Your Apple Care experiences
ok, i'm about to start down the road of getting my PowerBook fixed. it's had a few problems, all of which i can live with, but that need to get fixed soon. so today i make a preliminary call to the Apple folks, and i find out a few interesting things.
1. even if it's in the first year, you DON'T get phone support for that time frame unless you've paid for the Apple Care part. that strikes me as amazingly stupid.
2. so i describe the problems, and the reply i get is "and what would you like Apple do to about this?"
how about FIX IT!
seems pretty straight forward considering that that's why i called in in the first place!
grrr. anyway, i think i'm going to bring my machine to the Mall of America Apple Store and see if i can get someone with a clue over there, the person i talked to was a bit slow.
oh, my favorite part. my machine has started running hot recently, so he tells me that it might just be from hidden processes in OSX. i told him that i checked the process running via "top" in the terminal, and the idle thread was over 90% of the cpu. to which he replies, "what's top?"
augh!
i paid how much for that tech support?
1. even if it's in the first year, you DON'T get phone support for that time frame unless you've paid for the Apple Care part. that strikes me as amazingly stupid.
2. so i describe the problems, and the reply i get is "and what would you like Apple do to about this?"
how about FIX IT!
seems pretty straight forward considering that that's why i called in in the first place!
grrr. anyway, i think i'm going to bring my machine to the Mall of America Apple Store and see if i can get someone with a clue over there, the person i talked to was a bit slow.
oh, my favorite part. my machine has started running hot recently, so he tells me that it might just be from hidden processes in OSX. i told him that i checked the process running via "top" in the terminal, and the idle thread was over 90% of the cpu. to which he replies, "what's top?"
augh!
i paid how much for that tech support?
Comments
You see, Apple, you can charge whatever ridiculous amount you would like for your passably average offerings, and fvck you if you think I'm paying for them. That's fine, you can still find enough people to sell to, OK. But Mr Alcimedes paid the asking price, you see, there's a customer willing to put up with a lot of the mac based nonsense AND pay a premium for the priveledge. When this customer (an increasing rarity) brings his business to you, you want him to come back, to at least justify his irrational confidence in the brand with GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE. But I guess high prices, insane warrantee charges, yesterday's number crunching capacity, limited business penetration, incomplete OSes with buggy/poor/nonexistent peripheral support, emerging (and serious) limitations to the web experience, these must not be enough to shrink the market down to the Amiga-esque band of die-hards Steve obviously craves, time to start treating the remaining faithful as poorly as possible too. You can do it, come on, we know you can, if you try hard enough Steve, you might get that world-wide market share down under 2% by 2005. Just think how exclusive you'll be then. YAY, investors re-joice!
i hate getting nasty with tech support because
i feel sorry for the people on the firing line
& its a tough job.
howvever apple has some of the snottiest people
ive ever seen & despite having great products
the support people have a really bad condenscending attitude.
bottom line ...you paid $3000 for a high end product & as the customer you are in the right
& its upto them to fix it
either they get their act together or people
should band up & have a class action suit against them for lousy service.
btw i did contact apple regarding the heat issue
on my powerbook & was extremely annoyed at the runaround they gave me.an honest answer would have
been appreciated.
Nothing wrong in that.
What are your problems anyway, besides overheating?
pbook ti 800 ....heats up like all pb's
except once for no apprent reason the airport
card just died..reception when down to 0
i closed the book & as soon as it cooled & i'd
rebooted the airport card came back on
if anyone else has experienced this please post
followups
thanks
<strong>It seems like Apple is just trying harder and harder to erode its own market. I hear far too many accounts of dissatisfaction with Apple service. Yeah yeah, we hear about those PC mag surveys now and again, but really, with all the mac cultists around, you really think those people are going to admit, to a PC mag no less, that ther might be a few things wrong with Apple? Uh uh, not likely. But remember, as happy as this little group might pretend to be, they are a little group, one that continues to shrink (proportionally) over any 3-4 year tenure you can name. They might be up for a quater or two, but long term, it's still a slow downward spiral we're talking about.
You see, Apple, you can charge whatever ridiculous amount you would like for your passably average offerings, and fvck you if you think I'm paying for them. That's fine, you can still find enough people to sell to, OK. But Mr Alcimedes paid the asking price, you see, there's a customer willing to put up with a lot of the mac based nonsense AND pay a premium for the priveledge. When this customer (an increasing rarity) brings his business to you, you want him to come back, to at least justify his irrational confidence in the brand with GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE. But I guess high prices, insane warrantee charges, yesterday's number crunching capacity, limited business penetration, incomplete OSes with buggy/poor/nonexistent peripheral support, emerging (and serious) limitations to the web experience, these must not be enough to shrink the market down to the Amiga-esque band of die-hards Steve obviously craves, time to start treating the remaining faithful as poorly as possible too. You can do it, come on, we know you can, if you try hard enough Steve, you might get that world-wide market share down under 2% by 2005. Just think how exclusive you'll be then. YAY, investors re-joice!</strong><hr></blockquote>
Uh NO.
If you think Apple support sucks and that PC Magazine is a bunch of liars, you're DEAD WRONG!
Have you dealt with Dell, Gateway, and Compaq support on a regular basis? NO! I'd be on my knees if I ever got half assed Apple support from these guys. Support really really sucks. Why? Because everyone wants cheaper and cheaper parts. Gateway even pays a bonus based on how few replacement parts that techs give out. Result? Defective machines are never fixed. I once had a Dell rep who *asked me* what to do because they were having trouble operating their browser. Another time, I came within one day of filing a small claims suit against Dell before they finally did something. They still refused to take responsibility though. A sony rep hung up on me after waiting in their 1 hour and 40 minute phone queue. Compaq's support? haha. What support? This is just what's happened just in the last month. Sheesh.
