I think Apple is scamming me.

[nicole]

Long story: prepare yourself.

So earlier this week I accidentally dropped my 6 month old macbook pro on the pavement outside. It was in a case but landed on the corner just hard enough to put a good ding in the edge of the upper casing (these things are all aluminum for those who don't know). It has no effect on the functionality of the computer, but I'm pretty upset about it as I treat this thing like gold and it was just an honest accident.

I booked a "genius" appointment for today to see about having it fixed and left more pissed off then I started. I was told that although my computer is still under warranty that they do not cover physical damage. Thats exactly what I figured, so I'm not surprised. It's my fault. I take full responsibility for it. The guy says it can't be repaired, only replaced and that they have to replace the whole display, because they "can't replace just the casing". (this is scam #1) there is no reason that they should have to replace the whole screen. the casing is MAYBE a $50 piece.

anyways, he quotes me $271+tax for the part and installation. my immediate thought is that since theres nothing wrong with my screen, I can have it replaced and then sell the old one for parts and hopefully recuperate some of the cost. without saying that, i ask him to confirm that since this is an out of pocket repair and not a warranty swap, that I will get my damaged piece back. he tells me that apple keeps my old display. what the fuck? I paid for a computer that included a display. I am now buying a new display. I therefore currently own 2 displays, right? i think it's pretty simply math. (this is scam #2) he insists that apple will not let me keep my part.

At this point I ask him to just sell me a new display minus the installation fee and I will have it installed privately. well apparently they won't just sell you the piece. (this is scam #3) so why break down the price if paying for installation is not optional?

also according to the terms and conditions that they make you sign if you do a repair, they can use new, used or refurbished parts for an out of warranty service. (this is scam #4) this has to be a fucking joke at this point. you are going to charge me a retarded amount for a potentially USED part and then make a second profit by selling what is rightfully mine? fuck that. all this would be okay if it was a free service but why should I fork out $300 for someones used/abused shit?

at this point i'm very aggravated and i say that i am not replacing the the part but that i want him to make a note on my file indicating that although there is a dent, the internal components are undamaged so that if anything does go wrong in the next 6 months they don't refuse to fix it saying that it was damaged in the drop and my warranty if voided blah blah blah. he runs a quick component check and everything is fine but refuses to verbally confirm that my warranty remains valid. (this is scam #5) I say "so if down the road my hard drive craps out or my motherboard fries or whatever, i will still be covered because this dent is cosmetic only right?" his answer is "well its hard to say what will happen in the future. right now everything is fine but who knows what time holds?" WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT MEAN? if right now, after the drop everything is fine and later something shits the bed then its unrelated and i should be covered right? this needs to be black and white. he refused to give me a straight forward answer and when before leaving i double checked that he would indicate everything is fine as of today he said "yeah, yeah i'll do that".

This is the 2nd shitty experience i've had with an "apple genus" since owning this computer. are my demands out of line or is apple just run by a bunch of scam artist douche bags? i'm planning on calling into there head office customer service on monday and raising shit.

ps sorry for the rant.

[stopthisnoise]

ps sorry for the rant.

It's ok. That's what the internet is for.

[hipsterasfolk]

Yea, I bought a display Macbook Pro 17" couple years back and it had a dent from the locking mechanisms. Long story short they wanted $1,500 for a repair because there was damage to the casing. It's part of their terms of agreement when purchasing Apple Care I believe, basically they will say the dented corner made stuff break and it's not covered;It's lame.

End: They repaired it under warranty.

[nicole]

Yea, I bought a display Macbook Pro 17" couple years back and it had a dent from the locking mechanisms. Long story short they wanted $1,500 for a repair because there was damage to the casing. It's part of their terms of agreement when purchasing Apple Care I believe, basically they will say the dented corner made stuff break and it's not covered;It's lame.

End: They repaired it under warranty.

how did you get them to cover it?

[hipsterasfolk]

Yea, I bought a display Macbook Pro 17" couple years back and it had a dent from the locking mechanisms. Long story short they wanted $1,500 for a repair because there was damage to the casing. It's part of their terms of agreement when purchasing Apple Care I believe, basically they will say the dented corner made stuff break and it's not covered;It's lame.

End: They repaired it under warranty.

how did you get them to cover it?

I called and complained till it escalated to a manager having to talk to me. Then he does his manager talk and you call BS, and talk and talk. Depends really on your Speech-craft skills & perks.

