I got this from a friend overseas:

"I bought us a MacBook in August of 2006 and in December 2006 it crashed. I took it to South Africa Apple store (dealer) and got it fixed under warranty at Apple Care in SA; we have the 3 year extended warranty on it. Apple Care in SA said it was the Logic board and they replaced the Logic board. So we got the Mac book back 3 weeks ago and it crashed again. Although this time it will work when on battery but as soon as you plug it in after boot up it switches itself off. South Africa are saying they will fix it again for us but will not replace the Mac Book. When I call Apple care in the States they refer me to South Africa. John said how you know so much about Macs, do you have any advice for us and have you ever had to deal with Apple care at all with a Mac under warranty and what has been your experience. We chose a Mac book as we heard they did not crash, we do not think we would choose a Mac again after this experience.We looked on line and there seems many problems with the Mac Book We really pray we can get our Mac Book working."

I suggested to let UNIX do some maintenance, etc., and to do software updates. Any thoughts or help? His line about not choosing a Mac again really hurts! Thanks...

The standard deal in the US is that they replace it after 3 repairs.

They could ship it to you in the US and you could get it replaced--that's a hassle.

They could escalate it via the phone.

Recommend they call Apple Customer Relations, not AppleCare, if they continue to have problems after a third repair.

---

It is what it is.

I agree with N OS X...
Just move to Customer Relations/Service/Support/Supervisors
After the 3 repairs It is mostly an equation.

Explain it is important to continue to be polite, and patient.
If possible do not alienate the people you want to help.

Apple service can have a bad day now and then including employees.

The extended warranty is their trump card.

Make sure they document all conversations/contacts and repairs.

Dates, emails CSR's, Supervisors

haikuman *(:>*

Thanks, all. I will suggest he call customer relations in South Africa. If anything interesting happens, I will let you know in a repost.

It needed a firmware update...