CHEAP Hard Drive replacing service in San Francisco

[beatledud]

So I was able to obtain one of the much desired/backordered Seagate Momentus 7200 500gb HD for my 2.33g MBP. I had read comments that people were able to have Apple certified technicians replace the drive for $40. However, after calling a dozen repair centers in San Francisco, they all are between $110-125 (either just charging their flat rate for 2 hours of service). This is of course a 15 to 20 minute job for someone who does this a lot (and a 30 minute job for myself, and I've done it about 6 times to other MBPs). No need for an OS install or data transfer, I'm doing this all myself.

I have Apple Care till November on this machine still, and don't want to void my warranty. Any suggestions on where to go or what to do?

 

[rogair]

So I was able to obtain one of the much desired/backordered Seagate Momentus 7200 500gb HD for my 2.33g MBP. I had read comments that people were able to have Apple certified technicians replace the drive for $40. However, after calling a dozen repair centers in San Francisco, they all are between $110-125 (either just charging their flat rate for 2 hours of service). This is of course a 15 to 20 minute job for someone who does this a lot (and a 30 minute job for myself, and I've done it about 6 times to other MBPs). No need for an OS install or data transfer, I'm doing this all myself.

I have Apple Care till November on this machine still, and don't want to void my warranty. Any suggestions on where to go or what to do?

Just do it yourself then... Don't break anything and nobody will know.

 

[beatledud]

Just do it yourself then... Don't break anything and nobody will know.

This brings up another question I had. Do I have to show (or is it attached to my serial #) that the repair was done by an Apple Certified technician to get Apple to service it under Apple Care in the future? Back in the days when I worked for CompUSA, our technicians really didn't do anything documentation wise. But that was 5 years ago, and I don't know if things have changed.