Well, here's an update:
Yesterday I made an appointment at the Apple Store in Portland for 1:30pm earlier this afternoon. The store is 3.5 hours from my house. My car isn't in the best of shape, so I don't trust it for long drives, especially over the Cascade Mountans passes. So, I reserved a rental car. I drove the one hour to the airport to pick up the rental and leave my car in the parking. $29 for the rental plus $28 to add it to my insurance for the day and $8 for 24 hours parking of my car. Off I went to downtown Portland. Nice to drive a new car, for a change.
I went Into the store and met up with a guy from customer service, showed him my iPad and explained to him what happened. He said even though it's only eight months old and still under warranty, the damage essentially voids the whole warranty (what AppleCare told me). He said it would have to be replaced and an out-of-warranty replacement would cost $415 for the iPad 2, 64GB with 3G. But they could do it there and then. He was very apologetic for being the bearer of bad news. I just frowned and said "I do wish someone would've told me that before I set out on a three-and-half-hour drive." Besides, I told him, I didn't have that kind of coin to drop down-though I could do $100 or so, if necessary- considering my financial situation changed dramatically when I suffered a workplace accident that left me with permanent injury and a small, fixed income. And that I really depend upon my iPad (I do!). Again, he was apologetic. I said I wasn't sure what to do at that point, but that I was tired after the long drive and really needed to sit down to get off my feet (bad knees). He showed me a place I could sit at and asked me to wait so he could go talk to one of his colleagues. After several minutes he returned and said "Don't worry, we'll get you taken care of. A tech will be out to see you but it might be a little while....we're running a bit behind and these people (showing me the list of a handful of yet-to-be-assisted customers on his iPhone) are ahead of you". I told him it was no problem, as I had nothing else to do and would be okay so long as I had a place to sit. He left and I passed the time playing with a MacBook Air (a VERY nice machine, I might add).
About ten to fifteen minutes later, a tech from the Genius Bar approached me and introduced himself. I showed him my iPad, explaining everything I mentioned above and we talked for a bit. He took the iPad to the work room for evaluation. Upon his return, he said normally-in a situation like this-they would charge $415 to do an out-of-warranty replacement but, for this one time, they would make an exception and replace my iPad at no cost. Boy, did I feel relieved. He took the broken iPad with him and came back out with a new one. We activated it, wiped the data off the broken one, and he told me the new iPad carries the balance of the original warranty. I signed the work order, thanked him, shook his hand and walked out of the store happy. Count me as a fan.
Apple may be a lot of things, but uncaring jerks they ain't. At least from my perspective. Every experience I have had with Apple customer service so far-especially in their stores-has been positive. I also will also concur here that it DOES pay to be honest and polite with their staff.
Michael "Spam, spam, bacon, eggs and spam. Hold the bacon and eggs." Sent from my iPad 2 using iPF
I was actually anticipating spending the £250 a screen replacement costs in the UK (yes, if converting directly, we pay more than the US customers)
