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fortepianissimo · Apr 1, 2004, 12:10 AM

I accidentally dropped my PB G4 over the past weekend, and sent the machine back on Tuesday (yesterday) when Airborne delivered a box for returning the PB.

Just now I checked repair status and it reported "unit shipped/completed"! (Wednesday - the very same day they received the machine)

To put things into perspective, the PB was damaged quite a bit - the LCD was partly broken (although I could still see the majority of the image), and the entire left side of the case was broken, to the point I could see the guts. But the system worked fine.

Also I have 3-year AppleCare although in this case it didn't help much since it's "accidental" - the quote I have for the repair is $1,400.

I'm a bit worried (ironically) about such a fast turnover time. Anyone experienced similar situations?

Paul Huang · Apr 1, 2004, 01:19 AM

It takes me about 40 minutes to strip the PowerBook Titanium to the rib (interhal frame) in a unhurried pace. It takes Apple just about the same. It takes about the same amount of time to put things back. They typically receive the package around 9:00 CST. Getting the system out by 15:00 is common.

Don't be concerned. I have sent back at least 5 units with 36-hour turn-around time.

Ω · Apr 1, 2004, 07:21 AM

Drop laptop into store. Return two hours later. All fixed. Same problem. Replacement LCD.

rjenkinson · Apr 1, 2004, 07:24 AM

$1400? you could buy a new machine and sell the old one for parts to defray the cost.

-r.

fortepianissimo · Apr 1, 2004, 12:46 PM

Just a follow-up: yup I got the machine back this morning, and everything is fixed! I fall in love once again with my PB...

macdaddie0 · Apr 2, 2004, 05:09 PM

I've sent in 4 times in the past few months. Each time, Apple repaired and shipped back in one day. So each journey only took 3 days.

Somehow I still amazed by their quickness.

Fothb · Apr 2, 2004, 05:18 PM

Perhaps these fast turnaround times will change for "normal" customers after the "ProCare" program takes off...

http://www.apple.com/retail/procare/

Or maybe the service will still be great and the ProCare service will just be even better. It's too soon to tell.

AllenHuffman · Apr 2, 2004, 05:34 PM

My AlBook had a sticky key and I had to send it in; between the time it left my hands and arrived back was less than 48 hours. Just amazing.

dspiel · Apr 2, 2004, 06:32 PM

Not at all too fast. I'm in NJ, the repairs are done in Texas. The roundtrip was UNDER 45 HOURS. I dropped it off at 1:30 on Monday, it was picked up at 3:15. It was back before noon on Wednesday. And in beautiful shape.

the Rebel · Apr 2, 2004, 07:13 PM

Over the past 6 years, I have had 3 occassions where there has been less than 48 hours between the time that I handed a broken Powerbook to Airborne and when Airborne brought back the repaired unit. One time it came back in 22.5 hours!! At first I thought that they had simply shipped me a replacement unit, but it had the same scratches on the case and my files were on the hard drive. Needless to say, I was amazed at how they could have turned it around so fast.

romeosc · Apr 2, 2004, 08:29 PM

Should have bouht Safeware.com insurance, about $90 bucks a year.

jrf42 · Apr 2, 2004, 09:06 PM

Yes, I had a similar experience. Broke the hinge on the PB G4 on a Sunday. Called Apple on Monday morning. Tuesday morning Airborne brought the box. And Tuesday evening they picked it up. Wednesday morning it was in Austin TX and Thursday morning I received it back. But they repaired it under AppleCare Warranty -not a cent spent. Amazing !
RF.

Xapplimatic · Apr 3, 2004, 08:49 AM

My old 466 MHz iBook was still under warrantee (w/o Apple Care) when the VRAM (ATI Rage 128 m3) went bad. They FedEx'd a container to me by the next day. The same day I shipped it off prepaid Fed-Ex to Texas and less than 4 days later it was back at my door.. Very impressive time for a "non-professional" product. They said the repair could take up to a week. I was never more pleased with a company's customer support. That and many other instances of support I have had with Apple (including an equivalent-value trade of a Jaguar upgrade to reimburse my cost for replacing the sparking power adapter on this same iBook by a PR rep) has made me a life-long customer of Apple, so long as they continue this great tradition of standing behind their products.

Every time we've seen any kind of product defect issue (be it a low-life iPod battery, an iBook motherboard defect, a PowerBook white blob screen, or otherwise) arrise, sooner or later, Apple has stood behind their products and came through for their customers.

normr · Apr 3, 2004, 07:46 PM

Next time buy a Safeware policy that will cover things like that. it covers accidental damage, theft and surges.

Feeling_Macish · Apr 4, 2004, 11:13 AM

Will it cover the cost of professional data recovery, if that's what it might take to get data from a malfunctioning or damaged drive?

Andrew Stephens · Apr 4, 2004, 01:49 PM

My TiBook has twice been turned around by Apple Uk in less than 48 hours. First time for a broken PMU and again about a year later for another PMU. Both times the quick turnaround was helped by Apple not actually fixing the machine just slipping a trite note about my battery being old but operating within parameters.

They took a bit longer than 48 hours to forget to fix a faulty on off switch (twice) and then took about four days to repair a broken hinge, then again for a broken combo drive, then again for a broken latch and finally a new motherboard!! Now it's making funny whirring noises so its going back again.

Apparently it is not regarded as unreliable enough to warrant replacing, it needs one more what apple call a catastrophic hardware failure before it can be considered for replacement. Anyone got a hammer?

Also I'm on my second battery. And the battery on my 12" PB is rubbish too!. Not perhaps the best experience of Apple portables.

MountainMac · Apr 4, 2004, 06:39 PM

Originally posted by Feeling_Macish:
Will it cover the cost of professional data recovery, if that's what it might take to get data from a malfunctioning or damaged drive?

I'm pretty sure it won't. Go back up your HD now.

Paul Huang · Apr 4, 2004, 08:09 PM

The $50 fee for data transfer is charged if you choose the option--whether or not they have to transfer the data back to your intact (working) hard drive.

If your drive is not working, they will let you take care of it with _DriverSavers_ in Novato, CA or other data recovery joints you want to use.

krux` · Apr 5, 2004, 02:15 AM

Did you drop your TI book in the airport on the marble floor? i saw some guy in the airport taking his powerbook off an extra machine in the security section drop it onto the ground, look at it for like 4 seconds to actually see if it had fallen, it had, it was broken..