This is a “WTF?” story if I’ve ever heard one:

Apple has refused to fix two registered AppleCare (Apple’s protection plan) users’ computers because they are smokers.

No shit.

Apple claims that the machines’ exposure to tar from the cigarettes makes them both uneconomical to fix, and a health hazard to handle in accordance with OSHA regulations.

Both excuses are clearly a crock of poo.

Either Apple is looking to save some money by cutting a few corners, or they are trying to social engineer their users’ health choices. Neither option is good.

I can’t stand smoking. I’m an asthmatic, I don’t understand the practice, I think it’s a waste of money, it smells dreadful, and it is a generally poor health choice. That being said, it’s a personal choice. Leave smokers alone, and fix their damn computers if they paid for the AppleCare protection plan.

Source: The Consumerist

Apparently, smoking could be hazardous to your Apple warranty. This article reports that, according to The Consumerist, smoking around your Apple laptop could void your warranty.

In the first reported case, an Apple Macbook was sent in with overheating issues. The customer was then told that his warranty had been voided due to the second hand smoke being a health hazard. Yes, his Apple was actually labelled a biohazard.

Now, this doesn’t specifically affect UMass students, because smoking isn’t allowed in our rooms. But I’m sure there are people who do smoke in the vicinity of their laptops.

From reading comments on the articles, it does seem like working on a computer that is used by  heavy smoker is quite disgusting. Commenters who claimed to work in computer maintenance say that they smell terrible, and are really horrible inside. One commenter was kind enough to send a link to an online competition for the ‘grossest inside of a computer‘. If you scroll down past the dusty dirty ones, there is one that is an orangey yellow one titled as belonging to a smoker.

But the problem with this is, I have an Apple laptop, and I’m very sure that there is nothing in the warranty that says that it will be voided if it is nicotine stained. The Consumerist says that

“Consumerist has tried repeatedly to obtain some kind of answer about these two cases from Apple’s media relations department, and we have received nothing on the record after months of waiting. Mostly, we’re curious what the threshold is for smoke damage to a computer, and why this is not mentioned in the Applecare contract.”

Obviously, if it is a hazard to their health then computer maintenance workers shouldn’t have to work around them. But where is the proof? And it is completely unfair to void a warranty without anything being in the contract. This is not the right way to treat Apple customers, smokers or not.

Have you ever found yourself wondering whether that AppleCare you purchased was worth the money — I know I would have if I’d had to pay the full price (fortunately as a student it was only around £40). Or perhaps you’re about to buy a mac and you’re wondering whether you should get AppleCare for it.

Before I get started, I should mention that AppleCare is just Apple’s name for the 3 year guarantee extension (giving you a total of 3 years protection) offered for Mac computers.

From my mac experience, getting AppleCare was definitely worth it; and that would still apply if I had to pay the full price of (£273) here’s why:

I’ve had 2 replacement batteries – they would have cost nearly £200; and just recently I had the logic board of my MacBook Pro replaced due to the video card being defective and something else that was wrong with the EFI firmware. That last repair would have cost me a whopping £870.70! I could buy a new mac for that much!!

As I pointed out on twitter, after this last repair my mac came back looking a whole lot better than when I took it in. I had replaced the hard drive myself (which with my model isn’t a user-servicable part) and not really put the case back together properly. In fact, I had broken a section of the case above the DVD drive and it bulged out.
Rather nicely, that’s been fixed, and the screw I lost during the process has been replaced. Also, one of the feet that keep the laptop off of a table had come off at some point.
That hadn’t been replaced when I picked up my computer, so I mentioned it before leaving. The guy popped out to the back of the store and my computer came back with all 4 feet. Awesome.

So yeah. To sum up…. it’s definitely worth getting AppleCare. And by the way, you can get it at anytime during your mac’s first year of standard coverage; you don’t have to get it at the same time.

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De acuerdo al artículo publicado el 23/11/09 por el periódico El país de Barcelona España:

“Tiendas de Apple en Estados Unidos rechazan la garantía sobre los ordenadores de la firma si el cliente es fumador y se niegan a reparar la máquina por “el peligro para la salud” del trabajador que deba manipular un ordenador “contaminado”.

“Según The Consumerist, ya se han producido dos casos. Ambos acudieron a los servicios centrales de Apple que defendieron la posición de las tiendas”.

De acuerdo articulo original por The Consumerist la compañía se niega a trabajar los  equipos por  riegos que estos pueden producir por el humo de segunda mano. Ambos casos compartían denuncias idénticas, que el computador  experimentaba problemas de recalentamiento y que el ventilador estaba mal; ante la garantía de AppleCare las cuales fueron anuladas por lo antes dicho.

