Apple sent computer back with wrong hard drive!

[subliminalbrad]

This is exactly the same thing that happened to a friend of mine with CompUSA several months ago. Laptop went in, came back with someone else's hard drive.

Long story short, there was information on the drive he was given that got CompUSA into big trouble (health records, some interesting pictures) and he ended up getting about a $7,000 settlement out of it.

This is an ongoing problem with CompUSA. Go complain directly to the manager of the store and threaten legal action if necessary, this kind of complete incompetence should not be tolerated.

Firstly, CompUSA was nothing but a middleman here. Apple is at fault.

Secondly, threatening legal action is a really bad move when dealing with CompUSA, it should only be a last resort. In most cases the people at the local store will do their best to help you out, especially if they are at fault. But if you threaten legal action, they are required to cease interaction with you and refer you to the corporate office. You don't want this because CompUSA corporate is the physical manifestation of incompetence. The best thing to do if you don't think you're getting anywhere with the local store is to file a corporate complaint. This will get back to the General Manager of the store very quickly, and will put a lot of pressure on him to resolve the issue.

 

[cjddrum1]

okay im confused...if all they did was send her your HD in your case w/ your ram and vice versa then couldnt you just swap computers if apple does nothing? Or am I missing some detail? Because to me it soundsl ike they just sent her your computer and you her computer.....

 

[dllavaneras]

okay im confused...if all they did was send her your HD in your case w/ your ram and vice versa then couldnt you just swap computers if apple does nothing? Or am I missing some detail? Because to me it soundsl ike they just sent her your computer and you her computer.....

No, they mixed up the parts. If they do that swap the chassis numbers wouldn't match.

 

[aarchitect]

I still don't get it

Let me see if I understand this, you sent it for repair to your local CompUSA because it didn't boot. CompUSA supposedly sends it to Apple who return it to the same CompUSA. You pick it up but don't bother to check to see if it was repaired until you get home. You turn it on and you log into someone else's system. Only then do you realize that something isn't right. So you call both CompUSA and Apple and noone knows what you are talking about or even cares. You rummage around the hard drive and find out the phone number and address of the person who's hard drive you have and call them. You find out, lo and behold, that they have your hard drive too. Am I missing anything?

 

[smueboy]

No. They system profiler and the chassis label under the battery match.

I did also just notice something else, though. The mac I received has 512 mb ram, whereas the one I sent had 1 gb ram.

This is getting worse. Harddrive, RAM, what else?
Hope you get something free as compensation.

Keep us updated!

I posted this thread to Digg... I didn't think much would happen but WOW.

My first major Digg contribution, AND its been picked up by ZDNet. I'm not sure that it being on Digg got ZDNet's notice, but who knows.

The responses on ZDnet are kinda useless. like:
"Jokes on you. Ha! It's a joke. He made the whole thing up. So much for journalism. Did you do anything to verify the validity of the claim? I doubt it. He read it on the MacRumors site. Now that's a reliable source if I've ever seen one. Never mind it was an anonymous post. Give me a break.
Posted by: applenewbie Posted on: 02/18/07"

I hope it's a different applenewbie!

 

[jsw]

I sent my Mac Book Pro in numerous times, and every time I see where they attempted to restore files I deleted prior to shipping the laptop. That really doesn't sit well with me. What kind of backwards business practice is it to get a laptop in for service and try to dig through deleted files?

The tech was lazy or brave -- take your pick -- and left the files in my trash bin. They were all named "Recovered xxxxx.xxx" and included pictures of my family, documents, and highly confidential Cisco configs of clients I take care of.

Those files have nothing to do with a tech reading through your confidential files.

If you're that concerned, back up the drive and erase the data before sending it in. It's possible discarded drives could be seen by others at some point. But... I severely doubt that any tech has time to root through your drive, find deleted files, rename them, look at them, move them to the Trash... and then forget to delete them.

 

[mattscott306]

That really is a pretty large screwup on the tech's part. I hope the OP returns soon to tell us how the lady from apple is helping out.

On a side note- can I request that all posts from newbies have some sort of formatting to them? I really hate reading things that are all jumbled together...

 

[APPLENEWBIE]

We are working with Apple on resolution... probably soon. (And the zdnet applenewbie post was not me.)

 

[smueboy]

The tech was lazy or brave -- take your pick -- and left the files in my trash bin. They were all named "Recovered xxxxx.xxx" and included pictures of my family, documents, and highly confidential Cisco configs of clients I take care of.

The 'Recovered xxxxx' files/folders that appear in your trash are a normal part of OS X functionality. Whenever i re-start i notice a few in my trash. I don't know why they are there, but i always assumed it was part of the shut-down/start-up process in some way.

