Former neighbor got a free replacement MacBook...

Alright, so here's the story.

He bought a MacBook, with the Napa chipset, featuring a 2.0GHz T7200 processor and 512MB of RAM, which I helped him update to 1GB of RAM.

Now, he's had minor problems with it since day one. What with the palm rests discoloring, the CD drive not ejecting discs that were too thick, the plastic chipping apart where the magnetic hinges close the display and the cooling fan "clacking" when it ran high. He never really bothered to do anything with it.

Than I get word today from his elderly mom that he had it sent in. I have no idea why, but his warranty was expired and he ended up getting a brand new Santa Rosa MacBook free of charge.

So my question is, is there something wrong with the Napa platform MacBooks? Why did Apple give him a brand new Santa Rosa model, free of charge, even after his warranty was expired?

Honestly, I'm hoping now that my MBP fails after my warranty expires so I can get a 2008 MBP free of charge. *falls*

 

I think this is just an example of Apple being keen to please their customers. I've read similar stories before, and I don't think it's that uncommon. Don't expect to get a replacement though. Most of the issues you mentioned are common and well-known, so the fact that this person had so many of them probably played a part in it.

 

it definitely happens and usually results from the person contacting Apple Customer care directly and being very direct and clearly illustrating the problems they are having. the first step should always just be going into an Apple store and letting the employees there determine whether or not a machine should be fixed/replaced, for the most part, most people haven't had major problems doing so. When they do have a problem at a retail store, in a situation where a machine should obviously be fixed/replaced, the next step towards success seems to always be contacting Apple's customer care, and being very forward with their experience.

 

This is not unusual. People with older models get new replacements fairly often. If it has been sent in to be repaired several times, it is clearly a lemon. As circa said, many times people have called Customer Relations at the corporate office.

 

Well in this case it's probably in Apple's best interest to just give him a new one. If the case is chipping and discoloured, they would have to replace the case, and I can just imagine how much work they would have to do to take out all the components from the old case and transferring them to a new case with a new fan and DVD drive that you say had problems. I suppose they could have given him a refurbished old model, but they probably didn't want to risk having other problems crop up later.

Why they did it out of warranty I don't know, but perhaps with an explanation that these problems were already pre-existing during the warranty period and the severity of the problems they just felt it was the right thing to do.