Dealing with Apple Authorised repairers

[Phate]

Hi all,

following on from this thread I am now back in Portugal and would like to get my laptop booked in to be looked at.

Since having the screen replaced when in Australia, the MBP has got the following issues...

- 1 foot completely come off, the other 3 have degraded badly and and another on the verge of coming off. I do not see this as 'wear on tear' on a laptop thats barely a year old and always kept in a case when on the move!

- Knocking noise from the screen is back, ergo needing replacement a second time

- Laptop occasionally locks up completely, can't even click down on the trackpad when it happens, need to force a hard reboot to get it to respond

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Plus a couple of other niggly bits. Now I've always (when in the UK and otherwise) taken my stuff to Apple stores and booked genius appointments for them to take a look at and book it in if necessary. Unfortunately there are no official Apple stores here in Portugal, but plenty of authorised repairers, but I've never been to one before.

I saw mentioned in the other thread that once your product has been repaired X amount of times, you have a case to argue a complete replacement. Is that the same with ARs?

Will it be a case of I take it in, describe the faults, they book it in, confirm the warranty with Apple, do the work and then they bill Apple?

Have people found them to be more restrictive with what they will do or more flexible or the same level of care as I would get from walking into an Apple store?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Jake

 

[Maccy]

Can't answer all of your questions but the company my dad works for is split into two, one half which does Apple repairs.
I've used them a few times and it's a case of drop it off, check if there's warranty and then let them do the rest. It's their responsibility to recoup the costs direct from Apple.
I had a few niggles with a hard drive mount which I'd butchered when replacing the hard drive and they replaced the mounts at no additional cost which was nice.

 

[Phate]

Thanks mate. Will be taking it in next week when visiting Lisbon. I'll give them a call in advance to ensure its booked in and go from there!

 

[Alpherah]

I used to work in one of these in the UK.
Usually the repair is carried out by the centre following their own inspection and the price billed to Apple. We were banned from doing anything for "customer service" reasons so no ability to go "oh damn, three repairs? Have a new one!" Like the Apple Store can. In instances where the repair is more complex then originally potentially thought (eg; evidence of third party tampering) we had to consult Apple for advice and usually got told to reject service to be honest with you.
Some centres have the ability to add and read notes from Apples internal repair database however on the whole anything you have done there doesn't count as a repair in the eyes of Apple outside of extending the warranty for the part that got fixed or replaced - so if you have a Gpu replaced twice for example then go a third time to an Apple Store to complain - your out of luck really.
Stores without database access have to file paperwork for all their repairs so if you get something serviced out of warranty and it doesn't work and go to apple direct next time it will still show as out of warranty unless a good week or so has passed - your paperwork is proof enough however the employee afaik has to chase the case up with the aarc direct and then get a manager override to remove the fee so your appointment takes a bit longer.

 

[Phate]

Thanks for your help

Well there has definitely been no third party tampering! (A first for me as it happens!) So should be all fine there.

Will update the thread with how I get on.