Dead Macbook Pro while abroad in Italy for work

Question

Hello!
My love-hate relationship with Mac computers goes on as usual. After a disaster with a Macbook, I got a Macbook pro (15") in November 2007. I bought AppleCare to make sure I had no problems with this computer. I went onto having a pro computer so that I didn't have the problems I had with my white macbook (dead batteries, dead hard drive, dead screen, dead mother board over 1.5 years, more than 5 visits to the tech centre).
Now, it happens that I'm away in Italy for two months, for work reasons (visiting fellow in a Hospital). Last week my macbook pro died on me. I'm no expert of course but I think the mother board died (same thing happened to my white macbook pro, so I recognised the symptoms).
Last week I call AppleCare Spain (where I'm from) and spent 1 hour on an international call. Imagine the cost of this, thanks god I was allowed to use the hospital telephone line. Apple said that all I could do was take the computer to a local service centre and let them fix it.
This was last week.
Today I called (well.. my colleague did since I don't speak italian !) As it turns out, a week later they haven't even looked at the computer, so they haven't ordered the required pars. They say it would take an additional 7 to 10 days to have it looked at (so you need to add the time it takes to get the parts delivered and replaced). So we're looking at a time frame of more than 15-20 days, at least.
As you can figure out, this is a huge problem, I'm in Italy for work reasons (well, I'm a PhD student so you could say it's work/study) and I have all data in my computer (everything backed up, but no one uses macs here). It's been a week and it's already messy, lots of data I need to access but no way of doing it. And a ton of additional data to acquire and process. And by the looks of it I could very well spend my two months in Italy without my computer.
What can I do? Should I insist on Apple Care to offer another solution?
I think I've heard that in the US they offer a courier repair service to Applecare subscribers, but I'm not aware if that's true or if that's even a possibility in Europe.
This is very frustrating.. it seems to me that the Macs I own come with a tragic-comedy sensor built-in, and whenever it detects the moment is critical, the mac goes dead. I've had this happened to me right before international meetings where I had to present my results, or before important articles were due.
Any help will be much appreciated.
Thanks.

Answer 1

I would call AppleCare and speak to a customer representative and explain the problem you are having with the repair. Certainly they should be able to intercede and help you out.