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Dropped Unibody MBP

S

sheck

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 16, 2009
21
9
Well, after reading everybody's horror stories on here, it happened to me. My laptop was only a month old, I had it in a sleeve, and managed to drop it. The case near the ports took the brunt of it, warping it back and making the ethernet port now look like a parallelogram (although it still works).

The laptop works fine from what I can tell, but I want to repair this and keep my warranty intact. So, I was thinking about taking this to the Apple store and just throwing myself at their mercy and see how much it will cost to repair.

If I go this route, they repair it and my AppleCare should stay intact right? I just don't want to give them license to cancel my warranty after paying several hundred dollars or whatever they charge to make it "as good as new".

Should I try an authorized service center instead? Any work they do will keep AppleCare intact, right?
 
As painful as it sounds, if the thing still works and the lid still closes properly, you should let it be. Repairing it will cost you more in time and money than you can recoup when you want to sell it down the road.
 
I disagree to leave it as is, if something does go wrong that is NOT your fault and you take it in for repair they will say "you dropped it" it's on you to repair it. The OP is 100% correct in getting it fixed now. There is no way in hell if your ethernet port stops working in a year you will ever convince Apple it was not a result of being dropped.
 
If it were me...I'd have it repaired. That would bother me. Its kind of like driving a car with a huge dent on the side of it.
 
I don't see why taking it in today would allow you to keep the warranty. Either way it's accidental damage, and either way Apple Care doesn't cover that.
 
m1stake said:
I don't see why taking it in today would allow you to keep the warranty. Either way it's accidental damage, and either way Apple Care doesn't cover that.
Click to expand...

The point is that I fix it, therefore re-validating the warranty, not cover it up and hope Apple doesn't notice when I try to get warranty work later when something unrelated breaks.

If I bought a new car and got in an accident 1 month later, as long as I fixed the damage satisfactorily the car warranty would still be valid. I see no reason why Apple wouldn't see it the same way (I hope).

It needs to be fixed regardless because the case is now warped higher on one end then on the other. While the screen was spared, I forsee problems down the road with stress on the screen if the case isn't replaced.
 
Wirelessly posted (iPod touch 32GB: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5G77 Safari/525.20)

Have you thought about selling it on eBay with the damage (obviously making it clear that it is damaged) and putting the proceeds towards a new one. You may be lucky and lose less than the retail cost of repair. You could set a reserve / minimum price that you are comfortable with and then all you are risking is the listing fee.
 
Sorry to hear man.. The first thing I said to myself when I saw your thread was, uh oh....

If its working just fine, I'd say just use it and be happy... I bet it'll cost something 1/3rd of the price of the mbp to get the case replaced.
 
My assertion is that the cost to repair the machine now would be greater than shouldering any repair cost that may be incurred in the future; wether or not the future repair can be linked to the accidental damage is irrelevant.

An analog is insuring a vehicle worth $500 with a policy that has a deductible of $1,000.
 
If you got it repaired officially by a certified Apple repair shop, and it was certified and repaired like new... then I think you'd have a good case for your Applecare plan to remain in effect... but here's the thing - that could be really expensive. I can see Apple requiring all internal parts be replaced (because of potential shock damage which might surface later) before they'll consider it "clean" and eligible for Applecare coverage.

Maybe you should just repair it for the cosmetics, and get a refund on the remaining Applecare. Talk to your Applecare service people on the phone, and ask them the best course of action.
 
Do you carry any other insurance that might provide some help with the repairs? You need to get the cost to repair quoted by Apple. Then you can decide how to proceed. As suggested, it may be better to sell it on Ebay and take the proceeds and purchase another system. Look at refurbished systems from Apple.
 
Wow that sucks.

It wont be cheap... The downside of the unibody construction is that the most of the case is one solid piece, and it looks like the entire casing apart from the bottom lids and monitor will need to be replaced. So basically a new case, and a labor charge to rebuilt the computer.
 
Like my mother used to say, you can bend aluminum, but not really...

You should know that aluminum is one of the most malleable (malleable is the term for "bendability") metals. In fact, it's the second most malleable (bendable) metal. And it is not dense at all. Therefore, it's light and flexible, making it perfecting for hitting the floor, lol.
 
The estimates I've heard for a repair on a body are really high, like it's better to use that on a new laptop in a year or two instead of fixing an old one high.
 
My gut reaction (aside from sympathetic nausea) would be to leave it as is. I can only to relax about a new car once it gets its first ding, after all.

With regards to Applecare: if you could get a definitive answer that an authorized repair today would "reset" the viability of the MBP, and thus cover you for ALL future issues, then it would be worth looking into. That would be a call-in question, requesting a specific and incontrovertible response. Take names, speak to supervisors (politely, of course) and make notes of their response.

Unfortunately, it seems many grey-area issues are frequently left to the discretion of the tech-at-hand, and the service supervisor of the local Apple Shop. I say "unfortunately" because it means there is no guarantee of consistency from one case to the next; but depending on your powers of persuasion, that can also work to your advantage.
 
sheck said:
Well, after reading everybody's horror stories on here, it happened to me. My laptop was only a month old, I had it in a sleeve, and managed to drop it. The case near the ports took the brunt of it, warping it back and making the ethernet port now look like a parallelogram (although it still works).

The laptop works fine from what I can tell, but I want to repair this and keep my warranty intact. So, I was thinking about taking this to the Apple store and just throwing myself at their mercy and see how much it will cost to repair.

If I go this route, they repair it and my AppleCare should stay intact right? I just don't want to give them license to cancel my warranty after paying several hundred dollars or whatever they charge to make it "as good as new".

Should I try an authorized service center instead? Any work they do will keep AppleCare intact, right?
Click to expand...

Nope. voids AppleCare from what I understand.
How hard was the thing dropped, and how was it dropped if it was in a sleeve?
 
pyromaniaque said:
Nope. voids AppleCare from what I understand.
How hard was the thing dropped, and how was it dropped if it was in a sleeve?
Click to expand...

Fell about 2 feet onto carpet. Neoprene can be slippery sometimes...

I was quoted a price of $400 to replace the top case from an Apple certified repair center. Probably will just do that... they assured me that my AppleCare should still be intact given I get it serviced.
 
carbon fibre dun have the nice touch feeling as the aluminium. Stainless steel will be very nice! Strong and could be very light if it is pressed and plasma cut.

I doubt apple will use something that expensive..... As they apply unibody to cut parts and costs.
 
Here's the simple (and correct) answer:

Accidental damage isn't covered under AppleCare. It will void the warranty immediately -- however, that can be changed. If you turn yourself in and pay for the repairs (which can be pricey, depending on the situation) your computer will be placed back under AppleCare and will remain under warranty.

Source: I work for an Apple authorized service provider.
 
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