Incompetent and Dishonest Hong Kong apple repair center

Madhav · #1 August 16th, 2005, 08:45 AM

So heres my story, any help/advice is welcome.

25th July: My ibook G4 unable to boot up, dropped it to the only repair center in Hong Kong to get the 80 gig HD replaced (sounds simple?).

15th August: 3 weeks later I'm still waiting for them to call, so I decide to pay them a visit, find out ibook was ready, however it seems nobody had bothered to call me. So I get home, boot up, and I find that instead of a new 80 gig HD, I have a 30 gig. Ok, no problems, just a mistake, anyone could make it.

16th August: Make the 1.5 hr journey on public transport for my third visit, explain my situation, give them my ibook and ask them to put a 80gig HD ASAP. They seem sorry and ask me to come back a few hours later and assure me it will be done. So I come back, tell the man at the desk, "Dont mind if I boot up and check it's all ok here do you?" He assures me it's not neccesary, so I walk away and think it's over.
Get home, boot up, and find a 60 gig HD! ARGHH! By this stage I was pretty dissapointed. However this wasn't the end, I also discover in the system profiler that 128mb of my ram is gone? (standard inbuilt 256mb replaced with 128mb)

This makes me think that this is no mistake, it is attempted theft, and how many other people have been done without realising it?

The question I ask now is who to talk to about this? I dont wan't to go straight back to the repair centre as they may just brush it under the rug.

Any input is welcome.

Madhav

Gig' · #2 August 16th, 2005, 09:15 AM

Sorry to hear your story

I would suggest to make a formal complaint to the repair shop with a copy to apple local representative, maybe one of these could tell you who it might be : http://appleclub.com.hk/buy/applecenter.html.

Good luck

**Giaguara** · #3 August 16th, 2005, 06:02 PM

Do you have the name and address of the repair center? That's definitely such a service it needs to be fixed.

ElDiabloConCaca · #4 August 16th, 2005, 07:31 PM

I would ask to speak directly with the store manager, and if they were not present, to get their first and last name and daytime telephone number, as well as what hours they were expected to be present.

Incompetent -- very. By speaking with the manager and telling him your story (the calmer the better!) you will be assured better service. It's likely that the managers don't know about half of the repair jobs the Geniuses take care of -- they're trained to be pretty much self-sufficient.

It would also help to bring paperwork like receipts and documentation proving that your iBook did indeed ship with 256MB of RAM and an 80GB hard drive. Think like a lawyer in terms of preparedness and you'll get ass-kissing service.

Madhav · #5 August 17th, 2005, 07:30 AM

problem solved, got my computer back, still not sure whether it was a mistake though?

powermac · #6 August 17th, 2005, 09:41 AM

Glad you got it back in its original form. Certainly sounds like the service department needs improvement. If it is a authorized Apple store, I would take a few minutes to alert Apple on the matter. Not so much as a complaint, but to help them improve so other customers don't experience the same problem.