On Saturday I received my 12″ iBook 900 back from having its logic board replaced for the third time, and it seems that Advance Electronics still can’t seem to get it right.
[cut="the iBook Saga"]I called Apple when the iBook initially failed for the third time (Thursday, 25 Nov.), explaining my frustration about this seemingly irresolvable problem. I was put through to “Customer Relations”, who informed me that the last time my logic board had been replaced, a revised logic board was available that is apparently less susceptible to the problem plaguing the original iBook logic boards. Unfortunately, Advance didn’t order it – they ordered part no. 661-2982, the original revision.
Before they would even consider the possibility of anything other than a repair, they asked me to see about having the board replaced with the revised version, and I did. I was even willing to write the new part number down for Advance so they would be sure what to order, but they had “a memo from Apple explaining the logic board replacement issue”, and would have everything under control.
Part no. 661-2982 was installed in my iBook for the 4th time (including the initial factory assembly).
Fast-forward to today. I called Apple again, and they are still suggesting that the logic board get replaced, though they want Advance to order it ahead of time so I don’t have to wait so long. Yeah, right. There are (at least) two problems I can see here:
- You are still maintaining inventory of a part that is known to fail more often than a newly revised part.
- Your “Authorized Service Provider” doesn’t know what you say they should know in conjunction with the logic board replacement program.
So what am I to do? The iBook, which is my main computer that I rely on for day-to-day activities, such as university and student council, has been unavailable to me for about a month cumulatively over the past year. I’ve had enough of this unreliability. How many failures are required before you can call a lemon a lemon and replace it with something that works?
It’s amusing that Macs are often described as “Computers for the rest of us”, that “just work”, and yet they don’t seem to be willing to offer a solution that “just works”. I am sure that if I wasn’t a “hardcore” Mac user, this experience would have been harrowing enough to keep me from purchasing another Apple product in the future.[/cut]
Conclusion: Time to get surly aggressive, explain the situation and the fact that I’m tired of going in this loop, state that they gave Advance “authorized” status and thus should not be hiding behind their claimed incompetence but rather deal with them separately, and ask for an iBook >= my 12″ 900 that “works”.
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