so many problems.
at first my USB wouldn't hold a connection and my speakers would short out.
they replaced the logic board to repair.
the speakers still shorted out, and my laptop started to freeze up.
they replaced the logic board again.
the speakers STILL shorted out, and the laptop was freezing up again, AND the battery indicator light stopped working.
they did some tests on it, found a harddrive scratch or something like that.
replaced the harddrive, logic board (again) and "cover."
(and they told me if this repair didn't fix all problems, a replacement would be the next step. was talking to a rep over the phone named hector who told me this.)
speakers still went out.
i called up hector, he then told me another repair would be in order. even after they told me that a repair would be the next step. (this is after doing a lot of troubleshooting too, by the way.)
so then I got off the phone with hector, got to another higher up named Michael. he was awesome. he wanted to do some small short troubleshooting, but he said himself that it was probably most definitely a hardware issue by the sound of it and that a replacement would be the best way to go and that i have been through way too much. BUT, i sent a letter to steve jobs a few days beforehand. the day that i was supposed to talk to Michael again, and get a replacement, i got a phone call from a guy named Ken Bell, in regards to my steve jobs e-mail.(I wasn't really expecting any e-mail) and he said he was now taking over my case.
he wasn't down for a replacement, and wanted me to talk to an engineer for two weeks and do troubleshooting. which i did. they diagnosed it as a hardware issue after two weeks. (kindof obvious it was.)
anyway. Ken then asked me to send it in for one last repair, and if it doesn't "meet my standards" then he will give me a replacement. so I did. then I got it back, and he calls me up saying that they couldn't reproduce the issue (even though they've only had it for 24 hours) and that no hardware issues were detected. so he wouldn't know what the "next step" would be.
which to me is pretty much saying that he think i'm making the issue up, and that he won't honor his replacement statement.
the speakers then went out AGAIN, and my laptop froze with a gray screen with pixilated blocks all over it. so instead of calling up Ken and going through his serious low voiced skepticism, I just went to an Apple Store directly. The speakers actually weren't working when I went in there, but they didn't even test it. they looked at my notes and history and went in the back for about 10 minutes, came back and asked if an i7 upgrade would be fine, which of course it was. He opened the box and started taking stuff out of it, and I was like "hey I have the box for my original one in my car if I could just swap out all my old stuff and take the other box" and he said that would be fine. I got home, and to my surprise it was an Anti-Glare. I didn't even hear him say that, if he did. pretty cool though.
I think this upgrade was definitely worth the trouble I've been through. I was expecting an i5 maybe, but an i7 is even better. maybe now I can finally have a functioning laptop. I'm getting like 250 for the remainder of my Apple Care time too. Not baddddd. I think I definitely deserve this replacement, for the year of trouble I've gone through. (not to mention when they replaced my Harddrive, I lost a ton of files from a Time Capsule backup error.)
but my whole outlook from Apple's customer service went from aggravated to satisfied. I think I would have been a lot sooner if I would have gotten Michael. (seriously, if you call in about a problem and get Michael, you're in good hands. he seems to genuinely care about the customers. I got a huge speed bump by the name of Ken by my e-mail that I guess blew up in my face. I was like coasting down a hill to the finish to Michael's phone call of issuing me a replacement, and then this giant hill named Ken Bell appeared out of nowhere. He was not going to issue me a replacement if he had any choice in the matter, and if he did, it probably definitely wouldn't have been any kind of upgraded one.) that Hector guy was kindof lame too. they shouldn't tell you one thing and then do another.
but, hey. happy ending.