Volviendo con el artículo anterior la contaminación por la nicotina está en una lista de sustancias peligrosas y por ello se impide que se manipule la maquina por razones sanitarias. “La citada lista incluye productos como talco, alcohol sanitario y carbonato calcio”.

A pesar que esta garantía no incluya la nicotina cita daños causados por su entorno. Aun así  se continúan esperando respuestas por el departamento de relaciones públicas de Apple. Ya que sus consumidores desearían saber la veracidad de dichos daños, pero hasta hora continúan en la espera.

Para más información sobre:

Artículo original publicado por el periódico El país el 23/11/09; bajo el mismo nombre del título de la entrada:

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/tecnologia/Tiendas/Apple/Estados/Unidos/niegan/reparar/ordenadores/fumadores/elpeputec/20091123elpeputec_2/Tes

Articulo por The Consumerist sobre los casos denunciados y la respuesta ante estos de Apple:

http://consumerist.com/2009/11/smoking-near-apple-computers-creates-biohazard-voids-warranty.html

Detalles sobre la garantía de AppleCare, que constituye un documento de preguntas básicas que podrían hacer sus consumidores respecto a su cobertura. Pero en esta página original de Apple para aplicaciones de soporte, solo redacta la cobertura técnica, no los datos citados por ellos de daños por la nicotina de un cliente fumador:

http://www.apple.com/la/support/products/faqs.html

Pagina Web oficial de Apple en español:

http://www.apple.com/la/

I quit smoking four years ago, but before that, I was a dedicated smoker for a solid decade. Luckily, I never had any Mac trouble that would necessitate a warranty replacement during those 10 years, or I might’ve been out of luck. Apple (s aapl) has denied Applecare warranty service in at least two separate instances due to the effects of secondhand smoke, according to Consumerist.

In both cases, smoke was to blame for repairs not performed, but not because the malfunctions the computers suffered were due to damage related to cigarette smoke. Instead, the fact that the Macs had existed in houses where people smoked had resulted in the machines being labeled health risks, which was grounds for repair personnel to refuse to work on them.

It’s unclear whether or not smoking is specifically covered in the terms of Applecare, but it appears that the grounds upon which service refusals have been made is the classification of nicotine as a hazardous substance on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) list. At least, that’s what one of the people affected heard from Steve Jobs’ office, though she clearly disputes the logic used in that justification:

Dena [from Jobs' office] did advise me that nicotine is on OSHA’s list of hazardous substances and Apple would not require an employee to repair anything deemed hazardous to their health. However, OSHA also lists calcium carbonate (found in calcium tablets), isopropyl alcohol (used to clean wounds), chlorine (used in swimming pools), hydrogen peroxide (also used to clean wounds), sucrose (a sugar), talc (as in powder), etc…as hazardous substances.

Consumerist couldn’t get an Apple representative to make an official statement regarding the company’s policy on Macs used in a smoking environment, but considering the similarity of both responses to the inquiries of the two people affected, Apple repair personnel at least reserve the right to refuse service, even if they don’t always choose to exercise that right.

As a longtime smoker (who never smoked indoors anywhere I lived, mind you), and as someone who’s had to get the cigarette smell out of at least one car before selling it, I can see people objecting to working on a computer that’s been saturated with smoke for an extended period. The smell isn’t pretty, and it might feel like the machine might be hazardous to your health — feel being the key word.

I’m no scientist, but I’m assuming it isn’t like the Apple techs cracked the case and a puff of smoke shot out. Is there really a significant danger associated with the inert remnants of what smoke leaves behind? I remain highly skeptical. Anyone else ever run into this excuse for refusing an otherwise valid Applecare repair?

¿Quién al llevar un aparato electrónico al servicio técnico no ha tenido que sufrir mil y una excusas para excluir la reparación de la garantía? La cuestión es que con cierta marcas de reconocido pre$tigio, se presume que no se darán este tipo de comportamientos.

Una de esas marcas cuyo servicio técnico tiene una excelente reputación es Apple. De ahí, la enorme sorpresa que se llevaron dos clientes norteamericanos cuando vieron como le excluyeron de la garantía la reparación de sus respectivos iMac porque (atención!!) estaban contaminados con el humo del tabaco, el cual es considerado riesgo biológico para los empleados. (?)

Por disparatado que parezca, si la garantía AppleCare contratada excluyera los entornos de fumadores no habría nada que discutir. Pero evidentemente no es el caso.

Aún siendo un hecho aislado, por si acaso, ya sabes: Si fumas, no teclees.

© oídococina.com

Sugerencia del Chef: El secreto de Apple.

Well done Magnum Mac Wellington

My MacBook Pro 17 died on Friday.

It failed to restart after running the software upgrade for the magic mouse. I tried the usual tricks (Apple has a good knowledgebase) and then twittered the failure and headed for Magnum Mac, Mac in hand.

