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Oddest Air destruction story yet.....

T

TheRealDamager

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 5, 2011
1,043
11
I've owned two Airs - a 2010 C2D (that my wife currently uses) and a 2011 i5. Both great machines.

I had an experience that I HAVE to share.

I was walking down the stairs in my home with the the 2011 Air in my hand. I had just shut the lid, and slipped on the top stair. I went bouncing down the stairs (from the second floor to the first), and my Air flew out of my hands and down the staircase. As luck would have it, the Air ended up below me (and on the corner of the stair) as my ass and full body weight crashed down on the way down the staircase. Screen - shattered. Touchpad - shattered. Air - bent visibly (about 15%). Dead. I couldn't believe it.

I made an appt at my local Apple Store for the following AM. I went in and explained honestly what happened. I told them I would need to buy another Air, and would appreciate their help in saving the data (if the SSD was OK). The Genius went in the back for about 10 mins and then came back out.

He said that they were sorry for the issue, could see (from my purchase records) that I was a customer who had bought many Apple products, and that Apple would like to take care of this accident for me. WITH A FREE REPLACEMENT. I was stunned beyond belief.

45 mins later, I had a new Air (which I'm typing on now) and all my data back. This experience just solidifies my amazing customer experience with Apple.

Just wanted to share...
 
Nice. Apple takes care of their own. My experience with Samsung support was less than stellar, however...
 
Oh it's true - I would think it was too good to be true if it hadn't happened to me. Still shocked.
 
Your post reaffirms my faith in Apple ... and makes me resolve never to carry my MBA up or down the stairs unless it's in a substantial bag!
 
Clearly no one could ever expect Apple to do this for them (in fact, by raising other peoples expectations such acts of generosity may even cause others to have negative experiences where they otherwise would have been happy if their expectations were lower).

Very happy for you, though!
 
That's a lot more dramatic than my dozing-off-with-a-glass-of-wine-in-my-hand-and-spilling-it-all-over-my-2010-Air story. It had the same result, though.

Good luck with the new 2011. My advice would be to purchase a personal articles rider to your homeowner's or renter's insurance. After my incident with my 2010, I purchased one for my 2011. It's $33/year to cover replacement in the event of theft or accidental damage (with a $250 deductible).
 
I like how the health of your laptop and data is secondary to your own physical well being

Glad you weren't seriously injured in the fall. Seen a few nasty spills that ended up with trips to the hospital
 
Did they let you keep the broken Air too? Just curious of pics. This reminds me of the post awhile back where someone had their macbook confiscated by Israeli security and got it returned with bullet holes.
 
Glad to hear you received such great customer service. That's really what counts and keeps customer coming back. And I'm sure those stairs will be addressed much differently with the new replacement MacBook Air. :)
 
caligomez said:
Aww you should've taken a picture! :D
Click to expand...

I can't believe I didn't take a picture. It was SO busted that I had to squeeze all the pieces together as I walked into the store. Every Apple employee I walked by looked at what was in my hands and got shocked looks on their faces.

Unfortunately, they kept it. The store Manager who helped me said something like "I can't wait to see the looks on their faces when they get this unit back". :)

----------
miniConvert said:
Clearly no one could ever expect Apple to do this for them (in fact, by raising other peoples expectations such acts of generosity may even cause others to have negative experiences where they otherwise would have been happy if their expectations were lower).

Very happy for you, though!
Click to expand...

Agreed - I didn't even expect it - it's part of the reason I was so shocked.

----------
LordVic said:
I like how the health of your laptop and data is secondary to your own physical well being

Glad you weren't seriously injured in the fall. Seen a few nasty spills that ended up with trips to the hospital
Click to expand...

No tumble down the stairs is going to hurt me! Plus, the Air broke my fall.
 
In before someone makes a post like "what you did is worse than theft. by taking advantage of apple's kindness you make things more expensive for the rest of us".

And what a great state of affairs for you, I too have experienced apple's amazing customer service, and as such will always buy apple stuff if I can. Giving away the odd notebook is worth it to create a life-long apple customer.
 
Cool story.

I've only had issues with my MacBook that Apple should fix due to it being their fault (2x cracked top cases, swollen battery, and "T" adapter wire strain split) all for free, but good to know they help out the crazy unfortunate ones from time to time.
 
TheRealDamager said:
I was walking down the stairs in my home with the the 2011 Air in my hand. I had just shut the lid, and slipped on the top stair. I went bouncing down the stairs (from the second floor to the first), and my Air flew out of my hands and down the staircase. As luck would have it, the Air ended up below me (and on the corner of the stair) as my ass and full body weight crashed down on the way down the staircase. Screen - shattered. Touchpad - shattered. Air - bent visibly (about 15%). Dead. I couldn't believe it.
Click to expand...

I can certainly believe it was dead.

Nice to hear that you were covered by apple.

I just don't believe in walking around with any laptop in my hand ... ever. They belong in some kind of case while being moved from any location to any other location.

Good story!
 
I was waking down the stairs with my Air last week and had a vision, similar to those in the Final Destination films, of me tripping and the Air flying out.

After reading this I am now only transporting it in its sleeve. I am ultra careful but now going to be even more so!
 
I would hold off on buying any refurb 11 i5 MBA for the next several months :eek:

On a serious note, glad Apple took care of you.
 
Wow, that almost happened to me the other day to my PowerBook but it fell on me so it luckily only got a small dent on the side. Now I've learnt to always carry things around with a sleeve on (especially on the stairs).
 
I too have had amazing experiences with Apple support. Its why I really don't give credibility to the "APPLE SCREWED ME AND WONT REPLACE MY STUFF" style threads.

Glad to hear that your air was replaced :)
 
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