Exchanging BTO Penry with Yellow Screen/Speaker Issues

[LitigatorG]

I'm on the phone right now with Apple Support, and I've told them I have the screen yellowing problem, the speaker hissing problem and a sticky latch.

I'm being told that I have to send my MBP in and THEN they will ship me a new MBP - or, I can take it into the Apple Store and they will take it from me and try to repair it.

It's a BTO with the 250GB hard drive.

Shouldn't they ship me a new one first? and send me a box and shipping labels to ship the busted one back?

Anyone have any experience with this? I'm being told by apple-guy that they don't do that.

 

[wk127001]

I had a similar problem and they won't send you a new one until you send the broken one back. I happened to have room on my card some I just bought another one before I got the refund for my broken one.

 

[JCT]

I'm on the phone right now with Apple Support, and I've told them I have the screen yellowing problem, the speaker hissing problem and a sticky latch.

I'm being told that I have to send my MBP in and THEN they will ship me a new MBP - or, I can take it into the Apple Store and they will take it from me and try to repair it.

It's a BTO with the 250GB hard drive.

Shouldn't they ship me a new one first? and send me a box and shipping labels to ship the busted one back?

Anyone have any experience with this? I'm being told by apple-guy that they don't do that.

This is actually SOP for Apple. I actually started buying from the retail stores instead of BTO to allow for quick exchange if necessary -- I only had to use it once, but it was worth it to give up a small bit of machine tweaking.

The turnaround so be pretty quick, though.

JT

 

[DocSmitty]

They should be willing to pay for shipping on a defective product. In fact if you do some forum searching I think I've seen instances of other people getting the shipping box from Apple. But unfortunately, no they are not going to send you another laptop first

 

[LitigatorG]

I had a similar problem and they won't send you a new one until you send the broken one back. I happened to have room on my card some I just bought another one before I got the refund for my broken one.

This is actually SOP for Apple. I actually started buying from the retail stores instead of BTO to allow for quick exchange if necessary -- I only had to use it once, but it was worth it to give up a small bit of machine tweaking.

The turnaround so be pretty quick, though.

JT

Thanks for the replies. I understand why they do it. I am still otp w/ them and I offered to give them my cc# and authorize them to charge my card if I don't send my busted one back w/in 7 days (or some reasonable time) - which is exactly the procedure they employed when I had to replace a two week out of warranty b/w 4g iPod.

I'm on hold and she's checking to see if they can do that...

 

[johnellisdm]

yes... in this aspect, apple support completely sucks compared to dell or the others. they have no infrastructure to support business applications. if something goes wrong with your laptop that you use for work, they want to take if for 5 - 7 business days. i guess you take a holiday or sick time, then.

with most other companies, next day and even same day on site support is available. i think this is one of the areas that apple really needs to concentrate on.

i'd love to see dell do a apple rip-off commercial. mac is sitting in a box, pc asks what's up... he says, waiting in a warehouse for repairs... etc.

one thing i've done (though you prolly didn't have it long enough to become dependant on it yet) is buy a replacement from somewhere with a generous return policy (make sure they don't have a re-stocking fee) and then transfer the disk image over. when your laptop gets back, format, then return the one you bought.

 

[LitigatorG]

They should be willing to pay for shipping on a defective product. In fact if you do some forum searching I think I've seen instances of other people getting the shipping box from Apple. But unfortunately, no they are not going to send you another laptop first

That's what I thought!

I told them, why should the burden be placed on me? I spent $2k on a "professional" machine, and it doesn't perform as advertised. Why should I bear the burden of being without it?

 

[LitigatorG]

yes... in this aspect, apple support completely sucks compared to dell or the others. they have no infrastructure to support business applications. if something goes wrong with your laptop that you use for work, they want to take if for 5 - 7 business days. i guess you take a holiday or sick time, then.

I even suggested that they could ship the BTO to my local Apple Store and I would do the exchange in person. She simply said, "We can't do that." I don't see why.

 

[skye12]

I would of thought the yellow screen issues would be long gone by now.

Is it a single supplier problem? Why isn't quality control catching this?

 

[tanjacob]

I would of thought the yellow screen issues would be long gone by now.

Is it a single supplier problem? Why isn't quality control catching this?

Could this be an issue that happens on the older boards with the 256MB VRAM?

 

[LitigatorG]

I am still otp w/ them and I offered to give them my cc# and authorize them to charge my card if I don't send my busted one back w/in 7 days (or some reasonable time)

Good News.

They are taking my cc# and sending me the new one first, and they will charge my cc only if I do not return the old MBP w/in X days.

It's worth it to press a bit. (I have remained calm, but firm).

 

[markrivers]

I'm on the phone right now with Apple Support, and I've told them I have the screen yellowing problem, the speaker hissing problem and a sticky latch.

I'm being told that I have to send my MBP in and THEN they will ship me a new MBP - or, I can take it into the Apple Store and they will take it from me and try to repair it.

It's a BTO with the 250GB hard drive.

Shouldn't they ship me a new one first? and send me a box and shipping labels to ship the busted one back?

Anyone have any experience with this? I'm being told by apple-guy that they don't do that.