I’ve been there plenty of times, but never to the service department. The wait was short, but painful – any wait when you have a broken computer in hand is painful. Meanwhile the lazyweb (Twitter) was responding, and I not only did I have a likely diagnosis (thanks @johnclegg – dead main logic board) but also a pointer to someone that could replace it for cheaper than the apparently $2,000 I was up for (thanks to @gnat).

I paid Magnum Mac $60 for the mac to be looked at, and another total of $120 (all +GST) for priority service. I fully support the ability to jump the queue by paying more – it’s a simple way to both price discriminate and to differentiate those customers that really are in a hurry from those who can make do. It’s also under-used by everyone. Why can’t I pay more through an 0900 number to get an immediate and local answer to my customer service calls to Telecom or Vodafone?

Priority service meant my mac would get looked at within the hour – important on a Friday at 12:56pm. The tech suspected it was a stuffed board, and put me onto their text service, whatever that was.

I soon found out – with the first text at 1:19pm – the repair status was “in Progress” apparently. That was good.

At 14:25 the next text came in – the repair status was now “waiting on parts”. I called immediately – not wanting to drop $2,000 on parts.

It was great news – as it turns out that my computer was one of those affected by the NVIDIA graphics chipset issues, and the replacement main logic board would be for free. Even better, the part would arrive on Monday.

At 10:57 today, Monday,  I received another text – “in Progress”, and at 12:00 I got the “Completed” text. I picked it up and was up and running immediately.

Total elapsed time was less than a working day. That is simply stunning, and a huge turnaround from the service levels of the past.

Total cost – $202.50 – less than the Applecare cost, of which more shortly.

Lessons for service providers

Offer a premium service to customers in a hurry and/or with more money. Why can’t I pay more through an 0900 number to get an immediate and local answer to my customer service calls to Telecom or Vodafone?

Deal with repairs quickly – get your systems and processes right and you’ll get the fixed products back to customers within the day. That makes your costs low, customers happy and for a happy work environment.

Find a way to make it free – or at least cheap. That means working the claims for the customer, sourcing better parts for cheaper and employing technical staff that are great at what they do so they can do it efficiently.

Lessons for customers

Go to the professionals. Just as with my BMW motorcycles I went to a service center that specialises in the products. For BMW that might mean an aging guy in a tiny garage in Mendoza, Argentina, or the Auckland’s Experience BMW. For Apple it meant first trying the local dealer.

Know your rights. In New Zealand it is simple – the Consumer Guarantees Act states:

Goods must be:

• fit for the purpose they are made for
• safe
• durable – last for a reasonable time
• have no minor defects
• acceptable in look and finish.

It was well past the purchase date, but it turns out that Apple sold a product that was not fit for purpose or durable  – it didn’t do what it said it would on the box for long enough. That meant they were liable under New Zealand law, and under the US system of lawsuits, and that customers would not have to pay for a fix.

Check the manufacturer warranty. Apple covers all of their computers for a year – for free. For me, and from what I observe, for others, computers either work out of the box or they fail fast. If they work for the first month or two then, viruses and dropping accidents aside, they are likely to keep going forever. (This does not apply to media drives, but then you should be replacing those regularly anyway.) So you can take your computer home with confidence, knowing that under NZ law and probably the standard, free, warranty you can return it for repair.

Make noises. The NVIDIA issue was ignored by Apple for a while, but eventually the sheer weight of dissatisfied customers forced their hand, and they settled with NVIDIA and offered the free replacement program. Similarly you can make noise – either by adding your voice to the others, by twittering, blogging and doing wharever people do on Facebook, or by getting a little more personal in store. Be reasonable and polite, and give the vendor the chance to make amends.

So I was lucky – the main logic board was covered by the settlement and replacement was free. As a mac fanboi I’m obliged to say that it was only the high quality of Apple’s product that kept it going for so long in spite of NVIDIA’s flaw, but then that would be asking for another failure. So instead I’ll mention that I did have an alternative, non-official, service provider. I didn’t use him, so my next Never buy the warranty post will be about another experience that I had – in Mendoza, Argentina.

This website is moving and will no longer be updated at this address please Visit us     @ This week in mac news and reviews our new site is iphone friendly.

