My Macbook Pro is not burning dual layer DVDs. Again. I bought the computer in June or July last year. After about 3 months, the metallic finish on the hinge latch button started wearing off and I took it in to be repaired. The lovely man in the Shibuya Mac Store “Genius” Bar, (he had a very American name, something like Virgil, and interesting facial hair), told me that it was clearly my fault and therefore not covered under the Mac warranty. He then proceeded to get out a little screwdriver-like thing and to scrape into the joins on the mac to show me that dirt had collected there, which he suggested were from a “viscous fluid”. Now, I know a thing or two about viscous fluids and assured him that no viscous fluids had come anywhere near my Mac. I said that I thought that it may have been sweat that my hands secreted in the boiling Japanese summer. After a long, long argument, he agreed to fix the button (which being a computer, required the entire bottom of the Mac to be replaced). This ended up taking about a week.
Then about 3 months later, the computer stopped burning dual-layer DVDs. I burn quite a lot of DVDs and so was quite annoyed by this. I did wonder if perhaps I was burning too many and had somehow worn out the drive, but I hadn’t burnt a stoopid number of them and anyhow, what the f**k, if they sell a drive as able to burn DVDs, it should bloody well burn DVDs, and not suddenly stop after 3 months. It seemed that a lot of people on the web were having similar problems and I took it back into the Mac Store ready to have another long arguement with my bald American friend. This time, though, I got a very nice Japanese man who took one look at the problem and agreed to send it off for repair. This took about a week.
Now, three months later, the exact same problem has happened. I called the Mac Helpline and again they have agreed to repair the drive and are even going to come and pick the thing up from my house and deliver it back when finished. The guarantee on the new drive will last for 90 days or until the original 1 year guarantee on the computer runs out, whichever is longer. This pisses me off. If they are going to replace the drive, surely I should get a year guarantee on the new drive too, independant of how long the computer’s guarantee is. Also, considering that of the 6 months I have had the computer, 3 weeks will have been with the computer being repaired, surely they should extend my guarantee to cover this. Otherwise they could just sell broken computers, take a year to “fix” them and give them back still broken and claim the 1 year guarantee and run out. I can’t really fault the service I have got, at least when I have argued enough to get it, but just am very pissed off about having to constantly get service at all. My last Mac lasted 5 years and only needed a repair once. Mac should really think about the quality of the drives they put in their laptops.
