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applesbiggestfan · Jan 30, 2009, 12:29 AM

Hey all,

I haven't been on the forums for over a month.
But now I have a problem:

I bought my new Aluminium Macbook 2 months ago
and now it has a dent!

I was just on my bed doing some stuff and it fell off, and landed on it's corner!
So now the top right of the um... 'screen' is not completely round anymore (the aluminium around the display got bend a bit. And the bottom right of the unibody is bent in and it made the alimium somehow look 'wrinkly'.

Is there any way I can fix this? If you know any way at all to fix the dent in the aluminium please reply!

Thank you

dowNNshift · Jan 30, 2009, 01:39 AM

You're very fortunate that you did not crack your LCD display. Because of the nature of how the unibody is designed, only replacement will fix the cosmetic damage. You're looking at at least a $375 cosmetic repair. The unibody top-case has the keyboard and trackpad integrated into it making it cost about $150 dollars by itself.

Unfortunately your warranty is a gonner now.

thefunkymunky · Jan 30, 2009, 05:01 AM

Originally Posted by applesbiggestfan

Hey all,

I haven't been on the forums for over a month.
But now I have a problem:

I bought my new Aluminium Macbook 2 months ago
and now it has a dent!

I was just on my bed doing some stuff and it fell off, and landed on it's corner!
So now the top right of the um... 'screen' is not completely round anymore (the aluminium around the display got bend a bit. And the bottom right of the unibody is bent in and it made the alimium somehow look 'wrinkly'.

Is there any way I can fix this? If you know any way at all to fix the dent in the aluminium please reply!

Thank you

How did you purchase it? With credit card? Does your CC company offer insurance on products you buy?

mduell · Jan 30, 2009, 01:58 PM

The joys of weak metal cases; plastic ftw.

Maflynn · Jan 30, 2009, 02:14 PM

There's little you can do, since the warranty will not cover accidental damage. As mduell stated, aluminum being a malleable material means that it will easily deform.

Simon · Jan 30, 2009, 02:42 PM

The joys of Al cases. Plastic would have cracked.

Maflynn · Jan 30, 2009, 02:57 PM

Originally Posted by Simon

The joys of Al cases. Plastic would have cracked.

I disagree, the polycarbonate case of the MB and the iBook before that were pretty durable. I've seen some horrific falls, only to see that there was no damage.

iREZ · Jan 30, 2009, 07:14 PM

just another reason why the white macbook > uni macbook.

ooooOOoOOooOoooo...did i just stir the pot?

Maflynn · Jan 30, 2009, 07:28 PM

Originally Posted by iREZ

just another reason why the white macbook > uni macbook.

ooooOOoOOooOoooo...did i just stir the pot?

No because people have different needs, and for some the white MB is a better fit and for others the unibody model is. What ever floats your boat

cbrfanatic · Jan 30, 2009, 08:14 PM

either way it must hurt to get a dent in the unibody, i still have and use my 1.67Ghz G4, whenever i got a dent in it, i just took the casing apart and nursed it back to health, sometimes with a meat cleaver (lol), and sometimes with special metal work hammers in the shop

jay3ld · Jan 30, 2009, 11:09 PM

Originally Posted by cbrfanatic

either way it must hurt to get a dent in the unibody, i still have and use my 1.67Ghz G4, whenever i got a dent in it, i just took the casing apart and nursed it back to health, sometimes with a meat cleaver (lol), and sometimes with special metal work hammers in the shop

So do you have a suggestion then for a macbook pro from 07 that has a slight dent below the left Apple key. Right where that slant thing joins the main case?

cbrfanatic · Jan 30, 2009, 11:31 PM

Originally Posted by jay3ld

So do you have a suggestion then for a macbook pro from 07 that has a slight dent below the left Apple key. Right where that slant thing joins the main case?

remove the case, and keyboard, place the casing upside down on a hard flat surface and using a small ball peen hammer lightly tap the convex dent (since its upside down), until both sides are as flat as you can get them. It wont be 100% perfect but if your patient you can get it to a point where you can forget it being there.
If the dent is actually on both the flat part and the curved part then you are going to either need to make something with the same curvature (molding, etc) or find something pretty close to it and then do the same process.

Simon · Jan 31, 2009, 04:06 AM

Originally Posted by Maflynn

I disagree, the polycarbonate case of the MB and the iBook before that were pretty durable. I've seen some horrific falls, only to see that there was no damage.

