Screen shot of email to Steve Jobs at Apple on Flickr

Darkstream says:

Good luck with that, Dave. I had iBook hard drive failure happen three times. Each time, Apple happily replaced my drive, but the information on the drive was in their hands. That really bothered me.

I suppose the I was safe because the drives were severely hosed and no amount of data reconstruction I tried could coax any data back from the dead. But if you are offering to buy the drive back I honestly don't see what the hang up is. They should just give it back to you.

Keep us posted.

@TheLaughingImp
Posted 19 months ago. ( permalink )

Dean Terry says:

Scary. Get the drive back!
Posted 19 months ago. ( permalink )

shanebee says:

The frustration. I was intent on purchasing a Macbook Pro a year or so ago and noted the fine print (which one does when you are married to a lawyer). I decided not to buy anything again from Apple until such draconian clauses are removed.

Go get 'em...
Posted 19 months ago. ( permalink )

tpauly says:

I was able to buy mine (my company's) back from the Apple Store in Soho a couple of years ago. I wouldn't leave the Genius Bar until I got it back; they eventually offered to sell it to me when I mentioned my company's legal department. Am I spelling "class-action suit" correctly?
Posted 19 months ago. ( permalink )

Brian Caldwell says:

I know where he lives if you want to wait for him in his driveway Dave ;-)
Posted 19 months ago. ( permalink )

Marc van der Chijs says:

Dave, what happened to me at the Apple Store in Shanghai is even worse. They tried to recover my data, but did not have another HD to put it on, so they copied it onto one of their store computers. Two weeks later I came back to the store and to my big surprise I found all my data still on that computer. Every customer had access to it! No apologies from Apple of course.
Posted 19 months ago. ( permalink )

Dileepa Prabhakar says:

So, they are selling the same drive twice? No wonder their profits are soaring!
You own the drive... how can they not give it back to you? This is just crazy!
Posted 19 months ago. ( permalink )

monkeyleader says:

Come on Dave wake up .. Apple arn't all they are cracked up to be - not matter what those dame "I'm a Mac / I'm a PC" adverts say ....
Posted 19 months ago. ( permalink )

leehinde says:

If you get your car serviced, they have to offer you the replaced parts... Shouldn't be different here.
Posted 19 months ago. ( permalink )

knewman says:

What is especially bad is that since it wasn't under warranty (I'm guessing, since you paid), you could have done this pretty easily at home, for less money, and kept the old drive. It seems that with Apple, after the warranty is over, there is little to gain by getting service from the Apple Store versus DIY or going to a third-party for repairs. I guess that's where it is similar to having your car serviced.
Posted 19 months ago. ( permalink )

camelot2302 says:

Steve responds! - fakesteve.blogspot.com/2008/01/now-back-to-ou r-regularly-...

Although I'm guessing it's not the response you were expecting!
Posted 19 months ago. ( permalink )

CLJahn says:

In most places, it is a requirement of law that your parts are returned to you after the repair. This serves two purposes: first, you know that they actually pulled out the old parts. Second, you can have the parts examined to ensure that they were not faulty or tampered with in some way.
So my gut instinct is that your repair shop is in violation of the law. Unless, of course, your state doesn't give a crap about consumer's rights, in which case you're hosed.
Posted 19 months ago. ( permalink )

rickroberts says:

I’m with Fake Steve on this one. If you don’t trust that Apple (or any repair shop) will properly wipe your old drive and/or not misuse or snoop, why did you let it out of your hands in the first place? You’re a frigtard.
Posted 19 months ago. ( permalink )

Focal Magic says:

So long as your drive was out of warranty, and you bought a second drive to be installed, you did not forfeit ownership of the first drive. It's not about trust, it's about ownership. You can't just take something from someone because you don't feel they need it anymore. And you certainly can't refurbish it and resell it.

Grab a cop and take him to the mall with you regarding a matter of theft of personal property.
Posted 19 months ago. ( permalink )

rickroberts says:

Then that is the question. Was the drive in or out of warranty?
Posted 19 months ago. ( permalink )

evernever says:

Afaik it is standard procedure with *any* electronics company, they will restore your product to its original state, but will *never* guarantee you that your data won't be lost. That's what backups are for. And seriously, if it's true that the drive needed *repair* then neither you could access it, or if they are able to refurbish it, the person who gets it afterwards. Seriously.
Posted 19 months ago. ( permalink )

mil8 says:

dugg!
Posted 19 months ago. ( permalink )

scriptingnews says:

Why did I let the disk out of my control?

Because it never occurred to me that I wouldn't get it back.

Why didn't I just grab it off the desk and run out of the store?

A couple of reasons.

1. It was a few days before Christmas and the store was packed.

2. They had big security guards standing near the front of the store.

3. When they called the police they would have never understood or believed that the disk was mine.

I don't believe that I had any option other than to do exactly what I did -- accept that they were keeping my disk, and then raise it as an issue, in public, not in their store where they have all the power.

BTW, it's not an issue of having a backup, I have the data well backed up (knock wood).
Posted 19 months ago. ( permalink )

scriptingnews says:

To the question of whether it was a warranty repair -- it was not.

