Sending your MacBook or MacBook Pro off to one of the “Nationwide” Mac repair shops, might sound like a good idea.

Here’s a couple of things to consider.

Are their techs Apple Certified with many years of Mac hardware experience?

Are they advertising the “lowest price” on the Internet? If they are, they maybe going for the quantity vs. the quality business model. Since 1989 MacMedics has worked extremely hard to provide excellent workmanship, efficient service, and an accurate Macintosh service diagnosis.

Because of our promise of quality and workmanship, we’ll also reinstall all screws in their correct locations, and ensure that the Apple Macintosh case tolerances are as close to the original factory fit as humanly possible. (This holds true for Macintosh, iPhone, and iPhone repairs.)

Today, a Black MacBook came in for repair. It had previously been sent to a “mail-in” Internet Mac repair business. When we took the unit apart we were appalled to see that the unit had been improperly serviced elsewhere before.

In this MacBook’s case we were able to see five items right away that tipped us off.

1. Unabated liquid damage on top case near battery
2. Damaged temperature sensor cable for optical drive
3. Missing optical drive screw
4. Misplaced screw in optical drive (a large size screw forced into incorrect location)
5. Two missing top case screws.

See this picture large size here.

In this case the screw securing the optical drive was too large for the screw hole it was in. It was causing a pressure spot on the bottom case to burp out.

See this picture large size here.

Ripped temperature sensor for the optical drive. The temperature sensor is suppose to be attached to a cable and is meant to be in this plastic carriage.

See this picture large size here.

While this liquid damage is in a spot that might not cause an issue, it’s always a good idea to completely clean this corrosion out of a computer as it can break off and move to other parts of the computer.

The saddest part of this story is that the Black MacBook was coming into to MacMedics for “backlight” or “inverter” issues. This was due to the fact that the replacement LCD that had been installed elsewhere had failed and was no longer under warranty. This is another item to carefully consider. MacMedics offers a full one-year warranty on all of our Macintosh repairs. While other Internet based mac repair places come and go, MacMedics has been in business since 1989, so if your unit has issues in the future, we’ll be here to help (and to honor our warranty). Also, as Apple Authorized Service Providers, our shop floor has been inspected by Apple and exceeds their requirements for anti-static measures.

Getting An Accurate Macintosh Repair Diagnosis Is Important. You’ll Always Get One At MacMedics, And Never For More Than $99

Recently, a MacMedics client showed me an on-line review of another Apple Authorized Service Provider that shares the Metro area with one of the MacMedics offices. To keep things as fair as possible, I won’t name names or locations.

Here’s a copy of the review that was marked 1 out of 5 stars:

“Let me fill you in on my story. I’m a sophomore in college, and I own a MacBook Pro. One day the display just stops working. External displays don’t even work. So I bring it to an Apple store nearby. They tell me they can’t cover it under the warranty because of the “external damage” (really nothing more than a few scratches and a small bump or two). So, they want to charge me $1300 for repairs. I figured I’d just take it to an Authorized Service Provider, and have them fix only the parts that aren’t working. Little did I know that about a week later I’d get a call saying they couldn’t do anything for me and that they’d have to charge me $125 for “Diagnostics” when they can’t even tell me what’s wrong with the thing. Overall, if it’s a hardware problem, I’m not even sure if it would be worth trying to save the computer. You may as well just buy another one?”

Let me tell you why this type of situation never happens at MacMedics:

1. If you bring in a unit that is obviously beyond our help or obviously not worth a repair, we won’t try to entice you to check it in for a diagnostic if we don’t think it’s going to be worth fixing. In many cases, if you stop by with your sick Mac, we’ll be able to tell pretty quick if we think it’s worth fixing or even worth looking into. We’ll often plug a unit in to see what’s up with it while-you-wait if we have the open bench space when you stop by. We know that nobody wants to be without their computer, and in many cases if we find out your issue is a simple problem like a bad power adapter, bad battery, corrupt power manager, or a bad stick of RAM it can often be repaired right on the spot.

2. If we do have to open up your MacBook or MacBook Pro to look inside for trouble, and we deem that it needs a repair that is either too much for you, or just to expensive in general our fee for the diagnostic and surgery is only $99. That fee is only charged IF you decide NOT to fix your Mac laptop. Otherwise that $99 diagnostic fee is 100% applied to whatever repair is needed, if you choose to have one performed.