We are working with Apple on resolution... probably soon. (And the zdnet applenewbie post was not me.)

i figured that!

 

[APPLENEWBIE]

Problem resolved.

Apple has just agreed to a very fair resolution of this problem and all parties are satisfied.

It is important to remember the basics of this situation.

• A tech made an assembly mistake.
• Some questionable advice was given by a couple of low-level service advisors who clearly did not understand the importance of the problem.
• Calls were made, emails sent.
• Once the information made it to the proper level, Apple took appropriate and timely measures (starting on a Sunday afternoon!) to correct the situation.

Please keep perspective here. No one lost an eye, no one died. So far as I know, not one person has posted any personal knowledge of a directly analogous situation. I can only conclude that this is a rare occurrence. Yes, it is lucky that both customers were honest people that had no intention of harming anyone by misuse of data. I have learned a lot from this experience, and will be much more careful with sending computers for repair. I might even encrypt!

If you want to worry about something, worry about war, global warming, crime, poverty or why you can't play the slide Dobro as well as Jerry Douglas.

Thanks to all for your comments and advice. On this matter, further I shall sayeth not.

 

[smueboy]

Well, i'm glad they sorted it out to your satisfaction.

 

[fotoman]

Resolved how

Apple has just agreed to a very fair resolution of this problem and all parties are satisfied.

It is important to remember the basics of this situation.

• A tech made an assembly mistake.
• Some questionable advice was given by a couple of low-level service advisors who clearly did not understand the importance of the problem.
• Calls were made, emails sent.
• Once the information made it to the proper level, Apple took appropriate and timely measures (starting on a Sunday afternoon!) to correct the situation.

Please keep perspective here. No one lost an eye, no one died. So far as I know, not one person has posted any personal knowledge of a directly analogous situation. I can only conclude that this is a rare occurrence. Yes, it is lucky that both customers were honest people that had no intention of harming anyone by misuse of data. I have learned a lot from this experience, and will be much more careful with sending computers for repair. I might even encrypt!

If you want to worry about something, worry about war, global warming, crime, poverty or why you can't play the slide Dobro as well as Jerry Douglas.

Thanks to all for your comments and advice. On this matter, further I shall sayeth not.

Well
After all that,,,,it would be nice if you at least let us know, how and what apple did/offered to make it right?

Did you call the # I provided?

fotoman

 

[devilot]

...it would be nice if you at least let us know, how and what apple did/offered to make it right?

Er, I wouldn't be surprised if the OP was specifically told by Apple to not disclose that information.

 

[drake]

Er, I wouldn't be surprised if the OP was specifically told by Apple to not disclose that information.

Probably. I've seen this exact thing happen before, someone posts a complaint about a business they've dealt with (lets say, Best Buy) then it gets posted on Digg, and the next thing you know, the OP is best friends with the business they had a compliant with. I should have posted my complaint with Canon (they lost my "L" lens last year) on Digg, I'd own a EOS-1D Mark II with a set of "L" lenses by now. Didn't know about Digg then. BTW, I'm not in any way friends with Canon so that should give you an idea of how things went (if you're wise, and live in Canada, don't EVER send anything to their repair depot in Calgary).

 

[dllavaneras]

I should have posted my complaint with Canon (they lost my "L" lens last year) on Digg, I'd own a EOS-1D Mark II with a set of "L" lenses by now. Didn't know about Digg then.

So Digg is a powerful weapon when you get screwed?

 

[Zmmyt]

...If you want to worry about something, worry about war, global warming, crime, poverty or why you can't play the slide Dobro as well as Jerry Douglas.

Good to hear that everything worked out well for you. Hope you got at least a bit of compensation for all the trouble you went through.

 

[drake]

So Digg is a powerful weapon when you get screwed?

Clearly.

 

[APPLENEWBIE]

Ok. REALLY the last word.

Apple categorically did not ask that I not disclose the details. Remember: a gentleman does not kiss and tell...

 

[madmaxmedia]

I think OP basically updated with everything that is really important- Apple is sufficiently taking care of both of them. As far as wanting freebies or threatening lawsuits or whatever, that's a lot less important.

A mistake was made, Apple is fixing it. Fortunately a happy ending for all-

 

[mattscott306]

Ok. REALLY the last word.

Apple categorically did not ask that I not disclose the details. Remember: a gentleman does not kiss and tell...

I applaud the OP for his actions in this situation. While I'm sure he did get some compensation from apple, I think it really is quite admirable that he did not disclose what was given. It does protect apple from less honorable people making demands upon apple if their situations turn a little gray.
Just my two cents, again good job OP.

