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Canadian looking to buy a Macbook Pro

magiic

magiic

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 17, 2008
244
14
San Jose
I am looking to buy a Macbook Pro and take advantage of the free iPod offer available to students. Unfortunately there is no Apple Store where I live or Apple campus store I am left to buy it from the Apple website.

After joining these forums a little while ago and reading through them I've noticed a lot of people having issues with the apple notebooks and having to go through multiple exchanges to get working ones. The problem for me is I don't want to shell out $2600 for a laptop that Im going to have to mail back out five or six times to get replaced because I don't have a local apple store. Are problems really this widespread? Is there an alternative to mailing it off if I don't have an apple store?
 
dont worry about getting a bad mac. people like to complain which is why you see so many of those posts. people who have working macs are enjoying them and probably dont have time to write about their good experiences.
 
sahni130 said:
dont worry about getting a bad mac. people like to complain which is why you see so many of those posts. people who have working macs are enjoying them and probably dont have time to write about their good experiences.
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Yeah, why would they write about it if they're satisfied? :D

Go ahead and order the Mac, like Twincitiesdan said, you'll be fine. ;)
 
TwinCities Dan said:
No, its not that bad. These forums attract ALL the complaints/bad stories, go ahead and order online, I'm sure you'll be fine... :)
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I've had multiple replacements and have talked about it quite a bit on MacRumors forums. It's true that we mostly see the comlaints. It's always for sake of complainging though. We sometimes like to warn others of what they might run into and if there is a better way to get a better experience.
 
magiic said:
Does anyone have any experience with the warranty/applecare process in Canada?
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Good and bad, but definitely a must have. I don't have an Apple store in my town and therefore go to an authorised service provider, which has been pretty good in terms of service.

By bad, I mean sometimes you have to be very persistent. In my case, the screen of my original MacBook kept flickering. They could not find a solution even after replacing multiple parts. The last part they wanted to replaced was the HDD. This is when I politely, but firmly, asked for a replacement.

Tips (can't stress that one enough). If you get do a get Mac and needs to call Apple, reset the PRAM first. THis will save you a lot of time, because it's the first step they want you to try. Sincerely, I hope you don't have to call them.

Enjoy your future Mac.

--
Patrick
 
patrickmacrumor said:
I've had multiple replacements and have talked about it quite a bit on MacRumors forums. It's true that we mostly see the comlaints. It's always for sake of complainging though. We sometimes like to warn others of what they might run into and if there is a better way to get a better experience.
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I understand/admit that bad things can and do happen, yet I respectfully stand by my original post. :)
 
I've purchased items from the Apple store online. I've also had to deal with AppleCare (albeit a simple problem) in the past.

Simple enough process, and the AC person I talked to didn't give me any trouble. Yeah, there can be a wait, especially if you have to send your notebook itself in for repair. That's not enough to dissuade me from buying again.
 
Thanks for the info. It sucks not having an apple store nearby. Mailing off my macbook would suck. Does anyone have any experience with AppleCare while travelling?
 
If you're willing to take the ferry, you can always come to the Vancouver Apple store.
 
Applecare repair

I have to take advantage of the Applecare for repair a few year back in Canada. You should be able to take your laptop to any Apple reseller that is doing repair for service. At that time, the Applecare was even covering other country, if you travel you just have to find a Apple reseller. I have not read the most recent version of this agreement though.

I have a MBP and it is one of the best computer that I have used. After over a year, I am still excited to use it.
 
teflon said:
If you're willing to take the ferry, you can always come to the Vancouver Apple store.
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With gas and ferry prices where they are I'd be adding way to much extra to the cost of the laptop taking it to Vancouver :(
 
magiic said:
Thanks for the info. It sucks not having an apple store nearby. Mailing off my macbook would suck. Does anyone have any experience with AppleCare while travelling?
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Do you have an Apple authorised repair centre close to where you live? I don't have an Apple store close to me either, but I am lucky to have an authorised repair centre in the same town, plus I'm not too far away from U of Waterloo which is also an authorised repair centre.

--
Patrick
 
Do you have a Best Buy or Future Shop close by? They usually offer warranty similar to Apple's and you only have to bring the computer back to them if problems arise.
 
If it helps, it appears that the computer store on the UVic campus is an Apple authorized reseller and repair centre.

