Shop for an iPad

Cnet has had a lot of videos lately about the iPad. Makes me think Apple bought a boatload of advertising.

But, I want to weight in on the whole "shop for an iPad" meme that seems to be going on.

Only, my take is a little different. Because the shop I'm talking about is the repair shop.

There's a problem with the on/off switch. It looks like someone took a screwdriver do it. And, the damage causes it to occasionally complete the switch circuit, and it will suddenly act as if the switch was pressed. Made it impossible to use.

It's obviously not a defect, it's damage. And I'm at a loss to determine how that kind of damage in that location occurred by accident.

Oh, well. Life is full of mysteries.

Anyway, I got an estimate on repairs, and it turned out to be around $450 to get it fixed. I could buy a new one for $699, so that took some thought. Research showed that trying to fix it myself would void the remaining warranty. So, I decided to send it in for repair. If Apple fixes this problem, I'll have to pay for this repair, but warranty is still on for defects going forward.

So, on November 6, I took it to Graphicom, the local Apple dealer.

Larry said it'd be 3-5 days, but noted that he's noticed things taking longer than normal lately. In the past, I've had to send in stuff (my old MacBook, for instance), and it came back quickly, when it was something they couldn't do in-store.

After a week, I called Graphicom and asked about it. No word. This went on every few days ... until Tuesday. That's when I got an email from Apple:

Thank you for choosing AppleCare Service.

Your product was received by the Apple Service Facility without a valid service request.

At your earliest convenience, please contact Apple with more information. Please call AppleCare at 800-APL-CARE (800-275-2273). When calling, please have Apple case number [*********] readily available. Help is available seven days a week from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. central.

Best regards,

Andrew
AppleCare Service

Well, that can't be good, I thought.

So, I called. Some guy named David seemed hesitant to talk to me. The exact kind of thing that would happen if someone screwed something up, and he didn't want to tell me that.

Of course, I already figured out that someone screwed something up. There's no shortage of parts for the iPad, so there's no way it should have taken this long. Someone had screwed something up.

Anyway, he suggested I contact Graphicom, give them some numbers he game me, and have Graphicom contact Apple.

After a little bit, Larry contacted me, telling me that the issue seems to have been resolved, and repairs would start.

Great. I dropped it off on the 6th, and 17 days later, someone was finally going to do something? Just frikkin' great.

Anyway, I now have enough information to look up the repair status myself. Checked this morning...



According to this, 10 days after I dropped it off, Apple checked it in, and let it sit there. And it's sitting there still.

Not sure who all screwed up here. Graphicom delay sending it in? That doesn't fit my previous experience.

FedEx delay? That doesn't fit my previous experience.

Apple fiddle-farting around with a repair? That doesn't fit my previous experience.

So, someone has fallen down on the job. And my iPad is taking way too long to get back from repair as a result.

I'd like to know who screwed up.

I'd also like my iPad back.