I paid $166 for the new drive plus the labor it took to take the old one out and put the new one in (less than five minutes of the tech guy's time).
Posted 19 months ago. ( permalink )

asayib says:

ok.. IMHO they should have given it back to u but then.. A MacBook? That's the one with the super easy system with regards to harddrive replacement, right? I mean take out the battery and then slide the drive out or something like that.. You should have done it yourself :-) save you from grief like that :-) anyhoo good luck in getting it back.. Maybe FSJ can send you a fake hard drive ...
Posted 19 months ago. ( permalink )

kosso says:

So, are they saying that the all the components I have here stuffed in to MY MacBookPro here in my lap which I bought don't actually BELONG to me?

I didn't RENT this machine!!

BTW: did you also know that every time you boot up your Mac, it 'calls home'? Whether you use .Mac or not?

They're great machines and lovely engineering, but this kind of activity disgusts me.

Be ware the wolf in shiny sheep's clothing.

Hope you get your drive back.
Posted 19 months ago. ( permalink )

zxspectrum says:

so basically you wanted to remind us that you shared a stage with S.J somewhere around the time that "The Neverending Story" was showing at a theater near you...anyway, i am sure that it will be added to your Wikipedia page ASAP!

;)
Posted 19 months ago. ( permalink )

scriptingnews says:

Me and about 40 other software developers.
Posted 19 months ago. ( permalink )

zxspectrum says:

it was a joke...please forgive my clownish behavior:)

anyway, you should try dealing with APPLE in Copenhagen (DENMARK). it's a once in a lifetime experience...i guarantee it!

sure, APPLE are assholes #$%@ but seriously, what you gonna do? switch to an XPS-Notebook?

I DON'T THINK SO
Posted 19 months ago. ( permalink )

kevindick_pa says:

Dave. Did you sign a service order of any kind? If not, I don't see how you could have relinquished ownership of the original hard drive. If they refused to give it back to you, there may be an argument for petty theft here (see relevant CA penal code at caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cacodes/pen/484-502.9. html).

If I were you, I'd go back and ask to speak to the manager. Threaten to swear out a petty theft complaint and follow through on it if you don't get satisfaction.
Posted 19 months ago. ( permalink )

scriptingnews says:

Here's the terms and conditions.

www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=2128564283& size=o&am...

I signed the other side of this, after the repair was done, before they told me I couldn't have my drive back.
Posted 19 months ago. ( permalink )

kevindick_pa says:

My reading of Section 4 of the T&C is that the term "exchanged under repair service" refers to the case of "repairing your product under your product's warranty or extended service contract". Because this isn't the case, they should return the part to you. IMHO, it's pretty clear that you didn't "exchange" anything if you paid full retail price for the drive and the parallel use of "under" as opposed to "outside" makes that the controlling circumstance for when they keep the parts. But it's a little ambiguous.

You might try explaining the situation to the store manager, including your interpretation of the T&C. You might also tell him what your next steps will be if he doesn't see things your way.

First, I would contact the Bureau of Electronic & Appliance Repair (http://www.bear.ca.gov) and file a complaint. The Apple Store should be registered as a service dealer. If it's note properly registered, then that may be a significant issue for them that you can leverage. The fact that they didn't provide you with the T&C beforehand seems to violate Section 2722. They may also be in violation of Section 2765 covering the return of replaced parts depending on exactly how both the T&C and the sequence of events are interpreted.

Second, if you really want to go to the mat on this, I would contact an attorney familiar with CA consumer protection law.
Posted 19 months ago. ( permalink )

scriptingnews says:

Thanks for the legal advice. I really hope they let me have my drive back without having to go through all that. But I agree that it's time to modernize the laws in this area. That it's been overlooked so far is pretty amazing and alarming.
Posted 19 months ago. ( permalink )

kevindick_pa says:

Not actually legal advice. I'm no lawyer. Just a fellow geek who thinks you got shafted and knows from experience that CA has a lot of pro-consumer regulations.

I really think a polite conversation with the manager will resolve this. Make it clear you'll escalate as far as possible because it's a security issue to you. If the drive is still in the store, you'll probably get it back. But it could already have been put "in the system". Then you may be hosed

Personally, I would have asked for the manager immediately once the tech refused to return the drive, but that's water under the bridge.
Posted 19 months ago. ( permalink )

jasonp4571 says:

@ kosso: did you know that every time you enter your bank password, it is automatically sent to Steve Jobs' iPhone?

@ Marc van der Chijs: Did you know that there is NOT actually an Apple Store in Shanghai?

@ scriptingnews: Did you know that, especially as a 20+ year software developer and wise, old man, you should never hand over a hard drive full of your personal data? That maybe you should wipe the drive first?
Posted 19 months ago. ( permalink )

j.holtslander says:

So... What happened with this matter? What was the final outcome?
Posted 16 months ago. ( permalink )

scriptingnews says:

They gave me my drive back.
Posted 16 months ago. ( permalink )

swati.patel22 says:

Posted 6 months ago. ( permalink )

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Screen shot of email to Steve Jobs at Apple

Comments

Darkstream says:

Dean Terry says:

shanebee says:

tpauly says:

Brian Caldwell says:

Marc van der Chijs says:

Dileepa Prabhakar says:

monkeyleader says:

leehinde says:

knewman says:

camelot2302 says:

CLJahn says:

rickroberts says:

Focal Magic says:

rickroberts says:

evernever says:

mil8 says:

scriptingnews says:

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asayib says:

kosso says:

zxspectrum says:

scriptingnews says:

zxspectrum says:

kevindick_pa says:

scriptingnews says:

kevindick_pa says:

scriptingnews says:

kevindick_pa says:

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