Hi all, my first post on here and basically I felt complelled to share my recent experience with Apple's customer service dept.
So I am the owner of a late 2007/early 2008 15" MBP, around December 2010 a pink line appeared on the screen and 4 or so weeks later I had issues with the thing booting up to the point that one day it just wouldn't boot. At the time I was living in Bali and was home for a month for hols. So I took it to my local apple reseller and they basically took one look at it and with a gleam in their eye told me it was kaput and that fixing it would be around £800, they then did their best job to sell me a new one.....
So, off I went back to Bali for 9 months leaving the MacBook here with the intention of selling it on eBay.... Thank god I didn't!
Upon return I decided to start looking at cheap ways to get the logic board replaced, possibly doing it myself. Most options came in at around £300-£400 and that was for a refurbed logic board not a new one, one Indian guy I spoke to at applemacrepairs was very helpful and offered to have it picked up by courier the next day, I did some diggin on the Internet and read a bunch of bad reports about them so didn't bother. S as I was trawling the Internet I came across a thread ( on here actually!) that linked to a page on apples website outlining the Nvidia issue and resulting class action. I arranged a call from apple and they promptly rang at the arranged time, the guy on the other end of the phone was extremely helpful and as I described the scenario that had led to the demise of my prize possession and was readying myself for a "tete a tete" with an obviously unwilling tech support guy, amazingly he simply aggreed with me sayin that it sounded like an Nvidia issue and to go to the nearest apple store (southapton west quay) and they would run a test on it - hmmm result I thought, and he was polite to boot!
So off I go that evening to Southampton apple store which was rammed, no appointment, no worries they ask me to wait for a few mins and then call me to the bar, I describe my symptoms and the guy behind the counter says ok let's try this test, plugs in a portable hard drive and turns on the computer, "this should startup now and give me a validation code if it's the chipset" he says, up it starts, no chime, nothing just a breathing White light....hmmm I think - this ain't looking good. So the guy then says "bear with me I just need to take it out the back" a nervous 10 mins passes and he returns, "it's definitely the board he says, but I cant be sure if it's the Nvidia chipset.........however seeing as they pay for it not us we have decided to change the logic biar for you for free..... I nearly kissed him.
I left it there at 7:30pm and they rang me at 12 the next day to say it was ready for collection " is it working?" is asked - taken aback a voice says "err yeah, perfectly?"
So I pick it up get it home and boot it up - amazing, my MacBook lives, but the blue line is still on the screen (only 1 pixel wide so not really noticeable) and there are a couple of keys not working, pain in the but but no biggie.
So yesterday I had to go to Southampton so thought I'd drop in with it and have a word, the first guy said as there is no AppleCare on it it would be £90 for the keyboard change but reccomended making an appointment to come see another staff member, so I did. The next guy looked at it and said when did you have the work done, 2 weeks ago, and was the line there before which I told him it was, he took it out the back again to see if he could reseat the cable but no joy, then came back and said "seeing as we did the repair recently we will replace the keyboard AND the display AND the logic board again and printed out a sheet that had £690 on it with £0 to pay.
I was astounded by the level of service they have provided when in reality they could have told me to sling my hook on both occasions, all of the staff I dealt with were nothing less than professional and courteous and seemed very keen to help rectify the problem.
I have a number of laptops, iPads and iPhones registered with apple so not sure if they could see that I am a longtime customer or wether they were just not bothered about spending a bit of cash as they have $94 billion in cash in the bank, either way I am very pleased to say the least and this alone has affirmed that I would never consider going anywhere other than apple in future.
Sorry for the long post but having read some other accounts where they would not do the work if it didn't chime I wanted to post my experience to show that really it is down to the guy at the genius bar - apple aren't paying Nvidia are so argue that point, Iwas ready in both cases (telephone and in the store) to argue my side but never needed to and I would have been very disappointed if they hadn't done the work truth be told.
Hope this helps anyone in the same boat!
So I am the owner of a late 2007/early 2008 15" MBP, around December 2010 a pink line appeared on the screen and 4 or so weeks later I had issues with the thing booting up to the point that one day it just wouldn't boot. At the time I was living in Bali and was home for a month for hols. So I took it to my local apple reseller and they basically took one look at it and with a gleam in their eye told me it was kaput and that fixing it would be around £800, they then did their best job to sell me a new one.....
So, off I went back to Bali for 9 months leaving the MacBook here with the intention of selling it on eBay.... Thank god I didn't!
Upon return I decided to start looking at cheap ways to get the logic board replaced, possibly doing it myself. Most options came in at around £300-£400 and that was for a refurbed logic board not a new one, one Indian guy I spoke to at applemacrepairs was very helpful and offered to have it picked up by courier the next day, I did some diggin on the Internet and read a bunch of bad reports about them so didn't bother. S as I was trawling the Internet I came across a thread ( on here actually!) that linked to a page on apples website outlining the Nvidia issue and resulting class action. I arranged a call from apple and they promptly rang at the arranged time, the guy on the other end of the phone was extremely helpful and as I described the scenario that had led to the demise of my prize possession and was readying myself for a "tete a tete" with an obviously unwilling tech support guy, amazingly he simply aggreed with me sayin that it sounded like an Nvidia issue and to go to the nearest apple store (southapton west quay) and they would run a test on it - hmmm result I thought, and he was polite to boot!
So off I go that evening to Southampton apple store which was rammed, no appointment, no worries they ask me to wait for a few mins and then call me to the bar, I describe my symptoms and the guy behind the counter says ok let's try this test, plugs in a portable hard drive and turns on the computer, "this should startup now and give me a validation code if it's the chipset" he says, up it starts, no chime, nothing just a breathing White light....hmmm I think - this ain't looking good. So the guy then says "bear with me I just need to take it out the back" a nervous 10 mins passes and he returns, "it's definitely the board he says, but I cant be sure if it's the Nvidia chipset.........however seeing as they pay for it not us we have decided to change the logic biar for you for free..... I nearly kissed him.
I left it there at 7:30pm and they rang me at 12 the next day to say it was ready for collection " is it working?" is asked - taken aback a voice says "err yeah, perfectly?"
So I pick it up get it home and boot it up - amazing, my MacBook lives, but the blue line is still on the screen (only 1 pixel wide so not really noticeable) and there are a couple of keys not working, pain in the but but no biggie.
So yesterday I had to go to Southampton so thought I'd drop in with it and have a word, the first guy said as there is no AppleCare on it it would be £90 for the keyboard change but reccomended making an appointment to come see another staff member, so I did. The next guy looked at it and said when did you have the work done, 2 weeks ago, and was the line there before which I told him it was, he took it out the back again to see if he could reseat the cable but no joy, then came back and said "seeing as we did the repair recently we will replace the keyboard AND the display AND the logic board again and printed out a sheet that had £690 on it with £0 to pay.
I was astounded by the level of service they have provided when in reality they could have told me to sling my hook on both occasions, all of the staff I dealt with were nothing less than professional and courteous and seemed very keen to help rectify the problem.
I have a number of laptops, iPads and iPhones registered with apple so not sure if they could see that I am a longtime customer or wether they were just not bothered about spending a bit of cash as they have $94 billion in cash in the bank, either way I am very pleased to say the least and this alone has affirmed that I would never consider going anywhere other than apple in future.
Sorry for the long post but having read some other accounts where they would not do the work if it didn't chime I wanted to post my experience to show that really it is down to the guy at the genius bar - apple aren't paying Nvidia are so argue that point, Iwas ready in both cases (telephone and in the store) to argue my side but never needed to and I would have been very disappointed if they hadn't done the work truth be told.
Hope this helps anyone in the same boat!