Lotusblog

So my Macbook (otherwise known as “The World’s Breakiest Computer”) came back from the computer hospital today.

For those of you who don’t know what happened…

Put a data DVD in it a couple of weeks ago. Copied the data. Tried to eject the DVD, it woudn’t come out. Made an appointent to see the Apple Store’s Genius Bar, and the “genius” said after 20 minutes, “The DVD is stuck. We’re gonna have to send this in for repair. It’s going to cost 10,000 yen just to look at it.”

I left the Apple Store and took the ‘book to Sofmap, from where I had purchased it 1 year and 363 days earlier.

Sofmap quietly and politely filled out an incident report. Took the ‘book. Told me to wait 2 weeks. 12 days later (today) the ‘book arrived by courier. With the following…

1. New DVD drive

2. New top case

3. New screen bezel

4. New HDD Guide (not sure what that is)

5. New protective seals on my trackpad and clicker button

6. New Keyboard

Now, I am not complaining here, but what’s the deal with numbers 2 to 6? I only had a DVD that wouldn’t eject! The cost of all these repairs was 64,000 yen.

The cost to me: ZERO!

The moral of the story is thus:

If you live in Japan and you buy an Apple brand computer, buy it from Sofmap. If it’s new you can get a 5 year warranty that beats the pants off the laughable “AppleCare”, and if it’s used, then you get a 3 year warranty that covers you for this sort of thing (mine was bought used).

This Macbook is now exactly 2 years old, is onto its 3rd DVD drive, 2nd battery, 2nd keyboard, 2nd top case… and none of these repairs has cost me anything.

And it feels great to have it back.