3. If you bring us a Macintosh computer for service, we will usually have an answer for you the same day and always within 24 hours of drop off at the most. Never a week or more as was the case in the review mentioned above.

4. If your unit is super sick (like it needs a $1200 repair) it may still have salvage value. A. We’ll help move you into a new Mac and transfer all of your data (if your data is healthy) for a flat fee of $99. B. If you unit has any value to us, we’ll offer a trade-in value for it. (That’s not something Apple does or anyone else we know of.)

5. If your MacBook laptop has suffered a liquid spill, we offer a $150 “estimate” service, which will get you an estimate on the total repair, and 1-way take apart on the laptop. We’ll remove the logic board, look under the hard drive and even try some basic cleaning and testing to see what is wrong with your MacBook. Unlike our $99 fee, the $150 liquid estimate is work we have to perform, so it’s really like the first leg of the repair, so any needed repairs and parts are in addition to the $150 estimate fee. See this MacMedics Blog post for more info.

6. Our in-lab techs will be honest with you. We will try to find the cause of your computer’s issue, and report back to you with ALL of your options. If we can repair your Mac cost effectively, we’ll go in that direction. If your repair is more than 50% the cost of replacing the unit, we’ll most likely recommend replacing it.

In some cases of a major hardware failure, MacMedics, might be able to move you into a pre-owned Mac. We often can move over your upgraded hard drive and/or RAM to try and maximize the value of what you have already paid for. We’re flexible, and we’ll do whatever we can do to help you get your Macintosh repair (or help you buy a new Apple computer) completed as cost effectively as possible.

We really do love what we do, and no matter what your situation is, we would LOVE to talk to you about your problem. Give us call, send us an e-mail, or just stop by either of two Apple Certified Mac Labs in Millersville or Lanham, Maryland.

So, you’re the manager for a rock bank on their summer tour and your MacBook’s LCD is sudden cracked. Sounds like you’ve got yourself a major problem as the going rate for such a repair is about $800, it could take a few days, and you’ve got to leave town in less then 24 hours for your next gig. Good thing your band was only as far away as Cordova (on Maryland’s Eastern Shore) from MacMedics’ Millersville H.Q.

A is for Avenue a Punk-Pop band happened to be in the area yesterday and thanks to the awesome word of mouth in the local Apple community, they found their way to MacMedics.

Turns out this particular MacBook (inside a backpack) on board the tour van got crunched. The LCD only had about two inches of readable screen that was viewable. So after making the arrangements for the next tour stop by way of moving windows around so they could see what they needed in the two inch section, they brought the unit into us.

Looks like the whole band stopped by to check us out while we checked in the MacBook for repair. They were leaving town the next morning, so we told them we would have it repaired and ready for them. Total turn around time about 2 hours.

Well, they are off to Connecticut for the next leg of their tour. Another happy customer! They tweeted about the repair on Twitter:

@BrianDollard “thank you @macmedics for hooking me up on tour, any mac problems check them out at macmedics.com”

Here is Brian’s review of our quick service on Yelp.com:

“While on tour with my band, the LCD screen on my MacBook was crushed while stowed in our van. We were only in Maryland for 48 hours, but Dana and his team showed some great hospitality by fixing the screen within a few hours, and saving me the $500 more the Apple store wanted to charge me. I am very grateful for their excellent customer service and will be sending them my machine if it has any future problems.”

If your MacBook (Polycarbonate) has a cracked or bad LCD, we’d love to help you out. Drop it off or ship it in, we’ll turn it around same day in most cases. See hour Blog post about our $349 flat rate repair. Got a major MacBook problem with multiple part failures (like a liquid spill or a bad case of a dropped MacBook)? MacMedics can help. We certainly can replace your sad MacBook or MacBook Pro (or PowerBook or iBook too!) with a brand new Apple laptop of your choice, and take your damaged unit as a trade-in. We also have done a few used MacBook whole unit replacements as well. We take your sick unit and remove it’s hard drive and pop it into a “newer” MacBook. Prices start out at about $650 with all labor and the trade-in of our sick unit. What’s the advantage? No labor, no wait, and 1-year MacMedics warranty on the whole unit.

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.