Hello everyone,
It is the first time I post here, and I've come to tell you a strange story that happened to me today and seek your advice. Please pardon my clumsy english, as I'm not a native speaker.
I live in France. Today, friends from Lithuania came to visit me. They have a MacBook Pro that they just bought in Lithuania through a friend. They asked me to help them with a keyboard problem they had. I quickly realized it was a keyboard layout misconfiguration issue, and tried to fix it by setting the right layout.
This is where thing got strange : I couldn't identify the layout. It was exactly like a german layout ("@" is on the "L" key, german "double s" right next to the "0") except it's a QWERTY keyboard (the german layout is QWERTZ).
After tinkering for a while with the keyboard layout setting menu and browsing the Apple support database, I decided to call Applecare.
The first technician could not figure it out more than I could, so he contact level 2 support. They could not figure it out either, and when I talked again to the first technician I had spoken with, I asked him if this could simply be a mistake made in the factory it was built in. He answered me that it is very unlikely and advised me to sell the machine on an auction site as a collector's item if it was the case.
He then transfered me to another technician, who asked me to send him pictures of the unidentifiable keyboard, which I did.
He just called me back : using the MBP's serial number, he determined the machine was a custom made machine. The person who ordered it asked for a german keyboard, the machine was configured for a german keyboard but there where a mistake, and the "Y" and "Z" keys had been mistakenly switched.
Here's the story. I don't know if this is common but it seemed strange to me, and everyone I've spoken to at Apple support was very surprised and amused, so I thought I'd share.
Now, here's the seeking your advice part : do you think the Apple tech guy was right about the opportunity to auction the weird-keyboarded MBP ?
It is the first time I post here, and I've come to tell you a strange story that happened to me today and seek your advice. Please pardon my clumsy english, as I'm not a native speaker.
I live in France. Today, friends from Lithuania came to visit me. They have a MacBook Pro that they just bought in Lithuania through a friend. They asked me to help them with a keyboard problem they had. I quickly realized it was a keyboard layout misconfiguration issue, and tried to fix it by setting the right layout.
This is where thing got strange : I couldn't identify the layout. It was exactly like a german layout ("@" is on the "L" key, german "double s" right next to the "0") except it's a QWERTY keyboard (the german layout is QWERTZ).
After tinkering for a while with the keyboard layout setting menu and browsing the Apple support database, I decided to call Applecare.
The first technician could not figure it out more than I could, so he contact level 2 support. They could not figure it out either, and when I talked again to the first technician I had spoken with, I asked him if this could simply be a mistake made in the factory it was built in. He answered me that it is very unlikely and advised me to sell the machine on an auction site as a collector's item if it was the case.
He then transfered me to another technician, who asked me to send him pictures of the unidentifiable keyboard, which I did.
He just called me back : using the MBP's serial number, he determined the machine was a custom made machine. The person who ordered it asked for a german keyboard, the machine was configured for a german keyboard but there where a mistake, and the "Y" and "Z" keys had been mistakenly switched.
Here's the story. I don't know if this is common but it seemed strange to me, and everyone I've spoken to at Apple support was very surprised and amused, so I thought I'd share.
Now, here's the seeking your advice part : do you think the Apple tech guy was right about the opportunity to auction the weird-keyboarded MBP ?
