As I got to work yesterday, I noticed the paint literally rubbing off the bevel beneath the command key on my new MacBook Pro. Those that know me, understand the sense of dread this triggered in me.

No. I am not some compulsive freak.

Its just that I pride myself in keeping my business hardware in near perfect condition to maintain the resale value.

The paint flaking off coupled with the irritating CPU whine my machine has been exhibiting from time to time, and scalding hot temperature it reaches finally gave me the incentive to head off to the local Apple store for some TLC.

The experience was pleasant, but a complete waste of time. They would not address the CPU whine issue until I could get the machine to produce a sufficient enough volume to allow them to take action.

I explained that I have done the research, performed all the firmware updates and given the MacBook time to break in. But that the issue tends to occur after some intensive work followed by idling, and once started goes on until the machine is either taxed with some heavy lifting or put to sleep.

After 2-3 minutes the genius headed off to help another customer and said he would check back once the MacBook had warmed up.

Well, over an hour later I gave up waiting. The genius was now helping 3-4 customers and the store was incredibly noisy. The MacBook was piping hot, but I couldn’t tell if the whine was my MacBook or the G5 sitting next to it on the counter, so I decided to go the old-fashioned route. I called Apple’s toll-free line explained the situation and a few minutes later was on my way home with a DHL box en-route.

The nice guy, playing the part of the genius, explained that is was company policy and his manager insists that they personally confirm every issue before anything is shipped out for repair.

An understandable policy considering the flood of complete novices I encountered on this trip. One insisting her iPod was defective because it wouldn’t play Window Media files.

DHL will be here momentarily to pick up the MacBook Pro and hopefully in a few days it will be returned better than ever.

Moral of the story. Don’t go to an Apple store if you know what is wrong. Call Apple instead.