What to do when the smartasses at the genius bar refuses to honor your warranty

So basically what happened is that my sister's macbook (white, the plastic one, bought july 2008) now has a crack going through the LCD. I know her, she babies that thing, there's no way she would have abused it. She says she closed the LCD, opened the LCD, and then there was a black line going down the middle and now the line's spreading. It seems to be that there are some frozen pixels or something.

Problem is, the Apple store refuses to honor her warranty and wants $600 for repairing the screen because there's evidence of "damage". What damage? The casing's plastic. Short of her throwing it off a tall building, there would have a be a big crack in the casing (plastic doesn't dent, it CRACKS) for them to show that there was damage. Their reasoning is that if she applied too much "pressure" to the top of the screen it would have cracked. What kind of reasoning is that? It seems like that's the blanket answer they give when they don't feel like doing the work. Anyways I have about half a mind to escalate this straight to Steve Jobs.

You know, I really like Apple and I really like the macbook and the iPod but I'm getting pretty sick and tired of their antics. And it takes only one antic like this to me off enough to never buy another apple product again. And trust me, I don't give second chances.

 

Excessive torque on the display could easily cause the kind of damage she has and not leave a mark anywhere. I'm not saying that happened, but it is definitely possible to cause that kind of damage without leaving any telltale marks on the laptop. However, I suspect Apple will replace the display if you keep working on them. Keep your cool.

 

Ask to speak to a manager and make a big fuss over it. You could also bend the truth a little and say that the "Genius" was rude to you.

 

Honestly I can't think of any wear failures that would cause the LCD to crack. It would have to have force applied to it to do any damage.

(I would know... I'm one of the few people who has cracked a Toughbook LCD, and I sure torqued it good to have it happen).

If it was in a carrying bag, it might have had something pressed against it, which would cause a crack.

You're only way of proving it was a faulty unit is to do normal open/closing with it, and see if anything causes the crack to spread. If so, then you have something to show to Apple.

 

I helped a friend with a similar issue.. the genius toolheads wouldn't help her.

I'll tell you how to get the results you want, what you do with it is up to you.

Google "affidavit". Type up an affidavit where she swears she did not harm the laptop in anyway. Put it on the counter and say, I swear that I did not harm the laptop. You either fix it under warranty to the terms we both agreed upon sale or you put it in writing that you will not fix my laptop. Bring ur iphone or whatever you have to record the whole thing and say, if you do not put it in writing, that is your acceptance that you will fix it.

I did this, and they wouldn't put it in writing because they are idiots. I sent the laptop with the affidavit, and video evidence straight to Apple addressed it to the GM of Customer Service and gave them 3 weeks to return it to me (her) before I file an administrative remedy to cover the damages Apple is causing me.

Got it back in 2 weeks, fixed, with an apology. I won't go into why this works, because it is most likely above your head but by you swearing and getting an apple employee to go into dishonor by not putting it writing (or putting it in writing), your next action of mailing the laptop to Apple puts all the risk on you. In contract law, whoever takes the risk, holds the liability. They will have no choice but to fix it - as long as it is within the warranty period.

There's your answer, the way contracts work, you need to send the physical product to them. If they do not hold the product they do not have to fix it. Most people want a reassurance before they send the laptop in, but the action of you sending the laptop is your reassurance. It's simple contract law that common folk don't understand but believe me, the GM does understand this.

Have a good day!

 

have u tried doing this over the phone? you might have better chances

 

is canadian law the same as US law in this case?

 

Yes in this regard it is similar. It will be upon Apple to prove without a doubt that YOU caused the incident (or in this case the broken screen).

Apple aren't stupid they know what is best for long term relationships. And I believe that this is what apple aims to please. I would give customer service a call.

I have a god awful sound coming from both fans on my new 17" MBP, apple have sent a replacement to my Home. As I am offshore right now and will be home in less then a week. I told them I need this system for work purposes and cannot be without my system. Apple took amazing care of my issue. No questions no strings just good down to earth service. This type of service is what will keep me a loyal Mac owner.

I hope you get her screen fixed.

 

Please share with us your infinite wisdom. Keep it real simple, none of those big words. We got make sense of it all with our limited intellect and all.

 

"Common folk" may not understand contract law, but they do understand what manners and common courtesy are. Perhaps you should brush up on those two topics as you seem to have failed those tests miserably!

 

The fact that they call their technical staff 'geniuses' shows the arrogance culture of that whole company. If the laptop is under warranty you should well get your replacement. What the hell, do they think they can afford to play the fool as though they have a large market share of the laptop market? Please. They need to fight for every customer they can get. I'd complain a bit more if I were you, go over that 'idiot' and let the manager know how that 'idiot' was being to you.

 

I'd rather be a "Genius" than have to say "I'm a PC".

 

Apple wants to make their customers happy, and let me tell you, they do a great job of ensuring that customers with a faulty machine have it repaired in the most painless way.

The problem is, Apple doesn't want to pay for customer mistakes, and with cracked LCDs, it's a 99.999999% chance that the customer screwed that one up. Leaving it in cold/hot weather, too much pressure from stuff sitting on top of it, too much pressure from other items in a carrying bag pressing on it, or even accidentally swinging the bag into a wall/doorway.

Apple wants you as a customer, but they don't want to foot the bill if you broke it.

 

Well said.

BTW, can we here at the NBR forums get you to post a few pictures of said screen? I do laptop repairs on a regular basis and would be really interested as to how this turns out. Thank you.

 

Um yeah. As soon as my sister gets around to sending them to me.

 

unfortunately the laptop wouldn't be accepted without a RMA number as standard policy...