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- Path: sparky!uunet!know!mips2!beanpot!mikem
- From: mikem@beanpot.ma30.bull.com (Mike Machnik)
- Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
- Subject: Ripoff Repair Places
- Message-ID: <1992Jul23.114250@beanpot.ma30.bull.com>
- Date: 23 Jul 92 15:42:50 GMT
- Sender: news@mips2.ma30.bull.com (Usenet News Manager)
- Reply-To: mikem@beanpot.ma30.bull.com (Mike Machnik)
- Organization: Bull Worldwide Information Systems
- Lines: 54
-
- This is part III of the continuing saga of my attempt to repair a Mac SE.
- I have good news: it's now fixed and works perfectly. However, I thought
- people should be warned of how it almost cost over $300 to fix this thing.
- Here's what happened:
-
- My girlfriend had a power surge in her house a few weeks ago while using her
- SE. She called a local AUTHORIZED APPLE repair place, reported the error
- code under the sad Mac, and they told her it was likely a fried SIMM - est.
- cost about $40-$50. I brought it in for her while I was out there a few
- weeks ago. Two days later they called her, said it was the logic board, and
- would cost $315 (which she doesn't have). Suspicious, I called the place
- myself and they said they'd replaced the SIMMs but that it still didn't work,
- and they weren't sure but it appeared to be the logic board. I had no way of
- knowing whether this was true or not, but since she doesn't have the money, I
- suggested she ask them to return it to its original state so she could get the
- SE back and if they ask why, tell them she's waiting to get up the money for
- the repair. Then I'd take it and do what I could do with it.
-
- I picked up two Larry Pina books and a T-15 and went to work. I'd never even
- opened a Mac before, although I have had a Classic for 2 years. The error code
- indicated that the bad SIMM was #2; I had no other SIMMs, so I swapped it
- with the 1 MB SIMM in slot #1 and the new code indicated that #1 was bad.
- Looked like the SIMM to me, but I had nothing to replace it with and I didn't
- want to have her spend the money for another 1MB module if it was going to
- turn out that something else was bad too. So, I went down to MY local
- Mac store where they gave me for free four 256K SIMMs. I replaced the bad
- 1MB and its partner with two 256's, bringing it down from 4MB to 2.5 but with
- all good SIMMs, and guess what. It's as good as new.
-
- "Authorized" Apple Repair Place estimate: $315 for logic board & labor
- Actual cost: 2 Pina books - about $70 total
- 1 T-15 - $11 (had to get a 20-incher, all I could find)
- 2 256K SIMMs - $0
- TOT - about $81, zip for parts. The books & T-15 are reusable, so
- it's not as if the entire $81 was sunk into just this repair.
-
- Needless to say, she (and I) are not too happy at the way the place near her
- wanted to rip her off. We'll be writing a letter to the manager there and
- cc'ing the Better Business Bureau, along with Apple (my suggestion) since
- they are an authorized Apple repair place. And if anyone from Apple is
- reading this, I think you should know how some of your licensees are doing
- business. Fortunately, I have the receipt she was given when she picked up
- the SE which explicitly states that the problem was diagnosed as a bad logic
- board. This should be a lot of fun and very interesting.
-
- Any other examples of places ripping you off? I wouldn't be surprised if this
- thing happens quite often, since Mac users are perceived to be not as
- knowledgeable about the details of computers and thus more likely to nod
- their heads in agreement and pay up the outrageous bills. The moral is, like
- surgery, get a second opinion. Or, unlike surgery, do it yourself. :-)
- --
- == Mike Machnik Bull HN Information Systems Inc. ==
- == 508-294-2177 300 Concord Road MA30-836A ==
- == mikem@beanpot.ma30.bull.com Billerica, MA 01821 ==
-