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I know some guy who had to live a week without his Apple laptop after the power supply broke. He went to the store immediately, then they kept his laptop for a

I know some guy who had to live a week without his Apple laptop after the power supply broke. He went to the store immediately, then they kept his laptop for a week. Meanwhile, I had a new component of my own built desktop PC broken, went with it to the store and said it didn't work, and they just took it and immediately gave me a new one without any questions asked or even checking the faulty one. Then I also asked if I could buy a PC speaker to hear the motherboard beeps, and they gave a tiny speaker with two wires, for free! Both of this was in Belgium. So yes, something is wrong with Apple's warranty in Belgium, compared to other shops.

huxley 14y ago
Do you mean the power connector or something internal, rather than power supply? Because the power supply on a Macbook is an external AC adapter, no reason at all for the Macbook to be kept.
- vetinari 14y ago
  In Powerbook era, the connector on the PSU cable had no stress reliever. As a result, the cable often broke (I went through three of them, until I got third party PSU with proper cable). The thing is, that if you claim warranty on Apple product in Europe, they will take it and you have to wait until mothership ships replacement part. The guy the OP mentions might not turn in the whole computer, but what good it makes when your battery is empty and you don't have another PSU. In related experience, I once had harddrive failure in Powerbook. I had to wait for three weeks, until replacement came, if I wanted to have it serviced under warranty. Or outright buy the replacement part and pay for the service. Of course, I'm no longer Apple customer.
bradleyland 14y ago
Comparing a laptop to a self-built desktop PC isn't exactly a fair comparison. Try walking in to your local PC hardware shop with any PC laptop suffering from a bad power distribution board (an internal component). They're unlikely to have one on hand.
Samuel_Michon 14y ago
"He went to the store" In which ‘the store’ is an Apple Product Reseller (not owned by Apple). There are no Apple Retail Stores (stores owned by Apple) in Belgium yet [0] (all surrounding countries but Luxembourg have them, though). Apple Retail Stores are renowned for their excellent, lenient customer service. APRs, not so much. Third party retailers receive minimal discounts on Apple products, which makes it hard for them to give away freebies or give consumers the benefit of the doubt [1]. Now, that doesn't excuse them, but it might explain the difference in customer experience. "Apple extends only a tiny wholesale discount on its Macs and iPads to your retailer of choice. The actual numbers are a closely guarded secret, protected by confidentiality agreements between Cupertino and its resellers, but the difference probably amounts to only a few percentage points off the official price that you find at Apple’s own stores. With such a narrow gap to tinker with, most retailers can’t offer big discounts and still hope to turn a profit." [1] [0] http://www.apple.com/retail/storelist/ http://www.apple.com/retail/storelist/ [1] http://www.macworld.com/article/2024257/how-apple-sets-its-prices.html http://www.macworld.com/article/2024257/how-apple-sets-its-p...
megablast 14y ago
I had a similar problem. My laptop would not startup, so I bought a new laptop from them. Then my old one startup up again (it need to be left on for 4 hours), and I returned the new one for free. YOu have 15 days free use from it.

huxley 14y ago

Do you mean the power connector or something internal, rather than power supply? Because the power supply on a Macbook is an external AC adapter, no reason at all for the Macbook to be kept.

vetinari 14y ago
In Powerbook era, the connector on the PSU cable had no stress reliever. As a result, the cable often broke (I went through three of them, until I got third party PSU with proper cable). The thing is, that if you claim warranty on Apple product in Europe, they will take it and you have to wait until mothership ships replacement part. The guy the OP mentions might not turn in the whole computer, but what good it makes when your battery is empty and you don't have another PSU. In related experience, I once had harddrive failure in Powerbook. I had to wait for three weeks, until replacement came, if I wanted to have it serviced under warranty. Or outright buy the replacement part and pay for the service. Of course, I'm no longer Apple customer.

bradleyland 14y ago

Comparing a laptop to a self-built desktop PC isn't exactly a fair comparison. Try walking in to your local PC hardware shop with any PC laptop suffering from a bad power distribution board (an internal component). They're unlikely to have one on hand.

Samuel_Michon 14y ago

"He went to the store" In which ‘the store’ is an Apple Product Reseller (not owned by Apple). There are no Apple Retail Stores (stores owned by Apple) in Belgium yet [0] (all surrounding countries but Luxembourg have them, though). Apple Retail Stores are renowned for their excellent, lenient customer service. APRs, not so much. Third party retailers receive minimal discounts on Apple products, which makes it hard for them to give away freebies or give consumers the benefit of the doubt [1]. Now, that doesn't excuse them, but it might explain the difference in customer experience. "Apple extends only a tiny wholesale discount on its Macs and iPads to your retailer of choice. The actual numbers are a closely guarded secret, protected by confidentiality agreements between Cupertino and its resellers, but the difference probably amounts to only a few percentage points off the official price that you find at Apple’s own stores. With such a narrow gap to tinker with, most retailers can’t offer big discounts and still hope to turn a profit." [1] [0] http://www.apple.com/retail/storelist/ http://www.apple.com/retail/storelist/ [1] http://www.macworld.com/article/2024257/how-apple-sets-its-prices.html http://www.macworld.com/article/2024257/how-apple-sets-its-p...

megablast 14y ago

I had a similar problem. My laptop would not startup, so I bought a new laptop from them. Then my old one startup up again (it need to be left on for 4 hours), and I returned the new one for free. YOu have 15 days free use from it.