I would check first before trekking there, just to be sure. But they're closer than the ferry to Vancouver. Might be faster to have the work done, with it being the summer break it's possible the staff will be less busy.
 
patrickmacrumor said:
Do you have an Apple authorised repair centre close to where you live? I don't have an Apple store close to me either, but I am lucky to have an authorised repair centre in the same town, plus I'm not too far away from U of Waterloo which is also an authorised repair centre.

--
Patrick
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I'll have to look into that. I've never heard of one but I don't venture into town very often.

teflon said:
Do you have a Best Buy or Future Shop close by? They usually offer warranty similar to Apple's and you only have to bring the computer back to them if problems arise.
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I would normally get it at futureshop but I want the student discount with the free iPod Touch. I also will be leaving the country for 8-10 months in the fall and futureshops warranty will be useless to me then whereas apple care will keep me covered (theoretically anyways)

scienide09 said:
If it helps, it appears that the computer store on the UVic campus is an Apple authorized reseller and repair centre.

I would check first before trekking there, just to be sure. But they're closer than the ferry to Vancouver. Might be faster to have the work done, with it being the summer break it's possible the staff will be less busy.
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I will look into that. Hopefully I don't need to get it serviced in the summer though as I won't likely be buying it until August :p
 
Magiic, there are a number of authorized Apple resellers in Victoria. The first 4 or 5 at least on the list are also authorized service

Westworld on Douglas
Restart on Yates
SoHo on Douglas & Burnside
ServiTech on Saanich & Blanshard
Long & McQuade on Hillside
London Drugs on Yates, on Quadra, on Tillicum, and on Sooke Rd.
Moore & Associates on William St
UVic campus computer store
Staples and FutureShop (not that I would recommend going there)

Just go to http://www.apple.com/ca/buy/locator/ or click the Find aa Reseller link on the bottom of the home page

Plus I hear tell there's a good place to buy RAM in Victoria as well.
 
CanadaRAM said:
Magiic, there are a number of authorized Apple resellers in Victoria

Westworld on Douglas
Restart on Yates
SoHo on Douglas & Burnside
ServiTech on Saanich & Blanshard
London Drugs on Yates, on Quadra, on Tillicum, and on Sooke Rd.
Long & McQuade on Hillside
Moore & Associates on William St
UVic campus computer store
Staples and FutureShop (not that I would recommend going there)

Just go to http://www.apple.com/ca/buy/locator/ or click the Find aa Reseller link on the bottom of the home page

Plus I hear tell there's a good place to buy RAM in Victoria as well.
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Score! The London Drugs on Sooke Rd is not even 10 minutes from my house.
And I will be ordering my Macbook RAM upgrade from that certain RAM store in Victoria :)
 
I guess Im not buying it locally as I need to buy it direct from apple to qualify for student discount and the free iPod
 
patrickmacrumor said:
If you get do a get Mac and needs to call Apple, reset the PRAM first. THis will save you a lot of time, because it's the first step they want you to try. Sincerely, I hope you don't have to call them.
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Has this ever solved anything EVER? Seems like the phrase "command option P R" is just another way of saying false hope.
 
Nothing wrong with buying online...they actually take care of you pretty well if you need to send it back. This forum is not an accurate representation of the Mac world. Most people now register here because they have a problem that they need an answer for. Fortunately, you have an excellent community here at MR to help you :p You are pretty much guaranteed a response within 10 minutes haha, sometimes less.
 
queshy said:
Nothing wrong with buying online...they actually take care of you pretty well if you need to send it back. This forum is not an accurate representation of the Mac world. Most people now register here because they have a problem that they need an answer for. Fortunately, you have an excellent community here at MR to help you :p You are pretty much guaranteed a response within 10 minutes haha, sometimes less.
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I've definitely noticed people respond quickly around here
 
magiic said:
I've definitely noticed people respond quickly around here
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It's because we are pretty passionate people. Some are passionate about the hardware, some about the OS, some about both, and some (like me) about computers in general.

I signed up here because I wanted to share a solution to a problem that a lot of people have been asking a solution for on the net: why shared computers stop showing up in Finder's sidebar (Leopard). Since I did not find a solution, and had AppleCare, I called them. After I got the solution, I wanted to share it with others.

I'm a fairly new Mac user (2006), but have a programmer/technical support person for 10 years now. It's very addictive to be able to contribute and help others. My philosophy is: if my experience (good and bad) can help another user have a good experience, it's worth sharing it.

--
Patrick
 
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