[joshnotgood]

are my demands out of line or is apple just run by a bunch of scam artist douche bags? i'm planning on calling into there head office customer service on monday and raising shit.

I don't think your requests were out of line at all. I'd be as upset as you. A call to customer service seems appropriate.

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[Guest]

i cracked my macbook screen years ago. basically gave me the same story they gave you, and said it would be nearly $800 to repair the screen, when id purchased the computer itself for just over $1000 just a couple months prior.

well, luckily, we have a certified mac repair shop nearby. took my computer to them, and they offered me a brand new screen guaranteed to work, or a refurbished screen that may or may not have a couple of defects as minor as a pixel or two not working.

i went with the refurbished screen, which was pristine, and parts and labor ran me $325.

and apple told me to go to them..

[kidamnesiac]

I work at an Apple certified repair center and though it's disappointing, everything this "genius" is saying is true. The way Apple fixes any hardware failure related to the display is by just swapping in a new one. The display assembly isn't REALLY designed to be disassembled. The parts that make up a display assembly (LCD screen, Airport antenna, iSight camera, display housing) aren't even available for us to purchase from Apple on their own. If something goes wrong with any of those parts, I have to order a whole new assembly. Even for in-warranty repairs.

As for the warranty, it explicitly denies coverage of accidental damage. So you'll be really lucky if you can get them to cover the repair for free. If your hardware fails inside the warranty you should be fine. I'm assuming the simple hardware diagnostic they ran is the same one we run at our location. It's tied in to Apple's server and a record of the test passing will be permanently tied to your serial number with the date. The "genius" is kind of a jerk for not telling you that.

[kurtmanner]

I have a iMac G4 that the capacitors burst on. They refused to offer anything compromise in-store and insisted (their first option, of course) was to just have me buy a new one because a logic board with repair costs is like $1000 anyway LOLOLOL. I researched and there was a specific set of serial codes that were recalled due to this issue and mine conveniently was between the numbers listed, despite clearly being made with the same capacitors and suffering identical symptoms. After about two hours on the phone after leaving the store (extremely pissed off, which I don't do) they worked it out so that I just paid about $150 in repair costs. That worked for me, but it was a shit show getting to any sort of conclusion. That iMac has since shit the bed again (bulging capacitors) and despite having them replaced by a third party it still doesn't get past start up. I'd love to figure out how to get it running again, but can't. So I had to buy a new iMac lollolol.

[hipsterasfolk]

Yea, another thing I had was that my power adapter cracked ( not so safe on a carpeted floor) of course when you go in there the guy/gal will say "Yea, sorry to hear...that's a known issue." I swear by Mac but I think their in-store support is comparable to Best Buy's Geek Squad.

I even had one of the Genius's stalk my GF via e-mail....turns out he is some foreign swinger.

[papermonsters]

My wiener dog shit on my macbook, and the dudes in the mac store cleaned it for free, and replaced the keyboard.

[BuzzersonKillwell]

My wiener dog shit on my macbook, and the dudes in the mac store cleaned it for free, and replaced the keyboard.

I hope this isn't a real story but a sort of a really subtle trolling.

Anyway. I don't think they are scamming you, Apple always has draconian policies. Closed systems like thiers allow them this type of control. But if your machine still isnt acting up, it might not be worth the repair.

[nicole]

Thanks everyone for the advise. I'm not expecting them to fix it for free, I know the damage is my fault but if I'm going to pay for the repair I want to A) get my old parts back and know that I'm getting a brand new display. I've never understood how companies can take the brand new product you paid for and replace it with a refurb and think that's cool. If I wanted a refurbished computer I could've bought one for a lot less than I paid for mine.

[selfreliable]

So the majority of the people in this thread have had issues with apple products, then just replace the item with another apple product? Maybe you should switch to a different brand.

Also, to answer your question, it sounds like apple is screwing you hard Nicole. It is amazing how so many companies now pull the "we cant return the non warranty item" thing now. You really cant do anything about it.

[patron]

My macbook had terrible wifi speeds anywhere except for the Apple store, so of course when I went to get it fixed under warrantee they refused to do anything about it. I did the whole "let me talk to your manager" thing until I reached the top of the chain at that given store. I ended up just emailing [email protected] and CC'ing the specific store's email address citing that they were trying to shut me up until my warrantee expired in a few weeks.

