My AppleCare MacBook Pro Upgrade

[The Tuck]

So, I've been back and forth with AppleCare since last October due to issues with my black mid-2007 MacBook. I've had to send it in 4 times and they have replaced the logic board twice, the screen, the top keyboard case, the disk drive, the battery, the battery connector, among other parts.

This last time, I brought it in to my local Apple Store because I could not install a fresh copy of 10.6 on my computer. It would either freeze or fail every time.

When I went to pick it up, I explained my history to the employee and he took a look at the record. "One second," he said. "I'm going to go check on something with the manager."

He got the Genius Bar manager and she cleared me for a new MacBook! I explained that I needed Firewire for my backup hard drive and she bumped me up to the previous gen 13" MacBook Pro: 2.26ghz unibody. I was totally fine with this. I might have gotten the recent generation if I had waited a week to bring it in, because she gave me one of the last mid-'09 models that they had in the store, but this is still an impressive bump from my old MacBook with integrated graphics.

So, long and short of the story is, I got a brand new computer from AppleCare! So happy.

-The Tuck

 

[Kingcodez]

Wasn't the blackbook like up there in price with the MBPs of yesteryear?
You might be able to take it back if you have a reciept, and exchange it for the new 13".. Just a thought. Give em a call see if they'd do it. I'd even phone around to a few different stores.

 

[matttung]

Woah, that's just... unbelievable

Congratulations!
Free macbook upgrade.. *jealous*!

 

[eliminator]

make sure you get the applecare on your new machine, maybe you'll hit the jackpot again in 3 more years.

 

[The Tuck]

Wasn't the blackbook like up there in price with the MBPs of yesteryear?
You might be able to take it back if you have a reciept, and exchange it for the new 13".. Just a thought. Give em a call see if they'd do it. I'd even phone around to a few different stores.

It is true that the black MacBook was $1,500 when I got it, but they apparently have a system to look up specs of a computer that's going in for a trade-in service and the machine that it said to give me was the regular plastic MacBook. It wasn't until I mentioned the firewire issue that she checked on getting me a last of stock previous-gen MacBook Pro.

Interesting thought about the exchange, but I doubt they would do it. They didn't let me take the box (they put my old MacBook in there to send back). They know in the system that it was an exchange and the receipt shows that it is a trade-in. I'm still very happy with this machine.

-Tuck

 

[simmchen]

It is true that the black MacBook was $1,500 when I got it, but they apparently have a system to look up specs of a computer that's going in for a trade-in service and the machine that it said to give me was the regular plastic MacBook. It wasn't until I mentioned the firewire issue that she checked on getting me a last of stock previous-gen MacBook Pro.

Interesting thought about the exchange, but I doubt they would do it. They didn't let me take the box (they put my old MacBook in there to send back). They know in the system that it was an exchange and the receipt shows that it is a trade-in. I'm still very happy with this machine.

-Tuck

not bad at all! I'm glad I got the 2 year applecare plan now..

 

[elitree]

This just happened to me too!

I had a display flickering issue with my 13" white mid-2007 MacBook, and it had to go back a few times with the Apple Store. I was actually glad that it happened this month, because AppleCare expires at the end of the month, and so they were responsible to fix it. They tried a couple of things which didn't work, and just before the last fix (they were going to replace the inverter next), they gave me a call... would I like to be upgraded to a new MacBook??? Crazy!

They were even nice enough to ask if I used the Firewire port on the old one, and since I did, they upgraded me to the MBP since it has FW, just like what The Tuck mentioned!!

So with 10 days left on the AppleCare plan, they basically gave me a new MBP. The Apple Store people were super friendly as always, but this was just above and beyond. You can bet I just bought AppleCare for the new one

 

[walterwhite]

The Genii and Lead Genius have a lot of power in the direction of helping customers... pretty amazing actually. The Standard rule was with Apple that if you had 3 major part failures(any combo of this bunch)... Logic Board, Optical Drive, Hard Drive, or Display, then they would just replace the machine. But if you had been exasperated with issues that maybe werent nailed down but you have been on the phone with the agents and back and forth with the Genii... they could replace it then as well. As long as the Genii felt he was making you happy they could easily get approval from a Lead or manager.