MBP defective SATA cable/hard drive and appeasement

[eozdot]

Hello,
I have a MacBook Pro that is ~10 months old and has been defective in a number of ways. In short, I would get a three tone beeping noise when trying to turn it on occasionally (RAM issue, I'm told), and a flashing folder icon when trying to turn on (a broken SATA cable). The SATA cable was repaired once in March, then it broke again in June. I got it repaired again in June, only to have it give me the exact same error the very first time I tried to turn it on after it got "fixed." That fix was at a local Apple authorized store. I then sent it to Apple and I insisted that the computer be replaced when I spoke with the tech support. She made it seem like the computer would be replaced due to the notes she had taken down. I also told her not all of the data had been backed up. When I sent the computer in, I included a note that said do NOT repair, but rather replace the computer and that not all the data was backed up. 12 hours after they got the computer, I got an email saying my repair was complete. I called again to see if they repaired it or replaced it. They said they replaced the SATA cable and the hard drive. They apparently had no record of the notes from the previous tech saying that the computer should have been replaced. I asked if they had recovered the data and I was assured that it was recovered. When I got the computer back, there was no data. I spent several hours on the phone with a senior Apple advisor who went from saying that the company the computer was sent to (Flextronics) did no data migration to saying that they did indeed to data migration and they typically sent that data with the computer on a hard drive. He sent an inquiry about the data, but several days later I was told they could not locate the hard drive and hence all my data was gone. Then they started talking about appeasement. I asked if I could get free AppleCare, since I don't already have it and I'm almost at the end of my warranty and the computer had broken numerous times. They said they were unable to do this, but they would send me a hard drive instead. I was also told I would have to fill out some paperwork and agreements to get the hard drive, but then I got an email saying it would ship soon.

I guess my main question for the community is has anyone else had similar issues with a MacBook Pro or had an appeasement sent to them? I really feel like Apple has totally screwed me over and kept lying to me. It's been very frustrating to deal with and on top of that I have none of my data from the past year. Any suggestions/comments?

 

[KUguardgrl13]

Hello,
I have a MacBook Pro that is ~10 months old and has been defective in a number of ways. In short, I would get a three tone beeping noise when trying to turn it on occasionally (RAM issue, I'm told), and a flashing folder icon when trying to turn on (a broken SATA cable). The SATA cable was repaired once in March, then it broke again in June. I got it repaired again in June, only to have it give me the exact same error the very first time I tried to turn it on after it got "fixed." That fix was at a local Apple authorized store. I then sent it to Apple and I insisted that the computer be replaced when I spoke with the tech support. She made it seem like the computer would be replaced due to the notes she had taken down. I also told her not all of the data had been backed up. When I sent the computer in, I included a note that said do NOT repair, but rather replace the computer and that not all the data was backed up. 12 hours after they got the computer, I got an email saying my repair was complete. I called again to see if they repaired it or replaced it. They said they replaced the SATA cable and the hard drive. They apparently had no record of the notes from the previous tech saying that the computer should have been replaced. I asked if they had recovered the data and I was assured that it was recovered. When I got the computer back, there was no data. I spent several hours on the phone with a senior Apple advisor who went from saying that the company the computer was sent to (Flextronics) did no data migration to saying that they did indeed to data migration and they typically sent that data with the computer on a hard drive. He sent an inquiry about the data, but several days later I was told they could not locate the hard drive and hence all my data was gone. Then they started talking about appeasement. I asked if I could get free AppleCare, since I don't already have it and I'm almost at the end of my warranty and the computer had broken numerous times. They said they were unable to do this, but they would send me a hard drive instead. I was also told I would have to fill out some paperwork and agreements to get the hard drive, but then I got an email saying it would ship soon.

I guess my main question for the community is has anyone else had similar issues with a MacBook Pro or had an appeasement sent to them? I really feel like Apple has totally screwed me over and kept lying to me. It's been very frustrating to deal with and on top of that I have none of my data from the past year. Any suggestions/comments?

Had a similar issue with my 09 13" MBP. I had AppleCare, and it really started acting up in the third year. I took it in to an authorized service provider several times and was promised the last time I took it there that they would give me a new logic board if it happened again. Unfortunately they closed the store location in my city, so I had to go to Apple the next time. My AppleCare had run out by then, but the Genius was very nice and gave me a free SATA cable and hard drive. Then it happened again a few months later, and another Genius tried a reinstall of OS X. That obviously didn't work. So I went in for what was probably the six or seventh repair on that machine and got yet another SATA cable replacement, also free. By then the machine was four years old and I couldn't trust it to not continue to break every few months with regular use, so I bought a late-2013 13" rMBP. The 09 still works great as a secondary media machine.

So I got comped for several out of warranty repairs, but I never got a free replacement or any other deal. As they always say around here, your mileage may vary. A different Genius could very well give you a replacement. Unfortunately a lot of them aren't knowledgable about this issue even though it goes back to the 2009 unibody models.

 

[ilikewhey]

this happened to my 2010 15inch mbp refurb. had problem since day one, would not recognize cd drive during boot so no way i can upgrade via cd, numerous harddrive issues replaced it twice, talked to senior advisor as well, they insist on keep repairing.
to keep me happy they told me i have store credit on accessories, but with apple store accessories so overpriced the best i can get is couple cables. i basically told them i'm not settling all this pain in my ass for some cables, they agreed and send me 2 ipod nano. however they just kept on replacing parts, they even replace the whole logic board but i still getting errors with the harddrives and daily task.

glad i bought extra applecare cause this problem kept going on even past the 3 year applecare, finally on 3.5 year i had to reformat, so i popped in the cd again and still had the same problem, i contacted senior advisor again and this time they finally agreed to replace it. i even made a point that my 15inch has a dedicated gpu while the iris pro is only a onboard, so they bumped me up and gave me the top of the line haswell 15inch.

my point is you gotta keep pushing, threaten them that you will escalate this to the BBB if they do not keep their word. look at this like another business transaction.

btw genius bars are bunch of morons, go straight to the senior advisors they will resolve ur matters much to the point, the genius bars just beats around the bushes.