Update: Apple allowed me to add AppleCare! Dead Logic Board - 2011 13"

[lokiju]

Update: 09-04-12:

They did their "deeper" analysis and said that everything still pointed to a logic board issue.

This was on Sunday that the determination was made.

I agreed to do the flat rate $280 (plus tax) repair that'd fix any and every issue.

Sunday afternoon I get an automated email from Apple saying "The Apple one-year limited warranty that came with your Mac is almost up. That means it’s your last chance to get the AppleCare Protection Plan, which extends your hardware coverage — along with your telephone technical support — for up to three years from your computer’s purchase date.*"

Well it didn't say which Mac it was referring to and to my knowledge, both my iMac and my MBA's 1 year warranty was up.

So I tried calling them but their AppleCare department was closed until today (Tuesday) in observance of Labor Day.

I called this morning and asked the first guy which Mac it was for and to much surprise it is for my iMac, it's actually not out of the 1 year warranty! This is both awesome and welcome news and a big "doh!" on my part since I replaced the internal OEM hard drive that died about a month ago. I could of saved myself the hassle and money had I known. I had looked up the warranty coverage online before but confused the top message saying out of coverage for the phone support as applying to everything.

They did sadly confirm that my MBA's warranty was indeed past a year by 46 days. I asked him why I didn't get a similar email prior to it's warranty running out like I did for the iMac and he didn't have an answer and said I should of.

I was very calm and polite the whole call and asked him if there was any flexibility on adding on the 3 year Applecare coverage for the MBA and noted that I would most definitely have bought it (which is true) had I received the early warning about it approaching the end of the 1st year of included coverage.

He said he couldn't but he could connect me with some other department and we could ask but he repeated time and again that it very likely would not be allowed and he's never seen anyone be granted an exception that was more than a few days past the 1 year point. He said he recently had a guy that was only 1 week past and they weren't able to make an exception for him.

I didn't hold my breath but waited 20 mins or so until I finally got someone and explained to him about how I had received the email telling me my 1 year warranty was about to expire and offering to extend and that I didn't know which Mac it was for and how the prior guy told me it was for the iMac, etc.

I asked him why I didn't receive any warning for the MBA like I did for the iMac and he looked and said he saw that for some reason I wasn't sent an automated email about it (I'd think they'd not have a way to even see that, but maybe he was being nice and BS'ing me).

I asked if there could be an exception in this case since I did not receive that, he puts me on hold for a bit to do whatever he was doing then comes back and said he was going to make an exception this time (HOLY **** YES!!!!!) and that it'll extend my coverage 2 more years until 09/05/2014.

He basically changed their records to show the purchase date of my MBA as 1 year ago today.

I'm a grown 32 year old man and the symbol of a stoic solid as a rock father figure to my 3 year old son and this random guy on the other end of the phone nearly brought me to tears! No joke. I was soooo grateful, words just do not convey it.

I gladly gave my credit card info and $249 (no tax, yea!) later, I have my agreement number.

As soon as we hung up, I called the Apple store that I left my MBA with and I guess it was lucky it was a holiday as they hadn't shipped it off yet.

I explained to them that I was able to get the AppleCare added and gave them the agreement number and they said they got it and would get it sent off for repair and let me know when it was back in.

I asked for clarification if they send AppleCare covered and flat rate out of pocket repairs the same and they confirmed they do. They send them to the same place and it's the same procedure.

So at the very least I saved myself $30 plus whatever the tax would of been on the out of pocket and now am fully covered if anything comes up in the future.

This was a disheartening and tiring journey but I am so happy with the conclusion!

And I will absolutely be adding the AppleCare to my iMac as well.

Lesson learned. I'll never buy another Mac without by default buying the extended AppleCare going forward, I'm usually of the mindset that warranties are a waste of money but I now truly believe they are warranted for Macs as the support and care you get with that extra cost is second to no other company I've dealt with over my many years in IT as a Sys Admin and with my own personal purchases.

