that canadian girl

I’m an Apple addict, there’s no denying it. Twenty years of using Macs and still going strong. And usually, I couldn’t be happier with what I buy and have rarely had any problems.

But on Tuesday, when you looked at me, all you could see was a sad Mac face, because my white MacBook was cracked where my right wrist sits on the top deck and clearly needed to be fixed. I read about others with the same problem, thinking my laptop was over a year old and no longer under warranty, I started to think of how expensive or lengthy the replacement process might get.

Thankfully, Andrew snapped me back into reality by saying our laptops still were under warranty. So I promptly called Apple Customer Care to arrange a repair under warranty. The first call didn’t sound too promising – I went through to an Indian (?) call centre where the quality of the phone line was so poor and crackly, I had to shout my MacBook’s serial number six times, with Andrew giggling increasingly with every “E for Echo, L for Lima!”

I ended up calling it quits and calling the Bluewater shopping centre’s Apple store directly to ask whether they’d have the part in stock if I came by on Saturday. No promises were made regarding stock, but by Thursday morning 9:01am, I had a Genius Bar appointment booked for this morning.

Showed up at the store before opening, spoke to a really nice guy who took my laptop in, saying it could be a few days, even up to 10 days, if they didn’t have the part in stock. Feeling slightly distressed and anxious, I left the store.

We shopped a little, we watched Yo Sushi chefs work like ants on preparing for lunchtime, and then we ate a few plates of sushi each. Still feeling bummed out about leaving my laptop behind, we popped by Virgin Megastore, thinking we might find a suitable movie for the evening. (Random trivia: I nearly bought Breakfast at Tiffany’s for a fiver, I’ve yet to see that movie, you know… Celia would kill me if she knew!)

While in the store, my phone rang, but I didn’t recognise the number and let it go to answerphone. Promptly checked the voicemail – while thinking I really need SpinVox voicemail-to-SMS – and nearly choked. It was the girl from Apple telling me my laptop was ready!! We nearly ran back to the store to get it, then went home feeling wholly satisfied with our day.

One morning is all it took for my MacBook to get sorted out! They not only replaced the plastic trim around the keyboard, but also replaced the entire keyboard and trackpad, as it comes out as one piece. Andrew reckons they’ve also changed the screen surround but I’m less convinced.

It cost us a morning’s trip to Bluewater, but would have been £142 out of warranty. You know what, I think I’m going to get extended warranty for it. My laptop’s far too important to be allowed to go wrong ever.

So thanks Bluewater Apple store, your speedy, quality work is appreciated!