YES it's an inconvenience on your part..
but let's be fair..
the person on the other end doesn't have any WAY to confirm what you're saying.. whether you're scamming them or not.
whether you're switching your "NEW" laptop with an old one.

it's best you go to an APPLE store and have it checked there..
they might.. again MIGHT give you a base model..
but in your case since it's a BTO.. they have to verify your complaints first and see f it falls on a NON-Tolerable category.

you might be surprised that there's a limit for the dead pixels before you can have it exchanged or covered by apple care, i think it's 8..
so even if you have 1-4 dead/stuck pixels.. it falls on a Tolerable category

 

[brandon.vong]

If you look at the LED screen from the side/angle, does it have a different hue color (a slight yellow throughout the whole screen?) compared to looking at it directly from the front? Is the yellow tint specifically located in the lower 1/3 of the screen? I really do not want to have to deal with exchanging my laptop for another.

 

[ArcaneDevice]

well I'm on hold for the third time this week.

On Monday I was told I would have replacement by the end of the week ... just sit back and wait for some prepaid shipping labels.

Friday. Still no labels. Another call to Apple "you'll have them within 24 hours."

Saturday - nope. I don't think so.

So at the current rate it's going to be next weekend before I see a new unit. Which is frankly ridiculous. There's an Apple Store ten minutes away and I can't give them back their own product. Even Best Buy will let you do that and they don't make their products!

My advice. Don't buy anything at the Apple store if you have retail nearby. And if you do buy online, do not buy BTO. It's not worth the hassle. Just buy your own parts where you can and fit them yourself.

This will be the first and last time I buy anything online from Apple. It doesn't get much simpler than sending out a label and if their online store support can't handle that I don't have much confidence in anything else they do.

 

[aforty]

Actually as just a general note, I have had Apple email me Fedex shipping labels that I simply had to print out and slap on a box.

I hope everything works out for you with your replacement unit. Also, you mind posting the screen make and model that has the yellowing issue?

 

[LitigatorG]

Actually as just a general note, I have had Apple email me Fedex shipping labels that I simply had to print out and slap on a box.

I hope everything works out for you with your replacement unit. Also, you mind posting the screen make and model that has the yellowing issue?

I believe it is the 9c82

 

[Shinny]

I'm returning mine too, but they told me that I just need to it out to FedEx and when Fedex get it, I call apple with the tracking number and they will send me a new one instantly.

 

[ArcaneDevice]

Actually as just a general note, I have had Apple email me Fedex shipping labels that I simply had to print out and slap on a box.

I hope everything works out for you with your replacement unit. Also, you mind posting the screen make and model that has the yellowing issue?

an 82, check the yellow thread test for pictures of it's problems.

Finally received shipping info so I can actually send it back now. Coincidentally an hour after I got off the phone with them yesterday. I also received an order number for a new unit they've started processing already. Which is nice. They must have figured after a week of trying to get Apple to let me send it back to them I must have been sincere.

So, time to roll the dice and see if a yellow side comes up later in the week.

 

[ArcaneDevice]

while walking out of the Fed Ex dropoff on Monday, I walked past someone also returning a Macbook Pro. I should have asked him if it was a yellow screener.

 

[jjahshik32]

Whoa this makes me feel even better for keeping my SR 2.4ghz mbp (exchanged it 10 times) with the vivid colors and no yellowing whatsoever!

 

[zepharus]

well I'm on hold for the third time this week.

On Monday I was told I would have replacement by the end of the week ... just sit back and wait for some prepaid shipping labels.

Friday. Still no labels. Another call to Apple "you'll have them within 24 hours."

Saturday - nope. I don't think so.

So at the current rate it's going to be next weekend before I see a new unit. Which is frankly ridiculous. There's an Apple Store ten minutes away and I can't give them back their own product. Even Best Buy will let you do that and they don't make their products!

My advice. Don't buy anything at the Apple store if you have retail nearby. And if you do buy online, do not buy BTO. It's not worth the hassle. Just buy your own parts where you can and fit them yourself.

This will be the first and last time I buy anything online from Apple. It doesn't get much simpler than sending out a label and if their online store support can't handle that I don't have much confidence in anything else they do.

Look back the eff up man... have you ever heard of POLICIES and PROCEDURES? Is it screwed up? Yes it is, and frankly the customers best interest is not taken into account here, but you cannot alter policy for one person.

Imagine if every rep handled customers in a different manner what a nightmare it would be operationally. It is clear that Apple is starting to last in its customer service. what they need is a general Policy change.

 

[ArcaneDevice]

Look back the eff up man... have you ever heard of POLICIES and PROCEDURES? Is it screwed up? Yes it is, and frankly the customers best interest is not taken into account here, but you cannot alter policy for one person.

Imagine if every rep handled customers in a different manner what a nightmare it would be operationally. It is clear that Apple is starting to last in its customer service. what they need is a general Policy change.

Did I say they should change policy for me? No I didn't. So get off your patronizing Apple Corp defensive tower and take a breath. My major beef is the inability for the Apple store to handle a very simple procedure.

They should change the return policy to fall in line with every other major online store that has a retail outlet.

And as we have just seen in this thread and in numerous other places, Apple reps will bend "POLICY" and "PROCEDURE" to conform to any customer if pushed to that.