So I haven’t been writing a whole lot recently, because I usually do so from my MacBook… However, a week or so ago, I was in my Microsoft Server class, and we were all packing up after the review for the final exam, and I smelled something… burning. I didn’t think much of it at first, but when I looked down, the power cord for my MacBook was smoking, and had a brown char on it! I immediately unplugged it from the wall, but the damage was done, you could see into the inside of the power adapter cord (see the photos below) and even see the wires inside.
Considering the fact that my MacBook is NOT under the one year warranty, and that I opted NOT to buy the AppleCare plan, my original idea was to scam Apple, and bring in my girlfriends newer MacBook (still under warranty) with my power adapter, and just hope that they would switch it out… I never thought the power adapters would have serial numbers (turns out they do… but I just found this out today, and had no influence on my choices) But to make a long story short(er) I just decided to give AppleCare a call, and see if there was anything they could possibly do for me.
After spending some time speaking to some female in an outsourced call center (probably India) I finally got to talk to somebody local… What it took to do this, was to simply REMAIN CALM with the first person, even if we could barely understand her, I answered all of her questions, and she said that its not under warranty, but she’ll transfer me anyhow!
Next I got to speak to a male, who was just as upset as I was that this had happened! He put me on hold for a while, to try to get a hold of a specialist who could further assist me. We ended up getting disconnected somewhere through the hold-time… But he promptly called me back, and said that he just needs a few more minutes to have me on hold, and I was fine with that. He then came back, and told me the name of a female on the other line, and he was transferring me to her.
The female came on the phone, and explained to me that she’s very sorry, and asked me some simple questions about how I used the adapter, and if I was harmed in any way. I answered everything truthfully, even telling her that I sometimes yanked the adapter out of the MacBook, and she said that its “best” to just grab it and unplug it instead. She continued on to tell me that I’d be getting a free updated (to avoid this fault) power adapter in the mail, in about 7-14 business days, and it would be no charge to me, but they did need my old one back.
TWO DAYS LATER , I woke up and there was a box from Apple of California on my doorstep, with a return shipping label attached, and instructions to place my old adapter in the box, call DHL, and tell them a day and time they could come pick up the bod from my doorstep.
And that was it, it took about 30 minutes on the phone, and a two day wait to get a brand new power adapter in the mail.
Below are the comparison pictures between the old (charred) and new adapter, notice the increased length of the “guard” over the wire at the top. Click them for larger, more detailed images.
Apple » Apple Customer Support on May 11th, 2008 at 9:40 pm says:
[...] Corey DeGrandchamp wrote an interesting post today on Apple Customer SupportHere’s a quick excerptConsidering the fact that my MacBook is NOT under the one year warranty, and that I opted NOT to buy the AppleCare plan, my original idea was to scam Apple, and b…TWO DAYS LATER , I woke up and there was a box from Apple of California on my doorstep, with a return shipping label attached, and instructions to place my old adapter i… [...]
burn book on May 20th, 2008 at 7:11 pm says:
[...] but when I looked down, the power cord for my MacBook was smoking, and had a brown char on it!http://www.coreydegrandchamp.com/2008/05/11/apple-customer-support/The Burn BookThe "Mean Girls" of "The burn Book" Wendy, Gwen, and Stacy. … Stills [...]