I just spoke with an AppleCare customer service agent today who finally confirmed that I will be getting a replacement for my broken Time Capsule. Needless to say, I'm pretty happy about that. :)
Looking around the net, there seem to be a lot of different stories from people about having their dead TCs replaced. Some seem to not have that much trouble, while others just give up eventually and have their units fixed by an unauthorized service provider. My advice is to get in touch with a customer service agent. If you don't have AppleCare and your Time Capsule is out of warranty, ask the reseller where you got the Time Capsule from who you can get in touch to get a replacement request. The reseller I bought my Time Capsule from was pretty helpful. Apart from me calling up Apple's customer service, one of the supervisors was getting in touch with them as well to help work the issues out (I purchased my Time Capsule from Senco Link Technologies. I purchased my MacBook Pro from them as well and am pretty happy with their after-sales support.)
So now, my concern is whether this replacement that I will get is going to last longer or if it's going to go the same route as my first Time Capsule. I guess I'll just have to wait and see (either in another 17 months, or if and when Apple does acknowledge this issue and sheds some light on what's causing these failures). In the meantime, I think I'll be getting an external HD and will just hook it up to the Time Capsule and back up to that one instead. I know it defeats the purpose of having a Time Capsule in the first place, but I might as well be on the safe side.
The best strategy is to buy the Time Capsule at the same time you upgrade to a new Mac and cover the Mac with Applecare. According to the Apple Service rep I talked to (who said they didn't get that many TimeCapsule calls), the Time Capsule will automatically be covered under your AppleCare policy. That will get you backups and protection out to 3 years at which time you should probably be thinking about replacing the system anyway.
ReplyDeleteJack
That's actually how I got mine replaced. The funny thing though is that I actually had to be the one to bring it up the first time I called AppleCare. The service rep actually had to double check first if I qualified for a replacement. He initially told me that the AppleCare policy and the Time Capsule should be purchased at the same time. I pointed out that the policy does not state that. It took a few days for the whole replacement deal to be finalized. Seems to be hit or miss with these replacements. I've heard of some people getting replacements even though its out of warranty and without AppleCare. The new one I got is still the same model as the old one. Still seems to run as hot as the first one so I'm kinda worried that it won't last long too. I put it on rubber legs to elevate it and hopefully get better circulation. Don't know if it's working though. I really think these things should last more than three years.
ReplyDeletei was surprised to see that your time capsule died.. is it not supposed to be your backup? what happened to your files?? i was contemplating on getting one but because of the price, i opted for a 320g hard disk and used time machine instead..
ReplyDeletei just chanced upon your site now by the way.. will bookmark this site.. i have been a mac lover for almost 4 years now :)
ReplyDeleteHi, Marion! Thanks for visiting! Fortunately my files are all ok. It was just the power supply that died. I had to ask for the hard drive back though. At first they were just going to give me a new time capsule as a replacement, and they weren't going to send back the original hard drive. I told them that I needed many of the files in it and didn't really feel comfortable having them keep it since I had my files in it. Fortunately, they decided to give me back the original hard drive as well.
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