I highly doubt Steve Jobs read my email, or would have cared if he did, but it got the store moving and they replaced my logicboard for free. Five years later and I'm still using the same laptop with no further repairs.

[Guest]

the biggest problem i have with nicoles situation right now is that theyre failing to acknowledge it being in proper working condition.

its really shitty to imagine that something goes wrong down the line, and you get denied because they think its related to being dropped.

everything else is policy they have to go on, but that part sucks

[catalinacaper]

...And this is why I never bought into the Apple movement.

[Zick]

#whitepeopleproblems

[Snaggle Von Swift]

I swear by Mac but I think their in-store support is comparable to Best Buy's Geek Squad.

No way any company should be compared to how bad Best Buy is.

[controlthebleeding]

Thanks everyone for the advise. I'm not expecting them to fix it for free, I know the damage is my fault but if I'm going to pay for the repair I want to A) get my old parts back and know that I'm getting a brand new display. I've never understood how companies can take the brand new product you paid for and replace it with a refurb and think that's cool. If I wanted a refurbished computer I could've bought one for a lot less than I paid for mine.

actually, after having friends work for apple and numerous other companies, you're actually a little luckier getting something that's refurbed in some cases. as if im not mistaken apple's testing policy is more stringent on refurbed stock than newer parts. out of the 6 apple items i've owned in the last 10 years, i've only owned 2 new items (1g3 ibook, and 1 ipod). the rest were refurbed and gave me no hassle whatsoever. truthfully i only have 1 ibook problem the whole time and that was due to a faulty board, but they replaced it and i had my ibook within 5 days. I can't really complain.

When it comes down to it, you had a crappy genius dude not explain how things work in detail, which sux, but there usually is some form of reasoning behind why companies do things. it just takes someone to explain things. just so they make sense and try to work with you. I always used to give scenarios when i worked at BEST BUY regarding warranties. I never once had someone argue with me after the fact and usually happy that i took my time explaining things to them.

It's really like any company. sometimes the company policies don't always make sense to the consumer. It's not just apple.

you had every right to feel the way you did though. but more so with how you were treated, like some 2nd rate person. The one time i had to go in, i got lucky because the dude was super nice and very helpful.

catalinacaper: you never bought into the apple movement? it's a computer. it hardware isn't infallible. this could have easily been made by any employee of any computer company. every place has idiot service techs.

So the majority of the people in this thread have had issues with apple products, then just replace the item with another apple product? Maybe you should switch to a different brand.

Also, to answer your question, it sounds like apple is screwing you hard Nicole. It is amazing how so many companies now pull the "we cant return the non warranty item" thing now. You really cant do anything about it.

well usually when someone has questions regarding replacements people tend to write in their own experiences. it's common. 6 people talking about their experiences doesn't necessarily mean apple's company is that like suburban home. it could have easily been a dell or any other company computer.

"you can't really return a non-warranty item" - well of course. most places would go under if they had to replace something that's out of warranty. not trying to be flippant, but are you that naive as to how things work in business?

[controlthebleeding]

I swear by Mac but I think their in-store support is comparable to Best Buy's Geek Squad.

No way any company should be compared to how bad Best Buy is.

after working at BEST BUY, i will have to agree, they had only one service tech who actually was pretty legit. the rest of them had the computer knowledge of a 85 year old women trying AOL for the first time.

[nicole]

This is the second time I've been treated shitty at an apple store since I got this damn computer. I bought it in mid July at future shop and in early August when I went to burn a disc for the first time I realized that the SuperDrive didn't work. I booked an appointment and took it in (different location than with the display) and they happened to be super busy that day. Without even asking what was wrong with my computer I was told I'd have to quick drop it (leave it there for a week) and they would fix whatever was wrong. Without knowing what's wrong. My ass. When I refused they said that since they were so busy and the computer was so new they would just give me an entirely new computer since that would be faster than trying to fix mine. I was fine with that but when they realized I got it from future shop instead of directly from them they said they couldn't exchange it. That makes no friggin sense. It's still their product!!! Grrr. Anyways they wound up just replacing the SuperDrive under warranty which is what I wanted anyways but it took 2 weeks and 3 trips there to get it done. Ridiculous.

