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April 18, 2007

troubleshooting

Apple Store resolves all my issues

Posted Apr. 18, ’07, 8:22 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Troubleshooting

Chestnut Hill StoreOkay, probably not all my issues; after all, there’s still those lingering fears of mimes and Igloo coolers (don’t ask). But a journey to the Apple Store yesterday yielded the help of Apple Genius Mike, who managed to fix a couple of outstanding problems with my Apple gear.

My MacBook had been suffering from a condition I call “shutoffitis.” Normally when your battery gets low, your Mac warns you and then puts itself to sleep. But not my MacBook, oh no—it’d just turn off when the battery life hit about 30 minutes. Mike attributed this to a bad batch of batteries where the chemicals weren’t holding their charge properly, and swapped my current battery for a new one, no muss, no fuss. I’ve finished calibrating it, and Coconut Battery shows a full capacity, so we’ll see how it goes. But if you’ve been experiencing this problem (as several of our commenters seemed to be), I’d advise you to head to your nearest Apple Store and see if you can’t get your battery swapped.

The next problem involved my second-gen iPod nano, which had decided that it was too good to play audio through the right channel of my headphones (oddly enough, the right headphone in that set broke earlier in the week—no connection, I swear). Mike had me test it out with a set of headphones in store, which showed the same problem, so he went ahead and gave me a new nano too.

And that was that. Besides having to wait twenty minutes past my original appointment time, my experience was pretty satisfactory. In another odd coincidence, while I was waiting at the bar I overheard two geniuses discussing how one of the other customers they’d just helped was a notable blogger. So apparently the Chestnut Hill Apple Store is the newest blogger hangout. Good to know.


5 Comments

Kate Marshall said:

"So apparently the Chestnut Hill Apple Store is the newest blogger hangout. Good to know."

I got all excited and thought there suddenly was an Apple Store in Chestnut Hill, PA. Then I clicked the link and was sad. At least the geniuses were able to fix your MacBook and nano.

April 18, 2007 8:33 AM
Peter Cohen said:

You misunderstood. They didn't say "notable," they said "notorious."

kthxbye.

April 18, 2007 9:00 AM
browe said:

I recently bought a macbook pro that had a casing that was warped. I took it to a store and the mac genius said that this was unacceptable and was willing to swap it out on the spot. But then I mentioned that I bought it online and was custom configured. Then he said he could not help me. I would have to call 1-800-my-apple. but they would not swap it out because it was custom configured. they would repair it. After hours of arguing with them, I gave in. The set up a repair service. I sent it in and it was retunred quickly but it is still warped. By warped I mean that not all 4 corners rest on a flat service causing my MBP to wobble when I type which then causes the screen to shake. During this time I have contact the executive customer care person someone mentioned on this site and I have been dealing with her. She still will not let me replace it. She now wants to see photos. I sent in a video of the wobbling. And now I am waiting to her back from them. This experience has not been pleasant.
Moral: don't custom configure and don't buy online.

April 18, 2007 9:14 AM
Steph said:

I had exactly the same battery problem mentioned with my Macbook Pro battery. I went to the Apple Store in Brent X, London, without an appointment [they were fully booked] explained my issue to a member of staff within 5 minutes they made space for me and then swapped my battery and sent me on my way. That was good customer service, From that it encouraged me to purchase the extended warrenty, even though I am still under 1 years warrenty.

April 18, 2007 12:18 PM
jayH said:

dan, they were talking about you ;)

April 18, 2007 4:41 PM

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