Bravo, Xavier! A well-written explanation of your experience, concise and easy to read. Also, congrats on getting a new battery and for not feeling absolutely entitled to it, even though Apple should have replaced a part that was obviously defective through no fault of your own.

Apple Store "genius's" (geni?) are hit or miss, for sure.

I've brought products in one day that Genius A will say "This is 100% NOT covered, we can do NOTHING about this problem" and literally bring it back the next day, give the same shpeel to Genius B, and they will be extremely helpful and say "This is 100% covered, we can do EVERYTHING to fix this problem".

Frustrating? Yes. But in the end Apple will usually do the right thing.

If only their employees would be consistent.

@bornonbord: What you say is true: Sometimes it's not so much about employees being told A one day and B another so their stories are inconsistent, it's that some of their employees know the times in which a company policy must be followed at all times, and the times in which it really isn't a big deal to swap out something for a customer if they need it. The battery might not be covered by the 90-day warranty, but how many spare batteries do you have sitting in a box in the back? Sam the Apple worker probably figures that it won't do any harm if he swaps it out for Xavier.

@bornonbord: What you say is true: I've found the same. The store closest to my job sucks on every level possible. Once I started going to others (there are 4 stores total within 30 mins)it was like night and day. I've had a lot of Above and Beyond experiences dealing with the other three (especially Tysons Corner!!).

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I wonder why Consumerist redacted the store he went to. Employee protection incase an Apple boss fires him or something? Seems like a positive, from the consumer's end, story that would get more people to go to that store.

@MostlyHarmless:
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@JustinSane07: He violated company policy, so it's possible he'd get fired or reprimanded for doing so, even at the benefit of the consumer.

@TinkishDelight: Tysons Corner! I used to live near there! (If it is the one in McLean, right across Falls Church)

@MostlyHarmless: Yes! I had some problems downgrading my iPhone (long story) and AT&T kept denying responsibility. Their GM actually stopped what he was doing and literally walked me over to the AT&T store, spoke to their manager directly and demanded he take care of it. Numerous other employees were also involved trying to help me. It was beautiful.

Are we sure it's against company policy? The new battery had to be accounted for in some manner. It didn't fall from the heavens (since Steve Jobs is still alive on this Earth).

Sounds to me like Apple Geniuses have some leeway to make judgment calls for freebies and out-of-warranty repairs. Not saying that it's bad (it's actually good, if it's the case), but, all the horror stories out there make me wonder if the Genius training pumps out schizophrenic CSRs or if the guys that don't get help are real buttholes.

Very similar experience with Apple for me. I had a faulty logic board two years after purchasing a 15" MacBook Pro--I hadn't signed up for AppleCare, so I was annoyed going into the store that I would probably be out a couple of hundred dollars (this is what customer service at other companies had taught me.)

Well, the "Genius", a very nice and capable woman, said that a faulty logic board shouldn't happen after two years, so she replaced it free of charge. I did have to leave my computer overnight, but no big deal.

Over a year later, I went into that same store for an IPod accessory. The woman remembered me and asked how the logic board was working. I actually couldn't believe that she'd remembered a customer issue from a year earlier. I was impressed with the level of service. This is why I'm a loyal Apple customer.

@bornonbord: What you say is true: When my iPhone 2G's battery had a major malfunction (didn't explode, but swelled up to twice its size and got *burning* hot to the touch) I took it into the Apple store in Tyson's Corner, VA. My iPhone was two weeks out of warranty, and they refused to help me or offer to fix the phone. They kept trying to convince me to upgrade to the iPhone 3G. I kept asking about a battery replacement since the phone still worked, but they kept countering with "but if you buy a NEW phone you get a new battery, faster service and a warranty!".

I didn't get the phone fixed. They were more intent on selling me a new one than fixing my existing one. In the end, I caved and ended up waiting until the 3GS got released and buying that instead.

I've had some good experiences with the Apple store, don't get me wrong, but my iPhone 2G issue frustrated me to no end. Still never got it fixed.

@pecan 3.14159265: Hrm, perhaps I was unclear.

I meant, I will tell both geni the exact same story. But one of them will help and another won't.

So, you and I are on the same page. I wish the employees were consistent.

In this case - a random spare part hanging around - it came down to chance and circumstance. But I've had cases where it's more along the lines of "We need to ship this out to our service facility" that they will not be consistent.

I've taken advantage of the credit card extended warranty twice, and the first time it was for a failed laptop (not Apple) battery. I was very happy to have the protection, but the requirement to get a "repair estimate" is a bit ridiculous for some products. Who repairs a battery? I was finally able to find a cooperative computer repair place that gave me a something with their store letterhead saying the battery couldn't be repaired.

