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Furious with Apple re my MBP

C

cuanurse

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 26, 2007
129
0
Virginia
I have owned macs since I can remember (my first one was the Apple II GS) so I am a huge apple fan and have been for a long time.
Last year I bought a MBP and mostly I have been content with it. However yesterday I realized that I was not able to put a disc into the drive and after googling it I saw that several others have had this issue with the 15in MBP.
I took it into the apple store and was given a plastic tool and told that the only thing to do was the pry it into place. I was told that this happens from resting your wrists on the metal while typing. Isn't this normal usage? The keyboard is set back a few inches from the front- what am I supposed to do? It isn't even a year old and something that I consider to be a design flaw isn't covered under my warranty (I even got extended warranty with apple care) and is considered "accidental damage."
Needless to say I am pissed about it. When I spend over $2000 on something I expect it to be quality and I also expect that weakness is hardware would be covered. To get it fixed I was told it needed to be sent out which costs about $700. So with my apple care and sending this out I would be spending half the cost of the computer which isn't worth it in my opinion. If I would have gotten the plastic computer (the cheaper macbook) where the casing is plastic and the drive is along the side/back- it wouldn't have been an issue. Not only that... the 17in MBP has a plastic casing surrounding the disc drive (the 15in still does not- even in the newest ones) so it seems like the 15in MBP is the only one with this issue.
I have figured out: applecare isn't worth it since it doesn't even cover normal usage, get the cheaper plastic cpu because apparently the quality of the casing is better, and cost isn't an indicator of quality.
 
OH wow! Have you tried to call? I mean I know what the apple store person told you but it could never help to call. But man that does suck!
 
bluedoggiant said:
buy yourself a superdrive for less than $100
Click to expand...

Wait a second here...what the hell does that have to do with his problem? :rolleyes: Buy a superdrive and what? Install it? Doesn't that void his warranty and still not resolve the issue. It sounds like the metal is bent to some degree.

squeeks said:
how is that going to help?
Click to expand...
It's not, clearly the guy didn't bother reading the post.

As the owner of a 15" PowerBook (same design slower insides) I can say I had wondered how the slot would hold up under normal use. My PB has spent at least 60% of the time docked on my desk so I can't say I've run into the issue. I would call this a flaw and worth calling someone else about. I would tend to think it was highly uncomfortable to put any real pressure on your wrists to do any damage to the slot, so yeah, I'd say this should be covered. If Apple can somehow cover the staining they can cover this. Not to mention if there are no signs of damage or warping elsewhere, I would definitely call.

Also, I would mention that some moron handed you a plastic tool and said that was the only fix.
 
jessica. said:
Wait a second here...what the hell does that have to do with his problem? :rolleyes: Buy a superdrive and what? Install it? Doesn't that void his warranty and still not resolve the issue. It sounds like the metal is bent to some degree.


It's not, clearly the guy didn't bother reading the post.
Click to expand...

im guessing he was talking about the external superdrive the Air uses, that isnt really a fix, thats just an added PITA
 
I feel for you. My dad bought the same model and it happened to him as well. I got a MacBook for my birthday and it's been nothing but greatness since I've gotten it. My dad just kept complaining and insisting how it was a design flaw. eventually, Apple fixed it for free and he now uses a separate keyboard when not on the fly.
 
i dont know what ya'll are doing to your machines, but im pressing down on the dvd drive like you described, and mine dosent really flex at all unless i push really hard
 
squeeks said:
how is that going to help?
Click to expand...

jessica. said:
Wait a second here...what the hell does that have to do with his problem? :rolleyes: Buy a superdrive and what? Install it? Doesn't that void his warranty and still not resolve the issue. It sounds like the metal is bent to some degree.


It's not, clearly the guy didn't bother reading the post.

As the owner of a 15" PowerBook (same design slower insides) I can say I had wondered how the slot would hold up under normal use. My PB has spent at least 60% of the time docked on my desk so I can't say I've run into the issue. I would call this a flaw and worth calling someone else about. I would tend to think it was highly uncomfortable to put any real pressure on your wrists to do any damage to the slot, so yeah, I'd say this should be covered. If Apple can somehow cover the staining they can cover this. Not to mention if there are no signs of damage or warping elsewhere, I would definitely call.

Also, I would mention that some moron handed you a plastic tool and said that was the only fix.
Click to expand...

squeeks said:
im guessing he was talking about the external superdrive the Air uses, that isnt really a fix, thats just an added PITA
Click to expand...

no lol, buy an internal superdrive and install it, i read the post.
 
Trust me... I am not doing anything out of the ordinary. Also, my computer spends the majority of it's time docked as well (I would say upwards of 80-90% of the time it remains on my desk).

So to update. I called AppleCare and basically was like this is unacceptable that this is not covered under warranty. The metal was bent through normal usage and the disc drive being there is a design flaw. Someone must know about this because the 17in now has a plastic casing- probably to prevent this from happening. Again I repeated that with the less expensive macbook, this wouldn't be an issue. Also if something done through normal usage can void the warranty, it should be written somewhere as a warning. With a lot of complaining and talking with the supervisor they have made an "exception" and tomorrow I will take my MBP to the apple store to be boxed up and sent away for a few weeks on their tab. YAY! Now I can complain about missing my cpu for a few weeks (just kidding).

Again, the newest 15in MBP looks to have the same issue so beware when buying them. Not sure why the 17in has the plastic to reinforce the drive but not the 15 and I will definitely be aware of this in the future.
:apple:
 
cuanurse said:
With a lot of complaining and talking with the supervisor they have made an "exception" and tomorrow I will take my MBP to the apple store to be boxed up and sent away for a few weeks on their tab. YAY! Now I can complain about missing my cpu for a few weeks (just kidding).
Click to expand...
Good news. Please let us know how it goes.
 
A disk I had in today did come out a slightly differently now I think of it. Going to be watching out for this, man what next!!!!
 
Well I took it to the Apple Store today to get my MBP sent off and they said that this was a "huge" exception and even though it had gone through applecare, he had to go through his boss at the apple store. It didn't matter that I had already talked with a supervisor (with applecare) and had a case number to say that this was alright. I was told that the manager at the apple store would have never okayed the exception and that applecare was entirely different from them at the store. (The guy actually seemed irritated). He was like... let me see if I can fix this. He was going to use that plastic tool to pry it open and I said- no you aren't. I was told this was going to be fixed (not a quick fix). So I brought my MBP home and plan to send it off myself.
Is it really that difficult to provide a quality guarantee? You would think a product worth a couple thousand dollars would be covered under normal usage. If my computer was years old that would be another thing... but it isn't. This is ridiculous.
 
cuanurse said:
Well I took it to the Apple Store today to get my MBP sent off and they said that this was a "huge" exception and even though it had gone through applecare, he had to go through his boss at the apple store. It didn't matter that I had already talked with a supervisor (with applecare) and had a case number to say that this was alright. I was told that the manager at the apple store would have never okayed the exception and that applecare was entirely different from them at the store. (The guy actually seemed irritated). He was like... let me see if I can fix this. He was going to use that plastic tool to pry it open and I said- no you aren't. I was told this was going to be fixed (not a quick fix). So I brought my MBP home and plan to send it off myself.
Is it really that difficult to provide a quality guarantee? You would think a product worth a couple thousand dollars would be covered under normal usage. If my computer was years old that would be another thing... but it isn't. This is ridiculous.
Click to expand...
I find that managers at Apple stores tend to get frustrated when they are required to deal with complicated things. My dad bought an iPhone for my mom for Christmas and they accidentally charged us twice for it so we had to go and talk to the manager and he was seemed upset for no reason.
 
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