Thank You

Το AppleCare βρίσκει τον δρόμο του για την Ελληνική αγορά – MacLife.gr Forum

Αρχισε να διαμορφώνεται σιγά σιγά η σχετική σελίδα υποστήριξης της Apple για τους Ελληνες χρήστες με τα χαρακτηριστικά του AppleCare.
Φαίνεται πως οι ενδείξεις των τελευταίων εβδομάδων γίνονται πραγματικότητα με την Apple να προετοιμάζει το έδαφος για την έλευση την πολυαναμενόμενης επέκτασης εγγύησης των προϊόντων της (AppleCare), ξεκινώντας από την ενημέρωση των σελίδων υποστήριξης. Πρός το παρόν στην συγκεκριμένη σελίδα οι χρήστες μπορούν να βρούν βασικές πληροφορίες στα αγγλικά και τα ελληνικά για το AppleCare και δεν αποκλείεται με την ολοκλήρωση της ιστοσελίδας της iSquare (ο καινούργιος διανομένας των προϊόντων Apple στην χώρα μας), και το άνοιγμα του νέου ηλεκτρονικού καταστήματος, να γίνει διαθέσιμο πρός αγορά[next]

 

Sang Tang of TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog) writes of lessons learned when his MacBook has an unfortunate encounter with Diet Coke. As he reconsiders the value of extended warranties and laptop insurance, his experience highlights how the value of SquareTrade coverage stacks up when compared to AppleCare.

While AppleCare is certainly compelling for many (phone support and timely repairs of manufacturer defects by Apple-authorized technicians, among its values), its defect is that hardware repair coverage is restricted to manufacturer defects.

As Tang explains, “If you accidentally drop your iPhone in the toilet…you won’t be covered by AppleCare.” SquareTrade, on the other hand, offers the option for Accidental Damage from Handling (ADH) protection:

While researching third party extended warranties, I stumbled upon Square Trade. In addition to covering manufacturers’ defects, Square Trade’s warranty covers accidental damage. In effect, it’s a warranty with an additional safeguard for dings, drops and drenching.

The TUAW analysis goes further to highlight how SquareTrade’s affordability compares to the price tag attached to AppleCare.

For the full write up, visit TUAW.

]]> http://chimac.net/2009/10/21/is-applecare-worth-it/ Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:32:36 +0000 chimac http://chimac.net/2009/10/21/is-applecare-worth-it/

According to this guy-Yes!  Read here if you want to see his experience.

One persons experience.  I wouldn’t depend on the largess of Apple.  Click here for more.

If you have a first-generation iPod nano (the one that looks like a slimmed-down version of the iPod video and comes in only black and white), you may be able to get a replacement or a fix from Apple (s aapl), depending on what kind of symptoms your device is exhibiting.

Specifically, Apple acknowledged via a knowledge base article that the early nanos have a tendency to display battery overheating problems, an issue that it seems like every one of its production mobile devices is accused of at one time or another. The article posted by Apple does admit to the problem in the 1G nanos, but it sure goes out of its way to downplay its significance, as is evident from the following passage:

Apple has determined that in very rare cases, batteries in the iPod nano (1st generation) sold between September 2005 and December 2006, may overheat and prevent the iPod nano from working and deform it.

Apple has received very few reports of such incidents (less than 0.001 percent) and the issue has been traced to a single battery supplier. There have been no reports of serious injuries or property damage. Additionally, there have been no reports of such incidents with any other iPod nano model.

Discoloration, overheating, and case deformity near the battery are all symptoms of the problem, so it should be fairly easy to tell if your model is affected. Remember, though, that there’s overheating and then there’s just plain heating, which is something all Apple devices do even when in fine working order.

Interestingly, if you do a quick and dirty Google search for nano overheating woes, you find no shortage of pages like this that seem to indicate that Apple users were well aware of the tendency a full four years before Apple decided to acknowledge them. If you bought your device in 2006 and you paid extra for extended AppleCare service, you may still be covered, but it’s unclear whether devices not under warranty will be eligible for replacement.

If I was the suspicious type, I’d think it highly unusual that Apple would wait this long to acknowledge a problem that seems to be fairly well-documented in the past. Even if it is providing replacements for those without AppleCare, which seems to me unlikely without an official announcement of an extension of eligibility, the timing means that many nano owners will already have ponied up for a newer model, or an iPhone.

If you have an affected model iPod nano, do us a favor and contact AppleCare and let us know how Apple responds.

AppleCare replaced my MacBook Pro logic board including the battery again!! So far so go this time! My machine has been running 5 days 24 hours but not yet have any problem. They left me a QC report on my desktop (how they know my password??) and also a log of service check up in the report. Very satisfied by the service this time.

The only bad thing is since the logic board was replaced, I need to authorized this “new” computer in iTunes again. So 2 out of 5 chances of authorization was used up due to the fix!!!

Hope my machine can last until next big MBP update.

Battery life extended

For close to 4 years now, I’ve been an Apple convert.  The time has passed by quickly, and I don’t regret making the switch one bit.  My first Apple product was technically my 40GB iPod photo which now looks like a giant brick! I can’t believe I used to carry that around with me! But then, I can’t believe I used to carry my walkman and 5 or 6 cassette tapes to school each day, nor that I used to have a little bag with my discman and a few CDs in it that I used to wear around me.  Something I forgot until my iPod had to be sent away for repair during my second year of university was that CDs JUMP.  How we’ve come to expect perfection!  Or I have, anyway – I have no patience for songs skipping, I have little patience for my iPod taking a while to get its head round a song I want it to play.

