Got the machine Tuesday opened it Wednesday (busy week).
Upon opening it I noticed a scratch (through the finishing down to the black part) on the display rear cover/laptop rear cover at the corner. Figure maybe 5mm long by 1mm wide. Since I get new laptops every 6-9 months I wanted to get it fixed because as we all know Mac buyers (for the most part) are more "particular" about what they buy, and a scratch can scare away those "premium" bidders that we all depend on to keep the resale values high.
(Calmly) called Apple saying that if it had just been a small scratch in the finish I wouldn't have cared much, but a corner scratch through the aluminum itself should have been fixed prior to resale. I said that the laptop otherwise works fine, and asked if they could replace the part. They said no problem, they would send a box. I asked if I could take it into the local Apple store they said sure.
Apple store dude says that they can't replace the scratched part because it is a refurb. I commented (calmly) that I already had approval, and that while a scratch might be ok a scratch through the finish certainly is not. He looked up my case # and said that I talked to a "Tier 2", which is above him. He suggested I just have them send me a box as it would be faster anyway (which we all know is sometimes correct, but not always). I told him that I could bought 4 refurbed Macs over the last (almost) 3 years and that prior to this they were indistinguishible from new units.
Call Apple again, they tell me that they have to replace the entire laptop, not just the case part. In situations where there is "damage" when the unit is opened they just replaced the whole thing. Emailed me a Fedex express tag and I dropped it off last night.
Moral of the story for refurb buyers: Inspect thouroughly and be nice if something like what I described happens. Apple could have said denied the repair saying that this is the result of buying a refurb but they didn't. Also, don't spend 4 hours setting up everything *prior* to calling Apple as they will probably tell you that they are going to send you another unit (DOH!).
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