 

[Gangis]

I have had only one experience with compusa. i wanted to replace my macbook pro's hard disk with a new one i bought off newegg. went to apple, they said they replace only apple purchased hard drives, recommended to go to compusa or other authorised store. the guy at compusa charged 30$ for the swap, and after a long call to apple said that it would void the warranty on my original apple hard drive, fair enough. within 30 mins of leaving the store, i received a call saying that the price is instead 150$ plus labor charges for 4-5 hours, it would have been cheaper to buy 2 similar hard drives bought from and replaced by apple for the same cost.. so i told them firmly to not open up my laptop, and picked it up quickly. they had not opened it but still managed to scratch the underside near the battery and tore a plastic case i was using as a cover for the power brick (they had forced me to submit the power cord). i went back home, on the way purchased a set of screwdrivers from radioshack for 15$, opened up ifixit.com at home, read thru, spent 45 mins replacing the drive myself. so instead of spending 300+ on a hard drive replacement that cost me half that amount, i spent 15$ and a considerably lot less time doing it myself. maybe i should open a repair shop myself, i would do a better job than the "tech" guys at compusa and for a lot let price.

WTF? That is total BS on their part. It doesn't matter how complex a HD install is, it still falls under the $29.99 upgrade cost. I once did a HD install on a Powerbook G4, it took me 2 hours (because it was my first time opening up an Apple laptop and I wanted to be EXTREMELY careful) but I only charged the customer $29.99. Them's the breaks. Charing the "basic non-warranty laptop service" cost for a HD install, no matter how complex it is, is just wrong. If one of my service writers (the people that actually deal with customers and write up the paperwork) pulled that crap I would have beat him to a pulp and then charged $29.99 instead of $159.99.

 

[Alejooo]

Happens all over the world

I just wanted to tell u this happens everywhere. I´m from Buenos Aires, Argentina. On January 30th I sent my MacBook to "Alfa Uno MacStore" (AASP and Authorized Distributor) due to keyboard and SuperDrive problems and picked it up on February 5th. As it´s been 6 months since I bought it, it still has the 1 year guarantee. I´m not going to bore you with details, this are te basics:
Problems for wich I sent te MB to service haven´t been yet fixed as they are waiting for spare parts (I supose 20 days are not too much to wait for replacements)
The real problem is that they erased my HD without even warning me. I left admin user and pass with them. The reason they gave me was that my MB had a severe OS problem (it wouldn´t sleep) but one of the problems I stated in the service order is that the MB sometimes was hard to wake up. So.... I feel they are pulling my leg here. The severe OS problem is that it wouldn´t sleep? whend I stated in the service order that sometimes it was hard to wake it up????
I know that back ups are made for this, but anyway they lost all the aplications I had installed, all my photos, music and movies, and worst of all, data from my work and university career. I´m a web developer so imagine the effect this had on my work and income (I lost 5 days of work and wasn´t able to work at a 100% so far becouse my MB wasn´t at a 100% as I had it).
This MacStore didn nothing besides saying "We´re deeply sorry". I´m about to lose my job becouse I had to spend the month till now getting my MB just like it was (apps and customization over all) and of course I´m delayed with my work. I´m trying to get a detail from the service they made to my MB to give to my boss so as he sees the problem wasn´t mine.
I tried to contact higer levels off Apple to let them know how this Authorized Reseler and AASP run their businnes but when I looked for a contact e-mail in the Latin America Apple site this it what you have: contactoalac@www.aplee.com.mx. I´ve never seen an e-mail adress like this in my life (what´s that of @www.¿??¿?¿?) I tried removing the www after the @ but it doesn´t work anyway so I´m stucked here. Is there any e-mail adress that actually works for latin america?

Thank u for reading

Alejo

 

[drake]

You shouldn't ever send a computer for repair without first backing up all your data. And it is also wise to wipe your drive before sending it. The OP couldn't wipe his drive because he couldn't get into it to do so.

 

[ladeer]

OP, you need to understand that, just like you said yourself, the ball starts rolling on a Sunday afternoon...Apple wouldn't have done the right thing if it weren't for this forum, Digg and the many emails sent to Apple PR dept from media and various people, including myself. So at the least bit you should thank those of us who had helped you to resolve this problem.

Do you really think some higher-level people you mentioned would really look into this situation on a Sunday afternoon if it was just you, this single person, calling them?

Heck no! Don't underestimate the power of digg and all these people who had helped you by publicizing your story.

 

[APPLENEWBIE]

Thanks to all for your comments and advice.