I've had good luck with Apple's CS service so far *crosses fingers* I bought a Macbook last June, along with the Airport (wireless router). The Airport stopped working after around a month, and they replaced it, no questions asked. I did have to make an "appointment" with the Genius bar, and had to wait 30 minutes for my appointment, which was a little annoying.
Tech Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my Mac laptop, but ...
- Thread starter lorihmatthews
- Start date
Overheating would be the CPU fan, more than likely. The fans are super cheap and are replaceable, but it's not as easy as on a desktop. Still, it's about a 2 hour deal if you've never taken a laptop apart....but much cheaper than paying someone else to do it. Same with the battery. There are also 3rd party companies that replace them for cheaper than Apple.
Still make an appt. though as EVERYONE books days in advance for appts.
Have to say though, after all the bashing, it's a pretty nice service to have for free. Some stores won't even talk to you without a hundred dollars down. Lots of small problems can be solved with their "geniuses" and then you avoid that fee.
I haven't had problems with long waits either, but I usually go early in the morning (gone in three times for our 2.5 year old laptop). We bought a new batter on our own, and just installed a new hard drive. Apple store wanted to charge $270 for a 30 gigabyte hard drive. We bought a 100 gigabyte for it on the internet for $80 shipped and did it ourselves (with detailed "how to" instructions and pictures" and now it's perfect again. We increased the memory about 5 months ago, got a new battery (they all need to be replaced every couple years) and now the new hard drive (we knew it was going, so we had backed everything up) and that's that and we should be good to go for a long while yet (I hope!)
macs actually have the best reliability rates of any of the major computer manufacturers.
and mac's system certainly isn't perfect, but for any other brand, you have to send the computer off for at least a week to get any kind of warranty service. not a whole lot more convenient, and at least mac gives you a way to talk to someone face-to-face.
i work in an electronics store that doesn't currently sell Macs, so i see a lot of the other side of it.
they're in the process of rolling them out company-wide, a lot of the stores in larger or higher-end markets already have them on the floor, but we're a little college town (a ridiculous number of people at UGA have macs, though, i see them constantly, it would have been a much better idea to give them to us sooner, but they probably didn't take the University in to account in Athens' demographics). We're getting them the end of February.
What kind of Mac laptop do you have? If its 2.5 years old is it a powerbook? If so, they are designed to actual to do what you of as "over heating." They were built with only one fan to help the actual computer heat, as well as the metal colored case. I didn't realize this at first either; mine always gets so hot that I have to keep a pillow on my lap if I am not using it on the table. A guy in one of my design classes in college told me " that they are supposed to heat up." I would almost lay money on it that its your battery. On a side note there was a recall on batteries for Macs, ( or there was about 2 years ago) so I would check to see if it is yours!
Here is the Recall Listing:
MAC laptops
Apple has determined that certain lithium-ion batteries containing cells manufactured by Sony Corporation of Japan pose a safety risk that may result in overheating under rare circumstances.
The affected batteries were sold worldwide from October 2003 through August 2006 for use with the following notebook computers: 12-inch iBook G4, 12-inch PowerBook G4 and 15-inch PowerBook G4.
Apple is voluntarily recalling the affected batteries and has initiated a worldwide exchange program to provide eligible customers with a new replacement battery, free of charge. This program is being conducted in cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and other international safety authorities.
If you have one of these laptops, please go to https://support.apple.com/ibook_powerbook/batteryexchange/ and follow the steps to identify if your battery is affected.
Wow, that stinks that you've had to wait that long. I had a totally different experience. Of course, I only ever made an appointment twice (and I booked the appointments online) and they were totally ready for me when it was my time, didn't have to wait at all...
You know...to be fair, I've been to Best Buy, Comp USA..places like that, and they've always been rather helpful with basic questions. Of course they're not going to work on your PC for free, but they certainly give advice and help you troubleshoot.
I'm so sorry about your problems. I've gotten both of my macs from a licensed retailer, and when some stuff died on my (very abused) powerbook, I was able to get service asap. The only reason why it took several weeks to get it back was that I had to find the receipt in order to get free service (hey, when we have to pay 25% tax, it's nice to get something good back, like kickass consumer laws 
) which I spent forever doing.
My macbook just swallowed a DVD and after trying to work with it for a while, I concluded that it's probably stuck mechanically, so I'm taking my macbook back to the store tomorrow or on Friday to get it fixed - it shouldn't be a big operation, but I'm curious about how they'll treat it.
Btw, maybe you people who have experienced unhelpful workers should mail apple? We pay a lot for our macs, so we should get great service back for it
) which I spent forever doing. My macbook just swallowed a DVD and after trying to work with it for a while, I concluded that it's probably stuck mechanically, so I'm taking my macbook back to the store tomorrow or on Friday to get it fixed - it shouldn't be a big operation, but I'm curious about how they'll treat it.
Btw, maybe you people who have experienced unhelpful workers should mail apple? We pay a lot for our macs, so we should get great service back for it