Gallivant!

In spite of what I have heard about Apple customer service/repairs in Europe, my recent experience was great. I had been experiencing intermittent lockups for around a year (sudden graphics freeze even with light load, necessitating a hard reboot) and in the past month or so my trackpad seemed to be less sensitive to physical clicks. I delayed addressing the problems due to the stories I had read about European Apple support. But, because my Applecare expires soon, I decided to finally get it looked at.

First I called the American Applecare phone support. The agent was understanding, but ultimately he claimed to have no ability to help me overseas. He said to ship it in I’d have to send it to my parents or somebody in the US first. This wasn’t really acceptable for me because it would take a lot of time and cost a lot of money to ship and insure it. He did say that the Apple Store here might help me, though curiously he did not make any guarantees that they would be willing. He tried but was unable to search for stores here, though I found one with no problem on Google.

I made an appointment for 9AM on a Saturday at the Apple Store in Dijon (La Toison d’Or location). The repair guys spoke sufficient English to understand my problems. They made me leave it but they let me take my SSD (they didn’t want it because it was aftermarket). A little after 5PM on Monday they called to let me know it was ready. We made an appointment and drove there immediately to pick it up just before closing, which is 7PM in France. They apparently replaced the trackpad and, though they didn’t replicate my problem, replaced the logic board for good measure (logic board would have been my guess as well). This took less than two business days and I’ve gone over a week now with no crashes. This is undoubtedly anecdotal, but it’s been a more successful repair than most of my past experiences with Apple Stores in the US. I’m really not sure why the Applecare representative didn’t just tell me to go to the store in the first place.