[G-mac]

What kinds of problems has Apple fixed for you guys successfully under warranty or for fee? Any glaring problems with their service? I'm wondering how worth it sending my PowerBook to Apple would be for future problems/issues.

[Macfreak7]

i had a couple of problems that apple fixed, but both are back now.

1- HD whine. i'm guessing they just serviced the HD, and somehow the constant annoying whine went away. but it started again just a week or two later. i havent bothered again.

2- my LCD display. apparently some connecter or SOMETHING was loose, and my display showed colours all messed up and distorted. it was a hardware only problem. they fixed it. but sometime last week, the problem started AGAIN. and this time, its over the 1 yr warranty, and i didnt bother with apple care.

the first problem was fixed at the Glendale apple store in LA
the second in Bangalore, India.
(fair service too)

[starkey]

I had my screen fixed, the cable was messed up and caused the screen to flicker, Apple fixed it. I brought to Tekserve in NYC and a week later it was back in my hands, fixed. It wasn't under warranty so I payed for it. I considered the service good.

[Podolsky]

My trackpad failed and Apple has had it now 2 weeks waiting for logic board. Tomorrow I call and they will send me out a new PB667 for my trouble (and it has been as I relied A LOT on that book!). I am glad to get a new one as I got it like the day it was available. I will get the 48gig drive and of course the combo will be there so it will feel kinda like new. Looks like the 800mhz vesions are a way off somewhere.............

[Timo]

I'll tell you what they don't fix: none of the "plastics." That means that when the case cracked below my trackpad clicker (on my Pismo), Apple told me that it wasn't a warranty repair. They wanted $320 to install a new keyboard bezel.

[Podolsky]

My trackpad failed and Apple has had it now 2 weeks waiting for logic board. Tomorrow I call and they will send me out a new PB667 for my trouble (and it has been as I relied A LOT on that book!). I am glad to get a new one as I got it like the day it was available. I will get the 48gig drive and of course the combo will be there so it will feel kinda like new. Looks like the 800mhz vesions are a way off somewhere.............

[symonsl]

Originally posted by G-mac:
<STRONG>What kinds of problems has Apple fixed for you guys successfully under warranty or for fee? Any glaring problems with their service? I'm wondering how worth it sending my PowerBook to Apple would be for future problems/issues.</STRONG>

Pismo pink screen replaced for free (under extended Applecare). Took about 4 days.

[Leonard]

My Pismo froze up and wouldn't start. An AASP (not Apple themselves) completely replaced all the internals (motherboard, CPU, etc) of my G3 Pismo except for the HD and CD-ROM. Everything was covered under warranty. The Powerbook has worked fine ever since.

The AASP did have some trouble receiving parts from Apple and it took them at least 6 weeks to fix it. But I had another desktop Mac to use (my Powerbook is not my primary computer), and I wasn't concerned too much about time.

[himself]

My inverter board went bad. I would turn on my Ti667 and the screen wouldn't light up. Everything else was fine, I could even faintly see the action on screen, only without backlighting. I sent my [then] 6 week old 'Book to apple repair and got it back about 4days later, as good as new, with all of the original scratches in place (but no new cosmetic damage). I was pretty impressed.

[SJobs]

pb g4 400

Repaired

hinge once
latch twice
top case once
bottom case once

Replaced
keyboard 3 times
LCD screen once
hinges (both once)
graphics card once


I complaned because my latch got screwed up and it is breaking due to the poor design and I qualified for a replacement, my new PB G4 550 is on it's way and ill get it next week
-Zac

[Mac Zealot]

My list of applecare activity:

Sent in cinema display for repairs, enormous amount of dead pixels:
-Returned: No defect found.

Sent in cinema display for repairs, enormous amount of dead pixels:
-Returned: No defect found.
-Display had broken right leg due to poor shipping procedure.

Sent in cinema display for replacement after flaming a rep and calling consumer relations.
-Monitor replaced with brand new one from apple store.

Took in G4 dp800 to compusa for complaints:
-Repair service center rep took g4 in box, lifted it off counter, and dropped the whole thing, dp800 fell out of box, keyboard damaged.

Sent in G4 dp800 with large variety of problems
-Notified that there was no hardware defects
-Threatened that I'd have to pay $125 for them to look at it
-plastics not covered by apple (though obviously their fault, the repairman agreed)

Sent in g4 dp800 on March 14, 2002 for demanded case replacement:
-Repair center refused to replace case, ordered new plastics
-Plastics still have not arrived (2 weeks later.. almost)

[Nep2ne]

My trusted Lombard was sent in last year for a busted Sound Card (power card) as well as a glitch in the display module that kept breaking the display into vertical lines.