We all know the plastic MBs were by far not as durable as they should have been.

AKcrab · Jan 31, 2009, 04:13 AM

Originally Posted by Simon

We all know the plastic MBs were by far not as durable as they should have been.

Not to mention the "squished" optical drive slot.

jay3ld · Jan 31, 2009, 03:21 PM

Originally Posted by cbrfanatic

remove the case, and keyboard, place the casing upside down on a hard flat surface and using a small ball peen hammer lightly tap the convex dent (since its upside down), until both sides are as flat as you can get them. It wont be 100% perfect but if your patient you can get it to a point where you can forget it being there.
If the dent is actually on both the flat part and the curved part then you are going to either need to make something with the same curvature (molding, etc) or find something pretty close to it and then do the same process.

Yea it is on both parts. It is just the one on the flat that really bugs me as I can see it easier than the one on the slant.

amazing · Jan 31, 2009, 09:24 PM

Well, see if you can camouflage it with a palm rest cover or some such sticker.

In the end, laptops are intended to be road warriors, and road warriors do get scars. Gives 'em some character.

tooki · Feb 1, 2009, 06:58 AM

Originally Posted by dowNNshift

Unfortunately your warranty is a gonner now.

It's not that simple. If taken in for warranty service, they can only deny coverage if the dent could have caused the problem in question. It cannot invalidate the warranty entirely.

cgc · Feb 1, 2009, 11:30 AM

Originally Posted by iREZ

just another reason why the white macbook > uni macbook.

ooooOOoOOooOoooo...did i just stir the pot?

...or another reason to be careful with an expensive piece of electronics...

pcryan5 · Feb 1, 2009, 03:04 PM

Originally Posted by applesbiggestfan

I bought my new Aluminium Macbook 2 months ago
and now it has a dent!

I wear my laptop dents with pride. Marks of a true road warrior or in my case a sloppy klutz.

applesbiggestfan · Feb 7, 2009, 03:17 PM

Originally Posted by pcryan5

I wear my laptop dents with pride. Marks of a true road warrior or in my case a sloppy klutz.

I agree. And thanks everyone for answering quickly, I understand that it either costs of a lot of money to fix the dent or I have to bother with insurance and warranty... OSX still works perfect, so I don't mind.

Adios.

Wiskedjak · Feb 7, 2009, 04:04 PM

Originally Posted by tooki

It's not that simple. If taken in for warranty service, they can only deny coverage if the dent could have caused the problem in question. It cannot invalidate the warranty entirely.

True, but for many kinds of problems, it wouldn't be difficult to blame a 3 foot fall.

SierraDragon · Feb 9, 2009, 01:34 PM

The force necessary to deform solid aluminum a fair amount is substantial. The Al deformation absorbed energy, to some extent protecting the (note undamaged) expensive internal electronics, display, etc.

Live with your dent and be thankful for the ductile, malleable aluminum. Forget plastic, aluminum rules.

-Allen Wicks

Simon · Feb 10, 2009, 03:41 AM

Originally Posted by SierraDragon

The force necessary to deform solid aluminum a fair amount is substantial. The Al deformation absorbed energy, to some extent protecting the (note undamaged) expensive internal electronics, display, etc.
Live with your dent and be thankful for the ductile, malleable aluminum. Forget plastic, aluminum rules.

QFT.

328iGuy · Feb 20, 2009, 11:28 PM

Originally Posted by Simon

We all know the plastic MBs were by far not as durable as they should have been.

My MB cracked in the IDENTICAL place, thats pathetic honestly.

My MBP hasn't had a single issue and love my iMac's as well, however I Am quite annoyed with the broken peice on my MB, especially considering how impeccable I keep all of my computer hardware and other electronics, its a flaw in the product and not from use.

Cold Warrior · Feb 20, 2009, 11:40 PM

...and Apple will fix it at no charge even outside of warranty.

328iGuy · Feb 20, 2009, 11:46 PM

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior

...and Apple will fix it at no charge even outside of warranty.

Really?

I would love to know where this information is and how to procced?

Thanks

Cold Warrior · Feb 20, 2009, 11:56 PM

Just call Applecare. Be polite and tell them your MacBook has the palmrest cracking/chipping defect and you'd like to get it repaired. They'll ship you a box with a prepaid label and you can ship it back to them. They'll return it shortly thereafter.

