Before you make an appointment for the Genius Bar, drive to the mall, find a parking spot, and then lug your Mac through the Annapolis Mall to get to the Apple Store, please consider supporting your local neighborhood Mac shop!

Need more convincing? Take a look at these comments that were sent to Apple from clients who we performed Apple Warranty or AppleCare service for recently:

The service was the best I have ever had on any product. Thanks!

I could not be more happy with the combined service of Apple and Mac Medics. Mac Medics had it couriered to their location and I had it back on Tuesday after the Holiday. I mean serious who works this fast? While the rest of the country enjoyed their 3-day weekend somebody was working on my problem. My satisfaction is off of the charts and I have told many peers and coworkers this amazing story. Thanks again!!!!

Stop! Before You Make A Trip To The Annapolis Apple Store, See This Checklist First

Visit MacMedics in Millersville (near BWI airport) or Lanham, Maryland (near RT 50 & I-495) the next time you need Mac sales or service.

See our Blog post with all the details on why to come see MacMedics instead of trekking to the Apple Store. Clients that come to see us, often tell us they will never go back to the Apple Store for Macintosh sales OR service!

Or review this quick top 11 reasons here:

1. No appointment is needed: No need to call ahead when you’re ready to come visit MacMedics! Just walk in and our Apple Certified Techs will take great care of you.

MacMedics Frequently Asked Macintosh Service Questions

What is the cost for upgrading an iMac hard drive through an Apple Authorized Service Provider?

In most cases if your current drive is healthy enough for a large data transfer, and your data is backed up, MacMedics can perform this popular service for $150 plus the cost of a hard drive. A new “top-quality” 1 Terabyte hard drive can be provided with a full three-year manufactures warranty for about $130 making the total procedure with a new 7200 RMP hard drive about $280. MacMedics offers a full 1-year “no-hassle” parts and labor warranty on hard drives that are purchased and installed by us.

Also, if your iMac is still covered by AppleCare, installing a new third party hard drive won’t void your warranty (if performed by MacMedics). Your extended warranty will still be in effect, but will NOT cover the new non-Apple hard drive.

Another scenario that comes up quite often at MacMedics is where an iMac that is under warranty and it’s hard drive has failed. We can still replace your hard drive under warranty AND also offer a new larger, faster third party hard drive. We just charge you for the hard drive upgrade, and the replacement hard drive supplied by Apple is given to you to keep.

Your old hard drive will be placed in a static bag and returned to you (if out of warranty). The old hard drive can serve as a rudimentary “snapshot in time” back up that can be given to friends or a family member to serve as an “off-site back up”.

Obviously if your current hard drive is sick, or your data is in jeopardy, labor costs can be higher. For situations where your data is NOT backed up and the health and security of the data is unknown, MacMedics can remove your hard drive without testing the machine, and perform our Tier-1 data recovery where we make a cold clone of your drive (if possible). Data recovery can be tricky and each case is different, so it’s not always possible to spell out all of the details and possibilities in advance. If the $99 data recovery fee is successful we will copy that data without further inspection or review to any computer or external hard drive if you’re NOT having your computer repaired. See our data recovery “Frequently Asked Questions” at this link for more details.

Don’t forget that if your iMac hard drive (or other Mac desktop) is more than three-years old, then MacMedics recommends a proactive hard drive retirement. See our website http://www.HardDrivesDie.com for more info.

Not near a MacMedics office? We do accept mail-in repairs! Just put your iMac in it’s original shipping box, and either send it via the carrier of your choice, or call/e-mail us and we’ll arrange to send you a pre-paid shipping label.

The Apple Store does not perform hard drive upgrades, they also can’t rescue data that may be at risk. Folks from all over the world send us their Macs need repairs. If your local Apple Authorized service options are limited, let us help you out. Just fill out this form, and send your iMac in!

Don’t take our word for it. Here’s three recent comments from clients MacMedics has performed Apple warranty repairs for:

1. As always the people at Mac Medics were right on point and offered the best quality service. I have never been disappointed with any visit to them and would highly recommend them to anyone who needed service.

2. They went beyond just repairing the problem. They made recommendations and then provided solutions as to how I might prevent the possible consequences of the problem in the future. I am highly satisfied with every aspect of their service.

3. This MacMedics location is unbelievable….repaired in under 24 hours. Called me to come pickup and explained all repairs and warranty issues.They are definitely the hardest working group in your network. I can’t say enough abut their professionalism and attention to detail.

MacMedics is a 100% Apple Macintosh-only, award-winning consulting and service firm founded in the Annapolis area in 1989. As Apple Authorized Value Added Resellers and Apple Authorized Service Providers, MacMedics is able to provide full-spectrum Apple-centric and specialized consultation and service to wide array of industries, agencies, and organizations.