However, I never considered getting an iPod as becoming an Apple convert.  Once I saw how easily my iPod worked and how straightforward the menus were, I became interested in getting an Apple laptop, especially as my current laptop was slower than a dinosaur.  During my first year of university, I had lots of problems with anti-virus software and protecting my computer.  It became ridiculously slow, and in addition to that, the laptop I had had a poor attempt at imitating Microsoft Office.  In the end, I had enough, and just before Christmas 2005 I ordered my first Apple laptop, an iBook G4.  It took me a month to get used to the fact that there was no right-click button, that the tabs and x’s and everything were in different places.  Also to get used to the fact that as a Mac, my computer was practically already virus-immune without constant annoying updates from AVG and Spybot and Norton Anti-Virus.  The resolution and picture quality was far superior than what I had been used to, and although there were several software compatibility issues, they were a lot easier to overcome than I had feared.  The aforementioned Microsoft Office was no longer needed, as I didn’t require any spreadsheets, and I could open and create word documents in TextEdit.  So it was all good!

Of course, it’s not all been problem-free.  I’m now on my third iPod (which is just over a year old), a 120GB silver iPod classic.  I’ve had it just over a year, and apart from the fact that the click wheel only clicks in the headphones, it is behaving quite well. For a while it was working extremely slowly, but the iPod software update on Snow Leopard fixed it and it’s back to normal.  I have had a lot of iPod issues in the past, having to send back my iPod time and again and getting replacement ones.  Particularly in the case of my first iPod (the photo one), I got into a rhythm of hitting it and knocking it in order to get it to behave and function, which in retrospect was quite ridiculous.  My second iPod, a 5th-generation iPod classic with video, still works, though it went through a period of deleting itself of all my music which was why I got a new one.  Because I have such a huge amount of music (though 120GB is more than enough space, and I haven’t come close to filling this iPod yet, with 35GB still free!), having to reload it onto my iPod is a MASSIVE pain, and now I use a handy program called iLinkPod to back up my iPod every month or so.  It’s a great security blanket, and ensures that I never lose my songs (something which is a much more real concern with digital music – it’s far easier to lose a file than to lose a CD), nor my formatting – I am a little bit anal about how I categorise my songs and make sure that everything has the correct artwork.  So with my new iPod, I bought AppleCare to keep it under guarantee for a lot longer, and I feel a lot more secure now.  And everything is working fine!

The introduction of an Apple Store to Bristol has also been a great advantage.  Up until the opening of Cabot Circus last September, there was an Apple retailer in Temple Meads which was more or less hopeless when it came to fixing any issues that I had.  Problems with my first laptop and its CD drive went unrepaired because they were so pathetic in their service that I just preferred to persist with the problem than get it fixed by them. (When my CD or DVD would skip upon putting it in the drive, I would just beat the base of the computer and it would work.  Again, I am glad to say those days are long gone!)  When my hard drive finally corrupted (I think to be fair, that was my fault because in Spain, I would leave my computer on my bed and it would overheat lying on the thick blanket that I had bought), it was easier just to buy another laptop than get it fixed by them and face their judgement.  Also, their costs would probably have been close to the cost of another laptop anyways.  I bought my second laptop in Easter 2007, and I still have it today!  The one time that I had a problem with it, last Christmas when it would only work with the power adapter plugged in, I took it to the Apple Store in Cabot Circus, who repaired it and although they had said that providing a new logic board would cost £400 (a price I decided I was prepared to pay), they fixed it for no charge.  It was a lovely Christmas Eve present, and to this day I’m not sure if that was a mistake… I just got out of the store clutching my laptop before they could change their mind!

Updating my operating system to Leopard and recently Snow Leopard has kept my laptop current, and although it is 2 and a half years old now, I don’t feel that it’s been left behind or is lacking anything. I have got a Microsoft Office replacement now called NeoOffice, so that I can plot my anti-snacking spreadsheet and make a beautiful printable CV.  Using the real Microsoft at work has made me appreciate Apple all the more.  My Dell laptop starts up and shuts down so slowly; it installs updates at a snail’s pace; Microsoft Office is actually not that user friendly, with certain apparently-advanced functions being a rigmarole to discover.  And don’t rely on the help section – it only helps you with incredibly obvious things, and anything more technical is a struggle to even find according to their index system.  I conclude that their help sections must have been written by morons, and this week at work, I have solved my queries by using Google, seeing that the Microsoft help section had failed me so.  In short, I can’t see myself going back to Microsoft.