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Original Post:
I don't know what happened. I was using it fine then went to reboot it and it went down for the reboot and then came back to only a grey screen. Not even a spinning circle at the bottom center or anything.

I tried resetting the SMC.

I tried resetting the PRAM but doing the Command-Option-P-R keys before the grey screen and held and held and held but it never reset and made beeps like it says it should on Apples site. How long does it take when doing the PRAM reset for it to reboot usually?

I've tried holding shift for safe mode.

I've tried holding ALT to get into recovery.

I've help the power button to force it off to make sure it wasn't stuck in some sleep/hibernation state of sorts.

I've tried with and without connected power.

All I get is literally only a back-lit grey screen and nothing else.

I'm desperate for any other suggestions!

 

[sam67uk]

Same thing happened to my MBA last year. Exactly the symptoms as you describe. Took it back to the Apple Store and it turned out to be a faulty logic board which they replaced under warranty.

Hope you get your MBA sorted.

 

[lokiju]

Same thing happened to my MBA last year. Exactly the symptoms as you describe. Took it back to the Apple Store and it turned out to be a faulty logic board which they replaced under warranty.

Hope you get your MBA sorted.

Gah! I'm out of warranty

Man I really hope that's not it.

It was literally just sitting here. Nothing changed.

 

[sam67uk]

I was 'lucky' as the machine was only a few months old. Bought Applecare just to keep me covered for anything in the future.

If it's not too far out of warranty they may look sympathetically on you.

 

[lokiju]

I was 'lucky' as the machine was only a few months old. Bought Applecare just to keep me covered for anything in the future.

If it's not too far out of warranty they may look sympathetically on you.

I'm not exactly sure how far out the expiration is but if I'm not mistaken it's roughly 1 month past. I'll have to beg and plead and make my case to convince them to make an exception as I have no money to pay for a repair now or in the foreseeable future

 

[TC400]

I'm not exactly sure how far out the expiration is but if I'm not mistaken it's roughly 1 month past. I'll have to beg and plead and make my case to convince them to make an exception as I have no money to pay for a repair now or in the foreseeable future

Oh no! Thats why I got the Applecare for my iMac I'm good for one more year. I wonder if it was something with the SSD? I know they can do only so much reading and writing before it kerplunks.

----------

Also to check coverage go here!


http://www.apple.com/support/applecare/view/

 

[jdechko]

Same thing happened to me on my day-old 2012 MBA. I got it Tuesday, dropped it off Wednesday and haven't had it since.

They would have replaced it on the spot but it's a CTO model.

 

[lokiju]

Just got back from my Apple store visit and it was a big fat no on doing anything for me being 48 days out of warranty.

I bought a 2011 21.5" iMac and this 2011 13" MBA both right around the same time last year and both have had issues just outside of the 1 year warranty!

The iMac had it's OEM drive die and again I was given a big fat no on doing anything for me being at that time just 2 weeks out of warranty and now this.

I'm extremely frustrated and disenfranchised.

I've been such a huge advocate for Apple and have personally convinced many friends, family members and co-workers to purchase a Apple product.

This just really upsets me spending so much out of pocket on two different systems only to have both "die" just outside the warranty window.

Seems almost built of obsolescence.

They said it was "likely" the logic board and I could do a flat rate repair that involves shipping offsite to be repaired for $280 regardless of the issue.

It's honestly not a terrible cost for a logic board replacement but to be asked to spend nearly $300 48 days past it's warranty leaves me with a very bitter taste in my mouth to say the least.

I told them I'll need to take some time to figure out what I want to do and to figure out my finances before committing.

The only "consolation prize" offered by the store manager was an offer to deduct $280 off of a new Mac should I rather do that.

I'm almost tempted to get this one fixed, sell it for as much as I can fetch for it then take her up on the $280 off and buy another one and do the 3 year Apple Care warranty.

It's just SOOOOOOOO much money to consider dropping.


/end rant

 

[TheRealDamager]

Sorry - that is disappointing. I guess I understand their position but also see your points.