MacMedics offers their progressive style of on-site Mac service and repair to most of the Mid-Atlantic region via their three offices located in Baltimore, Washington DC, and Philadelphia, PA. MacMedics services all Macs, Macintosh servers, and Mac networks in professional, government, educational, and home environments.

Here’s ten reasons to come see the friendly folks at the MacMedics Mac Lab in Millersville or Lanham:

1. No appointments are necessary at MacMedics: Just walk in and our Apple Certified Techs will take great care of you.

2. No lines: We’re always busy, but there’s almost never a wait to speak to a MacMedic Tech.

3. Quick Check In: Tell us what your Mac’s issue or problem is, and we’ll get right on the case! We’ll call you to talk in detail when we have an idea of what’s going on with your unit and what ALL of your options are. MacMedics offers an initial Macintosh Dialogistic for your computer at no charge. If we have to dig deep with part testing or advanced software testing our fee is only $49, and only if you choose NOT to have your machine repaired.

4. No lugging your iMac, Mac Pro, or G5 through the mall: Our front door is less then 10 steps from our parking lot. You can bring your Mac in, or come in and get us, and we’ll carry it in for you.

5. Quick Turn-Around: Our goal for in-lab service it to have it done in less then 72 hours. Many repairs take less time, and if that’s the case then your Mac will be back to you even quicker.

6. Hassle free warranty: Got a Mac that needs out of warranty service? The Apple Store only offers a 90-day service warranty. MacMedics “Hassle Free” warranty is a full 1-year!

7. Need a new Mac? We’ve got them: Come pick out what you want, and we’ll be happy to help with no sales hype! MacMedics is an Apple Authorized Value Added Reseller, so you can get the equipment you need coupled with the very best advice from the experts at MacMedics.

8. Full Service for iPhone & iPods: While the Apple store might do a whole unit replacement or offer a small discount for buying a new unit, MacMedics will fix just the problem your iPhone or iPod has, thus saving you money. All iPhone and iPod repairs MacMedics perform come with a full one-year parts and labor warranty.

9. Same day service for iPods & iPhones: In most cases if you drop off your iPod or iPhone in the morning, we’ll have it done later that same day!

10. Advanced, complex, or difficult repairs are performed at MacMedics every day: If you’ve been quoted an exorbitant amount of money to have your Mac fixed at the Apple Store, MacMedics can help! Liquid damage, fried logic boards, SuperDrive replacements, broken LCDs or MacBook Pro glass, and severe Macintosh case damage are all offered at MacMedics and often for hundreds of dollars less then Apple (or anywhere else!).

It pays to get a second opinion from MacMedics when you’ve been quoted an expensive Macintosh repair elsewhere. Repair costs on all modern Apple products are up, as more and more technology has been crammed onto the logic board and other major parts.

Case in point, a nice lady brought in her G5 iMac to sell to us for parts. We had close 10 people in the lab when she came in, so we did not get much of a chance to talk to her. She had said she wanted to drop the unit not for repair, but for us to buy it for parts and that it had a bad logic board. We got a call from her a few days later to see what we had found out. When she rang in on the phone, I had a chance to get some more details from her. We talked about the leaking capacitor issue, and I wondered if that might be her issue. Turns out, that she had the unit looked at by another Apple Authorized Service Provider, who convinced her she needed a new machine. Sound familiar? She really could not tell me too much about the issue, so I told her I would look at the iMac personally and call her back later that day.

First thing I noticed was that the unit did not power on. It was stone dead. Not always a symptom of a logic board, so I’m thinking that trying a power supply might be wise. Sure enough, I put in one of our test iMac power supplies (we keep all types in stock for just this reason). The unit worked great and passed all Apple Service Diagnostics.

So this story has a happy ending. MacMedics was able to bring a sick unit back to life for about a quarter of the cost of a new logic board. Client was happy to save some serious money and keep the unit for a few more years. The other cool thing about having your Mac serviced here at MacMedics is we offer a full one year warranty on all repairs NOT covered by Apple’s warranty.

Many service places (some Apple Authorized and some not) often take the worse case scenario approach and start thinking about the worse possible problem. Here at MacMedics we take a “bottom up” service approach, where we look for all the small things first, and work our way up to the larger items. This is why folks have been coming back to MacMedics for over 20 years. We are fanatical about providing the very best Mac service and support. We are also absolutely thinking ultimate precision when we take your unit apart and then put it back together. Apple computers are made to have very tight cases and close fitting precision parts.

We’ve blogged about this before. Read some of our posts on Macintosh service quality.

