[LukeSc]

Hey Guys,

My cousin bought a MacBook a few months ago, after much convincing, and he just loves it. He bought some smart card device (or something like that) and the drivers came on a mini-CD (which both state windows and Mac on it).

Unfortunately my cousin isn't very technically inclined.. he's on the other end of the spectrum.. He's more balls than brains sometimes... sometimes short fused. So... you guessed it: He put the mini CD in the slot drive... He told me that it made a bunch of noise and he managed to get it out, but now it wouldn't accept regular CD's now. I'm not sure if it's just not taking it, or if it just doesn't read it.. In either case, his CD rom is all screwed up now.

He took it to a 3rd party repair shop (Apple certified) and they told him that it would cost him $500 to fix, and they couldn't get to it for a week, or something like that. He got pissed off and said "f*** it, throw the d*** thing away" and walked out... He called me and I told him what an idiot he was and I told him to go back in, get his laptop back, and take it to a real Apple store and see if they would help him as his machine is under a year old and under manufacturer warranty. He goes back in, makes some excuse about someone wanting to buy it from him, and the funny thing is this store persisted in calling him and leaving him messages about them buying it from him...

So he calls me back and tells me he got it back and about them calling him... I tell him to go to the Apple store, but then I realize they arn't going to even talk to him until he has an appointment. I'm near my computer, so I hop online and try to make him an appointment. Sometimes you can get an appointment that day fairly close (depending on how busy they are)... I find that the nearest appointment is Friday at 1:15, which I wasn't surprised being late in the day. I tell him to go there anyway as he's fairly close anyway, and see if there were any cancellations (this happens sometimes).

So they take his name and he waits a little over an hour and finally talks to a tech. They basically tell him that it isn't covered under warranty and there's nothing they can do to fix it...

Honestly I'm not surprised because when I had several problems with mind and had to take it in, one of the problems was a metal piece that keeps the drive in place got bent blocking the CD rom... They told me that wasn't under warranty, but the guy said that he could try bending it back, which he did. The other problems that I had were as a result of a bad USB device that crossed and messed up my mainboard. They ended up replacing the whole mainboard, and my top case as it had oils embeded into it (told me it was a defect)....

With his problem I'm going to have to say it's more innocent than what happened with mine, and they took care of me. With his problem... I can imagine someone not knowing that it doesn't take a mini CD. I mean... the Nintendo Wii has one that looks fairly similar, and it takes mini CD's just fine (it has to to be backwards compatible).... And there really isn't a big warning sticker that says "DONT PUT IN MINI CD'S" other than a hard to find area on the web site, or somewhere in the middle of the manual... Both of which most people don't even read or think about.

With me,... I just know.. And if I didn't know, I would have investigated further. But with someone with less technical common sense and looking at his point of view, I can see how it happened. The CD said mac on it, and most Macs have slot drives. Infact the only one that doesn't is the Mac Pro.

I have a feeling that part of his problem is his attitude. I wasn't with him when all this took place... I was at work at the time. I'm going to go with him tomorrow and see if we can get it straitened out, but I don't think they're going to.

I would suggest that he take the stores offer and let them buy it from him as long as he gets $800 out of it, but he bought the whole thing on credit. Not exactly something that he can take a hit on, and it seems it will happen that way either way, unless Apple takes care of him.

Does anyone have an advice on the matter? Or is he just pretty much screwed?

Thanks,

Luke

[JonoMarshall]

Buy a new drive from eBay or even a store and fit it for him... job done.

[Cold Warrior]

holy cow...at least you read it Jono. I completely shut down.

[bishopazrael]

Ok a couple of things.

First.. this sounds like a "todd the laptop guy" kinda situation with the first repair shop. They know it'll cost them $100 for a new slot loading drive, and they know it'll cost them about 1 hour of shop labor time. All told $150. They'll take that, flip the Macbook and make a nice chunk of change. That's their angle. DO NOT SELL IT TO THEM unless you get full price for it.