[birdwell]

I have a 1st gen iPod Touch....it quit working a couple of years back, i knew it was out of warranty, but tried to get them to see if they could just get the new software update to work on it. I didn't purchase the iPod, I got it for Christmas from my parents and grandparents...I've never owned any apple products previously. I was completely unaware that you had to book an appointment to get them to even look at your product. My vehicle didn't run at the time, so I got a ride from a friend to a show and we stayed the night at a friends place so I could go get my iPod looked at the next day....i stood in the middle of their store waiting on somebody to even acknowledge my presence for 30 min....at first I was just checking out products, nobody ever came to talk to me, after 10 minutes I just stood in the center of the store starring...finally after about 20 min. of looking around standing in one spot one of their useless trolls came up and asked if I'd been helped. I told her the problem and she immediately said, "Did you make an appointment", I said "no" and explained, I was there with friends, lived almost an hour away, knew nothing about needing to book an appointment, and just needed to see if they could get the new software to load onto the iPod so I could use it again....we went back in forth, me saying "this isn't a complicated computer hardware issue, or a dropped item, it worked fine, iTunes said there was an update, i tried to update the software and it went blank and wouldn't go past the apple screen" she finally took it in the back and came out like 1 minute later and said, "They tried, there was nothing they could do, you can trade it in for 10% off of a new one". Needless to say that didn't happen, I tried to load the software on 3 or 4 different computers over the next month without any luck. I finally got another ride out there after making an appointment, met with a competent Genius and the guy got the software to load properly within 3-4 minutes. The second Genius was super nice, at least feigned sympathy for my shitty service the first time in there store and again at minimum feigned excitement when he got the software to load up on it. Told me the first gen iPod Touches sometimes have that glitch and there's nothing they can do, and that it's definitely not a hardware issue.

Now, unfortunately, in the 2-3 months that this iPod Touch was O.O.C./Not Working....somehow i magically purchased a .99 cent App for my iPod, even though it wouldn't load past the apple screen....so in the middle of this I was fighting via e-mail back and forth with Apple over the $1 charge for an app to a device that wasn't functioning as anything more than a paper-weight. My last e-mail to them (after going back and forth 6-7 emails) was heavily spotted with all sorts of terrible language, they responded to me saying "If you continue using that language we will close this case and mark it resolved", I responded "How is that any different than your current course of action? You refuse to refund me my $1 for an app I didn't purchase for a device that hasn't worked in over 3 months, and your company refuses to fix the device that doesn't work?" I got a response almost 2 weeks later, and they refunded my $1, and sent out an update to their Terms of Services agreement, and also told me this was a one-time refund and that I would be fully responsible for any further charges to my account"...so at some point in time one of those Terms of Services agreement updates was because of me guys...sorry.

so my experiences with Apple have been mixed....I have a feeling you just have fallen on the bad-luck side of a crappy Genius. I've had several friends who've taken computers in that were out of warranty (barely) and the Genius be really cool and just take care of things....I've also had a buddy specifically make his Genius appointment for the very last one of the day on a Friday or Saturday after dropping his iPhone in some water, he then took it apart and found the void sensors that turn red when contacted with water and painted them back white, knowing the Genius would give it a quick once over and not investigate much because it was the last appointment and throw a new phone at him, and it totally worked.

[controlthebleeding]

This is the second time I've been treated shitty at an apple store since I got this damn computer. I bought it in mid July at future shop and in early August when I went to burn a disc for the first time I realized that the SuperDrive didn't work. I booked an appointment and took it in (different location than with the display) and they happened to be super busy that day. Without even asking what was wrong with my computer I was told I'd have to quick drop it (leave it there for a week) and they would fix whatever was wrong. Without knowing what's wrong. My ass. When I refused they said that since they were so busy and the computer was so new they would just give me an entirely new computer since that would be faster than trying to fix mine. I was fine with that but when they realized I got it from future shop instead of directly from them they said they couldn't exchange it. That makes no friggin sense. It's still their product!!! Grrr. Anyways they wound up just replacing the SuperDrive under warranty which is what I wanted anyways but it took 2 weeks and 3 trips there to get it done. Ridiculous.

if you bought it from a retailer, then they wouldn't have been able to replace it. it's like buying any product, if it doesn't work and it's fairly new, you can take it for replacement from where you bought it from. not the actual company outlet. it's not hard to understand. as far as waiting 2 weeks.. it sounds about right. depending on the actual product, sometimes things have to be sent out. that goes for all retail outlets. i don't see the problem. if you're that impatient about things, dont buy a name brand computer or buy a desktop that you make yourself so you can fix it at home if it breaks down.