However, there is one area of my life where I’m not willing to let Apple in.  The iPhone, while I appreciate is a marvellous piece of kit and has so many useful (and useless! ) apps as well as a slim touchscreen, iPod capabilities and Safari web browser, is just far too common.  I see it everywhere. In addition, it’s expensive and I’m not really into buying phones on contract (I get easily confused), so I prefer to buy them SIM-free and then just keep my standard O2 Simplicity contract, which gives me unlimited web browsing, and enough free texts and minutes for £20 to keep me satisfied. I see iPhones everywhere, and while they are pretty and fantastic devices, I prefer to be a little bit different.  I have the LG Prada II, which is a beautiful sleek black touchscreen phone.  However, it also has a pull-out QWERTY keyboard (one of the main selling features for me) so after a little bit of teething, I can text pretty damn quick. I also have the internet and a camera and all the other important things I wanted in a smart phone.  But for me, it is more beautiful than an iPhone, it has the designer name which makes it a little more special to me, and I have never seen another one being used in public.  I am confident that the iPhone is probably a superior piece of kit, but not by much – I am happy without all the extra apps, as long as I have my QWERTY keyboard, free internet browsing, emails, beautiful phone and unique phone.  The LG Prada II has taken me a few months to get my head around (the instruction manual is not very clear, and it does randomly do crazy things such as restart when I receive more than one email), but I have grown to love it and appreciate its quirks as much as its beauty and functions.  As I’ve only had it for 5 months, I’m not really looking into what phone I might get next (iPhone or otherwise), as technology these days (particularly with smart phones) evolves so quickly that I won’t even think about it until my current phone starts getting tired and a new one will be necessary.  However, I know that Dior have got a beautiful phone on their website…

It’s my Mac again being fixed. According to my memory, all Macs I owned got motherboard problem.

1. 1st generation 20″ G5 iMac got capacitor and power supply burning problem which Apple offered extensive repairing program. iMac G5 Repair Extension Program for
Power Supply Issues

2. Last generation G4 PowerBook suffered from logic board problem, memory slot would be out of order after some days, PowerBook G4 (15-inch 1.67/1.5GHz) Memory Slot Repair Extension Program . My serial no. wasn’t mentioned in the repair program. But hopefully I got purchase insurance from a chain store, so that I can claim the money (> HK$6k!!) and sell the machine finally. Also involved 4-5 times turned around because the service didn’t connect power LED, speakers, bluetooth properly… Well, the service centre named “BAD” was closed I found, Hallelujah!

3. My current 15″ Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro got Nvidia GPU overheat problem, MacBook Pro: Distorted video or no video issues. Actually I’ve asked AppleCare to replace the logic board. But after the service, seems

I saw the status checking site, they’re ordering spare parts for it. I wonder they have to replace the motherboard once again.

4. I hope no more… especially for my Mac mini which my girl friend is using. So far so good.

Though I still think Mac gave me less problem than PC so far, I’m really a lucky “honored” user, making good use of AppleCare. It’s hard to say whether AppleCare saved me from these, since all the cases are claimed by Apple it will have after warranty replacement. Except once before they replaced my MBP’s battery after 1 year of use.

Ya os enseñaré el fotofinishhhhhhh cuando tenga la pieza nueva!!

Pues lo dicho, ya dije que gracias a la insistencia de un amigo, para se cumpliera la normativa española de dar dos años de garantía tras la compra, conseguimos que Apple, accediese a la reparación de mi portátil.

Os sugerí que lo enviarais si tenéis el mismo problema que yo a TECNIMAC porque entre otras cosas, es uno de los reparadores oficiales que no cerraban en agosto en Madrid.

Y el resultado está a la vista. Al tener la carcasa rota, tuvieron que cambiarme también el touchpad y el teclado, y ahora tengo mi portátil de un blanco que ni Ariel Ultra y preparado para seguir trabajando a tope.

Leer también:

Vaya semanita…

Hoy es un nuevo día: mi reconciliación con Apple

Luz roja y audio integrado en el Mac

Soy nuevo en mac: primeros pasos. DON’T PANIC

Mentre De Gregori Suona nelle cuffie dela Ubuntu box dove ha tornato a funzionare Last.Fm, e non sto qui a dirvi come, visto che non è una cosa proprio ufficialissima , e mentre ho rinnovato l’Apple Care per il mio IPod per un altro anno, visti i precedenti, continuo a pensare all’America, quindi non sto qui a rompervi le palle, alla prossima

And so the first month of iPhone 3GS ownership comes to a close.  The ups…the downs.  The cheers and tears.  The feeling one can do just about anything and the misery of….well….well shit.  I can’t think of anything miserable to report.  And that’s a good thing, right?