I've had only good experiences with Apple service. I know there are some real horror stories out there too, so be vigilant.
There is just no way AppleCare can match the kind of service Dell has provided to my workplace or any home user I've personally seen. It is impeccable, period.
A little dab of Krazy Glue, and all was well.
My only experience so far...
software: no warranty (like ANY other company on this plant)
so if your problem is software based:
apple will not fix it. if you are over your 90 days you are gonna have to pay for your support.
if your problem is hardware based (and you didn't spill beer in your keyboard):
you will get a replacement or a fix for free.
doa's: your apple-dealer can file a doa up to 10 days after opening up the box. and the customer has an other 10 days if his tool dies on him.
this is how it works.
things like these are printed on manuals. read them!
[ 11-19-2002: Message edited by: MCQ ]</p>
<strong>When I got my Ti 400 the keyboards were not user-installable yet, according to Apple. The "b" key broke off less than 5 minutes out of the box, and they wanted me to ship the computer in to have it repaired.
A little dab of Krazy Glue, and all was well.
My only experience so far...</strong><hr></blockquote>
That's because you don't keep your Macs long enough to use AppleCare
My experience before that was just as good. Trackpad flakes out on my Ti Tuesday afternoon. I backup everything, drive to the mall at 8pm that night. They look at it, ship it off, get it back by 10am on Friday of that same week. 2 day turnaround if you consider that it was 8pm when I took it in.
My brother just had a good experience too. He called about his LCD on his iBook going out, got the box the next day, got the computer back 2 days later.
Matsu, could you please just STFU about how bad Apple is? Face it, they are a good company despite some missteps. There's a poll in a pc magazine that says Apple's good at customer service and you say it's because they're scared of Apple fanatics? Give me an effing break. Give it up.
My advice, alcimedes is to take it into the store where you can get some instant satisfaction. I'm glad I have an Apple store nearby. It makes life so much easier.
<strong>
Nothing wrong in that.
What are your problems anyway, besides overheating?</strong><hr></blockquote>
That was his point. The processor isn't doing anything and it's still getting hot. That's a problem.
Based on experience, price, and comprehensiveness, there is just no way that Apple's warrantee compares to Dell's. I've seen the Dell warrantee in action and next day means next day. A bad pixel means a bad display, it gets replaced, no questions. How many people on these boards have cried into their keyboards because their iMacs/books/powerbooks/displays have had 2,3-4 or more bad pixels that Apple refuses to do anything about?
So long as Apple keeps abnoxiously adding costs to mac ownership, I'll be around to remind everyone that there are cheaper, faster, and high quality options available elsewhere. In Canada, Applecare can now costs up to 530 dollars depending on model. The same level of care is available for as little as 130 regardless of model from Dell. US dollar, Canadian dollar, whatever, there is absolutely no justification for that warrantee price, especially when Apple WILL NOT guarantee a perfect display.
[ 11-19-2002: Message edited by: Matsu ]</p>
<strong>Where did I say a PC mag is scared of Apple fanatics. I meant, if you poll Apple fanatics, what do you think those fanatics are going to report?
[ 11-19-2002: Message edited by: Matsu ]</strong><hr></blockquote>
So you're saying that Mac users are not fit to be polled because they can't possibly be truly satisfied. If they say they are it's because their judgment is clouded. Oh, that makes oh so much more sense. Thanks for clarifying.
I think that if you were to poll Fran about his experience with Applecare, he'd tell you. He told ALL OF US for pete's sake. Or don't you remember that? The point is, even an Apple fanatic like Fran reported his bad experience. I truly think that they are isolated incidents. And this isn't about comparing Dell to Apple. It's about people's experiences of Applecare. You know what, though? I've got a bad Dell experience to relate (the one that made me get my first mac if you want to start a thread about Dell's warranty, I'll be glad to share it there.)
[quote]There is just no way AppleCare can match the kind of service Dell has provided to my workplace or any home user I've personally seen. It is impeccable, period.<hr></blockquote>
*whew* ok, that was rich. i'm with torifile on this one. at my job, i'm the one who gets called when machines are hosed. as it's a university, we have a pile of Macs, and a pile of PC's. a lot of those PC's are Dells. i can tell you right now that it would take over a week of Apple screwing me over before they'd even hold a candle to the Dell support issues we've had.
and i'm not alone, there's a lot of grumbling at our monthly meetings about Dell and their tech support, so i know i'm not alone.
however, this is a Mac board, so i never bothered sharing all of those experiences.
as for what's wrong with my machine, IMO, heat is by far the greatest problem that a computer will likely ever face. it causes more problems than anything. also, when i'm in my home i like my machine quite. no fans is a plus. until the last few days, i think i've heard the fans kick in on this machine 3, 4 times. they're on all the time now. that's not normal.
the LCD also has a weird whitish band along the bottom inch and a half. it's odd, i've never really seen anything like it before. that should be fixed, but i didn't really care about it, not really performance based.
i know the parts have a 1 year warrenty, but i was annoyed to find out that it doesn't include phone support. how exactly are you supposed to get your machine diagnosed if you can't call in? (not everyone lives by an Apple store)
in any case, it's entirely possible that the person i talked to was just an ass, i'll get better results in person anyway.
<strong>i know the parts have a 1 year warrenty, but i was annoyed to find out that it doesn't include phone support. how exactly are you supposed to get your machine diagnosed if you can't call in? (not everyone lives by an Apple store)
in any case, it's entirely possible that the person i talked to was just an ass, i'll get better results in person anyway.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I've gotten that line before and when I insist that it's a hardware problem they usually let me talk. Just take it in to the store and it'll get things straightened out.