RESOLVED: Refurb MBP mistreated and damaged

Hey,

If this turns into anything, it'll be a rant - and not even against Apple, against FedEx.

I bought a 15" 2.53 GHz i5 MacBook Pro, refurbished, and got overnight shipping. Turns out that extra $30 cost me the integrity of the shipping box, padding, and my $1700 college necessity.



Here are the rest of those pictures...

I've got a bunch of images - but it saves text. They speak for themselves. Boy am I pissed.

Note that the box is not marked "Fragile" anywhere, and bears no indication that it contains a breakable and fragile electronic device! THAT is a major error on the part of the shipping company, no? No way to overlook that.

Plus, normally, Apple wouldn't think of selling a refurb product with a dent like this unless they were sure it worked right - AND informed the end-user.

But in this case, as you can see, the hole goes right the hell through the box and the foam (all the foam) and into the MBP.

As my brother stated: "Dude, looks like someone shot it!"

As it is...I'm afraid to turn it on! Is the dent under the HD? the battery? who knows, I can't legally open the thing. How about the logic board, is it dented? Who should I blame...?

For all the Cpt. Obviouses out there, yes it arrived at my house like this. :|

PLEASE anyone, tell me what to do? I was already going to the store tomorrow - now it looks like I've one more reason.

Yes yes I've kept everything. Not even a bit of plastic removed, nothing in the garbage etc.

Thing is I need this by Monday, since I'm going back to college (currently at home ~2 hours away, since that's where the Apple store(s) are!)

I still have to go to the store for something else entirely, so I'll just bring this along. I wonder...estimated time it would take for a new one to ship?

Urghh this really kills my weekend. Kills it I tell you.

This was expedited shipping...seemed more like a rush job. What really leaves a bad taste in my mouth is that this was done entirely through Apple. No third-party retailers or anything.

Ironically the warehouse from which it shipped turned out to be about a half hour from my college. I passed it on the way home today. Really makes me wonder why it appears to have been rushed and subsequently damaged.

I'm not going crazy right? You've seen the pictures, it's definitely damage incurred in shipping, right? No refurb would look like that? With a hole in the box right beneath it?

I don't want the Apple people to try any mind games with me. This was damaged during shipping, and I'm glad other people believe me!

I'd have shown my parents as well, but they're asleep. Thanks for the help. Looks like a day of errands tomorrow.

Oh I'm calm. It's not like I plan on yelling at the Apple people...I do want to be taken seriously, after all. Forgive my tone if it seems as though I'm really really mad - I'm actually more worried, since now my plans for working on this machine over the weekend, cannibalizing my old one, etc. are impacted and I need to devote a significant amount of time and effort tomorrow getting this resolved.

Perhaps they'll offer a new one, yeah. We'll just have to wait and see, I suppose.

^ Yes I've been in the library quite a bit.

-

I've just gone to my local Apple store. They're always packed, but I got a Genius appointment and we dealt with my problems fairly quickly and with great results.

Turns out, first off, that my hard disk has a fatally damaged node structure and my logic board is fine. Basically, I now have two laptops.

He took my dented refurb and gave me a brand new MBP instead. No charge. No hassle.

He then explained how I need to use my SATA-USB dock to transfer the few files of mine which aren't on my external drive, and at the end of the day I'll have a 15" 2.53GHz i5 MBP running my 640GB drive with a fresh install of Snow Leopard and all my files, prefs etc. from my backups.

Then I'll have a late 2006 black MacBook with a 500GB drive, also running Snow Leopard, but with no files on it.

Turns out I've also got to make another appointment (for my parents, as I leave tomorrow) to take in my black MacBook for a free replacement case (it's cracked) and battery (it's "swollen").

The Apple genius said he didn't want me posting on "any rumor sites" ... I don't know why, since Apple didn't do anything wrong. I mean, it'd be nice to get a free iPod or something, but then I'd have 3 iPods.

Apple knows overkill, but they also have a pretty good perspective on customer satisfaction - namely, when it's not met. And in this case, since Apple didn't ship me a broken computer, they really went out of their way to help me with my problems.

If anything, the bigger problem ended up being the damaged node structure on my Leopard 2006 MacBook - I got my replacement MBP about ten minutes after I sat down to explain my dilemma.

No wonder so many students go Mac.

Yes, necessity. I'm more than a student, I'm an artist. Photos, music, video, I do it all. I need the power of the MBP. Some don't.

Yes, it's a lot of money...

Resolution

Hey Fubar,

Thanks for posting, but this problem is resolved now!

For the record, it isn't Apple (corporate Apple) who needs to sort out this kind of thing, as it's not their fault the computer is damaged. As the Apple genius told me today, "Don't blame us, we didn't do this to you!" (I said "Yes I know.")

In the event of a computer arriving damaged in the mail, the best thing to do is take it directly to an Apple store without removing anything (plastic, cables, papers, anything), be sure you have proof of purchase in some format (I had the shipping label and, of course, the box in which the dented MBP came), and explain every detail to the genius bar.

It might take a while to explain things, but the Apple store will take away the damaged computer and exchange it for a completely new one. In my case it was free of charge. I don't know for sure if such a replacement is always free - I'd hope so - but I don't know for sure.

All this got resolved in about a half hour. As I type this, my brand new MBP is on a desk next to me installing Snow Leopard on my other hard disk while my old 2006 model lies dismantled on the floor. I'm using the last functional single-core computer I own, a 3.0GHz XP hack from 2005. In a matter of time (by Monday, definitely) I'll be running my MBP at full power with all my apps and files restored.

Heh, I had to spread my files across two external drives...what was I thinking, this is gonna take a while...

Now that I re-read this thread, I really hope no one gets a bad idea about Apple. Apple doesn't micromanage things! Well...not everything, at any rate - they don't oversee the exact warehouse from which a particular refurbished product might happen to ship. What resembles a bullet hole in the box and computer is not Apple's responsibility.

Their only responsibility is making sure the customer is happy...this i5 makes me pretty happy...

No I don't, we had a nice chat about MacRumors actually.

I haven't had any trouble with Apple for over two years now. And two years ago, I kinda didn't know how to deal with them in the first place.

Anyhow...moving right along. Edited the title...no more angry face.

mulo, I'm not sarcastic. My brain simply doesn't work that way. To explain: a fair bit of my friends speak English as a second or third language, so they don't understand sarcasm (or idioms, or colloquialisms, you name it) - I'm used to being taken literally, so I've conditioned my writing around that almost subconsciously.

The way I see it, your post might have been a bit sarcastic...

TopHatPlus, yep, pretty much. Nothing ever goes according to plan though, at least not with me involved.