Apple care worthless overseas?

[the vj]

Hi.

I am very upset at Apple right now. I have a 12" Powerbook with a defective trackpath. I ask for a new part back in July and still doesn't come to my country (Venezuela). The warranty expired last October.

I do not have Apple care but for those $300 they ask by the 2nd year I can actually buy and entire used computer for the $300 if that is the case. I can still find box sealed 12" Powerbook for $600 on eBay.

A friend of mine had the fan of his 17" Powerbook with a problem too and it took one entire year for him to get the part, he got it in December 2005, send it to fix on January 2006 and he got his part last week.

What is going on?

The people at the store are telling me that there is not a Phone number to call, just a generic email address from Apple.

What else can I do?

 

[NoCleverSNForMe]

Hi.

I am very upset at Apple right now. I have a 12" Powerbook with a defective trackpath. I ask for a new part back in July and still doesn't come to my country (Venezuela). The warranty expired last October.

I do not have Apple care but for those $300 they ask by the 2nd year I can actually buy and entire used computer for the $300 if that is the case. I can still find box sealed 12" Powerbook for $600 on eBay.

A friend of mine had the fan of his 17" Powerbook with a problem too and it took one entire year for him to get the part, he got it in December 2005, send it to fix on January 2006 and he got his part last week.

What is going on?

The people at the store are telling me that there is not a Phone number to call, just a generic email address from Apple.

What else can I do?

http://www.apple.com/support/contact/phone_contacts.html

How did you contact them last July? I'd follow up with your reference number (or the serial number of your computer). There's no reason why it should take that long.

I'd also try calling the American number.

 

[automator]

You can try and check for your repair status here: https://support.apple.com/repairstatus/Main

Based on experience though, I'd have to agree that apple support overseas needs a lot of improvement, I'm from the Philippines and once had to wait 3 months for a logicboard replacement. The service center I went to kept ordering the wrong parts until they finally figured out that it was the logicboard that needed replacing. In the future, perhaps you could try a different service center in your area. I realized that some service centers provide better service than others. You can find a list of authorized apple service centers here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304398

For your situation, I think you should contact apple phone support or try to find the contact information of the authorized apple distributor in your country and explain to them what happened. It would be unfair if they charged you for the new parts because your unit was still under warranty when you reported the problem.