Turns out, Apple pulled the plug on any Authorized Service Repair center from doing any further repairs on PBG3 display issues, so it necessitated a dispatch, which wound up costing me $400.

It sucks, yes, but they did an ace job and I got my book back within a week.

[Avenir]

Apple fixed (all under warranty)...

On my wallstreet:
Bad logic board
Broken AC adapter
Screen Hinge Problem

On my Ti:
Loose battery problem
Crack in front under DVD slot
Broken "shift" key

Been really happy actually with their service... always prompt turn around.

[jksu]

applecare has covered the following for me (powerbook g4/400), all free:

- replaced airport base station 1.0
- replaced yo-yo ac adapter (no longer charging powerbook)
- replaced rubber feet
- replaced square ac adapter (no longer indicating charge/full)
- repaired powerbook firewire port

i just signed up for the extended 2 year applecare.

john

[tinrib]

replaced soundboard or whatever it is on my pismo when the headphone jack wore out through heavy use. They cleaned it and replaced the rubber feet at the same time. And they didn't kick up a fuss about me having put in a 30gig HD and RAM in the bottom slot, both of which voids the warranty unless you get it done by an Apple Service Provider.

[mrtew]

The sound went out on my Ti400 a month or so after I bought it and they replaced my entire motherboard. Also replaced a Ram chip clip that I broke taking the ram out (although it may have been part of the motherboard I found out later). Fixed the problem and got my computer back from Texas in 4 days... no charge.

[PeteWK]

Originally posted by tinrib:
<STRONG>replaced soundboard or whatever it is on my pismo when the headphone jack wore out through heavy use. They cleaned it and replaced the rubber feet at the same time. And they didn't kick up a fuss about me having put in a 30gig HD and RAM in the bottom slot, both of which voids the warranty unless you get it done by an Apple Service Provider.</STRONG>

It could be that way in the UK, but in the US, only the replaced parts are excluded in the warranty.

As for warranty repairs, my Powerbook G3 (Pismo) needed a hard drive replaced after only 3 months. They replaced the clicking IBM with a Toshiba and all the machine has been bullet proof ever since.

PeteWK

[kndonlee]

Ti 400

The whole case. Top, bottom, LCD Screen, power button. touchpad (It took them friggin 3 1/2 weeks!?#)(!##_@, and they wouldn't even give me a loaner or anything....
Rubber Feet.
Powercord to poweradapter.
Motherboard from ethernet failure

Pismo 400

YoYo Adapter.

All were fixed up great!

D

[neilnet]

I must be the luckiest guy in these forums

I haven't had *any* hardware failings on any system in the past few years, including:

G4 400
G4 450DP
G4 667

iMac 333
iMacDV 400

iBook 466
Pismo 500

17" CRT ADC display
15" ASD

The last fault I had was when the HDD died in an original Bondi iMac. Don't start me with PC's though... which develop faults every other day

Am I due?

Neil

[fisherKing]

hmm...

apple replaced (within 4 days) the logic board on my previous powerbook, the 2400c (cost:about 450!)

got a new pismo last year; the hard drive sounded like a vacuum cleaner. replaced the HD within 3 days...the new one was worse! replaced THAT one in 3 more days...better.

not bad, overall (outside of the cost of the logic board)

would've preferred a quiet HD to begin with *sigh*

[msuper69]

Originally posted by Mac Zealot:
<STRONG>My list of applecare activity:

Sent in cinema display for repairs, enormous amount of dead pixels:
-Returned: No defect found.

Sent in cinema display for repairs, enormous amount of dead pixels:
-Returned: No defect found.
-Display had broken right leg due to poor shipping procedure.

Sent in cinema display for replacement after flaming a rep and calling consumer relations.
-Monitor replaced with brand new one from apple store.

Took in G4 dp800 to compusa for complaints:
-Repair service center rep took g4 in box, lifted it off counter, and dropped the whole thing, dp800 fell out of box, keyboard damaged.

Sent in G4 dp800 with large variety of problems
-Notified that there was no hardware defects
-Threatened that I'd have to pay $125 for them to look at it
-plastics not covered by apple (though obviously their fault, the repairman agreed)

Sent in g4 dp800 on March 14, 2002 for demanded case replacement:
-Repair center refused to replace case, ordered new plastics
-Plastics still have not arrived (2 weeks later.. almost)</STRONG>

Yeah but what about your PowerBook repairs?

[Mac Zealot]

Sorry, got carried away.

never had problems with my powerbook

[milhous]

Pismo 500:

DVD-ROM module: goes bad as drive inadvertently opens by itself and can't read some discs. replaced with new unit.

