My new Macbook Air hard drive gone bad

Question

My new macbook air hard drive just died on me last saturday while I was working on my paper. With that I've lost all my files. I took it to Apple store, but I was told that all they can do is to replace the hard drive for me.
I'm not really happy with the service. You pay so much more to get your money's worth. I was  suggested that if I wanted to retrieve my files I had to take it to an outside source for about $500-$700. It's like buying a defective device that causes you some nasty injury and when you ask for their part of responsibility they tell you to take a hike.
I wish there was a law that would be more protective of people's time and (intellectual) property as opposed to leaving us to the mercy of, ultimately, the greed that drives these companies.

Answer 1

Dave Changizi wrote:
Fellows,
Please don't read my e-mail with your emotions. I have nothing against Apple other than my disappointment in this particular service that I received. I can make a long list of all the good things that Apple has brought in this world.
My point is this: whether Apple or a PC, when you buy a brand new computer, the manufacturer should not only replace the failed part (in my case it did, as is the norm in the industry), but TRY to retrieve the lost file(s), when is applicable, free of charge, during the warrantee period.
Does it make sense? I find this a very reasonable request/demand. Remember that, according to Apple representative, an outside source was potentially able to retrieve my files.
As a customer, I want to have a better service, especially when I pay more for the promised quality.
If we customers were happy with what is offered/or not, then we would have still worked 70 hours per week, our cars didn't a seatbelt, and ...
I hope this helps to clear my argument.
Cheers,
I understand where you are coming from, however, there is nothing that they can do.  If the drive has been damaged and does not work, then there isn't anything that they can do.  When those other places charge the prices that they do, it's to pay for them having to physically remove the platters from the drive that you currently had, and keeping every tiny spec of dust off them as a spec of dust could render the platter useless if it gets caught between the heads and the platters.  This being said, they would then have to take those platters and place them in a new drive basically.  Most people understand that there is nothing that can be done when something like this happens, they have external drives and they backup all their data.  I have mine backed up on two seperate drives and in a remote location away from everything here.  Let's put it like this, say you bought a house, and then you put a lot of your memories and things and whatnot into your house, say pictures, papers, things like that.  Now your house burns down, would you expect the people that built your house be responsible and demand that they somehow get your pictures and things like that back from your house that were burned up?  It's kind of asking the same thing that you would get if you were to demand that they somehow magically make your drive start working and get the information off it.