Simon · 10:44 AM

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior

...and Apple will fix it at no charge even outside of warranty.

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior

Just call Applecare. Be polite and tell them your MacBook has the palmrest cracking/chipping defect and you'd like to get it repaired. They'll ship you a box with a prepaid label and you can ship it back to them. They'll return it shortly thereafter.

Are you really claiming AC will fix cracked MB cases out of warranty? A few days, sure. But how a year or two? The original MBs are just now about to approach that mark.

If you call AppleCare a year out of warranty I doubt they'll even listen w/o you handing over CC information first. Unless hey have an extension or recall. And to my knowledge there is no official case recall program.

AKcrab · Feb 21, 2009, 08:42 AM

Originally Posted by Simon

Are you really claiming AC will fix cracked MB cases out of warranty? A few days, sure. But how a year or two? The original MBs are just now about to approach that mark.

If you call AppleCare a year out of warranty I doubt they'll even listen w/o you handing over CC information first. Unless hey have an extension or recall. And to my knowledge there is no official case recall program.

Yes. There is. We fix many, many macbook top cases for cracking every week.

Simon · Feb 21, 2009, 10:41 AM

Do you have a link where Apple says they'll fix the cracked case of my almost three year old MB for free?

Because their MacBook support pages mention no such recall or warranty extension program.

http://www.apple.com/support/macbook/

Spheric Harlot · Feb 21, 2009, 11:37 AM

Originally Posted by Simon

Are you really claiming AC will fix cracked MB cases out of warranty? A few days, sure. But how a year or two? The original MBs are just now about to approach that mark.

If you call AppleCare a year out of warranty I doubt they'll even listen w/o you handing over CC information first. Unless hey have an extension or recall. And to my knowledge there is no official case recall program.

AKCrab is incorrect: There is no official Repair Extension Program for cracked MacBook topcases.

This is the link you want, btw:
http://www.apple.com/support/exchange_repair/

HOWEVER: It is absolutely no problem to get a cracked topcase replaced free of charge on a two-year-old MacBook. Just give Apple a call, describe the problem, and see what they can do for you.

Simon · Feb 21, 2009, 12:20 PM

I know about that link, but since there was absolutely ZERO mentioning of any type of MacBook cracked case repair extension program...

I know from my own experience that Apple can be very courteous about hardware issues even after warranty has expired. I merely wanted to point out that people with cracked cases are at the service rep's discretion. It's not like Apple has any type of official recall going on. In my book that's important to know because it means you have to act as if you wanted the rep to do you a favor.

Spheric Harlot · Feb 21, 2009, 12:35 PM

Absolutely.

Cold Warrior · Feb 21, 2009, 12:35 PM

Apple has never been good about official repair programs on defective products. Remember the discolored palmrests? All they got was a quiet support page. In practice Apple would replace the palmrest outside of warranty.

So we can rarely ever point to an official Apple repair policy for defective products -- but in practice they are generally good about taking care of it if the caller is polite and can use specific keywords like cracking, cracks, palmrest, and discoloration.

I tend to avoid the Genius Bars because my experiences with them have been disappointing, which I why I've suggested calling.

Cold Warrior · Feb 21, 2009, 12:36 PM

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot

HOWEVER: It is absolutely no problem to get a cracked topcase replaced free of charge on a two-year-old MacBook. Just give Apple a call, describe the problem, and see what they can do for you.

jvr2 · 10:31 PM

Apple will fix your Macbook no problem, no questions asked. I had mine fixed twice!..once while in warranty and a little while ago when it was about 3 months out of warranty. When it was in warranty I went into the Apple Store at 14th Street in NYC and went to the Genius Bar and I showed them the issue and the Genius told me what I already knew (that this was a defect that they were fixing under warranty). I got it back in like 2 days (received a call and went and picked it up)...well...it cracked again 4 months later!...but now I was out of warranty. I brought my Macbook Sept. 07.

I was going to the Genius Bar for an appointment for my iPhone (16gb White which was experiencing cracks! No more buying white items from Apple: They gave me a new one though

) I decided to bring my Macbook as well to see if they would fix it (went to the same store cause they have treated me well so far). After showing my phone I showed the Genius my Macbook and he signed it in with no comment about my warranty or anything though I'm sure it came up in the computer out of warranty. They fixed it again good as new no charge (took a little longer to get back this time though but I think that was cause it was cracked on the palm rest and on the screen casing where the magnet is so they had to change both). When/If it cracks I will bring it in again to see if they will fix it.

