Damaged MBP after load shedding and Insurance Assessment troubles

[MyLowBandwidth]

My Macbook Pro (bought in 2012 from iStore CW) ended up with grey screen after load shedding on Sat 6/12. I took it to a couple of authorised mac repair places on Sunday and Monday and the conclusion from all of them was that it was more than likely logic board damage. This was based on what the macbook was doing on boot. Everyone I spoke to came to the same conclusion. But before going ahead with a repair, I decided to phone my insurance company to see if I could claim under my contents insurance. As it turned out, I could claim for the macbook repair under my contents insurance. Power surges and electrical faults are covered apparently. That was great news. But I’m not very happy with what has happened since letting the insurance company take the MB for assessment.

It turns out that my MBP has been completely disassembled by the assessor. The “assessor” is a dodgy looking little fridge repair shop in Parow. I lodged the claim on Monday 8th and the macbook was collected by the “assessor” on Wednesday. By Friday 12th I still hadn't heard a word about the damage. I told the insurance company that I wanted my laptop back because I needed to get some data off the drive somehow. I was told by the call center agent that I cant get my laptop back until they are finished assessing it, and that it was currently completely disassembled at the fridge repair shop.

I have a few questions which I would appreciate your thoughts on. I’m pretty annoyed about all of this but maybe its just me being difficult.

1. Its an insurance assessment. Why has it been disassembled? What is the role of an insurance assessor? When you have a car accident, does the assessor disassemble the car to determine the damage? I know its not the same, but surely damage can be assessed by a process of elimination? All it requires is some basic logic. I'm thinking its a bit weird that the MBP had to be completely disassembled to determine the problem. Or is this perfectly normal? I hadn't authorized any repairs or any work to be done on my laptop and nobody told me that my laptop would disassembled. Am I right to be thinking that I should have been told what to expect by handing my laptop over for an insurance claim?

2. Whats the point of disassembling it? Its either a HDD error or its the logic board. Surely its a case of simply testing the HDD and if it passes then its a board, then simply estimate the repair assessment for replacing the board. Or is this over simplifying things? A hard drive error can be fixed easily (I think) by simply replacing the hard drive? I don’t have an SSD in that MBP so its a simple fix if its just the drive. Fact is that its not the drive because the drive was tested and its fine.

3. What warranty do I get if the board is replaced and who covers the warranty?

4. When I've submitted a claim, does the item become the property of the insurance company in that they can dictate what happens to my property? Their attitude was that I must just suck up whatever they say. I have no say in when I get my laptop back. Right now, who does that laptop belong to?

4a. What are my rights in getting my laptop back if I decide I don't want to claim and I'll handle the repair myself?

5. Is this dude from the fridge repair shop qualified to disassemble a MBP? I can replace a PC motherboard no problem, but I would never start poking around in my mac. Apple makes it so its not meant to be poked around with, so i’m pretty sure if you have no experience in working with a mac you’re going to damage something else.
5a. What happens if my MB returns to me further damaged than it was to start with because an unqualified person messes up something else? I'm not saying the guy is not qualified... but I don't know if he is qualified.

I’m expecting this story to turn out not so good for me.

Thanks for any help on this. Much appreciated.

 

[bwana]

I'm curious as to why loadshedding would be the culprit?

 

[xrapidx]

I'm curious as to why loadshedding would be the culprit?

Power surge when the power came back on?

 

[bwana]

Power surge when the power came back on?

Which the brick should have handled. I mean they're designed to be used all over the globe.

 

[MyLowBandwidth]

Correction: I'm not saying it was caused by load shedding, I'm saying this is what happened after load shedding. I returned home at about 8pm and found a MBP with a grey screen. To clarify, I was working on my laptop during load shedding but returned to a grey screen.

I'm not an electrician and I don't work for Eskom. I have no idea what happens after power is restored.

 

[bwana]

Correction: I'm not saying it was caused by load shedding, I'm saying this is what happened after load shedding. I returned home at about 8pm and found a MBP with a grey screen. To clarify, I was working on my laptop during load shedding but returned to a grey screen.

I'm not an electrician and I don't work for Eskom. I have no idea what happens after power is restored.

Did you try resetting the SMC/PRAM?

 

[MyLowBandwidth]

Someone I spoke t said it might be due to my power supply not being earthed. I use the two-prong adapter in my brick, not the normal plug.

 

[MyLowBandwidth]

Did you try resetting the SMC/PRAM?

Everyone tried that. Also tried to reset the power management system. Nothing worked. Can't boot into recovery, safe mode or even from OSX on an SD card.

 

[Wasabee!]

Someone I spoke t said it might be due to my power supply not being earthed. I use the two-prong adapter in my brick, not the normal plug.

Those power supplies don't need to be earthed.

 

[maumau]

Which the brick should have handled. I mean they're designed to be used all over the globe.

Are Macs able to withstand power surges better than other appliances?

 

[Magnum]

All electronics are made in China. So no

 

[itareanlnotani]

I completely agree with you, only qualified people should disassemble stuff. That would only include Apple Certified people (Core or iStore I guess)

Now its been disassembled by some hack, its likely that your warranty is now no longer valid (assuming you bought AppleCare or iCare). If its not working, an insurance claim does not need to disassemble your laptop.

I'd go get your hdd back, and raise a huge stink.
At the least you should be reimbursed a new laptop.