@MostlyHarmless: Yep. I think that's the only one in McLean. The next one is in Clarendon, and then there's one in Pentagon City and one in Fairfax.

@pecan 3.14159265: Plus two in Bethesda (Bethesda Row and Montgomery Mall) and one opening soon in Georgetown as well as the one in Reston. Apparently we're Apple crazy here in Metro DC.

Great Job :)

@Preyfar: Yup, I had a very, very similar experience with the plastic case chipping on a plastic MacBook.

Genius A "This is due to you carrying it in a backpack and over-stuffing the backpack, this is not covered under AppleCare. The new ones are aluminum so that won't happen! You should check them out!"

Next day, Genius B: "Oh no! That totally sucks. It's still under AppleCare? Let's get this taken care of ASAP!"

Ditto for me.
I had a iMac power supply die on me, out of warrantee. Walked in and handed it over, crest-fallen. The Genius tells me that, regrettably, it'll be several days since they're unusually busy. There was a recall on power supplies, he hopefully noted, then his face dropped when he said mine was just out of the range.
Drat. Drat. Drat.
Traipsed around, shopped, ate, was back at the house if a few hours. By then there was a message on my answering machine: my iMac was fixed and good to go!
Whoo hoo! Three days early!
Happy to escape living as though it were 1970, I left home with a jaunty step.
Picked it up, happy as a ferret set loose in a henhouse.
Checked out the bill for my out-of-warrantee, out-of-recalled power supply iMac.
Parts: $0.00
Labor: $0.00
Sales tax: $0.00
TOTAL: $0.00

The Genius say my face, then cheerily said, "No charge, it's on us!"

A four year old computer, and not a particularly high-end one. Free. Just because they're Applelicious!

> Gives me a relieved feeling every time I see the stories of other computer makers and the shenanigans they routinely pull, and the resigned tone of the poor victims/customers that have to put up with it, it does.

so they will give up a new battery or even an entire new computer in the case of carey's story the other day, but not let a customer keep a failed hard drive?

sounds like they are very inconsistent in the way they handle applecare cases

Major points for the Aesop Fables reference, Phil. Those and Where the Wild Things Are were my bibles during my romper room days.
Well, OK, fine. Today, too.

@pecan 3.14159265: His call to make, and no judgments on my part.
But I've called out specific stores for outstanding service and Apple's fine with it (both when I inquired locally and their not getting whapped later).
Apple's smart enough to realize the value of positive word of mouth and pleasing customers.
I mean, It's (not) A Dell!

IMO it's hit or miss with the genius bar. I recently got a MacBook Air(rev b) and it has problems with streaming video(joost,hulu). 5 to 10 min's into a stream it stutters, I see no reason such a expensive computer cant stream correctly. I was told that "it wasn't made for that". Maybe I should just keep trying different people?

@Trai_Dep:

[www.apple.com]

Excitement

I'm a bit confused about the 90 day warranty on replacement parts.

If the battery, motherboard or any other part had failed two months into the one year warranty is Apple saying that you would wind up with those parts not completing the balance of the warranty period (in this case ten months)?

I understand that scenario did not happen to the OP but I am curious non-the-less.

Does anyone here have first-hand experience with this?

The Apple 'geniuses' can be very kind to the customer, more than they need to.

My niece had an iPod that crapped out on her. It was past warranty by about two months.

At the Apple Store, they wrote up a new warranty, listing it as a Christmas gift, thereby bringing it within the window of opportunity. It was replaced promptly replaced, free of charge.

Not that consumers should expect said treatment (we're happy when CSR's just follow company policy while not acting like a total douche) , but it is nice to know there are folks and companies out there that still do the 'above and beyond' thing.

@TinkishDelight: We love our Apple. I'm glad they're finally opening one in Georgetown - now if only we could just get metro access.

Replacement parts are 90 days or the original warranty left on the product whichever is longer. The Macbook Air isn't meant to stream video (just because it's expensive doesnt mean it will do what you want it to) And Apple changes policy everyday, one day its ok to do one thing another you do something else. Or what manager is on duty depends what they can do for you.

@Trai_Dep: I love Apple. I have a 13 inch macbook that i've had for 13 months. Suddenly, specific keys on the keyboard just stopped working- the 1, a, z, and q keys, as well as the delete key. I went in to the genius bar (in Danbury, CT), and the guy there took about 10 minutes to diagnose it, and then told me that it would be fixed, free of charge, by that afternoon. I was a little worried because my computer had one of those cosmetic cracks on the bottom edge which Apple has sometimes used as an excuse not to fix the computer- but they said nothing about this. So I went home, and they called me back in an hour and told me it was ready for pick up! Nothing spectacular because my computer is in-warranty, but back when I had a Dell, I had to wait forever for them to ship the part, then install in myself, and I was out of a computer for days. Apple fixed it in an hour.
Macs may be expensive, but they're worth every penny in my opinion.

