In early March, my 7-month-old MacBook Air had problems syncing with the iCloud. My old MacBook Pro as well as my iPads and iPhone had no problems with it, so it wasn't the Apple ID itself, but the device!
Together with the support, I deleted the hard drive and put the MacBook Air back on, whereupon the mouse arrow froze and both the trackpad and keyboard no longer worked. Apple support advised me to send in the device and have the hardware tested and repaired under warranty.
I sent the device in, but the device came back just as broken as before!
I sent it in for the second time, after 10 days it came back: The problem with the iCloud, the trackpad and the keyboard was now resolved, but instead it kept switching off and on again for no reason or froze after a longer standby and not only forgot all settings, but also all saved passwords and could no longer load and play some videos. I even had to log in to Office every time!
I drove to the premium reseller for the third time to send the device back in, whereupon an employee deleted "filevault" and promised that the problem would be solved.
But it wasn't! During the fourth visit to the reseller, I was informed that they would give up and I should try "Apple myself" (?!) And gave myself an Apple hotline number, but not that of the support. (I previously thought that an "Apple Premium Reseller" belongs to Apple anyway!)
The employee on this Apple hotline was not very interested in my problems and said that he could not help me as long as the problems did not happen before his eyes and I could tell him a lot!
Quite annoyed, I called my support person, who has since become responsible and helpfull, who phoned my reseller about their procedure and advised me to send the device back in, hoping that his intervention would have been useful and that rechecking would finally deliver a fully functional device. If it could not be repaired satisfactorily this time, he offered me a replacement device, since I had to do without my laptop for 3 full months now and at "Corona Home Office" times.
I'm currently waiting for a notification. What should I do afterwards?
If the device works - as I expect - reasonably, but not fully reliably:
1.) Should I then accept that, in order to finally have a device available again… OR
2.)… Should I insist on a replacement device that I would probably have to wait for weeks for?
I tend to 1.), but always have to remember that the device still has a full guarantee and should work for many years - actually reliably!
I would see this as a material defect and, in accordance with the German Civil Code, would contact the dealer who sold the device.
In the event of a material defect, this must be corrected. After a failed repair, you have the option to withdraw from the purchase contract (so if a dealer was the one to whom you sent the device back, that would be the best option.)
Since the purchase was more than 6 months ago, you may have to prove that the material defect already existed at the time of purchase. This can result from the type of defect, for example. I would, however, first try without this evidence for as long as it is not required.
I say so. Repair is the resource-saving way. However, depending on the defect (if the hardware), exchanging is probably better. You could also try a different operating system such as Linux by starting it from the USB stick and checking whether all the errors mentioned (which were not related to Apple stuff) also appear there. If so, the hardware is defective and I would exchange it if it was difficult to repair or too expensive.
Thanks for the information! I did not know this possibility yet! 💻
Thanks for the information! 💻
Even if you don't buy a MacBook for this, you would have a functional operating system with Linux.