Insurance will usually keep the faulty laptop. These will get sold at off cheap to repair people who'll then fix, and resell.
I've bought a few like that and repaired them myself (usually water damage or broken screens).
Only really worthwhile for Mac's - other laptops are work nothing s/hand.

 

[tRoN]

Correction: I'm not saying it was caused by load shedding, I'm saying this is what happened after load shedding. I returned home at about 8pm and found a MBP with a grey screen. To clarify, I was working on my laptop during load shedding but returned to a grey screen.

I'm not an electrician and I don't work for Eskom. I have no idea what happens after power is restored.

Serves you right!...

I think the MacBook problem had nothing to do with the load shedding and you are being opportunistic to get a free out of warranty repair done by lodging a fraudulent claim.

 

[nexxus]

Are Macs able to withstand power surges better than other appliances?

Probably no more than any other laptop but one of the functions of those hella expensive power supplies is prevent surges from getting all the way to the laptop.

It's getting a transformed (and presumably clean) DC power input and there circuitry in there that's supposed to deal with irregular power peaks and troughs. It should be able to handle the typical surge from the grid going up and down and even deal with brownouts (where the voltage is too low).

As concerns the assessor, not sure why your insurance would send it to a dodgy fridge repair guy, if not Core then I'd have expected Digicape, iFix or one of those Mac repair places. I assume they just sent you to some PC technician that they use without even checking....or maybe I'm misjudging and he just happens to be a certified Mac technician as well as an expert Fridge guy.

Based on what I went through, Digicape & iFix will probably tell you they aren't able to get the logic board for a device that old from their supplier anymore.

If they do send you to Core to repair it, there's a standard 3mo warrantee on the part. Also, be sure to phone ahead (or go online) and book a slot (absolutely ludicrous, I know), if they're busy, the service dept. won't see you without an appointment.

 

[nexxus]

Serves you right!...

I think the MacBook problem had nothing to do with the load shedding and you are being opportunistic to get a free out of warranty repair done by lodging a fraudulent claim.

Well, now he can say that an uncertified assessor voided the warrantee and hold the insurance liable for the replacement.

To be honest, a new logic board from Core is going to be close to R10k, I wish I'd thought to indulge in a bit of insurance fraud when mine went.

 

[MyLowBandwidth]

Serves you right!...

I think the MacBook problem had nothing to do with the load shedding and you are being opportunistic to get a free out of warranty repair done by lodging a fraudulent claim.

You're entitled to think whatever you want. I'll humour your controversial nature though.
Lets consider the alternative. Lets say I decided to let Core repair my laptop at huge expense to myself. I get a new logic board and all is well again. Chances are that I post this same story but with the added twist that I paid for everthing myself, which at this point is still very likely. In fact I have just made an offer on a second hand late 2011 MBP via gumtree so that I can just slot my drive into it and get on with life.

My guess is that you, being a controversial attention seeking individual, would then call me stupid for not lodging an insurance claim.

Sorry, you're just terribly transparent and judging by your other posts, you're a particularly nasty piece of work.

And that's about the only time I will spend on commenting on anything you say, ever again.

 

[tRoN]

You're entitled to think whatever you want. I'll humour your controversial nature though.
Lets consider the alternative. Lets say I decided to let Core repair my laptop at huge expense to myself. I get a new logic board and all is well again. Chances are that I post this same story but with the added twist that I paid for everthing myself, which at this point is still very likely. In fact I have just made an offer on a second hand late 2011 MBP via gumtree so that I can just slot my drive into it and get on with life.

My guess is that you, being a controversial attention seeking individual, would then call me stupid for not lodging an insurance claim.

Sorry, you're just terribly transparent and judging by your other posts, you're a particularly nasty piece of work.

And that's about the only time I will spend on commenting on anything you say, ever again.

I was merely stating what everyone else was thinking.
I admit I say things like it is and if some people are offended then I don't give a fig!

 

[SauRoNZA]

Yeah unlikely that it would have been becuase of load shedding as was said with the power brick in the middle.

Also a grey screen isn't necessarily an indication of anything and possible easily fixed.

But all of the above being said I would have just taken it to Dennis at Repair com in Paarden Eiland. I don't think he's ever replaced a logic board unlike every official shop who don't know what they are doing short of swopping components at great cost.

 

[MyLowBandwidth]

I was merely stating what everyone else was thinking.
I admit I say things like it is and if some people are offended then I don't give a fig!

Your opinion is formed by your religious belief (being muslim) and has nothing to do with technology or my problem.
I'm an atheist and and I don't give a crap about your opinions. Technical, religious, ethics or anything else.

 

[MyLowBandwidth]

Yeah unlikely that it would have been becuase of load shedding as was said with the power brick in the middle.

Also a grey screen isn't necessarily an indication of anything and possible easily fixed.

But all of the above being said I would have just taken it to Dennis at Repair com in Paarden Eiland. I don't think he's ever replaced a logic board unlike every official shop who don't know what they are doing short of swopping components at great cost.

There are no official shops. iStore / Core is just a premium reseller. Their store staff are not certified mac technicians, but they did try to help me with the basics, which I appreciated.

The Mac power supply is supposed to offer surge protection. I'm not using an official mac power supply since my original power supply has long since suffered from that cable fraying common problem which happens with most MagSafe power supplies. My power supply was bought from Takealot: http://www.takealot.com/tangled-macbook-charger-60w-magsafe-2/PLID34154225 something like that.

Its described as a "high quality generic"