I’ve been a staunch supporter of Apple since being a little kid. Hell, I remember using the first Mac in 1984 fondly. Today, though, I have to say… I’m ashamed of them.
My 6-month-old iMac died yesterday. I did a little google search on the problem and came up with a ton of articles/blog entries on the exact problem I had. Like this one from TUAW. So I took it into the store to get help from their “Mac Genius.” I’m not a big advocate of using quotes needlessly, so let me explain: they aren’t geniuses. Not even close. They even told me that I shouldn’t trust these articles on the web about the same problem I was having. Right, ’cause clearly I know nothing about the internet.
What they are is purveyors of expensive solutions. Mac not working and under waranty? No problem will have it back to you in 7 business days. Not fast enough? Well, you can pay us $103.99 to move yourself to the front of the line, we usually have those machines back within 24 hours.
So let me get this straight… I have a 6-month-old computer under warantee and if I want it in a reasonable time frame, I need to pay? Now why did I buy a new computer? Oh, I remember, to make sure it wouldn’t break down on me.
So what am I to do? Pay the f’n extortion money that’s what. This computer is my business and without it I lose clients and hemorage money.
But it’s Saturday and guess what? No computer. Nope, the part didn’t come in. When will it come in? Not sure. It could be on back order. Wouldn’t you think it would have been easy to check whether it was on back order or not? Apparently it is not.
So what to do what to do. Not work, that’s one thing I can’t do without my computer. I guess I may have to throw more money at the problem and get a second computer. It’s not like I have a 5 month old that I would rather spend my hard earned cash on anyway, right?
Universal Hub says:
June 18th, 2005 at 8:05 pm
Geniuses who suck
Add Eric to the list of people less than impressed with the “geniuses” at the local Apple store. “Extortion” is one of words he uses.
Earlier:
Matthew says:
June 19th, 2005 at 1:07 am
Next time you’re in there, look at the guy with all seriousness and, in your best surfer voice say, “Dude, I’m gettin’ a Dell.”
Neil says:
June 19th, 2005 at 3:01 pm
It sucks that your having those problems. I’ve had 3 iBooks. The first and the 3rd both had problems. The first was eventually (after some letter writing) replaced with the 2nd. When I sold that and got the third, it wasn’t a month before I had a trackpad problem. Unfortunately it was too intermittent for me to show the “genius”. Now that it’s our of warranty I bought the part I needed on ebay and fixed it myself.
However, when I had problems with the first one and took it to the store, I had it back in a reasonable time frame. I brought it in Sunday, and got it back by Wed or Thursday.
What I learned was to get Applecare. I just need to get around the whole, “Not available in Florida” thing…
David says:
June 21st, 2005 at 7:56 am
For future reference… deal directly with Apple.
Unless it’s ‘My iPod needs to be reset’ do not go to the ‘genius’ bar with a problem EVER!!!
Just call Apple and deal directly with them.
Neil says:
June 21st, 2005 at 9:07 am
The problem I had with dealing with Apple directly was that it took 2 days just to get a box to send the computer in. Meanwhile, the store overnights it and gtes it back overnighted.
I found this to be quicker.
Melissa Petri says:
June 21st, 2005 at 10:16 am
Wow, great customer service! *sarcastic*
Cameron says:
June 22nd, 2005 at 7:46 am
There are no apple stores here in Montreal, but I took a first gen ti-book to the one in San Diego when on a trip and they got my a new return key for free.. that said, when something went really flooey with it I called Apple directly and they hooked me up… The trick I learned from a guy at the retail place I go to here is to not even bother with the person who answers the phone and ask for his/her boss immediately.
eeka says:
June 26th, 2005 at 6:10 pm
Computer Loft in Allston. That’s all I can say. They’re a fully authorized service place, meaning they can do any warranty work that the Apple Store can do. But, they also do a lot of rebuilding and repairs and things, so they’ll often have a part in stock and can do warranty work really quick. They know way more about the machines than anyone at the Apple Store or at Apple. My toilet-seat iBook’s modem died in 2000 and the Apple Store and the Apple hotline both said the motherboard would need replacing, which on the cheap machines costs almost as much as a new machine. They all kept insisting it was all one part. When I asked them if they meant they only sold it as one part, or if it was integrated, they insisted it was an integrated part and there was no way to fix just the modem. So I took it to Computer Loft and they told me that, uh, Apple only sells the modems as part of the motherboard, but it’s absolutely not an integrated part, and they’d solder on a third-party one for $25. Which they did, while I waited. The place is great.
alecia says:
June 27th, 2005 at 5:05 pm
We had a similar problem with our iMac last month - something bad with the video and unable to see anything on the screen. Luckily for us it’s a fun computer, not a work computer so we weren’t in a bind like you are (although it did have all the pictures of our 1-month old baby boy on it and, man, did the grandparents raise a ruckus when they couldn’t get their baby photo fix soon enough). We got the same “sorry, the part is backordered” message for over a week before finally asking for a better solution. My husband is a wizard at customer service negotiation, and without too much complaining we got a brand new iMac with double the hard drive of our original and they transferred everything from our old one for us. No charge for any of it…which was a consolation when the replacement went bad immediately - within 24 hours. We took that one back and they gave us ANOTHER new one, which has been fine so far. They also restarted our warranty, which is probably essential. At the time, I was happy with the service we got (and still am), but now that I know more about the pervasiveness of the problem I realize why they didn’t give us a hard time.