CeeJayCee

The left hand palm rest on my three week old 15″ MacBook Pro has started to develop black spots, right under where my hand sits. My old 12″ PowerBook suffered from the same problems, but outside of warranty.

Being three weeks old, I was a bit concerned - so I phoned Apple Customer Services.

Some things I should state:

1. I never wear a watch when I use the laptop, so it’s not scratches from the metal rubbing.
2. I never use the MacBook Pro with dirty hands - I want to keep it looking new and shiny for as long as possible.
3. I always use the screen / keyboard protector when the lid is closed.

Apple support told me to take my laptop to the local service centre. Great.

So, this morning, I drove out of the city to find the service centre. It turns out today wasn’t probably the best morning to choose - getting to the place was fine, getting back wasn’t. The city bypass was closed due to flooding, along with most of the other routes into the city. A journey which normally would take me about 30 minutes (round trip time) ended up taking over two hours - most of which was spent sitting with the handbrake on and the engine off on an A road. What a great way to spend a morning.

I spent a total of about 6 minutes in the service centre - the technician looked at the laptop, filled in a form, and told me he’d phone when the part was in stock.

Great fun. Let’s hope they get the part in soon.

Update: here’s a picture of the problem.

Click to Enlarge