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+--- Thread: Friend's MBP shows sign of corrosion - PART 2 (/showthread.php?tid=82973)
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Friend's MBP shows sign of corrosion - PART 2 - Buckeye_Sean - 08-19-2009
This is a follow-up from this thread:
http://forums.macresource.com/read.php?1,776641,776681#msg-776681
At this point my friend has been to the A.S. "genius" and also visited an authorized repair center about his MBP and the corrosion issue. Apple won't budge and the repair is $1,300, nobody can say how the corrosion got there and are just passing the blame along to him. He was told last Tuesday that his case was escalated to an engineer who was emailed pics of the corrosion spot for analysis. To date, he has had no reply. As stated before, none of the liquid sensors show any signs and the corrosion spot is barely the size of a thumbprint. The only thing it affects is both of the USB ports. Everything else works fine. From the looks of it, the only way any liquid could have gotten in there is directly from the USB ports themselves - which I think would be very tough to do under normal circumstances.
Obviously, he is less than happy with Apple's attitude. Put yourself in his shoes; a long time PC user, at long last buying his first mac - an expensive MBP and also buys the extended Applecare protection plan. He's heard me and others sing praise for Apple's products and their support. For his first 3 months of ownership he's really enjoying everything and really sees the beauty of the Mac. Then this...
I realize Apple has to protect itself from idiots spilling god-knows-what down a computer. That I completely understand. However, none of the liquid sensors were tripped, no residue of any kind from any kind of pop, coffee etc. Just a spot on the MOBO that oddly looks like a thumbprint. Hell, maybe someone assembling the damn thing had a wet or sweaty finger that touched that spot. I don't know - Apple doesn't either, yet they are taking the stance that he did something wrong and its his fault. I know him personally and to say that he is "anal" about his stuff would be an understatement. Sadly, I feel they are really doing a disservice to him being so stubborn about his case. He told me last night he will be turning this in on his home insurance and will likely never again own another Apple computer.
Re: Friend's MBP shows sign of corrosion - PART 2 - cbelt3 - 08-19-2009
Buck-
It's sad but it happens. Apple is, after all, a huge corporation, despite their friendly counterculture appearance. And also, sadly, most huge corporations produce procedures that deny friendliness and flexibility to their service representatives when dealing with their customers.
The other reality is that Apple SUCKS at selling to corporations. The relationship based selling that Dell et al uses is what your friend is used to- pulling the salesman's card would have gotten him a new laptop fedexed right away, or even hand carried to him. But then again, your friend is a customer. When you or I call Dell, we get "Bob" in "Georgia", who is actually in a call center in Mumbai. And we get massive run-around. Your friend is experiencing the reality of customer 'service' that most people experience.
If he had been an Apple corporate customer, it's possible he would have had better results.
Still, persistence will give results. There's no doubt that this is an engineering issue, probably a factory quality issue. From the sounds of it, a fingerprint is a clear indicator that something happened akin to Achille's experience when he was dipped in the river. Calling the engineering representative will give you results. Also being clear and consistent.
Let's face it- we engineers love a good 'failure' story. If your buddy talks to the Apple engineer long enough, he'll probably hear a few other horror stories about factory screw ups ("...and there was a chopsitck stuck in the middle of the transformer ! Can you believe that ? " )
Re: Friend's MBP shows sign of corrosion - PART 2 - Buzz - 08-19-2009
humidity + temperature change = condensation?
no NEED for a spill...
Re: Friend's MBP shows sign of corrosion - PART 2 - M A V I C - 08-19-2009
Apple is supposed to have good support? Every time I've called them I've gotten nowhere.
The best I've ever gotten was when using iDVD to burn an iPhoto slideshow (and the box mentioned it worked with iPhoto), the issue was escalated to an engineer from which I never heard from (though I called back many times over six months.) When they released the next version, they put a notice on the box saying it wouldn't encode iPhoto slideshows (or something like that.)
Every time an issue gets escalated to an engineer, I never hear back.
