Help me with return/applecare

So like the title says I bought my mbp (the one in my sig) off of eBay for 2000 USD which is awesome from a guy who gets them directly from apple. It was still in the box that apple uses to ship, still factory sealed. I also got an apple care protection plan off eBay for much cheaper too. As soon as I booted it up it registered my mac, and the purchase date according to apple is the day I received it and registered. I registered and linked my applecare right away as well and it was accepted and is now listed as linked to my mac. (when I go to apple's site and type my serial number in to find out my warranty coverage it says ny purchase date and that I am covered under applecare protection plan.)

So after all that, I ended up getting a yellow screen(bottom 1/3rd of display has yellow tint). (and my spacebar is squeeky, anyone else?) So what can I do? I live in Canada, got it shipped from US (global warranty makes me happy) and so there are 3 or 4 apple stores in Canada, the closest one being 1200 km away from me. I do have like 15 authorized mac stores in my city however so here is my question. Can I walk into my mac dealer and get a replacement with no receipt or say my ebay/paypal receipt? I think they are shipping me my applecare certificate in the mail so I don't have that yet. Can they look up my serial number and know I have applecare? (not that it matters right cuz it's a santa rosa which none are more than a year old, right?)

Second question is what happens to my applecare if I get a replacement as it's linked to the serial number of the mbp I'm on right now, do they automatically switch the applecare over to a new MBP for me if they decide to replace it? (can they even repair it or will they just get me a new one?)

Someone help! I need a definitive answer on this before I attempt to go in as I work out of town and long hours, and it's gonna be hard to get in in store hours except for my days off like today! (after I finished typing this I started getting really angry at my squeeky spacebar.

Thanks for all your help guys!

 

hmm...
really sorry to hear your plight... must be a bummer... ahmm...
1. can you return it back to the guy who sent it to you ... most ebay power sellers allow for this eventuality ... wherein if you switch it on .. and it's basically not functioning right you can return it in a week or 2 ..
2. Have you actually activated the apple care that you got? ... you have to go to apple.com/support/register i think ... If you have.. then I suggest you call apple care and ask them the question ...
I don't quite know about whether you can head into an apple store sans your receipt ...

If the OS has been newly installed... i don't know why a yellow screen should be showing... anyone think that a reinstall might be in order ? just a suggestion ... i don't know about macs... but whenever i head into too much strife with blue screens in windows... i do a reinstall ...

hope you can figure things out soon on ur mac..

 

First things first, AppleCare won't change the way your warranty works (so you won't get better "service" with AppleCare, you just get the service for two more years).

Considering you're still within the Apple One-Year warranty (SR MBPs started shipping in June), then yes it doesn't really matter if your AppleCare has arrived yet or not.

Anyways, take it to a Mac reseller store near you, most of them should be Apple Authorized Service Providers, which mean they are authorized to do repairs/replacements of your Mac. Most likely you will not need your receipt, the serial number (you can find that on your Mac) should be just fine. If they do demand a receipt, explain how you got the MBP.

 

thanks sam (by yellow screen I meant the bottom third of my screen has the yellowing issue pretty bad, boot up screen noticable (week 29, samsung matte screen))
I guess I'll just go in to a store and ask. Would I have to bring back the box and all accessories? or can they just swap out my macbookpro?

edit: anyone know about how the linking of the applecare works? or is it linked to my mac id?

 

Oh another thing, is there a time limit on exchanging because of the yellowing issue?
isn't it seen as a hardware defect?

 

Lol another question, if I waited to return till leopard is out would my new macbook pro have leopard on it?

 

Yikes, triple posting, DeepShadows!

Anyways, I can't answer all your questions, but I'll answer this one...I'd say if they have remaining stock of Tiger MBPs, then they'll probably replace your problematic MBP with their remaining stock. If there's no more Tiger stock, they'll just give you a Leopard MBP.

 

Feel sorry for you man, its a bit of bummer having your laptop screw up so early. The best advice I can give is call Apple, they will tell you what you should do.

 

i have a question to add to this return thing. im going to be getting the 4 gig upgrqade from newegg not apple. so if i sell the stock 2 gig and something goes wrong with the computer and they want to give me a replacement...do i get my 4 gig back? or should i NOT sell the origional 2 gig just incase something does go wrong.

 

That's up to you. In cases where they have to give you a replacement, I think it would be wise to keep the 2GB modules so you can easily swap them back in the MBP. I heard some cases where the owner did not get their personally purchased RAM back, but I never really had to do this, so I can't confirm. In my opinion, play it safe and keep the older RAM modules.