You should ask for free AppleCare from the Manager if you go ahead with the repair - see if they'll do that instead of the discount on a new system.

 

[lokiju]

Sorry - that is disappointing. I guess I understand their position but also see your points.

You should ask for free AppleCare from the Manager if you go ahead with the repair - see if they'll do that instead of the discount on a new system.

Not a bad idea.

It'll probably be at least a few more months but it's possible my work will allow me to purchase a Mac with our BYOC/Bring your own computer program we have but it's pretty iffy if it'll happen any time soon. I'm kind of holding off a bit to see what comes of it.

I guess worst case I drop the $280 and get this fixed.

For now though I'm letting it sit while powered on at the grey screen until it fully dies to see if a full discharge does anything.

Almost acts like it's in a weird hibernation state.

Just so hard to understand how it was just sitting on my desk, I didn't even physically touch it at all, I used my Apple connected bluetooth keyboard and mouse to invoke the reboot and it just happened out of the blue.

 

[Cynicalone]

I say take the discount on the new Air and this time make sure you get Applecare on it.

I always recommend Applecare on all Apple products. Just to expensive to fix outside of the warranty period. I figure you pay once and don't have to worry about anything for 3 years. I've had so many little things fixed over the years. Dead HDD's, RAM, screens all for nothing because of Applecare.

 

[doubletap]

any chance you bought the air with a credit card that offers extended warranty coverage?

dt

 

[lokiju]

any chance you bought the air with a credit card that offers extended warranty coverage?

dt

Great suggestion but sadly, no. I paid cash for it.

 

[TC400]

Thats horrible

I've only dealt with Apple care once and that was when my iPhones earpiece quit working grant it it was still under warranty they replaced it no questions asked. Waited about fifteen minutes. Only thing I was upset about was I paid for a ticket to park and it was about to run out of time and I didn't know how much longer they were going to be and they had just taken my phone I went out paid for like another hour or so only to come back in and have them hand me my iPhone right at when the first ticket expired >.< I tried being nice and offering it to someone else she didn't want it. Anyways sorry I got off topic that stinks. I'd say send it in get it fixed and just sell it.

 

[lokiju]

I brought it to another Apple store this morning and they actually offered to run a full diagnostics on it for no cost and will crack it open and reseat the battery and SSD cables.

I really appreciate them going above and beyond the other location and hopefully they'll figure out something simple and get it working for no cost.

If not then at least I know it wasn't something simple I could of fixed myself and it won't be as painful to pay the $280 flat rate.

They said it'll be about 24 hours until I get called with the results.

 

[asting]

I'm almost tempted to get this one fixed, sell it for as much as I can fetch for it then take her up on the $280 off and buy another one and do the 3 year Apple Care warranty.

It's just SOOOOOOOO much money to consider dropping.


/end rant

So they screwed you twice, and you're still considering buying a brand new unit from the exact same store? Of course they'll tell you no. If the stores can be harsh and have rigid unsympathetic rules that lead to more sales then why wouldn't they? You'd be rewarding them for treating you poorly...

 

[TheRealDamager]

So they screwed you twice, and you're still considering buying a brand new unit from the exact same store? Of course they'll tell you no. If the stores can be harsh and have rigid unsympathetic rules that lead to more sales then why wouldn't they? You'd be rewarding them for treating you poorly...

They aren't treating him poorly, they are just following the rules. They are not breaking the warranty policy to be extra nice.

 

[725032]

Always get Applecare OP... You've learnt a valuable lesson today

 

[asting]

They aren't treating him poorly, they are just following the rules. They are not breaking the warranty policy to be extra nice.

Sorry. How ridiculous of me to think a customer that drops $4k on a couple of systems should be cut a break to retain customers.

 

[lokiju]

Mega awesome update!

They did their "deeper" analysis and said that everything still pointed to a logic board issue.

This was on Sunday that the determination was made.

I agreed to do the flat rate $280 (plus tax) repair that'd fix any and every issue.

