Let me give you all a brief history of my experiences:
I purchased my first Macbook Air and had to have it replaced after one day of use because it would not wake up from sleep. Spent several hours on the phone troubleshooting with Apple and then brought into store to have them confirm it was broken. Another 5 hours later and I have to give the Apple Store my CTO Air in replace for a 1,400 dollar gift card. I re-purchased my air right there in the store.
A week later I get my second Air. This one is noticeably a much poorer build. Actually a nick in the aluminum by the track pad. No big deal but then the thing started to creak like a real cheap piece of hardware (this does not happen to my housemate's air). So i spend 30 min on the phone with an Apple Rep and they tell me there is no issue but I should bring it into the store to check it out.
I bring in my clickity Air and the Apple Genius says that, yes it is flexible and it creaks quite a bit, but that a replacement will do the same thing. I make enough of a fuss and explain the research I had done (poll on this forum) until he agrees to put a note in my account to have the online store to send me a replacement.
I get on the phone with the Apple Store Online Sales people and they come up with the solution of processing an "advanced replacement" since I have already put up with so much. This meant that I would have to pay up front with my credit card so they could send out a new Air without me having to send mine back first. This way I could still use my Air for work.
I then explain that I originally was persuaded by the Apple Store people to open a 12 month interest free barclay card and that I do not have room enough on there but that I can put it on my Chase Visa Credit Card since it will be refunded once I send back my Air. I wanted to make sure the Apple Rep did not refund my Barclay Card and that they would refund my Chase card instead (gains interested if I carry a balance) once they received my defective macbook air. The Apple Rep assured me I would be refunded on my Chase Card.
I got my 3rd Macbook Air in the mail last week. Perfect build quality and an obvious improvement from the creaking, poorly built Air I had at the time. I sent back the creaky Air and then a few days later I went to make my first payment on the Barclay card only to notice that it had been refunded!
I now have a 1,400 dollar balance on my Chase Visa that I NEVER carry a balance on. If I keep the balance there I will most likely have to pay 100-150 dollars in interest over the next however many months. So I decided to call Apple Care again yesterday.
After explaining most of the story above three or four times, I finally got transferred to a sales rep's supervisor. He listened and explained that I had to call barclay customer service to see if Apple can put the charge back on the Barclay Card and restore the no interest for 12 months since I was now outside my original 30 day purchase period. He also explained that Apple should have never had me RE Purchase the laptop in order to process an advanced return and that they should have just had me sign some form or something that would make me pay only if they never got a machine returned. All of this mess could have been avoided from the start. Why did the rep make me buy another machine?
At this point I had spent 3-4 hours on the phone with Apple Care only to find out I now had to Call Barclay Customer Service. I am now deciding whether or not to Call barclay or just call apple care again to try and get my issue elevated. I do not want to deal with another customer service agency but it looks like I will have to! Ah!
Feel free to share advice or even laugh at my misfortune.
I purchased my first Macbook Air and had to have it replaced after one day of use because it would not wake up from sleep. Spent several hours on the phone troubleshooting with Apple and then brought into store to have them confirm it was broken. Another 5 hours later and I have to give the Apple Store my CTO Air in replace for a 1,400 dollar gift card. I re-purchased my air right there in the store.
A week later I get my second Air. This one is noticeably a much poorer build. Actually a nick in the aluminum by the track pad. No big deal but then the thing started to creak like a real cheap piece of hardware (this does not happen to my housemate's air). So i spend 30 min on the phone with an Apple Rep and they tell me there is no issue but I should bring it into the store to check it out.
I bring in my clickity Air and the Apple Genius says that, yes it is flexible and it creaks quite a bit, but that a replacement will do the same thing. I make enough of a fuss and explain the research I had done (poll on this forum) until he agrees to put a note in my account to have the online store to send me a replacement.
I get on the phone with the Apple Store Online Sales people and they come up with the solution of processing an "advanced replacement" since I have already put up with so much. This meant that I would have to pay up front with my credit card so they could send out a new Air without me having to send mine back first. This way I could still use my Air for work.
I then explain that I originally was persuaded by the Apple Store people to open a 12 month interest free barclay card and that I do not have room enough on there but that I can put it on my Chase Visa Credit Card since it will be refunded once I send back my Air. I wanted to make sure the Apple Rep did not refund my Barclay Card and that they would refund my Chase card instead (gains interested if I carry a balance) once they received my defective macbook air. The Apple Rep assured me I would be refunded on my Chase Card.
I got my 3rd Macbook Air in the mail last week. Perfect build quality and an obvious improvement from the creaking, poorly built Air I had at the time. I sent back the creaky Air and then a few days later I went to make my first payment on the Barclay card only to notice that it had been refunded!
I now have a 1,400 dollar balance on my Chase Visa that I NEVER carry a balance on. If I keep the balance there I will most likely have to pay 100-150 dollars in interest over the next however many months. So I decided to call Apple Care again yesterday.
After explaining most of the story above three or four times, I finally got transferred to a sales rep's supervisor. He listened and explained that I had to call barclay customer service to see if Apple can put the charge back on the Barclay Card and restore the no interest for 12 months since I was now outside my original 30 day purchase period. He also explained that Apple should have never had me RE Purchase the laptop in order to process an advanced return and that they should have just had me sign some form or something that would make me pay only if they never got a machine returned. All of this mess could have been avoided from the start. Why did the rep make me buy another machine?
At this point I had spent 3-4 hours on the phone with Apple Care only to find out I now had to Call Barclay Customer Service. I am now deciding whether or not to Call barclay or just call apple care again to try and get my issue elevated. I do not want to deal with another customer service agency but it looks like I will have to! Ah!
Feel free to share advice or even laugh at my misfortune.