Repairing Bent Mac Pro case?

[Niccador]

So UPS delivered my first Mac today.
And all of my joy and excitement was sucked away, as I opened the box only to find it damaged.

While the box looked pretty decent (no obvious exterior damage, save a weak-looking corner), packed somewhat tightly with solid sheets of 2" styrofoam on all 6 sides, with peanut filler, the unit had clearly taken a fall.

The front foot had been bent slightly, giving the whole unit a leftwards lilt. But the top rear handle had been crushed down nearly flush with the top of the case, and forced the side of the same handle out and down, preventing the case from being opened.

The unit still appears to boot, and the few minutes I spent with it, everything inside seems functional. So, small miracles, right?

But I'm definitely going to need to get into this thing soon for upgrades and hard drives, and I definitely can't bend this thing back into shape with my bare hands. (Though I did give it a shot.) I figure it's going to take a pry bar, but I'm also pretty sure that just screw up the case more.
Does anyone have any tips for reshaping this? Or am I better off trying to hunt down a whole new case?

 

[mp2017]

I wouldn't do anything with it. My recommendation is to return to seller or have the shipping company reimburse you.

 

[AidenShaw]

I wouldn't do anything with it. My recommendation is to return to seller or have the shipping company reimburse you.

Don't accept damaged goods. Send it back.

You're looking at cosmetic damage - but the system has had some rough treatment.

 

[Niccador]

Thank you both for the reply.

That was my initial kneejerk reaction as well. I contacted the seller immediately about the damage, as well as reported it to UPS. Still waiting on a reply, though.
Problem is, return shipping costs are very prohibitive. Plus, I got this for what I feel was a steal: about $150 shipped. It would cost me $50-75 to return this myself, and I don't see them reimbursing me for the return.

Honestly, I'm hoping they make a reasonable offer of refund minus shipping. If not, then i guess we'll go 'round for a bit, and see what Paypal thinks. (I'd rather not do that, though. Been on the receiving end of Paypal claims back in the day...as a Seller, PP claims are just the worst.)

Bottom line, one way or another, I figure I'm gonna end up stuck with this silver beast. I've just got to shiny it up a bit.

 

[mp2017]

Until the situation has been resolved with either the seller or the shipper you shouldn't do anything to it. If the seller insists on your shipping it back to them then let them know you'll do so at their expense. There is no reason you should have to incur any expense due to this situation.

$150 shipped seems reasonable (given what it costs to ship one) but the price you negotiated was for an undamaged unit. Perhaps just offer to accept it with a discount corresponding to the cost to return it to the seller.

 

[Niccador]

Until the situation has been resolved with either the seller or the shipper you shouldn't do anything to it. If the seller insists on your shipping it back to them then let them know you'll do so at their expense. There is no reason you should have to incur any expense due to this situation.

$150 shipped seems reasonable (given what it costs to ship one) but the price you negotiated was for an undamaged unit. Perhaps just offer to accept it with a discount corresponding to the cost to return it to the seller.

Honestly, I'm hoping they make a reasonable offer of refund minus shipping.

Yes, I agree. On all points, actually. I'm not planning on doing anything else with it until I have some kind of resolution. But like I said, working under the assumption I'm going to still end up with it, and just trying to get a plan together moving forward.

 

[ReanimationLP]

I had this happen to me with mine, though not as bad.

The seller ended up reimbursing me 80 of the 200 I paid (mine was a 4,1).

Ended up buying a used case on eBay for it, rebuilt it in the new case, dropped in dual X5690s, a GTX680, 512GB SSD and 64GB of RAM. It screams

Reach out to your seller, they'd probably cut a deal with you since it being damaged will be way harder to move the second time around.

 

[adam9c1]

I had to deal with a similar issue in the past and PP would not settle for a partial refund. They wanted me to ship back, and once I had a valid tracking would pay me back, no matter how much I asked them to understand.

 

[Niccador]

I had to deal with a similar issue in the past and PP would not settle for a partial refund. They wanted me to ship back, and once I had a valid tracking would pay me back, no matter how much I asked them to understand.

Yeah, that's something I'm afraid of, too. Sometimes, PP is 100% on your side as the Buyer, and sometimes they can end up screwing you no matter what. But maybe the Seller will be reasonable before we hit that point.
[doublepost=1506565870][/doublepost]Something I just noticed.
I'm still poking around the OS, trying to familiarize myself, as well as seeing if anything breaks along the way.
There were updates available, so I let it download them. (Turns out was only pre-loaded with 10.7.0, so 10.7.5, followed by security and driver updates.)

1) It downloaded these fine, prompted me to restart, processed said updates... but when it auto-restarts after installing the updates, it hangs BEFORE the chime and grey screen. I can hear the hard drive trying to spin up every few seconds, like it's stuck in a restart loop.
My first thought was "Crap, guess the drive didn't survive the impact after all.", BUT:
If I force it to power off at that point and restart it myself, everything proceeds normally, nothing seems wrong.
Then the next set of updates, same thing, same simple resolution.
Not sure if this is a system flaw of the 1,1? Maybe if I (later) update the firmware to 2,1 it'll go away? Like a PC needing a BIOS update for some random behavioral bug?

