Warranties

I remember the time when I bought stuff and didn’t really care about warranties with the notion that “in the Philippines,” warranties won’t matter since the service, in general, sucks.

But as my gadgets grew more complex, I noticed the need for them and made sure that certain stuff I buy needed warranties because

1. There are companies that are reliable.
2. Some stuff really break easy.
3. Murphy’s law… ’nuff said.

I guess I’m just posting this now because my powerbook ordeal today reminded me of how warranties have saved a lot of moolah. I’ve already had a bunch of equipment covered by warranty one way or the other. Off the top of my head, I already had my 20D, PC power supply unit, pc motherboard, powerbook, ImageTank, speakers, and earphones fixed/replaced under warranty.

I just got the bottom case of the powerbook replaced for the second time today. And the fact that it was under warranty made it a very joyous occasion considering the situation…

The first time my Powerbook experienced a “warrantied” service was when they replaced the top and bottom case because their technician who did an upgrade on the hard-drive cosmetically messed up the CD-ROM area.

Before I continue, let me do a quick rundown of how a powerbook is constructed. This is minus all circuitry. It’s basically divided into three parts: the LCD, the top case, and the bottom case.

• The LCD is obviously the aluminum plane which the display and logo are mounted on… it goes right down to the hinge where it connects to the bottom case.
• The bottom case is arguably the biggest part. It constitutes the whole bottom and side if the casing. This is where the battery compartment is, where the motherboard is screwed down to (inside), and where the button to open the laptop is located (open meaning open like a book, not to turn on). It’s a single solid piece made of aluminum. The ports (AC, USB, FW, video, audio, etc.) are also seen through the sides of the bottom case.
• The top case is the surface in the middle. I’m not sure if it’s made of aluminum or plastic. It’s flat and is intended to be screwed together with the bottom case. The topcase is where the keyboard is mounted. The power switch and trackpad are considered part of the top case, so when you replace it, you replace everything except the keyboard.

Going back to the story, the laptop was fine as far as performance was concerned. The flaw was purely cosmetic. But luckily, their technician messed it up, not me… hence they agreed to replace the said parts. This obviously rendered my laptop physically good as new (save for the LCD), which was a pretty damn good bonus if you ask me.

Second time it went in was when oxidation had occurred in the top-case, after much ado, I convinced Apple to service the flaw under warranty once more (basically because others have successfully claimed warranty under similar conditions).

But the day they did change it, the bottom case was unusually “bound” (for lack of a better term) to the top case – hence they had to exert quite an amount of force to pry it open. This resulted in the bottom case to warp somehow – that when they screwed it back together, there was a small “opening” at some point where the top and bottom case met (when they should be tightly sealed together).

This was surely unfortunate because no matter how good the technician was this time, the unnatural bond of the old top-case with the bottom-case made it virtually impossible to open the casing easily (which should’ve been the case). But nevertheless they agreed that they would change the bottom case as soon as the replacement came.

This is cool because it makes sense to consider all these “flaws” as purely cosmetic, so replacing them under normal circumstances would cost a lot because Apple components are like “designer components.” The fact that it’s a powerbook would normally add to the price the parts, right down to the casing, are expensive because of the material and design (all aluminum, etc.).

I hear if you try replacing these components by simply buying them, the top case was 10k, the bottom about 15k and the LCD 35k. I’m not certain about the prices, but I’m sure they’re all past the tens of thousands of pesos. That’s a pretty damn ridiculous price range for individual case components

The good thing about Apple companies is that they realize how much Apple pays attention to form aside from function, so cosmetic issues in the Apple world are actually very real concerns which people expect to be dealt with the same dedication as they would in dealing with hardware malfunctions.

So today, I come back with a new bottom case, and since the top case is still relatively new, then I can say that aside from the LCD and keyboard, physically the powerbooks brand new again 🙂 And thanks to the warranty, I didn’t have to pay for [a total] of 2 top and bottom cases.