Nobody likes to see a broken Macintosh laptop LCD, especially us. We love Macs, so we don’t like to see them hurt and broken after a bad drop or other unfortunate incident. Replacing the MacBook LCD can be an expensive repair when you seek help from Apple. When having your MacBook serviced by the Apple Store or Apple Depot service, they will require you to also fix any other case damage that may also be damaged due to the incident that broke the screen in the first place. Also, if your unit suffered some past minor liquid damage that did not end up causing any problems with the unit, but let a trace, Apple will also require you have that repaired as well. Another factor is that when working with Apple Service, you cannot “exchange” a physically “broken” or “cracked” LCD panel. If you choose to have the repair handled by Apple you will have to purchase the LCD service part outright, which means that there is no “credit” given for the “defective” part.

MacMedics offers a flat-rate discounted LCD replacement service for the Black and White MacBook screens for $349. We’ll replace your broken or non-working) MacBook LCD with an OEM part, and return it to you as quickly as possible. If your MacBook has case issues or other problems associated with the broken LCD we’ll work with you to find the best solution for fixing those issues as well. Best of all if our replacement LCD screen has a problem it’s covered by our MacMedics full one-year warranty. (Fine print: we won’t replace the LCD if it’s been broken a 2nd time, so let’s be careful out there!)

Lots of companies are now jumping on the Mac service band wagon. When you have a major Mac service service need like an LCD or logic board, please consider that MacMedics is the regional leader in the Baltimore-Washington area for Apple Macintosh sales and service. We pioneered on-site Macintosh service, and our in-lab service is also highly regarded and award winning. Macintosh computers are highly engineered and as such they often have very small parts, various sized screws, and very tight fittings cases. All three of these things frequently trip up firms that are NOT specialized in Mac service. (see our blog post about how a big box store fried a perfectly good working iBook) We frequently see computers after they have already been someplace else and NOT properly serviced. MacMedics is an Apple Authorized Service Provider and we’ve been fixing only Macs for over 20 years. So, before you ship your beloved laptop (or desktop) to places unknown, consider sending it to MacMedics. Also, all non-warranty Apple repairs are covered by our no hassle 1-year MacMedics warranty. If it fails, we fix it free.

Most MacBook LCD repairs are completed within 24-hours, which is impossible to accomplish if you send your MacBook to the West Coast for service. Also, be sure to read our Blog post about a MacBook that we worked on recently that had been to a mail-in depot repair center.

Ship your unit into us, or drop it off and for a limited time we’ll send it back to you via Fedex standard air shipping free of charge.

Add a 7200 RPM 500 GB hard drive to any MacBook or MacBook Pro LCD replacement service for just $159 which includes a bit by bit clone copy of your data. When you get your unit back, your data will be in just the same place you left it. Also, your old drive is yours, so we’ll return that as part of the service, or we can make it into a portable back up drive for $40.

MacMedics is now also offering Apple iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G S service and repair in our Millersville, Maryland office. Got a cracked screen or LCD?? Don’t pay Apple $199 to get it fixed! Come see us and we’ll take care of your iPhone 3G for $89.95 or your iPhone 3G S for $99.95. Most repairs are completed SAME-DAY, and best of all, NO LINES here at MacMedics.

MacMedics is an Apple Authorized Value Added Reseller with offices in Baltimore Maryland, Washington DC, and Philadelphia Pennsylvania. When you’re ready for a new Mac system, please consider the following:

1. All new Macintosh equipment supplied by MacMedics is pre-tested and pre-configured for your needs.

2. If the Macintosh you want is not in stock at MacMedics, shipping on custom Mac orders is always free and fast!

3. If you have an older Macintosh computer that contains your data, we’ll transfer that data to your new computer for a flat fee of $99. We’ll also securely erase the data off your old hard drive, and responsibly recycle your old Mac and/or hard drive for free.

4. MacMedics is also an Apple Authorized Service Provider, so we’re able to service what we sell.

5. Consider all of the above, but also with no lines, no loud music, and no sales hype when you’re exploring your options to repair or replace your computer.

There are lots of choices when it comes to Macintosh sales, but we hope you’ll consider MacMedics when you’re ready to move up to a newer and faster Mac. If you have questions, please get in touch with your local MacMedics office.

Washington DC 1-888-4-DC-MACS
Baltimore 1-866-MAC-MEDICS
Philadelphia 1-877-626-MEDIC

The crew here at MacMedics are straight-talking, honest, Apple Certified Macintosh professionals who love helping our clients repair or service older Apple gear just as much as as we enjoy upgrading clients into a new Mac. Come take advantage of our 200 plus years of combined Macintosh experience, 45,000 on-site and in-lab service jobs, and over 20 years in business. You never need an appointment to visit, and it’s just 15 feet from your car to our front door.

MacMedics is an Apple Authorized Reseller in Maryland