especially Raphael Ramos.

Let’s get started.

So, my wife’s MacBook Air (which I got on sale for $1199 from MacMall a little over a year ago, so I didn’t pay for AppleCare, which would have been $250, or basically a quarter of the laptop’s price.  I generally feel that AppleCare is a waste because I baby my laptops,  get a new one just about every year, and have a long history with computer repair, so if something breaks, I can fix it myself) started exhibiting the dreaded first-generation, well documented MacBook Air hinge issue, in which the plastic antenna cover for the hinge works its way out and splits (which wouldn’t be a huge deal if the integrity of the entire hinge didn’t depend on it… once the plastic splits, the hinge is nigh impossible to keep in place because apparently it’s held in by the sheer friction of the plastic cover which disintegrates, and the laptop becomes highly unstable… you can’t close it properly anymore, and the screen sort of flops around in any position).  

Fine.  The laptop has 8-10 screws on the bottom. I knew I could find a part on eBay and fix that myself, and that I would rather do that, especially because I’ve never had a good experience with sending anything off for repair, and had never sent a computer in for repair in my life.  Literally, the only reason I took it to the Apple Store was because I knew from Apple’s website that the hinge issue was a known defect and that Apple would fix it for free, and I figured why not, I could save myself some trouble. That was a stupid idea, apparently.

So, I take it in to the store, and the Genius takes a look at the laptop, agrees that it’s a free repair, even out of warranty, helpfully documents the issue and takes the laptop in for shipping to their repair center.  You can see here that he put it under the Quality Program (the program that repairs defective Apple products, even out of warranty), and that the total cost would be $0.00. 

I thought everything was fine.  

About a week later, I still haven’t heard anything, so I decide to look up the repair status on the Apple website.  It says that my repair has been paused because they required more information. (Well, thanks for letting me know, idiots!) So, I called the Apple support number and was shuttled around until I finally was connected to Tiffany at the repair depot.  She explained to me that they opened up the laptop and found that the hinge issue was not cause due to the defect, but due to the laptop being mishandled, which was utter crap… it had the exact same issue as every other picture that I’ve ever seen on the internet regarding the hinge issue, wasn’t damaged in any other way, and besides, my wife goes from the living room to the bedroom with this thing, and that’s about all.  She loves this laptop and takes good care of it.  Tiffany then said that since the hinge issue wasn’t their fault, and the hinge issue was also related to the top cover (I guess that’s the truly defective part, the top case not holding the hinge properly?) that they’d have to charge me for, and replace the entire top case and hinge assembly, which was about $560, or half of what I paid for the laptop when it was new. Completely unacceptable.  So I said, how about you fix the issue that I sent it in for (the hinge) and don’t worry about the rest?  She said, we can’t do that, it’s the policy of the repair depot that we send laptops back in like-new condition (what kind of junk is that? I sent it in for a specific repair, and now they’re trying to extort a $500 top case out of me?)  I blew up at her.  She then suggested that either I approve the repair, or get the laptop returned, sell it for around $700, and use that money to go to Best Buy and get a new Windows laptop because she’d heard that their extended warranties are pretty good.  At that point, I was incredulous.  An Apple employee just told me to go buy a Windows computer from Best Buy.  I let her have another piece of my mind, told her to send me the laptop back (I’ll just fix it myself, like I was planning to in the first place), and hung up. 

I get a call from the Apple Store saying that the laptop is back. I go in, fill out the paperwork for it, and take the laptop home. Mistake. Always check that your “repaired” computer boots up before you leave the store.  I get home and set it aside, then the next night I try to boot it up to see if they’d reformatted the HD, just in case I needed to restore Jenny’s files.  Guess what?  The laptop didn’t even attempt to boot up.  It just gave me a totally white screen, no matter what I tried.  I couldn’t get an Apple logo, malfunctioning hard drive icon, nothing… Now, I was furious.  You mean to tell me, I just spent a week and a half trying to get a broken hinge fixed, and the moron who took the laptop apart to look at the hinge broke the laptop enough so that it won’t boot?  I thought they were the repair depot? Unbelievable. So I take the laptop BACK to the Apple Store, and am seated in front of a guy named Raphael Ramos.  He tells me that he’s the lead Genius for the store, and I say, “man, I guess I got the right guy tonight!”, and tell him my story.

He says that he understands, and he hates when laptops get sent off to the repair depot and come back damaged, because it’s not the store’s fault, but that he’ll take care of it. He then says, I’ll tell you what I’ll do… I’ll get that hinge replaced for free, here in the store.  We’ll order the part, fix it here in the store, and let you know when it’s done, and we’ll figure out why the laptop won’t boot.  He then apologized for the inconvenience. I was super grateful, and hopeful that the laptop would actually get repaired this time. I was not expecting to hear anything like that from the Genius bar that night. I had hope. I left with a smile on my face.

Tonight, I got a phone call from the Apple Store, telling me that the repair was complete, and I could come and pick the laptop up.  This time I made them boot it up before I left the store. It booted.  I checked the hinge. Fixed. Even the top case seemed to be shinier than before.   

Then I looked at the receipt.  Turns out, they had to replace the logic board. $623.44. The idiot who opened the laptop at the repair depot damaged the board that holds the core of the computer… processor, memory, etc.  They replaced the top case. $560.94. Then, a repair charge of $135.00. And the hinge doesn’t even appear on here. 

So… a $1319.38 repair on an $1100 laptop. I paid $0.00, and the laptop is about 50% new parts now!  I can’t thank Raphael enough. If you’re at the Apple Store in Baton Rouge with a broken computer, ask for Raphael. He’ll treat you right. This is the kind of awesomeness I expect from Apple, or to borrow a phrase from Minimal Mac, “what we believe in.”  Thanks, Raphael Ramos, and the Baton Rouge Apple Store.  Stuff like this is why my wife and I were 7th-8th in line when the store opened.