http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/04/27/battery/index.php?lsrc=mwrss

Though my replacement MacBook is running like a champ and trouble free, an unlucky Australian almost had his home burn down due to a MacBook battery exploding and caching on fire: MacBook Burns.

My CoA friend just sent me this link with the subject line "Beware! This just happened to me."

I am keeping an eye on that battery indicator, but, so far, my replacement MacBook continues to run along trouble free. I am actually gaining a fair bit of confidence in this machine now.

Macintosh to be specific... A lemon Apple...

It all started when my old IBM Thinkpad started making rather disconcerting noises. The day had finally arrived; Thinkpad a22m had put in a good six years of trouble free service but the sites and sounds of laptop aging were suddenly occurring at an alarming rate.

Ok... that quote does not come from an Apple employee, it was the UPS operator.
I had to call them and give them RMA info from Apple regarding the shipping of my lemon MacBook back to Apple. After I explained I was shipping something to Apple the UPS operator said she was going to start answering the phone this way since so many of the shipping calls coming in were regarding Apple RMA's for MacBooks, MacBook batteries, and iPods. I actually asked if I could quote her on that. I took her laughter as a yes.

Before shipping the lemon Apple back, I wanted to clean it up a bit. Grab some files off the desktop, clear browser caches, temp directories, etc. But now the MacBook will not boot at all. No amount of PRAM refreshing, battery removal and power draining seems to solve the problem. Oh well, off it goes back to Apple with my banking info still in the browser cache... hopefully they will just through the thing into a shredder...

Received the UPS shipping info email today, did what it instructed then contacted Apple and they activated the order. Another two weeks or so and I should have a new MacBook.

In my chats with the Apple representative, I decided that I would rather a black MacBook than a white one. I, rather cynically at this point, told them that if it was black it would be easier for me to imagine that I never bought a MacBook and I could pretend it was a Dell laptop or some such thing. I was told I would have to pay extra for it, but, after some more cynicism, sarcasm and drama... well, I would be getting a black MacBook in the exchange.

I was at the Apple Authorized dealer again today for a very long time. I used their phone to call them since I told the technician the damn thing needs replacing and he was pretty much fed up with it as well. He didn't want to attempt any more fixes. I was on hold for a very long time as I got bumped from one level of technician to the next. When I finally got to the top, I was then forwarded on to someone who could work out the exchange of my lemon MacBook for an Apple MacBook.