328iGuy · Feb 25, 2009, 11:34 AM

Originally Posted by jvr2

Apple will fix your Macbook no problem, no questions asked. I had mine fixed twice!..once while in warranty and a little while ago when it was about 3 months out of warranty. When it was in warranty I went into the Apple Store at 14th Street in NYC and went to the Genius Bar and I showed them the issue and the Genius told me what I already knew (that this was a defect that they were fixing under warranty). I got it back in like 2 days (received a call and went and picked it up)...well...it cracked again 4 months later!...but now I was out of warranty. I brought my Macbook Sept. 07.

I was going to the Genius Bar for an appointment for my iPhone (16gb White which was experiencing cracks! No more buying white items from Apple: They gave me a new one though

) I decided to bring my Macbook as well to see if they would fix it (went to the same store cause they have treated me well so far). After showing my phone I showed the Genius my Macbook and he signed it in with no comment about my warranty or anything though I'm sure it came up in the computer out of warranty. They fixed it again good as new no charge (took a little longer to get back this time though but I think that was cause it was cracked on the palm rest and on the screen casing where the magnet is so they had to change both). When/If it cracks I will bring it in again to see if they will fix it.

Thats odd. After reading this thread the other day, I called Apple and they looked up my serial and wouldn't do anything for me as it was out of warranty.

I wonder if it is up to the customer service rep's discretion or what?

I wonder if I would have better luck if I physically go in to an Apple Store? (My issue is the closest one is in Montreal 2hrs away).

kylef · Feb 25, 2009, 12:45 PM

My MacBook has two issues now:

- some sort of internal smudge inside the screen (noticeable in dark colours)
- 'y' key keeps falling off

Finally the Apple store has both parts in stock. So I'll hand it in on Monday and we'll see how long it takes to get back to me. Here's hoping sooner rather than later!

dustrho · Feb 25, 2009, 02:17 PM

I dented my 2007 MBP in the bottom left-hand side as well. The damn thing was in a very well padded eBag backpack, and as I was approaching my car in the train station parking lot I grabbed it by the top handle and it slipped from my hands. It was no more than a foot off the ground, and because it landed just the right way I have a nice sized dent on it. My hard drive is giving me issues now, and I think that's because of the laptop dropping and denting like that. I never called Apple support as it is currently past its one-year warranty.

At first I hated the dent, and was crushed every time I had the computer in my hands. But, I'm perfectly fine with it being there, and it was a good lesson to be EXTRA careful with these things. I'm normally extra careful, but what happened to me was a fluke accident.

jvr2 · Mar 1, 2009, 05:59 PM

Originally Posted by 328iGuy

Thats odd. After reading this thread the other day, I called Apple and they looked up my serial and wouldn't do anything for me as it was out of warranty.

I wonder if it is up to the customer service rep's discretion or what?

I wonder if I would have better luck if I physically go in to an Apple Store? (My issue is the closest one is in Montreal 2hrs away).

Sorry for the late reply, haven't looked at the board. Anyway...I never call Apple with an issue. I go into the store, it's harder to say no in person when u have the item in front of them for them to see the issue, instead of you describing it over the phone (especially the ridiculous cracking in the macbooks)... over the phone they can't see your issue and it's just easier once they see your out of warranty to just say 'sorry, we can't help'. My two cents. If the cracking bothers you take the trip to the Apple Store and get some other stuff done while your out in Montreal. Good Luck.

328iGuy · Mar 1, 2009, 06:11 PM

Originally Posted by jvr2

Sorry for the late reply, haven't looked at the board. Anyway...I never call Apple with an issue. I go into the store, it's harder to say no in person when u have the item in front of them for them to see the issue, instead of you describing it over the phone (especially the ridiculous cracking in the macbooks)... over the phone they can't see your issue and it's just easier once they see your out of warranty to just say 'sorry, we can't help'. My two cents. If the cracking bothers you take the trip to the Apple Store and get some other stuff done while your out in Montreal. Good Luck.

Thats what I plan on doing next time I am in Montreal.

I also just picked up the new MBP so I am fine until I head down next.