Apple service makes the grade

The refurbished MacBook Pro is back and all appears well. I even ran the hardware test and everything checked out; if you've never done that, just pop your Mac OS X install disk 1 in, restart and hold down the "D" key; then follow the simple instructions to let the hardware test run.

When I ran that test after applications just kept crashing, it appeared to be some type of memory issue; the AppleCare support rep agreed on Thursday morning, but it turns out there was no issue with the RAM at all....

I headed into my local Apple store on Thursday afternoon thinking it would be relatively quiet. Of course, that's the day when the Apple TV was in stock, so I guessed wrong and had to wait for a good 75 minutes to mind-meld with a Genius. Once I did, I found that he was very attentive to my problem description and the steps I took to attempt resolution. I was disappointed that when he tested the RAM, we simply couldn't swap it out and I left my notebook for repair. The ETA for repair was three days and frankly, I was pretty bummed by that.

On Thursday night, I was out so I missed a call from the Apple store where my MBP was getting repaired. In fact, I didn't get the message until Friday morning; certainly not their fault. I thought the turnaround communication was impressive since they called less than 6 hours after I dropped the computer off.

I called back on Friday morning and found that the issue was actually the hard drive; the Apple folks had already swapped out the drive and just wanted to very some of my user data from a migration standpoint. Since I had just reinstalled Mac OS X, I had little program or application data on there, so they told me I could pick up the repaired machine within the hour. Due to my schedule, I couldn't hop over until that night, so right after dinner, I headed to King of Prussia.

I arrived to the store around 7pm, headed to the back desk and had my repaired machine by 7:05. I wanted to use the notebook for a few days just to confirm the repair everything is working great. At this point, I'm pretty comfortable that the issue is gone; not a single crash. In fact, from my perception the MBP actually appears more responsive which makes me a happy camper.

Although I was initially disappointed in the hardware issue on my purchase, I can't complain about the level of service I received. Everyone involved was courteous, knowlegable and responsive. I'd have to give 'em a 'A' for service and for effort!

Comments

[Nik]

Glad to hear you've got it back already.

[Rob Bushway]

does the bottom of your macbook pro run as hot as James and mine? I've had mine for a while ( Core Duo version ), and I can't stand for it to sit on my lap. In hindsight, I should have purchased the iMac and gotten more system for less money. Its basically a desktop unit, anyway.

[Kevin C. Tofel]

Rob, it runs hot, but not unbearably hot UNLESS I'm running Parallels. That setup really hammers the CPU and there's definitely a noticable rise in the heat.