[Destonius]

I purchased a Rev.A PowerBook 12" last September and have had so much problems with it that I'm wondering if it's possible for me to have it replaced under warranty now.

The logic board had to be replaced twice and it's in repairs again, this time with a failed power adopter and sudden death of the battery which went from 63% to sleep mode in a split second. The battery will not charge anymore and the indicator stays at 0% even with a functional power adopter plugged in. These problems occurred simultaneously few days ago and my engineer friend has suggested me that the real problem might be something deeper that will not be soleved by replacing the power adopter and battery.

My warranty will expire in few months and I'm very scared of having yet another potentially very expensive repairs. I have read about some people having their PowerBooks replaced in this forum. How did you do it? Any suggestions?

[typoon]

Make enough noise. You need to complain nicely and rationally that your powerbook has been in for repairs so many times and that you are getting tired of bringing it in. You may want to talk to a supervisor.

[striker100]

I read somewhere that someone had a Powerbook and the logich board had to be replaced 3 times. Apple did say that if the third time was unsuccessful the machine would be replaced.
I don't personally believe that is right, after all you've been through Apple "should" replace your Powerbook.

Have you requested it? I would first nicely explain that after all this you feel your Powerbook is a lemon and you don't want to be open to future problems and you insist that it be replaced.
I've also seen where people had their Powerbooks replaced after this length of time.
What did Apple tell you?

[Andrew Stephens]

I was told by Apple Care that a powerbook had to suffer what the lady described as 4 "catostrophic hardware failures", of which the power supply (one of my problem) did not count as catastrophic.

After four failures a replacement was discretional by Apple. My 2 and a half year old TiBook was replaced teh other week with a new 1.33Mhz machine but I did have to do a LOT of shouting.

Get angry, but in a constructive way! If they get snotty with you they will probably not replace it as hey are human and get cross too!

Good luck!

[typoon]

Originally posted by Andrew Stephens:
I was told by Apple Care that a powerbook had to suffer what the lady described as 4 "catostrophic hardware failures", of which the power supply (one of my problem) did not count as catastrophic.

After four failures a replacement was discretional by Apple. My 2 and a half year old TiBook was replaced teh other week with a new 1.33Mhz machine but I did have to do a LOT of shouting.

Get angry, but in a constructive way! If they get snotty with you they will probably not replace it as hey are human and get cross too!

Good luck!

One good thing to remember is NOT to cuss at them. It won't help your cause. No matter how frustrated you might be that is not at good thing.

[Leonard]

Why don't you buy the extended Apple Care warantee as well to give you an extra 2 years of warantee. For a laptop, it's highly recommended to get the extended warantee. It gives you peace of mind for another 2 years.

I'm not saying you shouldn't look into the replacement, though.

[EdipisReks]

call the corporate number, and leave a message on the worldwide applecare directors voicemail. apple refused to replace my 1 ghz tibook after 7 repairs, but the applecare director had it replaced with a brand new albook in about 4 days.

[freakboy2]

yeah if you already know you have a bum machine, i'd get the extra warrantee. then yo're not screwed if they string you along for a few weeks and you can't get it replaced by then.

fb

[The Placid Casual]

Go ballistic.

Totally ballistic.

Having that many failures is unacceptable.

If they don't change, get the extended warranty and wait for the 4th and 'golden' failure...

[Destonius]

Thank you so much for your kind advise!! I'm very grateful for all the tips you guys you gave me. Muchos gracias.

I got my PowerBook in Japan from Apple online store, but I'm currently on 1 year (or longer, if possible) escape vagabonding from Japan in Australia , so I'm not sure if the replacement deal is even possible. The warranty is good overseas, but I'm not sure if replacement deal applies. I'll look into the possibility and also extended warranty jolt, which I didn't want to get for I'm one of those people waiting for the Rev.B PowerBook G5's.

(Good news is that I met this wonderful lady at the local retail store in Perth because of this problem. I had to go somewhere else for the repair, but I can still go back to the store and ask questions and all about the warranty. I'm going to ask her out for a date in few hours and I'm quite nervous and all, but I have nothing to lose. Like Steve Jobs said, I don't want to regret not asking out that girl to dance. Wish me luck!!)

Cheers!!

[The Placid Casual]

Originally posted by Destonius:
(Good news is that I met this wonderful lady at the local retail store in Perth because of this problem. I had to go somewhere else for the repair, but I can still go back to the store and ask questions and all about the warranty. I'm going to ask her out for a date in few hours and I'm quite nervous and all, but I have nothing to lose. Like Steve Jobs said, I don't want to regret not asking out that girl to dance. Wish me luck!!)

Cheers!!

Lol! Good luck!

[KraziKid]

Originally posted by EdipisReks:
call the corporate number, and leave a message on the worldwide applecare directors voicemail. apple refused to replace my 1 ghz tibook after 7 repairs, but the applecare director had it replaced with a brand new albook in about 4 days.

Would you happen to know where I could get this number so I can have it on records? I had my powerbook replaced once, but customer relations was no help. I ended up getting a sympathetic person one tier lower than CR that understood my cause and where I was coming from. Customer Relations told me if I had another problem after my machine was damaged from shipping, they would replace it. After I had additional problems, I called Customer Relations back, left messages, and to this day (about 5 months after the fact), have not received a call back. I had to go through all the intial steps, to have Customer Relations tell me that they were not going to replace it. Waited about 30 minutes and cooled down, then called back. Got a very nice person after the initial tech pion, who read the case file and saw where it said that Customer Relations stated they would replace it if additional problems occured, and he put in a replacement order. I had to make a lot of noise (over 5 hours on the phone) for them to do anything.

[Dean Krouse]

I agree that one of the most important things to remember when trying to get them to do things your way....dont cuss at them. making them mad will only hinder their inclination to want to help you.

I had a 12 inch PowerBook that came to me with multiple problems. I asked, insisted, that they replace it. Talked to three different people and finnaly they did just that. They maile dme a new one, and sent the old one back in that box prepaid. I tol dthem that my business needs required I have my computer 24/7. (Not entirely true.) But they agreed. Keep on them. Eventually they will come around.

[Destonius]

I just got my PowerBook back from the repair with a brand new power adopter and everything was just fine according to the guy at the repair shop. He told me that battery was acting weird at first, but it was charging up and there was no need for the battery replacement.

Meanwhile, I paid $600AUD for the extended warranty, which really hurts, but the online registration system won't recognize my serial number, so I'll have to call them and go analogue with the registration process.

Well, the battery died on me instantly again last night. It went from 96% to 0% in a split second and it won't get charged normally now. It just stays at 0% and start charging up very slowly after about an hour of being plugged into the power supply. I talked to my engineer
friend and a guy at the store and they suspect that the problem is something deeper than what appears to be a simple power supply and battery problems. (Gasp!!)

"My patience is now at the end." (Adolf Hitler)

Enough is enough. I haven't even been able to use my iPod for weeks now. I'm going to contact the folks at Apple to have them replace my lemon PowerBook. I'm not looking forward to the process, but I just can't go on living in battered woman syndrome like this forever. Never thought my love affair with Apple will come to this, but I have to go tactical espionage action now.

P.S. I got turned down by the girl at the store as well. Like they say, what doesn't kill you can only make you stronger.