How to deal with Apple Customer Service?

[sikkinixx]

OK, heres where I am at.

I bought a Macbook the day they arrived at the store here in Vancouver. Everything was gravy until I began to have random shut downs. I took it to Macstation (a local Apple Authorized Repair place) and they replaced the logic board. Then I began to boot to a dark grey screen. After two more visits (they claimed they fixed it each time, but they didnt) I got fed up.

University started so I took the macbook to the Campus dealer instead. The techie played around with it for a while and asked me to see if it worked. I used ot for a few days and it still had the boot problem. SO! I took it back and he said he would put a new logic board in it and see if that fixed the problem.

Fair enough. A week goes by and I go and check up. Techie tells me Apple has put the logic board on backorder, and he has no ETA on it. Fine.

So today I go back, 5 days later (so almost 2 weeks now). Techie says sorry but Apple still hasn't shipped him the logic board, he has put it on a rush but to no avail. He tells me that it will take about 2 days after they have it for him to get it, then a day to install it (he is a busy guy, so I understand).

So I am looking at Tuesday at the absolute earliest, but more likely end of next week or beyond. But I NEED this damn thing. I bought it for school and taking hours of History and Econ notes by hand doesn't cut it anymore. I don't know what to do. Techie told me to maybe try calling Apple and they might do something for me if I light a fire under their ass.

My question is who should I talk to? What should I do? I mean, a 3-4 week wait to get it fixed is brutal and I have already brought it in 3 times, so in total I will have been without it ~5 weeks since I have owned it!!!! Its only 5 months old! So 20% of the time I haven't had this damn thing due to problems If I wanted this much trouble I would have bought a Dell...

 

[drake]

Thought the determined that the shutdown issue was due to the heatsink? Should take less time to get that than waiting for a motherboard.

 

[Ibjr]

Call Applecare, stress words like unsatisfied, unhappy, angered, betrayed. Service reps seem to have certain words they lock onto and respond to.

IBjr

 

[roadapple]

sucks to be a non-us apple user. be tough ans demand what you expect.

 

[sikkinixx]

alrighty, I will give it a go in a little bit. Can't wait to be on hold for an hour like last time

 

[Spock]

Call Applecare, stress words like unsatisfied, unhappy, angered, betrayed. Service reps seem to have certain words they lock onto and respond to.

IBjr

So very true.

 

[sikkinixx]

So I talked to the woman and she told me supply guys have no idea of when they are getting more logic boards in stock. So I have no clue of when I will get my laptop back *sigh*

Does anyone know where to find email address of customer support or something? A nice firm, angry yet polite email gets things done faster in my past experiences.

 

[suneohair]

So I talked to the woman and she told me supply guys have no idea of when they are getting more logic boards in stock. So I have no clue of when I will get my laptop back *sigh*

Does anyone know where to find email address of customer support or something? A nice firm, angry yet polite email gets things done faster in my past experiences.

Demand a replacement. Tell you want a replacement on its way to you now. No games.

Once they do that, ask for retribution. Here is what I mean:

I bought a 23" ACD a couple weeks ago. 1st one had horrible backlight bleeding, 2nd one had quite a few stuck pixels, last one nearly perfect... very very light backlight bleeding and one stuck pixel. But I called to see what they could do.

But for those 2 weeks, I had a display for about 2 days. Because I have to send the old one back before they send out a new one. I couldnt get them to bend on this policy. So they offered me 4 choices:

1: Return it in the fashion I had been doing.
2: Place a new order, and then recieve a credit when they get the old one
3: Try to take it into an apple store
4: Take a credit of $90.00

Since I found this ACD to be pretty much excellent, I took the cash. So now I have a great display and I $90 for a new ipod

Anyhow, the point is once you get them to take care of it, NOW. Tell them they need to do something for your lost time.

But be firm, you want a notebook and you want it now as well as retribution for the hassle. I would do it for you, but I think you can handle it.

 

[sikkinixx]

*snip*

okie dokie, but i still don't know who I should talk to. At a store or whatever you go to the customer service desk and they sort the crap out. But Apple doesn't have that, and the Applecare guys don't seem to know what to do. Should I ask for a manager?

I'm not so good at raising a fuss but Apple has peeved me this time.

 

[suneohair]

okie dokie, but i still don't know who I should talk to. At a store or whatever you go to the customer service desk and they sort the crap out. But Apple doesn't have that, and the Applecare guys don't seem to know what to do. Should I ask for a manager?

I'm not so good at raising a fuss but Apple has peeved me this time.

Go as high as you can. Get a manager and tell him you want a new macbook right now. No "we will replace the logicboard, but it is backorderd" bull.

You don't have to raise a fuss. Just be firm. They owe you a working laptop.

And they better have it in your hands right now. Bring the laptop with everything that came with, all packaged up how you got it. Go into the store ask to speak with a manager. Explain what is happening. Hand him the box and kindly ask him to get you a new one.

Just be nice. Don't take no for an answer because you don't have to. If he says "well... i dont know, we can just fix it" you say no. I want a new one.

If he still refuses, tell him to issue you a refund.

It is better that they havent repaired it yet. Because if they had, your chances of getting a replacement/refund would be slim.

Don't let them touch your laptop. No repair. New. End of story. Good luck!

 

[generik]

On the bright side the long wait for logic boards might mean something

 

[sikkinixx]

just to update this. I got my macbook back today.... guy said it was fine...get it home and plug it in. Do all the iTunes, etc updates. Restart and THE GRAY SCREEN AGAIN same f***ing problem as the others. I showed the Apple tech guy this last time and he didn't know what it was, and now its happening again. 3rd damn logic board. Apple is gonna hear about this tomorrow am...