I’m still in Quito, and recently my MacBook Pro failed to recharge. The problem was the Magsafe power adaptor, which by all accounts is the weak link in the Apple’s notebook line.

I read online that Magsafe Power Adaptors are so prone to failure that Apple is now replacing them free of charge at the genius bar in Apple stores.

Quito. Sh!t. The closest genius bar is in Miami. What’s a poor expat screenwriter to do?

Apple doesn’t even officially sell notebooks in South America. No hope. And yet… Enter Act III.

I remember seeing a pseudo Mac store at a Yuppie mall here by a movie theater called Cinemark. You’ll find it, just get in a taxi and say “Cinemark.” The official address:

MundoMac

Plaza de las Americas Local 6 exterior

Av. America Y NNUU

Tel: 3318472-3318490

www.mundomac.com.ec

Really over priced. The owner imports everything himself with tremendous mark up and then with the IVA tax here it pretty much is double the price.

The $75 dollar adaptor would have been $150. My Mac is under warranty so a guy at the store (Patricio) pointed me to a certified Apple repair place in Quito at:

AppTek

Republica 189 Y Diego de Almagro

Edificio El Triangulo Local 116

Quito – Ecuador

Tel:  593-2 290 9082 

I went there late on a Wednesday afternoon. The guy took some information from my computer and said come back Friday morning.

In 36 hours I had a new, completely free 85w Magsafe power adaptor.

Props to Apple’s worldwide warranty; jeers to Apple for selling an inferior and faulty product. Most of the computers I see tourists carrying around are now Macbooks.

As Apple fills more and more niche markets worldwide with notebooks they need to step it up.

Otherwise plan B for me was to take the broken power adapter to the broken TV store on my street and make hand signs for soldering iron.

F that.

-J Roland Kelly