2) I have no idea how long I should be expecting boot to take, since unlike my PC, I don't have quite the same information available. Right now it's: Power on, no video, about 5 seconds-ish to Chime, about 5+ seconds to Grey blank screen, about 45 more seconds to Apple logo on grey screen, and about another 45 seconds or so to desktop. Everything seems very responsive at desktop, downloads of updates are insanely fast.
Does that all sound normal for a rotational drive, and I'm just being paranoid? I'm not quite used to this yet.

 

[rawweb]

Yeah, that's something I'm afraid of, too. Sometimes, PP is 100% on your side as the Buyer, and sometimes they can end up screwing you no matter what. But maybe the Seller will be reasonable before we hit that point.
[doublepost=1506565870][/doublepost]Something I just noticed.
I'm still poking around the OS, trying to familiarize myself, as well as seeing if anything breaks along the way.
There were updates available, so I let it download them. (Turns out was only pre-loaded with 10.7.0, so 10.7.5, followed by security and driver updates.)

1) It downloaded these fine, prompted me to restart, processed said updates... but when it auto-restarts after installing the updates, it hangs BEFORE the chime and grey screen. I can hear the hard drive trying to spin up every few seconds, like it's stuck in a restart loop.
My first thought was "Crap, guess the drive didn't survive the impact after all.", BUT:
If I force it to power off at that point and restart it myself, everything proceeds normally, nothing seems wrong.
Then the next set of updates, same thing, same simple resolution.
Not sure if this is a system flaw of the 1,1? Maybe if I (later) update the firmware to 2,1 it'll go away? Like a PC needing a BIOS update for some random behavioral bug?

2) I have no idea how long I should be expecting boot to take, since unlike my PC, I don't have quite the same information available. Right now it's: Power on, no video, about 5 seconds-ish to Chime, about 5+ seconds to Grey blank screen, about 45 more seconds to Apple logo on grey screen, and about another 45 seconds or so to desktop. Everything seems very responsive at desktop, downloads of updates are insanely fast.
Does that all sound normal for a rotational drive, and I'm just being paranoid? I'm not quite used to this yet.

This thing took a major pounding. Suspect that every component inside could be damaged in some capacity. I would have a hard time ever trusting the machine for any period of time.

For what it's worth...these things were notorious for this even in official apple packaging. The handles were the weakest point and the damn thing weighed so much shippers loved tossing it around. Sounds like it wasn't packaged all that great... HDD is a likely component that might not survive being dropped or tossed about. From the description you provided, there wasn't much padding to break it's fall.

I would seriously advise you to stop tinkering with this. As a buyer (assuming ebay? or direct pay pal) you have immense buyer protections not afforded to a seller. Open a dispute claim immediately, regardless of whether or not you have gotten in contact with the seller. Time is of the essense. Provide detailed pictures of packaging, how it was shipped, damages etc.

As a seller: If I sold this to you, you bet I would have had shipping insurance and would immediately be opening a claim (sucker is those sometimes take months) to cover myself. I would certainly issue a refund to the buyer immediately (with photographic proof, like serial #, that it's the same machine I sold you) I most likely wouldn't want the junk returned to me and would tell the buyer to keep the damned thing, less hassle for me! All depends on the policies of the company bartering I suppose. Be patient.

 

[carpsafari]

I had to deal with a similar issue in the past and PP would not settle for a partial refund. They wanted me to ship back, and once I had a valid tracking would pay me back, no matter how much I asked them to understand.

On 4 occasions I had to claim a damaged Mac Pro, on 3 they refunded me within 2 weeks and I was allowed to keep the remains.

Its a transport problem, if Global shipping was used, PP will pay you back quickly....but when you have to deal with a claim yourself, you're screwed.

 

[mp2017]

1) It downloaded these fine, prompted me to restart, processed said updates... but when it auto-restarts after installing the updates, it hangs BEFORE the chime and grey screen. I can hear the hard drive trying to spin up every few seconds, like it's stuck in a restart loop.
My first thought was "Crap, guess the drive didn't survive the impact after all.", BUT:
If I force it to power off at that point and restart it myself, everything proceeds normally, nothing seems wrong.
Then the next set of updates, same thing, same simple resolution.
Not sure if this is a system flaw of the 1,1? Maybe if I (later) update the firmware to 2,1 it'll go away? Like a PC needing a BIOS update for some random behavioral bug?

My 1,1 did not exhibit any update issues like you have described. In fact it hasn't had any update issues at all. It's my opinion flashing the firmware to that of a 2,1 will not change things. The first thing I would look into is the hard drive. Given the damage to the case it would not surprise me if the hard drive incurred damage.

2) I have no idea how long I should be expecting boot to take, since unlike my PC, I don't have quite the same information available. Right now it's: Power on, no video, about 5 seconds-ish to Chime, about 5+ seconds to Grey blank screen, about 45 more seconds to Apple logo on grey screen, and about another 45 seconds or so to desktop. Everything seems very responsive at desktop, downloads of updates are insanely fast.
Does that all sound normal for a rotational drive, and I'm just being paranoid? I'm not quite used to this yet.

