On 11/28/2008 I purchased my late 2008 15 inch glossy Macbook Pro from Best Buy. After maybe a month or two after owning it the computer started buzzing like crazy. I looked to the Apple Support Forums to see if others had reported this issue and found that there was quite a few with this problem who had the exact same computer. Several of them had contacted Apple regarding the issue and reported Apple's various attempts to fix the problem by replacing hard drives and several other things. Most of them reported unsuccessful and most people were waiting for Apple to officially find the solution. I put my posts regarding my irritations with it back in March but decided to wait for word that Apple has officially recognized the problem and found a solution because I work on this laptop and really can't lose it for days for Apple to replace drives etc as they had done for others and then fail.
At this time I also noticed that my battery would only hold a charge for maybe an hour or so when surfing the web with no video or sound. At this time I decided not to call Apple until I take the time to call them over my buzzing issue when I hear word that they found an official solution. In the meantime I would just fully charge my battery and use it till it dies causing my to do this constantly.
Now I opted for this paticular model because it has the 2 graphics cards. Well, because of how little charge it holds with the lower end graphics card I never even dreamed of bothering with the better one. I'd also like to note at this time that we purchased another one of these exact same computers during this time period and it has never shown signs of buzzing or a bad battery.
I'm a very busy person so time went by and I ignored these issues until Thursday, November 26th. My 1 year warranty was due to run out on the 27th so I thought I better get on the phone with Apple. Closed for Thanksgiving. So then I called on the evening of the 27th at around 5pm and got a message again that they were closed (although later learned that they just closed early). At that point my only option of recording my complaint within my warranty coverage was to schedule a call back for the 28th, so I did.
After arguing with them about whether or not I am within my warranty rights it finally came down to the supervisor telling me:
1. The buzzing sound is pretty much unheard of by Apple even though their forums are flooding with complaints regarding it. I understand it may only be a couple hundred people out of thousands but still, I shouldn't have a buzzing computer should I? Problem unsolved and thats the end of it. I later found the article below which was interesting but whatever.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1823
2. My computer is out of warranty. Even if it IS in warranty they will do nothing for me. Reason why is because I have over 500 charge cycles and they will not warranty a battery that has that many charge cycles. Well, my entire complaint is over charge cycles. After 2 months of buying the thing it required WAY to many charges! This is either do to a defective battery or their software of some kind but I can guarantee that its ALWAYS been this problem.
So I told the Apple Supervisor that by him stating that it wouldn't be covered even though its within the 1 year warranty makes me more mad. I asked him to point out in the 1 year warranty coverage agreement that I really don't have 1 year but only xx amount of charge cycles to call in. Where does it state that I have to call within 1 month or so of having an issue? 1 Year warranty should be 1 year should it not? I understand if I am abusing my battery in some way but the first Apple tech I talked with told me he'd never seen so many charge cycles matched to my capacity numbers and that something has got to be wrong in the software.
I finalized the call by agreeing with the Supervisor that its nothing personal but unless they can point out to me in the agreement where it states that I only have XXX amount of charge cycles OR 1 year then I'll have to get my lawyer involved. Here is their statement on the website he pointed me too:
"Notebook Owners"
"Your one-year warranty includes replacement coverage for a defective battery. You can extend your replacement coverage for a defective battery to three years from the date of your notebook purchase with the AppleCare Protection Plan. However, the AppleCare Protection Plan for notebook computers does not cover batteries that have failed or are exhibiting diminished capacity except when the failure or diminished capacity is the result of a manufacturing defect. Apple offers a battery replacement service for MacBook Air and all MacBook Pro notebooks with built-in batteries. You can purchase replacement batteries for late models of Apple notebooks directly from the Apple Store."
Before hanging up I also stated that even though I respect that the employees deserve a day off for Thanksgiving and Black Friday I don't think that my 1 year warranty should suffer for it. 1 year is 1 year. I shouldn't lose that because of them getting the day off, I should easily be granted that extension especially since it is recorded that I called within my 1 year. Opinions, thoughts or advise?
