Apple support burns…
27 11 2006[update] Got the problem resolved today, managed to do a direct trade-in of the broken magsafe at a local Apple retail store and bought another spare adaptor. All’s well that ends well…
I’ve been a very satisfied switcher with my new MacBook Pro and Parallels setup, until the inevitable happened over the weekend. First my magsafe adaptor cable started to show some abnormal bending near the magnet connection and a little while later it started to go brown with the insulation wire melting away.
Definitely not a good thing to happen with something plugged into a 2000 USD piece of equipment you love (and rely on on a daily basis). Being a Sunday Apple telephone support was unavailable.
I called them today and after walking through the problem with the support engineer (followed by some 20 minutes of holding music) was told my best chance was to head out to an Apple retail store and hand the thing in for *repair* which would take approximately 2 weeks.
Luckily did some research beforehand and told him Apple support generally sends out a new adaptor right away and let’s you return the broken item. “We can do that…” was the answer but it would take them a minimum of 5 days. I can’t believe it - they seriously expect you to go without your Mac for close to a week, since there is now no way to charge it.
Now for the best bit — I can *buy* a new magsafe adaptor on their online Apple store and have it shipped within 24 hours — apparently the same doesn’t apply to hardware covered by their seriously overpriced and apparently useless AppleCare extended warranty.
With Flash on the Beach coming up I wanted to play it safe and bought a second adaptor online (unfortunately went for the wrong model, a 60 Watt version for the MacBook whereas MacBook Pro needs 85 Watt — will have to check if it still works). If worst comes to worst I’ll just have to drop in at the London Apple store and buy another magsafe adaptor there.
Meanwhile its back to a very dodgy PC notebook… I am not amused Steve Jobs!
I forgot my power adaptor at work on friday, spent the whole weekend without a charger and I should say that a spare power adaptor for the MBP’s is a must. I mean, you can get another plug (for your relevant country region, that is easy enough) but I have another THREE chargers for my other iBook and PowerBooks that are completely useless, I wonder if we can get an adaptor for the magsafe adaptor?
A few months after I received my MacBook Pro the magsafe connector stopped working. The pins refused to come out of their housing and no connection could be made unless I tipped the whole machine on it’s side.
I spent a frustrating half an hour with tech support asking me to do all the things I had tried already. At one point they asked if I had a duck face or something?!
So I booked a Genius bar appointment. They spent 2 minutes fiddling with it, said it was dead and promptly handed me a brand new power supply.
No AppleCare needed. No complaints here.
Joc
I forgot my adapter once and ended up biting the bullet and buying another apple branded one. This has been very useful though since I keep one at home and one at work now.
Thanks for the feedback guys, was meaning to get me a second adaptor anyway so when I get the broken one replaced I’ll have one spare and won’t have to carry it around all the time.
Just about any post I’ve read about magsafe adaptors melting were resolved within a few days. It seems Apple support over in the US has some different standards than over here in the Benelux.
Still don’t think its acceptable having to wait 5 days for a very basic replacement part if I can get the same shipped within 24 hours from their store.
Sadly I have to say that the standards for all things Apple are a lot higher in the US or even the UK compared to over here in Belgium.
For instance… When I last ordered some prints from the iPhoto shop, I found they were very dark. Support in Belgium… nada… When I talked to an Apple store employee about it on my last visit to the US, he said that the US has an 800 number you can call when you have complaints about prints and that they would be very happy to reprint them.
Another example. In the 2 years I am now a Mac user, I have yet to find Belgian Apple dealer employees that actually know the product. Usually they are very ignorant and not very helpful at all.
Stuff like you are now experiencing should not be an issue. Most certainly not with kit costing over $2500! You should be able to walk in to a dealer store and just replace it… but sadly this is not the case. We desperately need an official Apple store in Belgium so the current Apple dealers start waking up and actually help their customers…
It’s sad… really sad. I really love Apple products and have no regrets about switching but ignorant dealers and support employees give Apple a bad name…
My 5 cents…
I’ve had problems with the Magsafe adapter too. Except on mine, it was the connection receptor on the DC-in board itself rather than the adapter, and that necessitated shipping the Macbook in for repair. The guy told me it could be gone for 7-10 days! Fortunately it only took 3, but still, I was virtually useless when it came to work for those 3 days.