The Last (real) MacWorld
So, the keynote is over, and it was pretty unexciting. Phil just doesn’t have the RDF (reality distortion field) working for him. Probably good that this was the last keynote: no Mac Minis, no Apple Cinema Displays, no updated Mac Pros or iMacs, and no mention of Snow Leopard. Some of that hardware hasn’t been updated in years, and really needs to be. iWork and iLife both look awesome as usual, but spending almost 75% of a two hour keynote demoing them?
But, the real travesty… a laptop with non-serviceable battery? Are you kidding me? I don’t care if it is supposed to last for 1000 charges and 3+ years! It’s supposed to last 3x current batteries. I’ve had some current batteries only last 3-6 months. Going to meetings twice a day, I may have 3 charge cycles a day – that would be less than a year. What do you do when it’s dead? It sounds like you have to exchange your laptop for a new one. Even if it is depot-replaceable part, you’re going to be out a computer for some period of time… not to mention going through the frustrating technical support process that Apple has foisted upon us.
Apologizing in advance, but this is rant worthy… Apple support is HORRIBLE for equipment repair and service. I grimace every time I have a failure because I know it means — signing up for an appointment at the Genius Bar, generally during an inopportune time, fighting crowds at the mall to get to the Apple store, waiting an hour or more with a bunch of other pissed off and frustrated customers because they’re behind and understaffed, then having a Genius ask me a bunch of questions like I’m an idiot then tell me that he’ll have to send it off for repair and I’ll get it back in a few days (which often ends up being a week). I don’t know if it’s just bad luck or what, but I’ve had to do this with almost every laptop both my wife and I have owned from Apple and one desktop. With practically every “real” PC vendor, I’ll have a repair or replacement in 24 hours and I don’t have to go anywhere (and that’s not BS. That is the type of service I received when I purchased Dell). I would even pay a premium for that service (even though I feel like I’m already paying a premium for Apple hardware and the laughable AppleCare). If Apple had real service plans or reasonable exchange programs, then the thought of a non-customer serviceable battery might not be that bad.
I (usually) really like Apple hardware, but it’s frustrating as a Mac user to wish that Dell sold equipment with Mac OS X on it… (or Dell sold Apple equipment with Dell’s service plan). It’s even more frustrating when you’re trying to push Mac OS X in the enterprise… How do you think the above flies with IT departments? It doesn’t. Apple’s response? You need to have your IT staff certified as Apple techs so you can order / warehouse replacement parts and do the repairs yourself. What do we do? Keep spare laptops on hand and have a constant train of repairs going back to an Apple Service Center (that is not an Apple store, so you can drop it off and pick it up a week later without a scheduled appointment and wasting a half hour with a Genius).
Ridiculous. How I hope Apple wakes up to the needs of professionals, enterprise users, and normal everyday people who don’t want to be treated like cattle… By the way, of all the time I’ve spent in an Apple store (which is quite a bit) – including Apple Stores in London, San Francisco, Atlanta, etc, I’ve never seen someone leaving a Genius Bar satisfied. Never. Never. I’ve never left a Genius Bar satisfied. I’ve never spoken to someone who has left a Genius Bar satisfied. I always see displays of frustration. I always see unhappy, upset customers (not to say that all customers are nice / happy people). No matter, nice, knowledgeable Genius Bar folks don’t make up for the fact that this process is broken and is more fitted to broken B&W TVs in the 1960s than modern, expensive computers – nearly boutique computers. Aren’t Apple Computers the BMWs or Mercedes of the computer world? Not by the way they treat their customers in respect to hardware repair.
Rant over… Guess I’ll be heading to the Apple Store soon to pick up my iLife / iWork…
Update: The battery is “supposedly” replaceable by an Apple service center for $179. The price is fine, although it better be a 5 minute Genius Bar appt. The big question now – it appears that the memory and hard drive are not user-serviceable either, meaning your stuck buying memory from Apple (at 6x the current price everywhere else) and not able to flip in and out hard drives as you like – which I find indispensable on my new Macbook Pro. These are huge steps backward if true. Still trying to find out…
Update 2: …representatives who Ars spoke with on the Macworld Expo floor went with an “anywhere between one or two hours, up to a week.” Still no word on memory and HD.
January 7th, 2009 at 9:05 am
This is one of your rants I totally agree on. The Apple hardware does not meet up to it’s price. You can barely drop your laptop and something has to be replaced for hundreds of dollars. I have not had a Dell in many years but at least it could take a little more of a beating. I hate taking my Apple products to the Apple store. It is small, usually has this smell, and even if you have a Apple Pro Care card you still wind up waiting forever. Never enough seating at this tiny counter and the worse is when you wait forever and they just send it off anyway. Got to be a better way of making appointments. Maybe they should have a triage center to assess your computer to see what can be done in store or if they just need to send it off. Then if it can be fixed there you moved to the genius bar.
January 7th, 2009 at 10:26 am
I read that post nodding along with everything right up until:
Guess I’ll be heading to the Apple Store soon to pick up my iLife / iWork
And I nearly choked on my yogurt. Fortunately yogurt is smooth and creamy and difficult to choke on. So, Apple made a bad decision, and their service is bad, and Apple are being poopy-heads == guess I’d better go buy some Apple stuff right now?
Out of curiosity, just what did iLife / iWork add that has you rushing out to buy a copy immediately? I didn’t follow yesterday’s news too closely so the only thing I heard about was face tracking in iPhoto or something?
January 9th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
somegeekintn: I was capturing the irony of the fact that as much as I dislike the Apple service model, I’m still chained to their superior products – particularly OS X…
As far as iLife / iWork. The new features of iLife look quite compelling (although iLife isn’t out yet) – the face recognition looks amazing and iMovie looks almost usable again. iWork not as much, but as relatively cheap as it is, I didn’t mind splurging for it.
July 17th, 2009 at 11:32 am
[...] Apple’s abysmal customer support, maintenance and repair policies – or lack of them (see previous rant). Limiting customers to a single avenue of hardware repair that can take days and weeks, including [...]