How long to get a replacement MacBook Pro?
(previously on Luckymonkey - 5 weeks missing)
Tomorrow will be the 5th of October. That makes it 12 weeks since I handed my MacBook Pro over to the Genius at my ‘local’ Apple store. Initially the machine went in for a replacement screen, after something crawled behind the LCD, in front of the backlight and passed away. They would replace the screen under warranty - brilliant.
Then they eventually (after a 5 day repair was 10 days in), told me that they were having difficulty in sourcing the part (it was an older style 15″, with the CCRT backlight, and the model line had moved on to the LED backlit screens). They would keep trying.
A few days later, the search seemed fruitless. So, the friendly Apple store guy said that instead of just replacing the screen, they would replace the whole machine. WOW. I was impressed (and by this point, eager to get my hands on anything again). They needed to get a new one specially made to match the configuration of my old one (with the uprated hard-disk, 7.2k rpm 160gb disk).
Time passed…
More time passed…
5 weeks, 6 weeks….. 9 weeks, 10 weeks….
Because they realised it was taking so long, they offered me a 10% discount card. I know what I’ll be using it for, that is, assuming I ever have a need to go back to an Apple store.
On Tuesday, after a weekend of badgering them via email (the only way to stir them into action), they told me they would (once again) miss the delivery date of Monday/Tuesday, but, they did now have a tracking number for me. Brilliant, I guess, after 12 weeks, a replacement machine must be near the Apple store, for them to clone the drive and get it ready for me to pick up. Expectantly, I punched the number into TNTs (really rather good) tracking system :
Details:- 30 Sep 2007, 19:25, Shanghai, SHIPPED FROM ORIGINATING DEPOT
Details:- 29 Sep 2007, 23:28, Shanghai, CONSIGNMENT RECEIVED AT TRANSIT POINT
Details:- 29 Sep 2007, 20:26, Shanghai, CONSIGNMENT PICKED UP
So, not only was the machine not in the country, it wasn’t even in the right continent. However, I check again this morning to find :
03 Oct 2007 17:33 Arnhem Hub Consignment Received At Transit Point
03 Oct 2007 17:33 Arnhem Hub Consignment Passed Through Transit Point
30 Sep 2007 19:25 Shanghai Shipped From Originating Depot
29 Sep 2007 23:28 Shanghai Consignment Received At Transit Point
29 Sep 2007 20:26 Shanghai Consignment Picked Up
So, now we are at least in Europe. I guess it’s still going to be a couple of days before it arrives at the Apple store, and then it’s going to take them another day or so to clone my old drive on to this new machine. (That is of course, assuming it’s not DOA, dead pixel, dead bug, screen out of alignment etc etc etc). I don’t know if this is symptomatic of Apple having some major QA problems with the new screens, or just because they are selling so many MBPs at the moment, but seriously - 12 weeks without a machine is a bit much.
I know they are doing me a huge favour by replacing the whole machine instead of just the screen, and I don’t want to sound like sour grapes, but I do miss my MBP (and the peoples websites I look after, miss me having it), and I would like it back. please. Before they revise the model range again would be nice.
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ooh.. getting close..
05 Oct 2007 08:31 Birmingham Out For Delivery
05 Oct 2007 00:59 Birmingham Import Received
05 Oct 2007 00:40 Birmingham Import Received
04 Oct 2007 20:17 Consignment Passed Through Transit Point
03 Oct 2007 17:33 Arnhem Hub Consignment Received At Transit Point
03 Oct 2007 17:33 Arnhem Hub Consignment Passed Through Transit Point
30 Sep 2007 19:25 Shanghai Shipped From Originating Depot
29 Sep 2007 23:28 Shanghai Consignment Received At Transit Point
29 Sep 2007 20:26 Shanghai Consignment Picked Up
05 Oct 2007 09:41 Birmingham Delivered
12 weeks!!! Suddenly Applecare isn’t looking like the most appealing aftercare solution. That’s a shame… Here’s hoping I’ll never have to rely on it.
By the way - are you running HL2 on the MBP with Boot Camp? How well does it go?
To be fair, once they realised they weren’t going to be able to get a replacement screen, they were happy to replace the whole machine - but, yes, 12 weeks is a little over the top. Oh well, I have it now (and it’s very good).
HL2 (Portal & TF2), I’m running through a trial version of Codeweavers Crossover software at the moment :
http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxmac/
Which is mighty impressive (but then this is a fairly powerful machine). I do think that Boot Camp would give me the best performance, but I’ll have to re-partition the disk again, since, although the Apple store put all my old data back onto this new machine, they can’t restore Windows partitions (not least because they don’t have windows licenses kicking around). When I tried it before tidying up, I didn’t have enough free space for the BootCamp assistant to clear space for Windows.
I think I’ll be wiping the disk clean when I get Leopard..
My sis has just bought one of the new MBPs, so I’ll get to have a try out of it in a week possibly. See what the speed difference is between the new ones and mine (which is the same as your old one).
I’ve not tried Crossover - just downloaded the demo now and will give it a shot.
Cheers for that. Even if it’s not stellar speed, it should still be quicker than my old PC which I started playing HL2 on before that died… Maybe I can finally finish HL2!
Like you, I’m in desperate need to wipe the disk to clean up the rubbish on it. And like you, I’m waiting for Leopard…
Though I’m probably going to be buying a 160GB HDD for it too before then - 100GB isn’t enough for the Mac OS and Linux…
Cheers for the tip though!
I can tell you now, once you start playing with some video to edit, OS, work stuff, couple of games from Steam via Crossover - 160gb won’t be enough either
[…] My replacement MBP came with iLife08 - brilliant. Time to give this new movie editing program a bit of a workout, and see if those people who think it’s a massive step backwards are right - or if its ease of use outweighs any missing features.. […]