Sunday afternoon I get an automated email from Apple saying "The Apple one-year limited warranty that came with your Mac is almost up. That means it’s your last chance to get the AppleCare Protection Plan, which extends your hardware coverage — along with your telephone technical support — for up to three years from your computer’s purchase date.*"

Well it didn't say which Mac it was referring to and to my knowledge, both my iMac and my MBA's 1 year warranty was up.

So I tried calling them but their AppleCare department was closed until today (Tuesday) in observance of Labor Day.

I called this morning and asked the first guy which Mac it was for and to much surprise it is for my iMac, it's actually not out of the 1 year warranty! This is both awesome and welcome news and a big "doh!" on my part since I replaced the internal OEM hard drive that died about a month ago. I could of saved myself the hassle and money had I known. I had looked up the warranty coverage online before but confused the top message saying out of coverage for the phone support as applying to everything.

They did sadly confirm that my MBA's warranty was indeed past a year by 46 days. I asked him why I didn't get a similar email prior to it's warranty running out like I did for the iMac and he didn't have an answer and said I should of.

I was very calm and polite the whole call and asked him if there was any flexibility on adding on the 3 year Applecare coverage for the MBA and noted that I would most definitely have bought it (which is true) had I received the early warning about it approaching the end of the 1st year of included coverage.

He said he couldn't but he could connect me with some other department and we could ask but he repeated time and again that it very likely would not be allowed and he's never seen anyone be granted an exception that was more than a few days past the 1 year point. He said he recently had a guy that was only 1 week past and they weren't able to make an exception for him.

I didn't hold my breath but waited 20 mins or so until I finally got someone and explained to him about how I had received the email telling me my 1 year warranty was about to expire and offering to extend and that I didn't know which Mac it was for and how the prior guy told me it was for the iMac, etc.

I asked him why I didn't receive any warning for the MBA like I did for the iMac and he looked and said he saw that for some reason I wasn't sent an automated email about it (I'd think they'd not have a way to even see that, but maybe he was being nice and BS'ing me).

I asked if there could be an exception in this case since I did not receive that, he puts me on hold for a bit to do whatever he was doing then comes back and said he was going to make an exception this time (HOLY **** YES!!!!!) and that it'll extend my coverage 2 more years until 09/05/2014.

He basically changed their records to show the purchase date of my MBA as 1 year ago today.

I'm a grown 32 year old man and the symbol of a stoic solid as a rock father figure to my 3 year old son and this random guy on the other end of the phone nearly brought me to tears! No joke. I was soooo grateful, words just do not convey it.

I gladly gave my credit card info and $249 (no tax, yea!) later, I have my agreement number.

As soon as we hung up, I called the Apple store that I left my MBA with and I guess it was lucky it was a holiday as they hadn't shipped it off yet.

I explained to them that I was able to get the AppleCare added and gave them the agreement number and they said they got it and would get it sent off for repair and let me know when it was back in.

I asked for clarification if they send AppleCare covered and flat rate out of pocket repairs the same and they confirmed they do. They send them to the same place and it's the same procedure.

So at the very least I saved myself $30 plus whatever the tax would of been on the out of pocket and now am fully covered if anything comes up in the future.

This was a disheartening and tiring journey but I am so happy with the conclusion!

And I will absolutely be adding the AppleCare to my iMac as well.

Lesson learned. I'll never buy another Mac without by default buying the extended AppleCare going forward, I'm usually of the mindset that warranties are a waste of money but I now truly believe they are warranted for Macs as the support and care you get with that extra cost is second to no other company I've dealt with over my many years in IT as a Sys Admin and with my own personal purchases.

 

[Cynicalone]

Very nice!

Usually I find that if you don't go crazy on the tech support and stay persistent with them they will work with you to solve your problems. Apple is by far the best I have ever had to deal with on warranty problems.

 

[TC400]

I work in customer service this is how you get the things you want people be nice and courteous to us and we will go the extra mile but sit there and swear at us and have attitude your not getting ****!

With that said I'm glad your professional and courteous during the call and they were able to make a one time exception for you! I'm glad to hear stories like this come out of Apple.