[RESOLVED] The Never-ending repair. How to let Apple higher ups know??

[mward333]

Let's all face it.

I dread having problem w/ a laptop as I have completely moved off from any static stationary setup -- even at my house. I just completely moved off to floating office even at home.(laptop w/ big monitor to connect to).

Must buy a Time Machine backup drive.... must buy a Time Machine backup drive..... I have them for all of our machines..... this is a crucial step!

 

[Yebubbleman]

Hi all, the short story is that my late '07 experienced the video card failure thanks to Nvidia's poor QC. What followed were a series of bad repairs on Apple's part which has left me frustrated and wondering how to proceed. Trust me I'm not someone who feels the world owes me for ever little grievance but this is getting out of hand. Is there a specific address or phone number I can use to let someone higher up at Apple know whats going on (and no I don't plan to e-mail Mr. Jobs about this one). All repairs were done at the Michigan Ave Apple Store in Chicago.

Long story:
Repair 1: 1/22/11: Laptop sent out for logic board replacement

1/23/11: Laptop returned with many new scratches on the bottom, a small dent on the top lid, and the inability to close the top lid. This was due to a large bend in the metal above the superdrive (how they did this, I have no idea!). Luckily previous genius indicated no cosmetic scratches/damages existed before the repair (which was true!).

Repair 2: 1/25/11: Laptop sent out for replacement of top and bottom clamshell to fix damaged caused by repair. Returned 1/27/11 with only bottom clamshell replaced (despite Genius' instructions to replace both).

Repair 3: 1/27/11: Laptop kept in Apple store for top clamshell replacement once part received

Repair 4: 2/4/11: For whatever reason with new clamshell, my battery now jammed and won't eject easily. Genius tested using another battery which didn't exhibit the problem so he swapped my battery.

Repair 5: 2/4/11? Now I have to go back to the store since last night I noticed my keyboard no longer lights up (and yes, I have toggled F8 in a dark environment). Also the ambient light sensor in general seems to be wonky since display dims in a slow and jittery way instead of a smooth transition.

I have no doubt that Apple will be able to repair item #5 but I'm just at my wit's end over the lack of QC involved in this repair. I spoke to the manager at the time of repair 3 who was helpful and apologized for what happened. Still, I feel like someone higher at Apple has to know about this. Plus it's frustrating since ultimately the replacement logic board can still contain the flawed Nvidia card and I might have to go through all this again whenever it decides to fail. Honestly with the amount of money they spent on these repairs it would have been cheaper for them to give me a new computer (Total price quoted so far for parts/repairs: $2104.05, doesn't include cost to Apple to ship to/from). Not that I'm expecting a new computer!

I had a problem with my Late 2006 MacBook (first generation Merom MacBooks) with a 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo. It'd get really hot to the touch with fans running full blast after either ten minutes of playing original StarCraft or after playing a two and a half minute flash video. I used to be able to play WoW (as of Wrath of the Lich King) for fifteen minutes before this sucker got hot with the fans ramped up, and WoW is a much more intensive game than original StarCraft. I figured that a computer game from 1998 shouldn't be making a laptop from 2006 get hot, Rosetta or not. Nor should a flash movie.

So, I brought it in and the Apple Store sent it off to the depot, where they replaced the heatsink and fan assembly. Got it back, same problem persisted. They then replaced the SMC by way of replacing the entire logic board. Problem happened a third time, so I sent it in, where they mailed it back to the depot for a third time to, once again, replace the heatsink and fan assembly. At first, it looked like they finally solved it, but it turns out that it didn't, and I didn't want my MacBook to live at the Genius Bar/Memphis depot where they'd take turns between replacing the heatsink and fan assembly AND the logic board over and over again.

So I called AppleCare, told my story to the first guy, who was perplexed enough to relay me to his supervisor, who was perplexed enough to relay me to customer relations where I had to yell and scream at one guy saying that having my computer live in the Memphis depot while my computer is covered by depot warranty is unacceptible until he finally transfered me over to his boss. Said boss agreed to replacing my computer on grounds that I perplex HIS tech with my situation, which I did with no problem. Then said boss set up a retroactive RMA in which I return my MacBook and in exchange, since the 1.83GHz model from the Late 2006 MacBook was the bottom of the line, the modern-day equivalent is the Mid-2010 white Unibody MacBook.

Long story short, I did the exchange and am going to sell and use the money towards a 15" MacBook Pro that I've already been saving up for. Apple is pretty big on making sure their customers are happy and repeat repairs usually satisfy their customer relations department to the point of lemoning the computer. It does happen.

 

[orfeas0]

Hi all, so first, thank you for all your replies. I plan to use the customer relations number you all provided to pass along my story.

@jeffy.dee-lux: I'm sorry you had to go through all that. When I asked the Genius after repair 1 if this next one would be prone to failure he gave me a "well, all hardware can fail". Not really the most truthful answer. At least now, given that a settlement was reached on the class action lawsuit against Nvidia you have ammo for showing that this is more than just Apple being polite for extending your warranty.

That being said I went back to the Apple store and spoke to a different manager. This one looked at all the repair papers and immediately said he would provide me with a new MBP and asked Glossy or Matte. Needless to say I was ecstatic and feel lucky since I know how variable these things can be. I would like to add that when he asked "what would you like from us today" I didn't ask for a new computer since I still didn't know that it was fully appropriate. Instead he stated that at this point any repairs on my machine would have exceeded its value and that it was more economical for them to just replace it with a new model.

Again thank you for everyone who weighed in. I still plan to contact Apple about the repairs but at least I can now add my satisfaction with the resolution and the very helpful staff at the Apple store. I certainly know I wouldn't get this level of customer service from a different computer manufacturer.

And i guess they're gonna finally fix your old one and put it in the refurb store
But congratulations on your brand new mac hehe, it was logical to give you a new one after all that trouble!

 

[orfeas0]

Tbh, you guys that get new macbooks for free are really lucky...Here in Greece we have no apple store, just companies that represent apple, so our customer support for apple products sucks so much. Apple should really make an apple store in athens and in other european countries too, it's not just americans who buy macbooks!