bethinpdx

Q: "Depot" repair?

Can someone please explain to me what "depot" is? Is "depot" a third party repair center? I was wondering why the Genius Bar folks call it that? Is it just as reliable as an in store repair?

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9.1)

Posted on Feb 27, 2016 4:47 PM

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Q: "Depot" repair?

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  • by leroydouglas,

    leroydouglas leroydouglas Feb 27, 2016 6:49 PM in response to bethinpdx
    Level 7 (23,967 points)
    Notebooks
    Feb 27, 2016 6:49 PM in response to bethinpdx

    wrote:

    Can someone please explain to me what "depot" is? Is "depot" a third party repair center? I was wondering why the Genius Bar folks call it that? Is it just as reliable as an in store repair?

    No, it is Apple but not in house repair.  It has to be sent out to their central repair facility (depot.)

     

    A tiered repair service, so for one flat rate all things wrong or fixed.

     

    Turn around time is 2 to 3 weeks generally.

     

    Just as reliable—yes.

     

    Typically a good deal if you are out of warranty.

  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder Feb 27, 2016 7:16 PM in response to leroydouglas
    Level 9 (61,297 points)
    Desktops
    Feb 27, 2016 7:16 PM in response to leroydouglas

    In the US, they pack up your Mac and send it to a regional center (depot). For one flat price, they address all the issues you have on your "laundry list" of problems (written on the repair order), doing whatever it takes to make it right. (Repair or Replace at their option).

     

    I have always been quoted about one week, with actual results closer to just over a week the several times I have used it. Repair itself took less, but with Transit time it was gone slightly longer.

     

    I have never had any problems with depot repair -- they always completely fixed my complaints, and sometimes more.

     

    DO NOT send your Mac in with wacky non-Apple modifications such as an SSD in the DVD slot. They will send it back to you un-repaired, AND they will yell at you.

     

    Repairs are good quality, comes with a 90 day Apple warranty on the repair work, and it is often less (sometimes half as much) than the price of an In-Store repair. But it takes a little over a week (or if leroydouglas results are more typical than mine, maybe longer).

     

    This is not a service for dents and scratches, but only for serious functional problems. Nonetheless, I cannot get over the resemblance to "reconditioning" as used in the auto industry.

  • by ritchea,

    ritchea ritchea May 7, 2016 6:36 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Notebooks
    May 7, 2016 6:36 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

    Thank you for the info (as well as the info you gave regarding no boot issues July 6, 2011). It seems I have the defective Radeon HD 6970M video card issue on my 27" iMac which is 14.5 weeks outside of the 4 year "Suit settlement" on free repair

    (and a year and 14.5 weeks after Apple care expired) so am looking at Depot repair as my only option.

    You mentioned that wonky non-Apple additions prompt the standard "hands-off" policy. We added non-Apple ram after our purchase.

    Should we remove this extra ram before taking the computer to the genius bar?

    I appreciate your help.

     

     

     

     

  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder May 7, 2016 8:05 AM in response to ritchea
    Level 9 (61,297 points)
    Desktops
    May 7, 2016 8:05 AM in response to ritchea

    Non-Apple RAM should not present a problem on a Mac whose slots are accessible to mere mortals. Many models consider RAM user-upgradable.

     

    On a Mac whose RAM slots require removing the glass or loosening tri-lobe security screws, better to put back the original RAM.

     

    There is an occasional (but rare) story about a Mac that went in for service with lots of RAM, only to return with one genuine Apple DIMM. Making the case for what was in the slots originally was very difficult.

     

    Also, there are more stories where the Drive went out with lots of files on it, and returned blank, or was replaced with a new drive, with a fresh Install of Mac OS X.  Apple warns you this is possible -- try not to send it in unless/until you have a Trusted backup, and if privacy is a concern, you may want to erase your files.

  • by ritchea,

    ritchea ritchea May 7, 2016 9:04 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Notebooks
    May 7, 2016 9:04 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

    Your response is greatly appreciated--especially as I picked up on this info in a macbook thread --and you didn't chastise me for that (yet). The machine is a 2011/2012 iMac so the ram is considered user-replaceable. If we find the original ram, we will place it back inside the machine. Thanks, again for your help.

     

    And yes, re the hard drive. It took a while, but we used an old imac to access the HD on newer one then backed up everything to a an external drive.

  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder May 7, 2016 9:16 AM in response to ritchea
    Level 9 (61,297 points)
    Desktops
    May 7, 2016 9:16 AM in response to ritchea

    Last time I was at my local store I probed about depot repair. Why was it so much less?

     

    The genius said the reason they can do it for less in the depot was that they had everything available for specialized large-scale repairs of the current products, including tested parts, appropriate instruments, test Macs where parts could be quickly substituted back-and-forth for testing, and technicians with deeper expertise on specific products.

     

    He said their goal was to send more than half their repairs (especially the most complicated ones) to the experts at the depot. (that may vary by store).

     

    It also reduces the total dollar-cost of parts (when caches of parts are on the shelf at the depot instead of seventeen stores) and can provide better overall service for Apple customers who need major repairs.

  • by ritchea,

    ritchea ritchea May 7, 2016 12:55 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Notebooks
    May 7, 2016 12:55 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

    That makes sense.  I'd never heard of Depot repair until scouring web to troubleshoot current issue.  We still have a pre-Intel iMac that works while an early Intel just died. The ones (4 or 5) we've purchased since then haven't made the cut,  IMHO. We've had two negative experiences with "genius bar" while under Apple care and the out of Apple care warranty iMac this one replaced had a defective power cable inside that we didn't feel we could afford to repair.  This one was a major purchase with i7 processor.  It's worth putting $500. USD into it but no more so I hope we can do the repair/shipping and whatever for near that limit.   I swapped out the ram from our mac mini so now the iMac can go to repair a virgin mac--best to avoid possible issues.

  • by odysseus,

    odysseus odysseus May 17, 2016 1:56 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder
    Level 3 (930 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 17, 2016 1:56 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

    Yes, the depot repair center is a regional repair center that services other brands as well. As for the quality of the repair, it's a bit of a crap shoot. I've had several different Mac laptops returned with physical damage over the past 15 years or so (dings, etc.). I imagine that this happens because the employees at the depot have to work very fast in assembly-line conditions. Recently, after I returned one because of the physical damage, they did replace the top case, but the day after its return it would no longer boot. I refused to have the local Apple Store return it to the depot again, and they gave me a new laptop.

     

    In any case, I don't know what the solution is. Local Apple Stores can perform repairs, but they frequently have to order the replacement part since they don't have a large parts stock, and so the delay is actually great than sending one's laptop to the depot.

  • by Morpheus ,

    Morpheus Morpheus Jun 24, 2016 9:22 PM in response to odysseus
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jun 24, 2016 9:22 PM in response to odysseus

    I own and independent mac repair facility and we actually utilize depot  and recommend it if doing so is a cheaper option then it would cost to buy the needed parts. Depot isnt Apple its a service provider worKing for Apple. In short it's as good a deal as you can find in some cases just document everything should you have and issue .

     

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