the resellers have them in stock?

I have only had a 667MHz TiBook before this. I treated it as well as any parent could hope to look after a child. Never had any complaints with that unit, but it looks like Apple's efforts to reduce hardware costs have also reduced the reliability.

I'll post an update after I make this call this afternoon.

yeah it's a 15". maybe the 15" TiBooks were the best of the lot?

BTW realityisterror, you username has a whole new meaning to me now.

the conclusion...

well, i've finally got my PB back.

it was ready last Friday, after 34 days in for repair. they said they called, but no one was home, so I only found out on Monday when i rang them up.

i let it slip on the 4th week, i didn't have any time to call them. they were just kinda like "oh well, the part is still on the ship. sorry."

ahwell. the saga is finally over. now i can get back to work.

oh DAMN. what... did this use it as a stepping stool or something? they tried PowerBook juggling with it?

so now it's back in for repair to fix the damage they did to it?

well if it takes more than 4 weeks, really put the pressure on them.