When Fruit Spoils

I've had an interesting ride with Apple. Working with them and their products is not quite as good and easy as the commercials would have you believe. I'm working on my 3rd replacement MacBook Pro.

I received my 2nd replacement in late March. Within two weeks I was calling Apple because the hard drive had 'unregistered' files on it that couldn't be found, but were consuming about 1/3 of the drive. Then, a few weeks later I met with the lead genius at the Apple Genius Bar because of recurring 'kernel panic attacks' (think blue screen of death... only it's black).

Even though the lead genius insisted the problem was my software, Apple eventually decided it was the logic board (Mac-speak for motherboard) and replaced the unit, which I've been using for a couple of weeks now and all is well.

AppleCare
I called today to transfer the extended warranty coverage (Protection Plan) to the new MacBook Pro. I was surprised they were charging me for having the old system for a couple of months while they figured out what was wrong with it! Here's what I learned:

• If you don't buy their Protection Plan, you get 90 days of free unlimited tech support plus one year warranty coverage.
• If you buy their Protection Plan, everything changes! Your warranty doesn't kick in until the Protection Plan runs out (2 years), then the warranty coverage begins-- but you get free unlimited tech support for all three years. That's why they only refund a portion of the Protection Plan even though the request is made within 90 days.

I found that confusing! Am I the only one?