Earlier this week I dropped my backpack containing my 11 inch macbook air. My backpack has a padded laptop compartment and the mba was in an incase neoprene padded sleeve. I suppose the machine fell 'just right', though, and there is now a very small dent in the top corner of the screen shell (about 1mm deep and 3 mm across). Obviously I was upset, but luckily everything was working fine.
I started checking around online about getting it fixed. Aside from finding out that repair would be prohibitively expensive, I also came across a few threads warning that applecare would no longer be honored if the machine had any signs of physical damage.
I called applecare and was informed that any damage not caused by the fall (e.g., my battery failed in a couple of months) would be completely covered and that the mac technicians were very good about figuring out whether the problem was due to the fall for some other cause. For example, she told me, the . Just for peace of mind, though, the applecare rep advised me to take the machine into an applestore, have diagnostics run, and thus document that everything was in working order after the dent so that any future problems would not be falsely blamed on what caused the dent.
I took the mba into the apple store and was floored buy the poor customer service I got from the geniuses working at the apple store. I was informed that from here on out anything that happened to the machine would be blamed on my misuse of the machine and that I would have to pay to have the entire top of the machine (including screen as it is integrated with the case) replaced or my apple care would cover nothing. When I told the geniuses (including the store manager) what I had been told by applecare, they informed me that they were sorry that the applecare rep had misinformed me, but any cosmetic damage trumps applecare coverage as it is a sure sign of misuse.
I'm kind of taken aback. We're talking about a laptop. A portable machine. I'm unhappy that I dropped my backpack, and that was my fault, but completely voiding apple care because of cosmetic damage to the machine seems unreasonable. Would applecare be voided because of a large scratch (something that easily could result from the same kind of drop my machine had)? Things like this happen with laptops. I've owned several laptops and this is the second I've dropped. I had an old powerbook that fell 4 feet onto a concrete floor and was just fine. Why should I have ever bothered with applecare then? If applecare only covers problems caused by apple manufacturing, it seems it should be given gratis (after all, spending thousands of dollars on a machine should assure you a working product).
Any advice? Does everyone else just not have accidents, or am I just unlucky?
Thanks for reading.
I started checking around online about getting it fixed. Aside from finding out that repair would be prohibitively expensive, I also came across a few threads warning that applecare would no longer be honored if the machine had any signs of physical damage.
I called applecare and was informed that any damage not caused by the fall (e.g., my battery failed in a couple of months) would be completely covered and that the mac technicians were very good about figuring out whether the problem was due to the fall for some other cause. For example, she told me, the . Just for peace of mind, though, the applecare rep advised me to take the machine into an applestore, have diagnostics run, and thus document that everything was in working order after the dent so that any future problems would not be falsely blamed on what caused the dent.
I took the mba into the apple store and was floored buy the poor customer service I got from the geniuses working at the apple store. I was informed that from here on out anything that happened to the machine would be blamed on my misuse of the machine and that I would have to pay to have the entire top of the machine (including screen as it is integrated with the case) replaced or my apple care would cover nothing. When I told the geniuses (including the store manager) what I had been told by applecare, they informed me that they were sorry that the applecare rep had misinformed me, but any cosmetic damage trumps applecare coverage as it is a sure sign of misuse.
I'm kind of taken aback. We're talking about a laptop. A portable machine. I'm unhappy that I dropped my backpack, and that was my fault, but completely voiding apple care because of cosmetic damage to the machine seems unreasonable. Would applecare be voided because of a large scratch (something that easily could result from the same kind of drop my machine had)? Things like this happen with laptops. I've owned several laptops and this is the second I've dropped. I had an old powerbook that fell 4 feet onto a concrete floor and was just fine. Why should I have ever bothered with applecare then? If applecare only covers problems caused by apple manufacturing, it seems it should be given gratis (after all, spending thousands of dollars on a machine should assure you a working product).
Any advice? Does everyone else just not have accidents, or am I just unlucky?
Thanks for reading.
. If you are absolutely certain the validity of your applecare is gone, there is a cancellation method. I found this in their terms a while ago, and it stated that you could get a refund of a prorated amount minus $20 or something like that. Look at the terms and conditions for this if you need it.