LCD Display: lower left-hand corner dies and looks like it was burnt out. replaced with new unit.

so far so good, although i've busted my sound out port and are now using a griffin iMic instead. sometimes, i think it is less hassle to just take the unit to an applecare authorized shop then talking to apple directly. perhaps apple trusts applecare more than the customers when getting problems fixed?

[waffffffle]

About a year ago I had this huge problem with my motherboard. It caused all kinds of freaky stuff to happen in OS X and OS 9. In OS X If I were to minimize a window the window server would crash and all apps would quit on me. In OS 9 all mp3 players would crash upon attempting to play an mp3.

After 2 weeks on the phone with Apple they took it back. The first had it at Apple for 2 weeks and just let the thing sit there because they "couldn't reproduce the problem." They then sent it back to me with the hard drive wiped and a clean install of 9.0.4, even though I sent it to them with 9.1 and 10.0. I then got angry and called them back and they took the machine back again. I got it back in a week with a new motherboard. I have not had any similar problems since.

At about the time that my warantee was set to expire my DVD drive died on me, but I was on vacation so I had no chance of getting it fixed for free by Apple. I called up later on, afer it was out of warantee to fid that they wanted $500 for a new one. Luckily I was able to get a free one off a dead Lombard.

I probably should have tried to get new rubber feet while the PowerBook was still under warantee. The bottom of my machine is very scratched up since I've been missing the feet now for over a year.

[G-mac]

People who call Apple frustrated about paint that bubbles and peels shortly after purchasing their 'Books get a response from Apple that basically says "you have a messed up body chemistry that harms the paint on the PowerBook - not our fault."

[iKevin]

I had a G3 PowerBook that the screen was a different tint than my other PowerBook....sent it to Apple and they fixed it without any question.

[KellyHogan]

Misaligned DVD drive fixed, took one week.

Currently have broken iMac G4, faulty drives or logic board. Engineer being sent tomorrow after two weeks waiting.

[maxelson]

Bum inverter board in my Ti667. Shipping and all took three days. It languished in our receiving department for another three days. The only issue I have with these new powerbooks- there is very little they let me fix myself- I am a certified technician and my workplace is an AASSP, but the Tis and iBooks have a more or less universal mail in policy. Their explanation was that they were unsure if the backlight was also a problem. If it was JUST the inverter, and they were sure of it, they would have sent me the part. Sigh.

[forcer78]

My PBG4 500 is currently on its fourth trip to Apple Care. Here's what they've done in the past:

1) Replaced DVD drive
2) Replaced LCD Screen and top case. Case was distorted due to previous repair, scratched up LCD.
3) Replaced cracked hinges due to an overtightened new screen from precious repair.
4) Getting a new top case (plastic molding by latch is breaking off), new DVD drive and battery problem fixed.

All repairs covered under warrenty and ApplCare extended plan. You need to be insistant with Apple. They usually won't repair certain problems, citing that it was probably your fault. If customer service or Apple Care won't help you or demand that you pay for reapirs that are clearly not your fault ask to speak to a customer relations person and not customer service.

[ksuther]

I had a wallstreet sent in for a bad modem and a bad logic board, got it back within two weeks each time. My TiBook had a busted DVD drive, got it back in 4 days. I was quite impressing. I also complained about a sqeaky hard drive, but they said they couldn't find anything

Overall, good service though.

[cteselle]

on my pismo I had a hard disk that was really loud and grinding.. basically it was about to die... I called them up they shipped me out a box to send the pb in, 2 days later, I had a new disk in the pb.

Apple service rocks!

[justinkim]

On my Powerbook G4:

• DVD drive - drive DOA
• Screen - Original had many dead pixels and came with some pressure damage.
• Hard drive whine - replaced w/o my asking when in on another repair job. Tech said that the level of noise it was giving out was out of spec.
• Keyboard bezel - the screen bumper on one side disintegrated.
• Hinge - one hinge developed a small crack. Wanted to get it replaced before it developed into a real problem.
• Feet - all but one of them had fallen off. Apple sent replacements. I've since had to epoxy one of the replacements back in :-P

All but the last was under warranty. The last was repaired under AppleCare.

[ 04-07-2002: Message edited by: justinkim ]

[justinkim]

[messed up post, removed]

[ 04-07-2002: Message edited by: justinkim ]

[seanyepez]

Everything I've sent to Apple has been completely repaired to my satisfaction.

My LCD panel, top case, bottom case, power board, and logic board were fixed on my Pismo on two separate trips to Apple. I can't say there's been anything wrong with their service. They sent the machine back well-protected when repairs were done. I'm very happy!