This past week I finally pulled out the AppleCare protection plan, which I had purchased along with the phone, and actually registered the plan with Apple.  I had not done so until I was 100% certain I was keeping the iPhone because I could return the phone and the car charger, but not the AppleCare plan once it was opened and registered.  Thus, the plan could only be activated once I was certain of my ownership intentions.

Clearly I was certain long before the fourth week of ownership commenced, but I always figured it was better to play it safe than to be sorry…and out $70.00.  I will confess that I like the idea of the AppleCare programme for both my iMac and the iPhone.  While the AppleCare plan is not an insurance plan (in the event of loss/theft) it does provide me two full years of tech support and warranty against manufacture defect(s) in the units construction.

I wasn’t as certain about the need for the AppleCare plan with the iMac, but was very confident of my desire to have such for the iPhone.  The iMac is a platform that has been around for years and the likelihood of it suffering from some sort of physical failure seems fairly remote considering all things.  However, the iPhone is a much more recent invention and its heavy & daily use leads, or so I think, to the far greater likelihood of failure.

I can’t say that I have anything of particular note or interest to report this week.  I haven’t come across anything new that rings ill or good for the iPhone and my experience with it.  It continues to be a fun device with which to “play”.  And communicate.  And keep up.

Okay.

Fine.

It’s mostly play.  When you get down to it.  Really.  I don’t have a job so no one is communicating important stuff to me.  It’s just the usual goofy e-mails, texts, tweets, etc.  It’s more like a game than anything else.  But it’s a game I’m enjoying and one that doesn’t require me to have great hand-eye coordination!  Finally…a fucking game I can play!

I’ve been following a number of sites that frequently/regularly discuss what iPhone apps they have “discovered” and you know what?  While they often praise any given app when one goes online to the App Store and checks out the star rating and reviews one quickly realizes that the authors of those blog entries haven’t bothered to look over the star ratings and reviews.

I can’t begin to tell you how many times (actually…it’s 17) I’ve read a blog review of an App and said “Shit.  I should have that added functionality,” only to find the star rating and reviews less than optimistic about the app and how it will improve my life.  As of this moment I haven’t installed one app from the store based upon any of these reviews I’ve read online.  That’s just fucking sad.

Tu as déjà fait l’expérience : un vendeur qui rechigne à te faire une fleur, qui aimerait te pousser à faire autrement sans en donner de raisons vraiment valables…

C’est parfois ce qui arrive quand on a un ordinateur Apple – un Mac, donc. Si ce dernier dispose d’une garantie AppleCare (c’est-à-dire une garantie prolongée à 3 ans au lieu d’une année par défaut), le “mieux” est de passer un coup de fil au service après vente (SAV) d’Apple pour expliquer le problème. Le SAV te fera faire quelques tests, et si tu remplis les critères, on t’enverra un carton dans lequel tu mettras ton ordinateur, que tu renverras en réparation, etc. Ce système a un coût, non pas financier, mais temporel. En effet, on ne sait pas trop combien de temps va durer la réparation, et durant tout ce temps, tu es privé(e) d’ordinateur.

Autre solution : aller chez un revendeur Apple agréé disposant d’un centre de maintenance. Tu te présentes à l’accueil, expliques le problème… Et là, on ne t’enverra pas sur les roses. Du moins je l’espère. Récit d’une expérience vécue il y a quelques années, en 2005 et 2006. (Evidemment, par respect pour le magasin concerné, je ne donnerai pas de noms ni d’indications permettant de l’identifier.)

Un revendeur Apple agréé, ce n’est pas un Apple Store, et ne dépend donc pas directement d’Apple. De ce point de vue, il découle une chose au moins : quand on amène un Mac acheté en ligne sur l’Apple Store (donc pas chez le revendeur en question) et qui dispose encore de la garantie, où est l’intérêt économique pour le revendeur, sachant que le client ne paiera rien ? Quand on sait qu’une réparation coûte environ 200 CHF de l’heure juste pour la main d’œuvre… Donc plutôt que de rendre service, le magasin pourrait être tenté de renvoyer le client au SAV. C’est ce qu’il m’était arrivé : le technicien en question rechignait un peu devant ma jolie petite tête blonde.

N’ayant pas d’arguments percutants à faire valoir (un décolleté plongeant, un regard enjôleur), j’ai dû presque supplier le technicien de réparer mon ordinateur ET, surtout, de ne pas me le séquestrer en attendant les pièces de rechange. J’y étais parvenu, avec difficulté, m’engageant à amener ma machine le jour même où on m’annoncerait que les pièces étaient arrivées, car les magasins doivent renvoyer les pièces défectueuses sous 24h, sous peine de devoir payer des frais supplémentaires. Bref, tout s’était finalement bien passé.

