It's not that simple, it seems. First off, there are numerous reports
that Apple repair centers are routinely taking out third-party RAM,
sending along a form letter that that RAM was the likely culprit.
Giving the customer the option of installing RAM does not mean one
can expect to install any kind of RAM. That RAM still has to match
Apple's specifications. RAM vendors often sell modules claiming they
fully comply, but in fact they don't. Agreed, it looks like it's a
lame excuse on Apple's part, but who is to say?
We also currently have a laptop at Apple for repair. The repair
center charges a flat rate of $329, no matter what the repair
entails. I don't know whether that is an agreement between the UT
system and Apple, or whether this is generally the case, but I
suspect many Universities have such deals. So, these repair centers
are not charging what it really costs. If they need to replace a
motherboard or something else expensive, I can understand that they
get cranky with issues that are (potentially) caused by third-party
parts.
So, I would recommend taking out all third-party items before sending
something in for repair. Ironically, I didn't do this in our case, so
I am kind of expecting to receive the same dreaded letter...
Cheers - MM
On Feb 9, 2007, at 10:13 AM, Steve Lane wrote:
Bill:
My $0.02 (speaking as someone who has not been happy lately with Apple
tech support and customer care).
This strikes me as a completely unacceptable response. Unless I'm
missing something, if the machine is no longer under warranty then you
are simply asking for a fee-for-service repair, and there is no reason
that I can think of that they would refuse to do the work under *any*
circumstances, unless: (a) they are incapable of doing so (which would
be an interesting scenario itself); or (b) they are no longer
interested
in fee-for-service work on their own hardware, which would *also*
be an
interesting scenario itself.
If you want to use 3rd party RAM, keep blowing out your drives
(assuming
that's actually the problem - a suspicious claim at best), and then
sending your laptop back to them to be repaired for money, why should
that bother them? They do the work, they get your money, life goes
on.
Given the current situation at Apple, particularly their shift in
focus
and revenue percentage from "computers" to other types of devices,
i.e. iPods, either/both of the above reasons for refusal to do the
work
are plausible. I would try talking directly to customer service,
rather
than tech support, and describe the response you received. If that
fails,
and obviously depending on how much time & effort you want to sink
into
this (i.e. how pissed you are vs. how much you just want to get the
work
done & move on with your life ;), I'd either talk to the Apple
sales rep
for UCSC (or UC Systemwide, if there is one), or go find some
enterprising
person who *will* do the work on a fee-for-service basis.
FYI: we have replaced drives in Mac laptops that do not specifiy this
as an end-user replaceable part (i.e. the small white iBooks), and had
it done by "authorized AppleCare repair centers". Doing it yourself
isn't too bad - there are several good sets of instructions on-line
(my memory is to google "Apple <model> hard drive replace" or
something
like that), and it's mostly just a question of patience/determination,
and a bit of luck...
Best wishes,
--
Steve Lane
System, Network and Security Administrator
Doudna Lab
Biomolecular Structure and Mechanism Group
UC Berkeley
On Thu, Feb 08, 2007 at 04:12:17PM -0800, William Scott wrote:
It's Apple itself. It was no longer under warranty. They went to the
trouble to pull out the memory and put it in an envelope
separately with
the message.
Needless to say, I will make sure I pull out any 3rd party memory
before
sending anything to them again.
Serge Cohen wrote:
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
Hi Bill;
Given the fact that for laptops apple puts the instructions on
how to
add/change the RAM in the user manual. Given also the fact that the
position of the RAM and the disk are far apart it looks like the
person servicing your laptop was looking for any convenient excuses
not to make a repair... If there were a rare case where RAM troubles
caused hard disk failure, you would expect not a short message
but at
least of explanation to substantiate the comment!
This is really sad and bad practise from the client service. Is this
directly Apple support or some Apple dealer?
Serge.
Le 9 f?vr. 07 ? 00:04, William Scott a ?crit :
Hi folks:
Sorry this is a wee bit off topic, but since I am more likely to
get a straight answer from people here, I'm going to ask..
I have 2 identical laptops. We bought both for the lab about 2
years ago. They are G4 ppc. I bought an extra half gig of memory
for each at the time of purchase, but I think it is from ramjet,
not Apple.
Both drives failed within a few weeks of one another, making me
wonder if they were really built by Ford. The second one came back
from Apple today with a snotty message saying that the third-party
memory had caused the problem and that they will refuse to do a
repair if we ever send them a computer in the future with a third-
party memory chip in it.
This strikes me as absolute horse-hockey, but then again, maybe I
am not aware of something I should be.
Thanks.
Bill
------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------
Mischa Machius, PhD
Associate Professor
UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas
5323 Harry Hines Blvd.; ND10.214A
Dallas, TX 75390-8816; U.S.A.
Tel: +1 214 645 6381
Fax: +1 214 645 6353
