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Are you kidding me Apple?

J

jphoc

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 6, 2008
6
0
So my 2.2GHz BlackBook is 3 months old now. It has left my desk in my apartment less than 5 times, and today when I randomly decided to bring it to my Entrepreneurship class, I opened it up and the case is warped! It doesn't sit evenly, like a table that has 1 leg that's shorter than the rest. If I hold it up and look at it I can see that the plastic is warped. Anybody else had their case warp, and if so have you tried taking it up with Apple? While it may be classified as a "cosmetic" issue, it affects my work because when I type the computer is constantly wobbling on its edge. I didn't throw down $1500 on my new computer to have it not sit level. Maybe I'm making mountains out of molehills, but maybe I'm not. Any thoughts on what my next step should be would be greatly appreciated.

Joe
 
Feet

Yeah that was the first thing I figured was wrong, but all of the feet are there, and the casing has never been put under any pressure.
 
Genius Bar Visit

So I went into the Apple Store yesterday and spoke with a genius. I showed him that the MacBook was "torqued" as he called it, but then after looking at it from several angles he decided it wasn't covered by the warranty and said I could pay $430 to get it fixed with a new enclosure. However, throughout the time he kept saying "I have never seen this before," and "This is really weird." I kept thinking "Aren't you outlining the definition of a defect?" Anyway, after it all they wouldn't cover it. Anyone have Steve Jobs' e-mail or any other ideas to help the Geniuses see the light?
 
Make a fuss to other geniuses or stores or online customer service support.

The problem with your problem is it could appear to be caused by the user. A drop or leaving it in the sun or .... could be the cause in their eyes. You'll probably need some counter-arguments for all that.

You could also go to the hardware store and look for a bigger foot to balance your laptop out. Or get a new foot from Apple, remove the short one, put a shim (spacer) of some sort in there and then put the new foot on. Problem solved.
 
jphoc said:
So I went into the Apple Store yesterday and spoke with a genius. I showed him that the MacBook was "torqued" as he called it, but then after looking at it from several angles he decided it wasn't covered by the warranty and said I could pay $430 to get it fixed with a new enclosure. However, throughout the time he kept saying "I have never seen this before," and "This is really weird." I kept thinking "Aren't you outlining the definition of a defect?" Anyway, after it all they wouldn't cover it. Anyone have Steve Jobs' e-mail or any other ideas to help the Geniuses see the light?
Click to expand...

Do you have Apple Care? I'm just curious, because if you don't, I'm wondering if they would have been singing a different tune if you had it.
 
forafireescape said:
Do you have Apple Care? I'm just curious, because if you don't, I'm wondering if they would have been singing a different tune if you had it.
Click to expand...

He said it's only three months old, so it doesn't matter wether he has applecare, everybody gets one year of it...
 
I'd write a letter to the sjobs addy. Explain what's wrong and the response you received from the Apple Store.
 
youradhere4222 said:
You really think Steve Jobs is going to read his e-mail, and even care about it if he did?
Click to expand...

That's what I was wondering. How often does Steve check his email, let alone read it from a random dissatisfied Mac user?

I'd get another genius to look at it. That's a much better option.
 
Jobs (or an employee) does read the mail - occasionally people here have had major issues solved by contacting him. BUT in this case, that move seems pretty premature. Genius' as far as I understand have to interpret warranty obligations on the spot and, being human and all, they don't always do such a good job. My tact with things like this is to simply argue the point of the warranty they think exempts them from responsibility. It doesn't sound possible that you could have done this to your computer - just make sure that point is clear (and well supported) to the next genius or rep you talk to.

One thing I don't understand is why you didn't notice the problem until you took it to this class. Wasn't it on a table at home? ... not that I need to know, just wondering...
 
Was it in any kind of case on it's journey to your class?

You story does seem like it would be caused by user error in the fact that it was fine when you were using it at home and just noticed a warped case after it had made the trip to class. Sorry, but I don't think your going to get much sympathy with a story like that.
 
jphoc said:
So I went into the Apple Store yesterday and spoke with a genius. I showed him that the MacBook was "torqued" as he called it, but then after looking at it from several angles he decided it wasn't covered by the warranty and said I could pay $430 to get it fixed with a new enclosure. However, throughout the time he kept saying "I have never seen this before," and "This is really weird." I kept thinking "Aren't you outlining the definition of a defect?" Anyway, after it all they wouldn't cover it. Anyone have Steve Jobs' e-mail or any other ideas to help the Geniuses see the light?
Click to expand...

You really need to call Apple Care instead of going to a "Genius".
 
Lots of Responses

Thanks for all the replies, and as this is my 14th Mac I would have figured a little leniency would be provided for a loyal customer only to re-evaluate and realize how insignificant I am to them. I think I didn't notice it at home because I'm renting out of an apartment where they give you a desk, and it's not of the highest quality, but when I go to my business class in a $100 million building where the tables are flat I noticed it then. As far as determining methodical reasoning to persuade the geniuses, I did come across an interesting problem with my MacBook. When the RPM's for the fans are running at about 5000, I can hear my fan hitting against something inside the enclosure, possibly attributed to a faulty casing? :D My only problem with this is that you can't use 3rd party apps to show hardware issues, so does anyone know any procedures off hand that keep the fans running at about 5500? I was thinking burning a DVD or doing some processor-intensive .mp4 encoding, but who knows if those things will be plausible. So ideas for that would be appreciated, and thanks for all the replies.

Joe
 
jphoc said:
My only problem with this is that you can't use 3rd party apps to show hardware issues, so does anyone know any procedures off hand that keep the fans running at about 5500? I was thinking burning a DVD or doing some processor-intensive .mp4 encoding, but who knows if those things will be plausible. So ideas for that would be appreciated, and thanks for all the replies.

Joe
Click to expand...

EDIT: See xUKHCx's post on the next page.
 
Steve Job's email address isn't steve@mac.com. Its too soon in the process to email him anyway. You need to escalate it through the customer service system fully first.
 
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