@TinkishDelight: I have Max tattooed on my arm. I played Max in a play the summer between my fifth and sixth grade years. (The play was so well received that the the school district asked us to come and perform it at various grade schools that next school year. That was kind of cool.)

I'm very excited about the new movie...

(Oh - forgot to mention - I can recite the entire book from memory. It was a great way to pick up girls right after I got out of high school. If they thought it was cool, that meant that they were probably someone I could spend time with; if they didn't know what it was or thought it was dumb - probably not the girl for me. Of course, that was many many many years ago - but now my daughter thinks it's pretty cool...)

@TheOrtega: My MBP with a 2.8ghz proc and 4 gigs of ram has all kinds of problems playing a stream from hulu, but no problems at all playing much larger streams from youtube or apple.com. I don't think it's your hardware.

@TheOrtega: A friend of mine had the exact same issue with his original Macbook Air. He opened it up, and there was a HUUUGE glob of thermal paste over the processor and integrated controller (Intel GMA). He cleaned up the thermal paste, applied Artic Silver 5 to it... and never had a problem since. It not only streamed video fine, but ran cooler, too.

The Macbook Air original and Rev B are somewhat notorious for overheating, mostly due to too much or bad applications of thermalpaste. The Air gets too hot, scales back the performance to deter heat. Having the thermal paste removed, cleaned and re-applied generally will fix the issues. It's a well known issue on the Mac side, and has affected quite a few Apple notebook product lines.

The OP and Phil are absolutely right, you should definitely give businesses a chance being completely nice -once-, either on the phone and/or in person, but IF once given nice and given benefit of the doubt, and given the opportunity to make it right, they screw you, won't listen, jack things up or are hostile, thereafter, they have given up any right to have the consumer be nice or civil, and the consumer has every right to go for the jugular with management. Be sure when you do go in with guns blazing you say this isn't personal, you are upset at the situation and document well how the person who had a chance at nice messed it up for the company.

If everyone followed this, the jerks at companies would get punished and fired, and the smart nice people would get rewarded and promoted, as it should be in a tough economy with scarce jobs.

@TinkishDelight: Reston opened last saturday in the Town Center!

@Elcheecho: I live in Reston, too! WOOT! I'm in need of a new 3GS case, too. Most excellent.

@JustinSane07: While they were probably trying to protect the employee, which is commendable, it wouldn't be that hard to figure out which store he works at.

@TheOrtega: There is a know issue with streaming video using firefox. Causes the entire system to lock up. Use safari and it should work fine.

@Bogart's Falcon aka Philly Falcon: The 90 day warrantee only applies to computers that are out of warrantee. Its more for paid repairs than apple care issues.

@Munchie: Thank you for the explanation. That does make sense to me now.

This is standard practice for Apple in regards to laptop batteries...as long as the genius you're talking to knows it.

I believe the rule is if a MacBook battery has been through less than 300 charging cycles and it can't hold a reasonable charge, it will be replaced, regardless of how old it is.

I can say this because a few months ago, I brought my first generation MacBook Pro into an Apple store because the battery life was a paltry 30 minutes. I thought I was out of luck, because the computer was more than three years old. However, I did some research and found out that there were others with the same predicament who discovered the "young" battery replacement policy.

So, I checked my battery--only about 200 cycles. With that fact and my research in hand, I went to the Apple store, told them the problem and how I knew about others who had the same problem fixed, and the Genius agreed with me with no hesitation. He grabbed a new battery, told me to check out Apple's webpage that gives tips on keeping your battery healthy, and sent me on my way.

Long story short, everyone who has a battery problem with a MacBook should bring it in to an Apple store. It is very likely it will be replaced for free, even if it is technically out of warranty

@bornonbord: What you say is true: The plural of genius is geniuses.

@bornonbord: What you say is true: Was it the topcase chipping? I had that happen to me twice, and I'll be that 50% of polycarbonate MacBook owners have had it happen as well. The first time the Genius told me that it was because I was shutting the lid too hard, but they'd replace it anyway. The second time, they were more than happy to fix both the topcase and the LCD bezel (which chipped in a similar manner) without any hassle.

Sometimes Geniuses can just be douchebags, but other times they're glad to help you.