Sad Commentary on Apple Service

Posted to Apple and to Mr. Jobs:

Sorry to have to bother you with this. Below is a sad perspective of the goings on at the front lines. Please get this addressed.

Respectfully,
A Mac user from '82:

There has been a new development on this issue. After trying for two years to get me.com to act like .mac with it's Homepage after you killed it, I finally blew a fuse when one of your folks hung up on me during my last failed attempt.

A Third Party Mac App developer provided not only the answer and major fix to the original issue, but showed me that the method I was using, as your staff were unwilling/unable to correct, was wrong. This last part bears directly upon this particular problem. The Forbes Folder I was trying unsuccessfully to put into iDisk/Sites actually needed to go into the Web Folder. It was successfully loaded there, by the Third Party App, and replaced several times with updates as I was creating them.

To boot, the Third Party App provided the actual homepage URL your folks weren't capable/willing to provide and here it is after all this time:

http://web.me.com/patrickforbes/index.html

There are still two (2) outstanding problems with that original issue, but the very last fella I spoke with @ Apple may just have found possible fixes for them. I await a CD via snail mail containing some 'Magic'.

The Sites Folder Loading, Issue 122515119, still may be a problem needing a fix, but I now can't see any use for it in my environment. Now that my "Homepage' is somewhat resurrected from the apparent dead, I'm back on track with the change to me.com.

Am extremely disappointed with the total ineptitude, poor attitude, apparent incompetence and complete unwillingness of a large majority of Apple/Mac/Me folks I've been stuck dealing with since the moment .mac was bestowed with its death sentence to assist me. I was absolutely blown away by the buck shuffling they adamantly insisted upon which did nothing but to raise my blood pressure. At my age, that is not a suggested course of action, not if you want any more Mac sales from me. This sea change with Apple Assistance seems to have begun about three years ago and is getting worse. Even my friends/relatives I've steered your way have noticed and commented. I'm finding it more and more difficult to defend you now.

And a Third Party App Developer did it! That speaks VOLUMES. Now I have lost a good deal of confidence in Apple Help and will now be turning elsewhere for Mac App assistance.

HOWEVER, I must give credit where credit is quite due. You, in this thread, and the fella I spoke to a day or so ago who is sending me a secret fix with no promises. Its the optimism I got from him and am looking forward to seeing this proposed fix.

You two have kept me loyal. My Mac environment has resulted in Mac purchases by friends, coworkers and relatives amounting to the upper 5 digits. You can't buy that kind of publicity. On a negative note, should this entire problem have gotten flushed, the Internet is there for me to vent and no one can un-ring THAT bell.

My next step would have been to dump Mac OS and Linuxize my PowerBook, iMac and iPod. I work with a super Linux Guru who's done it. That is the very last resort.

Thank you,

Patrick

1- Right Forum? Probably not, but needed to vent somewhere.

2- No they can't.

3- I'm not a 'Developer' nor do I work code. I just use Apps and Yes, I needed to complain about Poor Customer Service "Somewhere".

I don't work 'Code' nor am I a 'developer'. I just use tools to do thing I wish to do. When an App provider can't provide proper Customer Support for their product, the Web needs to hear about it. Don't you think?

You're absolutely right. None of this should have happened. It started when Apple killed my .Mac and I asked how to migrate my site to me. Everything went south from there. That's why the time was so prolonged. Reunion found the defect and solved the problem that Apple refused to.

Sorry, it was my cousin's Apple II and its app about flying fighter jets in '82 that hooked me on Apple's stuff. Should have been more precise. I finally caved and bought my first Apple, a Mac Performa, in '95 which I still miss for it's hardware and a few of it's apps that have since died. I donated it to a Winnipeg school wanting to expand while staying uniform.

After seeing and using my Cousin's Apple II in '82, I got stuck at work with a Tandy 104 and a Zenith dual floppy later that made me yearn for an Apple. I finally caved and bought a Performa in '95 which I still terrible miss. I'm now into my 7th Mac and headed to 8 and 9 .

That's where the problem began. They DIDN'T explain the details on the 'how' it was to happen.

No, Reunion new how to do it. I just found the single button that did it all by itself. No config, prefs, nothing. Just hit the iDisk button. Their Manual showed me where the button was.