Re: Friend's MBP shows sign of corrosion - PART 2 - mrbigstuff - 08-19-2009
I like the Grape.
Oh, what...?
Re: Friend's MBP shows sign of corrosion - PART 2 - silvarios - 08-19-2009
Buzz wrote:
humidity + temperature change = condensation?
no NEED for a spill...
Is that still the customer's problem? What's Apple's policy?
Nathan
Re: Friend's MBP shows sign of corrosion - PART 2 - hal - 08-19-2009
I've had very good luck with apple support.
Do these things...
Call customer service and start all over again.
Be kind and respectful - more than that, be down right engaging... be a fun person to talk to.
GET THE AGENT ON YOUR SIDE - they never will be if you come off as someone they don't care about. You need to come across as a reasonable responsible NICE guy who is simply too frustrated with the whole thing.
Talk with the guy for a while. Then at some point, you have to say, "sorry, no offense, but I have to try - can I try it on your supervisor please - REALLY no a bad reflection against you - I just need to try everything I can. I simply can't afford... I'd hate to leave apple with a sour taste in my mouth... (etc)"
So you get to the supervisor... do the same thing all over again. Talk in circles for a while. They're job is to say no whenever possible.
Again, after going around in circles for a while, do the same thing - "sorry, no offense, but can I...?) They may tell you that no one is available, but we'll have some one call you. THIS IS GOOD. They WILL call.
Continue to be kind, but don't take no for an answer - you need to get to the next level (customer RELATIONS). These people are SUPER customer service agents. THEY ARE NOT technicians. You can use that to your advantage.
These people have the power to do ANYTHING - give you a free mac - whatever - they have the power to do it. The other levels DO NOT so you are really wasting time until you get to Customer relations.
Once you get there... be exasperated - BUT STILL the kind of person that people just want to help.
NOW get to the meat of the argument.
which is simply... you have not done anything to got your warranty to be voided. Ask them to read the section of the agreement that covers their ass. They won't find it cause it aint there.
Tell them you have NO IDEA how the corrosion got there - the sensors were not tripped. You (being someone that knows nothing about the inner working of computers - at least sound like that) have never opened the machine. How can you possibly be at fault? It HAD to have been done at the factory.
Then: "I dunno. I can't see that I've done anything wrong and I'm just trying to clear this up. What would you do? Would you be entirely frustrated too?"
I'm a master of telephone manipulation. Being a customer service agent myself years ago left me with very valuable skill after all. If you are half as good as I am, you'll get what you need. You are in the right. Get the agent to see through your eyes and it'll be a slam dunk'
Re: Friend's MBP shows sign of corrosion - PART 2 - M A V I C - 08-19-2009
hal wrote: Again, after going around in circles for a while, do the same thing - "sorry, no offense, but can I...?) They may tell you that no one is available, but we'll have some one call you. THIS IS GOOD. They WILL call.
Continue to be kind, but don't take no for an answer - you need to get to the next level (customer RELATIONS). These people are SUPER customer service agents. THEY ARE NOT technicians. You can use that to your advantage.
IME, customer relations is a different number. I've gone all the way up the chain with customer support and all I've received is "an engineer will call you" and they never have - not after repeated callbacks, and this being with several different issues.
Calling customer relations can speed things along, as long as what will fix the issue (as is in this case) can be done by replacing the item.
Re: Friend's MBP shows sign of corrosion - PART 2 - hal - 08-19-2009
customer aren't allowed to contact CR directly.
If a SUPERVISOR tells you that you will get a call back you will - at least I've been 3 for 3.
Re: Friend's MBP shows sign of corrosion - PART 2 - M A V I C - 08-19-2009
hal wrote:
customer aren't allowed to contact CR directly.
If a SUPERVISOR tells you that you will get a call back you will - at least I've been 3 for 3.
Must be a new policy. They used to just give you the number for CR and then I'd call directly.
As far as supervisors telling me I'd get a call back from an engineer, I'm about 0 for 25.