Doesn't seem unreasonable. I just booted mine and it took ~6 seconds to chime, ~11 seconds to gray screen, ~51 seconds to Apple logo, and ~1:45 to icons on the desktop. These times are absolute so in total it took my 1,1 approximately 1:45 from power on to desktop. Boot times are likely to vary depending on configuration. If the hard disk has issues it's likely to take a little longer.

 

[adam9c1]

On 4 occasions I had to claim a damaged Mac Pro, on 3 they refunded me within 2 weeks and I was allowed to keep the remains.

Its a transport problem, if Global shipping was used, PP will pay you back quickly....but when you have to deal with a claim yourself, you're screwed.

What did you tell them? (to keep the device)

 

[carpsafari]

Not sure what you mean, I got my money back AND I could keep the Mac Pro...I gladly accepted!

 

[adam9c1]

Not sure what you mean, I got my money back AND I could keep the Mac Pro...I gladly accepted!

When I had to deal with the issue, I was asked to ship back at my cost.
What sort of phrase did you use? if anything so that they offered you to keep the item. What sort of proof did they need of the damage?

 

[carpsafari]

Aha, OK.

First, contact the seller and tell him you received a product not according to the specifications.
Show pictures of your damaged Mac Pro and it helps to direct the seller to the shipper.
(before you make a claim at PayPal!!)

When its shipped by Global Shipping, which is some kind of service eBay provides, and seller and buyer state to PayPal that this product got damaged, and you show them the pictures too, 95% sure they pay you within 2 weeks and they tell you to keep the remains!

However, when you go into an argument with the seller....all bets are off!!
No Global shipping, all bets are off.
That's case no4 I have pending, for over 10 months now!!
Also very likely that PP will order you to sent the damaged goods back, so important you state your problem to seller and let him also claim the damage!

PS Obviously the seller has no interest in you shipping a broken product back.

 

[Niccador]

So, the Seller responded positively today, and issued a refund of my purchase price minus shipping. So basically, I got a roughly handled but still seemingly functional Mac Pro 1,1 Quad w/ 32GB ram for $50. Seems fair.

So now I get to figure out the best way to reshape these handles, and get to work on the insides.

 

[mp2017]

So, the Seller responded positively today, and issued a refund of my purchase price minus shipping. So basically, I got a roughly handled but still seemingly functional Mac Pro 1,1 Quad w/ 32GB ram for $50. Seems fair.

So now I get to figure out the best way to reshape these handles, and get to work on the insides.

Glad to hear the seller was reasonable. This made the most sense for the both of you.

 

[carpsafari]

So, the Seller responded positively today, and issued a refund of my purchase price minus shipping. So basically, I got a roughly handled but still seemingly functional Mac Pro 1,1 Quad w/ 32GB ram for $50. Seems fair.

So now I get to figure out the best way to reshape these handles, and get to work on the insides.

I think $50 is also the regular price for a MP 1.1 now.

You will never get the handles reshaped, the rivets that hold the case together are popped.
Your Mac looks way worse than all 4 of mine.

 

[Niccador]

I think $50 is also the regular price for a MP 1.1 now.

You will never get the handles reshaped, the rivets that hold the case together are popped.
Your Mac looks way worse than all 4 of mine.

LOL. I don't doubt it. It's really frustrating, the way it puts a bit of a damper on this little project.
But, until I dig into it and find something else wrong, it's all cosmetic. I can move it into something prettier when the right one comes along. Just gotta get it out of the way of the side panel for now (and maybe level out the bottom...but more likely I'll just shove something under it for now)

 

[carpsafari]

The bottom part is not too hard!

Take two blocks off wood and a clamp will do the trick.

 

[Niccador]

The bottom part is not too hard!

Take two blocks off wood and a clamp will do the trick.

Ah! Stuff I actually have! Cool.
Wish the top looked as easy.

 

[carpsafari]

The top, you will need two clamps!
One to hold the side plates together, while you try the other clamp to pull the handle up.
At some point it will look half decent, be patient.
The side where the rivet popped will always stick out, unless you drill a hole and screw it together.

 

[mp2017]

Kind of interesting that the damage is to the front/bottom and rear top.

 

[Niccador]

Kind of interesting that the damage is to the front/bottom and rear top.

Yeah, I've been staring at the box since last night trying to figure out exactly how it happened, with no obvious damage to the exterior. You'd have thought something that crushed the top like that would've tore through the box.
Pretty certain it wasn't repackaged, though. And pretty certain it didn't occur before shipping...or at least before it was in *a* box...no marks or scratches on the top to indicate direct contact with something.

Regarding the bottom front damage, now that I think about it....
None of the pictures in the auction show the front bottom fully, and it would be pretty easy to shove something small under it to level. Front damage could very well have been hidden and not disclosed. Not necessarily what happened, but not much of a stretch either.