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rMBP water spill all ruined!

B

Bilalo

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 17, 2012
402
2
Oxford, England
Hello
My cats pushed a glass of beer on my lappy while i was using it and it went in from the ventilation and everything. Now 3 days later i take it to a local apple maintenance place which isn't an apple store and he says it costs as much as a new laptop to fix. I got the laptop 3 months ago from usa as a student, will apple agree to replace it or do anything if i go back there, to an apple store?? Any suggestions? The guy here said the motherboard is fried, usb, retina, almost everything because its sugary water...
 
Apple will not do anything other then repair the laptop for a fee. Unfortunately there's not much that can be done. Repair or replace and both will be expensive.

Sorry to hear this occurred :(
 
Bilalo said:
Hello
My cats pushed a glass of beer on my lappy while i was using it and it went in from the ventilation and everything. Now 3 days later i take it to a local apple maintenance place which isn't an apple store and he says it costs as much as a new laptop to fix. I got the laptop 3 months ago from usa as a student, will apple agree to replace it or do anything if i go back there, to an apple store?? Any suggestions? The guy here said the motherboard is fried, usb, retina, almost everything because its sugary water...
Click to expand...

Sorry, but I have serious doubts about whether Apple will do anything much since it is water damage, and that's not covered under the warrantee.

Normaly I would suggest whining, crying and begging as a useful strategy, but I doubt that even that will get you anywhere.

Seriously, I'm really sorry your rMBP is cooked. It's such a disappointing and frustrating experience...not to mention expensive.:(
 
Shrink said:
Sorry, but I have serious doubts about whether Apple will do anything much since it is water damage, and that's not covered under the warrantee.

Normaly I would suggest whining, crying and begging as a useful strategy, but I doubt that even that will get you anywhere.

Seriously, I'm really sorry your rMBP is cooked. It's such a disappointing and frustrating experience...not to mention expensive.:(
Click to expand...

Oh the Painnnn :((((
 
Having had a similar incident with water myself a few months ago (my 3-year old 2010 13" MBP), I can only say that I'm terribly sorry you had to go through that.

Your best bet is to go to an official Apple Store and have them give you a quote for the repair - mine was quoted at nearly £400 (which I chose not to do, and sell for parts, given that I'd be repairing a 3 year old laptop).
 
Do you have any type of homeowners or renters insurance that could possibly cover it?
 
Bilalo said:
Hello
My cats pushed a glass of beer on my lappy while i was using it and it went in from the ventilation and everything. Now 3 days later i take it to a local apple maintenance place which isn't an apple store and he says it costs as much as a new laptop to fix. I got the laptop 3 months ago from usa as a student, will apple agree to replace it or do anything if i go back there, to an apple store?? Any suggestions? The guy here said the motherboard is fried, usb, retina, almost everything because its sugary water...
Click to expand...

I can't imagine the screen being dead if the fan sucked up the beer.. Anyway, if you're gonna get a whole Macbook replacement (as I'm guessing they are not going to put the old screen on a new computer) ask if you can keep the old screen. If it's still in good condition you can sell it for probably 300-400 dollars. Or if you're going to buy a new one, just salvage the screen. There should be a tutorial on ifixit.com.
 
Most homeowners won't cover damage you do, only stuff like theft fire etc.

Worth looking into though.
 
bkribbs said:
Most homeowners won't cover damage you do, only stuff like theft fire etc.

Worth looking into though.
Click to expand...

This thread reminded me to call my insurance company to update my address information with them. I used the opportunity to ask about a situation like this and they told me that yes they would cover it, subject to my deductible and for computers they'd cover up to $1,000.
 
Apart from insurance, some credit cards offer purchase protection, where they cover accidental damage within the first 90 days or so. Perhaps you could check that?

If you don't have any of that, you may have to go back to an Apple Store and play the poor student card. An authorized technician (non-Apple corporate shop) will not repair or replace no matter how you plea since they don't get reimbursed by Apple for a liquid damaged part should they repair it).
 
FWIW - When my son spilled a ton of water on my 2008 unibody MBP, it took over a month for it to dry out completely.
 
I think there's a real market for 'sport' model laptops and tablets. I know Kodak makes a nice waterproof camera.

That sort of durability will happen eventually (for a price).
 
DisMyMac said:
I think there's a real market for 'sport' model laptops and tablets. I know Kodak makes a nice waterproof camera.

That sort of durability will happen eventually (for a price).
Click to expand...

Perhaps instead of a Mac, a Panasonic Toughbook with a fully rubberized keyboard would be more appropriate for someone prone to spilling, pouring or dumping minimal to large quantities of fluids with or with out additives like sugars, food coloring and dyes onto their computers.
 

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blueroom said:
And people thought MacBooks were expensive.
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I have a Panasonic CF-19 (19" screen) with an Intel Mobile Centrino CPU (it's several years old now) that cost $3,000 to buy. Of course I didn't buy it, but the office did. ;)
 
Apple won't do anything. Also, considering the cost of these is around $2000 at the moment, there is simply no way fixing that one could possibly cost as much as a new one.
 
Are you sure it was your cat the culprit? How many beers did you drink? :D

Joking aside, really sorry to hear such sad news :(. Apple products are so expensive and so fragile. Most of the time they die tragically young... Next time, you better get a laptop insurance that cover common accidents such as spill and drop...
 
l.a.rossmann said:
Apple won't do anything. Also, considering the cost of these is around $2000 at the moment, there is simply no way fixing that one could possibly cost as much as a new one.
Click to expand...

You haven't had to bring a wet laptop to an Apple Store recently have you? They charge a few hundred short of a new or refurbed machine.

Source: Former Genius
 
Bilalo said:
Hello
My cats pushed a glass of beer on my lappy while i was using it and it went in from the ventilation and everything. Now 3 days later i take it to a local apple maintenance place which isn't an apple store and he says it costs as much as a new laptop to fix. I got the laptop 3 months ago from usa as a student, will apple agree to replace it or do anything if i go back there, to an apple store?? Any suggestions? The guy here said the motherboard is fried, usb, retina, almost everything because its sugary water...
Click to expand...

Though I feel sorry for you but do you seriously think Apple should replace it for you? It’s really weird for me to even think that Apple would replace it when it’s not their fault. You can always ‘try’ to bring it back to Apple store and see what they say but it’s very unlikely (99.9%) that they won’t replace it. That 0.1% would be some genius is high/blind/ that they are willing to replace it for you. Or maybe they can offer you a discount because they feel sorry for you. Or you can just get a quote from another repairer shop. If it’s too much then might as well get a new one.
 
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