Dude, this has been a pain in my particular side for a couple of years. I am an old Systems Integrator in the US back when it was all bleeding edge technology and there were no schools to certified you (actually, Apple did have us certified at both personal tech levels and then my company being Apple authorized) because we were the ones figuring it out between the Mac/Apple OS, DOS & eventual every variation of windows fun plus the different flavors of Unix. My world was integrated them all together when "that can't be done!" Bah Ha Ha, watch me. Anyway, all I'm saying is I know enough about all of these to be dangerous. The thing is, there are enough similar where you know what to look for when diagnosing issues and at the very least, ruling out WHAT IS NOT WRONG. With the new Apple OS's, my knowledge of UNIX has been very helpful.
Now, my !&&* with my MacBook Pro. During its warranty period, no problems of course. Then I started having the bizarre issues of it scrambling the screen and unable to get it to a startup screen or even a prompt thru safe mode or verbose. I was essentially retired so I no longer had my usual contacts in the industry as I had also relocated. I did my usual due diligence to rule out what was NOT the problem and being a little lazy, decided to take it to the local "Apple Store" along with the list of what was not the problem AND the info on the known issue with the logic board and their double secret probation recall program.
Now, I understand how leary places as this do not like to be told what joe blow thinks is wrong and especially when it's a woman. I gave them a copy of the recall issue and they essentially scoffed. It took them over a week to finally reach the same conclusion I did and they ordered the logic board that took longer than it should have based on my knowledge of how well Apple does with turn around when they know it's a known issue - they kick butt to get you back up and running. After the amount of time it took them to diagnose the issue and how they did it gave me my first thought of "hmmm, this feels wrong". After the amount of time it took to get the replacement, it really made me wonder if I shot myself in the foot by just bringing it in to this store before calling Apple direct. When I got the exorbitant bill and the non technical cashier conveniently couldn't locate a service ticket detailing the Service call and all that was done set off my bullshit meter plus the numerous smacks to my own head for following the route I took. I realized I had let a store that goes out of their way to look so official that they were actually not an authorized service center. I still do not know where they got the replacement board. I originally chalked this up to my laziness and stupidity for knowing better and letting this happen but it worked and I just let the episode fester in my head.
Then, a year later, after the "double secret probation recall" had expired, I started having a similar issue. Again, I went thru many gyrations of ruling out every possible problem that left it with an obvious video board issue which was also being recalled in my model. I called Apple support this time and after listing all I did and the results, they agreed and after I told them of the local store that was not authorized and I was unwilling to go 90 miles to another, they gladly set up the shipping swap. EXTREMELY helpful and based on having used this same processed years earlier on a warrantied different macbook mother board failure, I knew this was the way to go and again kicked myself for my mistake the year before. They had me a shipping box the NEXT day and had it not been a holiday weekend, I'd probably have it back today. There is still the Murphy's law chance that it started working for them or it gets lost in transit or that I jinxed the whole process, but I'm feeling pretty confident I'll get a happy laptop back in a day or so and a refund of the "deposit" I put down since it is out of warranty.
Once this is done, I do hope I can find out a way to have Apple look into this store I used and their actions. I have resigned myself to the fact that I will probably never get any $ back from my stupidity of not calling Apple first and they could have given me the heads up that they did not see this location as one of their blessed stores - but at the very least, I hope they can look into them and make them make sure to inform future customers they are not working with APPLE. Shame on them and shame on me because I, more than the average bear, should have known better!!