Aujourd’hui, même scénario. Apple a une désagréable manie de pourvoir ses ordinateurs portables de lecteur/graveur de disque bas de gamme, pour ne pas dire foireux. Chaque Macbook Pro que j’ai possédé a vu son lecteur/graveur de disque être changé. Et, tu me croiras ou non, sans que j’aie fait quelque chose qui l’endommage. J’utilise tellement peu de CD/DVD…

Mon lecteur/graveur a actuellement de sérieux ratés. J’ai donc été dans un Apple Premium Reseller (APR). Avec ce t-shirt. Les possesseurs de Macs comprendront.

Je rentre dans l’APR, le patron m’accueille, me salue et sans me laisser le temps de lui répondre, me complimente sur mon t-shirt tout en rétorquant que son magasin est équipé de WiFi ! Je souris, le salue, et lui explique la raison de ma présence. Aussitôt, il appelle un technicien, qui me souris aussi et, très gentil, m’explique qu’il va vite faire quelques tests sur ma machine, en espérant m’annoncer à son retour qu’il pourra me la rendre s’il s’avère qu’une commande pièce est nécessaire.

Un autre technicien revient, rigole en voyant mon t-shirt, m’explique comment tout va se passer, me fait signer là et là et me rend ma machine. On discute encore un peu de Snow Leopard, et au bout de 15 minutes, je m’en vais. D’ici la fin de la semaine, mon Mac sera en ordre. J’ai le sourire, j’ai bien fait rire l’équipe de l’APR. Même pas besoin de demander quoi que ce soit, ils ont répondu à ma demande sans même que je la formule. Soit ils ont fait des progrès dans le service à la clientèle, soit mon t-shirt a un sacré pouvoir sur les “Mac users”.

Morale de l’histoire : avant même d’ouvrir tout grand ton moulin à parole, arrange toi pour faire comprendre au revendeur à qui il s’adresse. Mieux vaut une touche d’humour montrant d’abord que tu en as (de l’humour, pas une paire de…) et que tu n’es pas en manche en matière d’ordinateur Apple, en l’occurrence. L’apparence, c’est comme l’orthographe dans une lettre : ça permet tout de suite de se faire une première idée de la personne. On la néglige ou on la prend trop au sérieux, et on passera pour un imbécile ou pour une personne désagréable.

I’m running my MacBook Pro 7×24, I thought my machine is luck from NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT GPU defeat. But finally, I found it’s not giving the hot temperature in Hong Kong last week. My display was found scrambled finally. So I sent it to CASE to replace the motherboard as already noted by Apple MacBook Pro: Distorted video or no video issues. My BAD (it means another closed service centre) experience told me it may spend more than 1 week including shipping of spare part and fix it. This time may be it’s an known issue, the repair time is amazingly short. This morning I checked CASE’s service status page, it told me my machine is ready to be picked!!!! Cool~~!! Though I started getting used to Ubuntu in these 3 days, I can spend more time to play games. But actually without a Mac, my life is like in hell! I can’t organize and edit my photos. Everything in Linux is very unhandy for me compare with Mac. My 2.4GHz MBP is still very smooth every have a virtual machine running!

Thx CASE, my last 2 experience are quite nice. I hope they can regain confidence from Apple users in Hong Kong. Btw, I hope their page can look nicer.

There’s a post on TUAW about the kind of incident we’ve all heard of. One minute your laptop is fine, the next minute it’s not. Of course, this is usually how things break, but the point is something you rely on is no longer working, and in this case the necessary fix was not cheap.

Had the laptop been under an AppleCare extended warranty ($249 for a MacBook), this would have been covered. It turns out the repairs were much less than initially thought, but the eternal question still rages: Do you or don’t you purchase AppleCare protection for your Mac?

For me, the answer’s an emphatic “yes”. Any quality PC is a pretty big investment, yet subject to break. The likelihood of breaking increases for a laptop, since you have the variable of harder treatment as it’s moved around. An extended warranty is generally a small price to pay for the assurance you can use the machine for years if you want to.

The TUAW article goes into detail for cost of the warranty vs. machine cost, etc., but ultimately (as they also mention) it’s about piece of mind.

The beauty of AppleCare is that you don’t have to buy it at Mac purchase. You have until the one-year warranty expires. So you can budget for the hardware, tax, shipping., etc. and not worry about the additional warranty expense for another year. My iMac and white MacBook have AppleCare, my unibody 13″ does not. It’ll be a year old in October, and I’ll buy it then.

AppleCare ranges in price from the Mac mini to the 17″ MacBook Pro. It represents relative prices (and expense of repairs) for the various models. When considered as a percentage of the cost of the machine, and amortized over the length of the contract, I think it’s well worth it.