Second. You can get the part yourself and either do it yourself by searching online for instructions on how to open the case, or you can pay a tech to do it. As an in home tech myself, this is something I'd want to do in the shop and take my time on, not to charge more but to make sure I get it right. There's a lot that goes into pulling apart a macbook. Because of the sleek design, there are way more hidden screws and such that go into keeping it together. I'd need space to spread them out as I go along. I charge a flat $50 an hour fee. I don't see this taking 10 hours. If it was coming to my shop, I'd quote you a 5 hour job and probably wind up charging you for 3. I'd quote 5 because something like this... things can and will go wrong. I'd want the extra cushion of time expectancy if I needed it. More than likely I wouldn't and you'd be pleased to get it for less than I quoted. So all in all it should cost you the cost of the part (whatever it costs..) and the cost of labor. Now keep in mind about this... I charge $50. But I'm supremely good at what I do. Some shops charge the same thing, and they aren't as good. You'll have to find a good tech in your area that can do it and not rip you off. I'm be extra strong on this reply because there is HUGE potential for you to get ripped off doing this, and sadly its becoming more and more common for it to happen.

So just trust your gut. If it tells you something's wrong with a shop, go somewhere else. Or you could just pay apple to swap out the drive. That'll wind up costing you around $300 total I'd think. Go to the store and ask them what it'd cost to just get the drive swapped out, no time wasting on diagnostics, just dive in, swap it out and move on. I'd say $300 would be a good number. And also, you could still get the drive elsewhere because it WILL be cheaper from ebay than from apple.. then take them both in to the store and just pay them to do the labor. Now that I think about it... that's the route I'd go. Just buy the drive on ebay and take it in with the lappy and have apple do it. Problem solved. Something like this shouldnt take an apple tech longer than an hour, 2 at the max.

Good luck.
Bishop

[LukeSc]

What's really irritating is that they wouldn't cover it under the warranty. It's not completely apparent that you can't put one in, especially since some of the older PowerBooks could take them, most Macs only use slot drives, and the Nintendo Wii system can take them. Unless you dug into the manual or specifically looked for it, to the average joe like my cousin, they would assume it would work.

My main board got fried because of a really faulted USB device and they replaced it. That's way more expensive than a CD rom, and technically it's my fault for using the device, regardless if the fact that it was faulted was unknown.

It does seem that anything to do with the CD rom they like to make excuses about. I just don't get it... I can understand if someone slammed their MacBook against a wall in a blind range... But what happened to him is totally understandable.

I'm not a certified Apple tech, and if I were to do it, I could make it worse off than it is already.

[Cold Warrior]

alright, I read it through this time.

I agree - I think it was his attitude. You might have better luck -- or if you have a hot lady friend who is also nice/easy-going. Nerds can't resist a woman in need.

[LukeSc]

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior 

alright, I read it through this time.

I agree - I think it was his attitude. You might have better luck -- or if you have a hot lady friend who is also nice/easy-going. Nerds can't resist a woman in need.

Good idea!!!!

Now... to find a hot lady friend... I know lots at work, but I don't think they'd help me.. My cousin's gonna have to find one.

[bishopazrael]

Originally Posted by LukeSc 

Good idea!!!!

Now... to find a hot lady friend... I know lots at work, but I don't think they'd help me.. My cousin's gonna have to find one.

A nice bouqet of flowers and lots of begging and scrapping will help.

Seriously.... I'd pick one of the hot chicks... one that you know has some ability to talk about tech just a bit.... and then get her one of those floral bouquets and ask her to do you a solid. I bet she wouldn't say no. and who knows... maybe you get a new friend out of it! most hot women are fairly understanding if you tell them up front what you're trying to do. I've done that and had really good sucess. Got a whole 12" pb replaced that way in Portland. Really... what woman would get a bunch of flowers and then say no?

[LukeSc]

Originally Posted by bishopazrael 

A nice bouqet of flowers and lots of begging and scrapping will help.

Seriously.... I'd pick one of the hot chicks... one that you know has some ability to talk about tech just a bit.... and then get her one of those floral bouquets and ask her to do you a solid. I bet she wouldn't say no. and who knows... maybe you get a new friend out of it! most hot women are fairly understanding if you tell them up front what you're trying to do. I've done that and had really good sucess. Got a whole 12" pb replaced that way in Portland. Really... what woman would get a bunch of flowers and then say no?

When I said they wouldn't help me, I mean most of them are married, or about to be.

My cousin's more of a chick magnet anyway. The Apple store is in the mall...