apple just rocked my world

so:

last november, the logic board on my g4 powerbook went bad. a symptom, and the one i experienced, is that the lower memory slot went bad. suddenly, through no fault of my own, i was running at half the memory i had. this is obviously a bad thing.

i called apple. the man on the phone told me that the repair would be at least 1200 dollars because i didnt have applecare. i didn't know better at the time and blah blah. local repair shops said they could do it for around 500.

there is a petition online about this very problem with these laptops. its a known issue, but apple has only instituted a recall for a small portion of the models effected by this hardware failure. i didnt use the machine much through the winter as a result, being unwilling to drop even 500 on a repair just to use memory that should have been available to me.

finally, a couple of weeks ago, i decided to email apple — both complaining about the lack of recall and to see if there was anything that could be done in terms of a cheaper repair. i went with the old 'letter writing' business, emailing steve jobs and several california bbb-types in the hopes of catching someone's eye. (I used this letter as a jumping off point. seems to have done the job.)

the very next day, i got a call from diana from apple to help me with the problem. it turns out that apple offers 'out of warranty' repairs. these are repairs to things that break that aren't your fault. seems a logic board repair runs at about 347 dollars (total, including tax) if it is out of warranty and the damage isn't your fault.

i hopped on it. obviously, not as great as free, but way better than 1200.

diana transferred me, i gave out some info — like an account/password to use on the machine and apple overnighted (with dhl) a box to ship my laptop to texas. i spent the better part of sunday cleaning up the drive and tossed it in the box on monday.

here is where things get gross, all because of dhl. roxy takes the box to work so they can pick it up there. i call and request it be picked up by 4. it isn't. (this after they tell me where they are going, based on the street address.) i call tues morning and schedule it again, taking care to say 'call me at this number if there are any complications.' no call. also, no pick up. i make roxy bring it home. i am on the phone with someone local who is no help — he refuses to pick the package up on tues, even though it is 4.40pm. he tells me the 'plane won't wait' and that it will have to be picked up tomorrow. by 4. i give in, grudgingly, and tell them to pick it up at my apartment. at 3.30, i watch a dhl van pull in across the street but never come to the apartment. i call them, find out they have labeled my apartment as roxy's work and that they swear a pickup by 4. at 4.03, there is a knock on the door. finally.

that was wednesday. by thurday morning, it is in texas. by 11am my time, the repair is marked as completed. this morning, when i check, i have a shipping number and find out it was shipped yesterday. i should have the machine back by noon, less that 44 hours total.

though yes, im out 350 bucks, i must say that apple's service was amazing.

and i did ask — if they institute a recall, i'll get refunded.

update: computer is back in my hands. man, i love this 15″. anyway. they replaced the logic board and said a strip of memory i had in it was causing kernel panics, so off it goes back to crucial. sucks that it will be another couple of weeks before it is all resolved, but still. there is light at the end of the tunnel.