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Bought a Macbook in the UK, battery faulty, advice please?

M

mikeyda

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 20, 2007
2
0
I've been looking out for a replacement for my wife's iBook, so when I heard about the Toys R Us clearance, I went down. I was shown a Macbook which was a bit grubby and had a key missing, but it was running fine, the serial number & specs matched what was on the box etc. I then paid for the machine and signed the form accepting that these goods were supplied with a 90 day warranty from the store in case it was faulty.

Anyway, what I hadn't noticed was that the battery was faulty. Its been run down or not charged for a few days, so now isn't recognised by the machine. I've tried the troubleshooting from the Apple support section, but nothing has worked.

So, I was just wondering where I stand? Putting the serial number in to the Apple site reckons the Macbook was purchased last July and is therefore out of warranty. Toys R Us are saying that they can't do anything to help.

So, have I only myself to blame here? Do I just have to accept my mistake and pony up the cash for a replacement battery? Or do i still have one year's Applecare on the device given I have a receipt from a few days ago?

Any advice? Apart from paying more attention obviously!

Thanks,


Mikey.
 
I have just bought a similar MacBook from Toys R Us (with a dead battery). I queried the 90 day TRS warranty form and the (helpful) guy I was dealing with phoned Apple as he thought the 90 day issue was just Toys R Us trying to save aggro with a long tail of dealing with Apple gear that most of their staff have no clue about.

I was told that Apple said they will still provide a One Year Warranty from the date of purchase, provided you have the receipt. I made sure the TRS Warranty sheet was amended to say this before I signed it. I intend to vist Apple Regent St and get the battery swapped out, we will see then if there is a problem!

Secondly - there was a known battery fault on the early Core Duo MacBooks, which my one is. The warranty on batteries was extended to 2 years, so you should be ok to get a replacement from Apple even if the above is not the case for you. See here

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/04/27/apple_battery_update_april_27_2007/

Thirdly - as far as I know the Toys R Us equipment was sold "sight as seen" ie mucky and maybe a missing key or two, but they were not sold as faulty. The form you signed gives you a 90 day warranty with them to fix faults, so they should deal with it or refund your money.


But I would bank on getting a battery from Apple.

Good luck
 
Thanks guys. I wanted to be sure of where I stood before I spoke to anyone, but I'm just off the phone with my local repair agent. They're happy to reset the Applecare date to a year from the receipt, will order a new battery and have also said they'll replace the keyboard which has suffered decolouration.

Talk about surprised, I was all ready for a fight and it kind of caught me off guard. Result :)
 
mikeyda said:
Thanks guys. I wanted to be sure of where I stood before I spoke to anyone, but I'm just off the phone with my local repair agent. They're happy to reset the Applecare date to a year from the receipt, will order a new battery and have also said they'll replace the keyboard which has suffered decolouration.

Talk about surprised, I was all ready for a fight and it kind of caught me off guard. Result :)
Click to expand...

Good news. Is that an Apple Store, or an Apple reseller/agent, out of interest? And are they anywhere near London, as they sound extra helpful!
 
Thanks for this thread too! I bought a "bargain" Macbook which I was starting to have concerns about, but my local repair place were very helpful. To be honest I didn't even know I had one so close to me, but I popped in on the off-chance earlier and they were very helpful.

The receipt doesn't have the serial number on it which was a bit of a concern, but they said that when they look at the details on the Apple system, it should show that it was registered by Toys R Us. The battery is a known problem but they also noted that the dis-colouration on my keyboard and case was more than just grubby fingers and they're going to try and get that replaced too.
 
Regent Street Genius Bar

If you go there and ask nicely, I'm sure they can source you the missing key!

F
 
Update - Change date of purchase

Just an update. Went to Regent St but they said they can not amend the purchase dates on their system for me (?) but it needs to be done centrally through the website here:

http://www.apple.com/uk/support/service/help/warrantycheck/dateofpurchase.html

After you do this, you are then emailed a link to a fax form, to print off and fill in. It gives a USA fax number which I could not get through on at all. Don't bother with that, I phoned Applecare Europe and got this email address

dop_change@euro.apple.com

I scanned & emailed my receipt & supporting info at 6pm and got an email at midnight confirming purchase dates all updated :) .

Hope this proves useful info to someone.
 
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