I'll preface my post here by stating that IANAL, and that if you want definitive answers and don't trust the answers you've been getting from AppleCare techs, you should call and speak to Apple's Customer Relations.
On Thursday, July 4, 2002, at 01:04 AM, Michael Bryan Bell wrote: > What I've been told is that there is a flat fee, due to the fact that the > powerbooks are repaired in central locations, and have to be shipped. Ie, > if > your part only cost $100 to fix, it still has the flat fee applied to it. > > The catch is- what is considered a non-abuse failure. Ie, I just had to > send > in a blue ibook for its hinges, which cost $600. Apple for logic boards > quotes much more... Their term for abuse was "well, the part shouldn't > fail > if you use it properly" but obviously there is a problem. > > I guess what I'm saying is- just what have you sent in that was covered by > that flat fee, and what wasn't? My experiences just don't jive with what > you're saying, so I'm just trying to gather more information. All of this ONLY applies to mail-in portable repairs. out of warranty carry in repairs of desktop units (where you take it to a local AASP) are another matter altogether; the AASP has to pay for the parts and can charge you whatever they feel is fair (and you're willing to pay). Basically, Apple's only charged me the flat rate for every repair that didn't involve someone dropping or kicking a laptop, or driving a pencil through the display, or whatnot. "the part shouldn't fail if you use it properly" is not a valid excuse on their part and, in fact, the only time I've heard of Apple saying something like that is when one of my end users has a PHYSICALLY broken part that they say isn't abuse. "The hinge just broke" or "the cable just broke" or some such. > So far my experience has been that if your tibook hinges or firewire ports > blow and its out of warranty it seems as though it's up to the mercy of > the > tech you talk to, although it's a shoo in to get your firewire ports fixed > if they're under warranty due to all the problems and you may still have > to > fight to get your hinges fixed. unless you give apple some indication that a firewire port was blown through abuse or misuse, the flat rate applies. the hinges are another matter for one reason -> MOST of the time, hinges break through abuse, though there have been reports of the hinges breaking through no misuse by the user. On a couple of these, Apple has asked us to pay for the repair (getting a PO from me), but we wound up not being billed. -- G-Books is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Check our web site for refurbished PowerBooks | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-Books list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-books%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