No, they did not explain it in a fashion that a non-code reader/writer could understand. As just an App user, I need Step-by-Step, clear and detailed instructions and expected them. They were not provided. Hence the battle with Apple (un)support.

Please take the time (sorry) to read this. Don't just skim it.

I think I need to correct a few of the responses from several respondents to my original post. I may not have detailed all my efforts over the years enough but needed to save space and get the main point across. Which was that Apple let me down (for marketing reasons) and Reunion came to the rescue.

NONE of the Apple/Mac iDisk help/knowledge/faq's provided ANY information about the iDisk/Web folder. Reunion did because they knew how iWeb works. See below.

Only iDisk/Web/Sites folder has an actually functional URL permitting anyone to go DIRECTLY to my Web Site with ONE CLICK as created and quite successfully published by Reunion. Any other method looking into the iDisk/Sites or iDisk/Public folders only provides a Finder View of the folder files and viewers are forced to fish around for the index.htm that starts the Web Site.

My old .mac Homepage for which I pay, and have been for many years, $100+/year, thanks to it's perceived Mac prestige, provided an actual URL along with a Password entry option that I enabled. The URL Reunion provided in it's publishing process opens the .me Web Site DIRECTLY with ONE click only. Apple has refused to provide that little bit of assistance and still won't probably until I buy their iWeb.

The password option to iDisk/Web/Sites/index.htm is now gone with no subscription payment reduction. The other folders have the password option but NOT iDisk/Web/Sites.
What they are doing by denying me that info is trying to get me to pay extra to get iWeb where they say I can get my Password option back. Cool eh.

One of the TWO (yes, two) Apple folks that did manage to provide excellent information informed me that my particular Powerbook predated iWeb by only a few months. That is why it's not on my machine. No prior Apple person bothered to investigate why I didn't have their iWeb despite their insistence that I was supposed to have it.

The legal issues: I pay for .mac which HAD Homepage and a password. They took it away without providing the CORRECT info on it's alternative (iDisk/Web/Sites...) (Reunion found it for me) AND no password. They require me to PURCHASE iWeb ($90) to get the password option back.

This is where I shall finally end this thread. If there are still those who don't get the gist of this, I cannot help them other than to encourage them to read my entire thread more carefully than just 'skimming' it.

Apple search engine failed to find ANY reference to iDisk/Web usage or access. That reinforces the fact that they want me to BUY iWeb.

Your info:

What was .Mac HomePage?
.Mac HomePage was a feature of the .Mac service that allowed users to publish web pages using their .Mac account.

When was the .Mac HomePage application discontinued?
The HomePage web application was discontinued on July 7, 2009. As of that date, members were unable to create new pages or edit pages they had already published.

What should I use for creating my own website?
iWeb (part of iLife 08 or later) comes with your Mac and enables you to create a custom website and publish it directly to MobileMe. iWeb provides Apple-designed templates for creating photo pages, blogs, travel sites, and more. Please read this article for instructions on moving HomePage movies to iWeb.

I published content to homepage.mac.com using my own HTML editor and my content is located in the Sites folder of my iDisk. Do I need to do anything?
Content within the Sites folder of your iDisk will still be available for viewing on the web and can still be edited with an HTML editor. However, any website content stored in the Pictures, Movies, or Public folders of your iDisk will be unavailable in your web pages after November 8, 2010 (although a folder called Pictures within the Sites folder would continue to work). If your web pages reference content from any of those folders, you will need to move the content to your Sites folder and update your HTML accordingly. Can't. See above "When was the .Mac HomePage application discontinued?"

Can I still delete my published pages?
Yes, you can delete the published pages from the Sites folder in your iDisk. The website address for a page you want to delete might look like:
http://homepage.mac.com/membername/PhotoAlbum1.html
To delete this page, go to me.com/idisk and open the Sites folder.*Locate the file (named "PhotoAlbum1.html" in the above example) and delete it.* That will remove the page, and you and others will no longer be able to visit the page. Can't. See above "When was the .Mac HomePage application discontinued?"

from:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2049

No mention of iDisk/Web folder Web Access here either:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.h...mfbe80fed.html

What I was sent. Note the iWeb reference AGAIN:

MobileMe members who have published web pages using iWeb will not be affected by this change. If you have used other software to publish web content to MobileMe or .Mac, or have questions about this change, please read this FAQ.