Apple (Australia) is one lucky, lucky company. After the experiences I’ve had with them over the past few days if ANYONE else made their hardware I’d be jumping ship NOW.
Last week the power supply on my Macbook, well Miss6′s Macbook actually, died. No lights, no power, nothing. Even put the trusty multimeter across it and there wasn’t even a trickle. Dutifully reported it to Apple (the machine is still under AppleCare), and here the fun #1 begins.
Despite having the “Proof of Coverage” certificate, issued BY Apple, in 2009 I find someone else’s serial number against my name !! I have a second PoC dated November 2009 with the offending serial number on it, so it is abundantly clear that the CORRECT serial number was registered first. No, Apple can’t explain it, the second serial number is registered to a company “no-where near the Sydney area” (all they’d tell me). The offer to cover the machine, and hence the power supply, “in good faith” while they investigate the matter – not happy, but I guess they have to do their thing.
Meanwhile I have to have a GENIUS BAR appointment to get a power supply exchanged !! WTF, Apple ?? What “diagnostics” do you need to run, apart from plugging it in ? Doesn’t take a GENIUS to do that.
Fortunately I walk across the road to the George St Apple store and a very helpful young man does the right thing and swaps it over – he even agrees with me that a GENIUS appointment for something so trivial is a waste of time – and hence I promised not to identify him !!
Pity it’s the NEW style, with the right angled plug, that won’t fit in the machines if you have an acrylic case on them – the old straight style is a “special order” and will take 10 days. Sod that, I take the power supply and give Miss6 my old straight one.
So today begins fun #2 !!
While charging the laptop at work I notice that the battery’s maximum charge of 5500mwH is not being reached – in fact it’s getting just over 3900mwH, and has only been through 82 full cycles. As it’s under AppleCare, I call Apple.
Yes, the battery is faulty. Yes, there were a batch of A1175 batteries that degraded prematurely. Yes, it would be replaced under AppleCare. But I have to get one of the accursed GENIUS appointments to get this done !! WTF #2, Apple !!!
It’s a bleeding BATTERY, what diagnostic can you do on it that I wouldn’t have done over the phone (System Profiler gave them all the info they needed for AppleCare to accept liability for it).
After being dicked around by a couple of the Apple Store droids, including one brainless security guard who time me the store was only 2 floors high (I’d never been above the ground floor), I’m told I have to go up to the GENIUS BAR to get the replacement authorised. After all, I have the case number and Apple have accepted liability.
When I get there this complete WASTE OF DNA, wearing a British racing cap, tells me that I have to go to “a technician” to have the replacement authorised and have it fitted. Really ? On an externally accessible USER REPLACEABLE BATTERY ?? He then proceeds to lecture me on Apple Store Procedure, and that you apparently have to be a “trained and certified Technician” to change a battery that is accessible from OUTSIDE THE MACHINE – obviously this was all drummed into him at the mandatory Cupertino ARROGANCE AND BELLIGERENCE TRAINING.
I query this and he tells me next appointment is next THURSDAY, to get A BLOODY BATTERY REPLACED !! Of course, I did what any sane right-thinking person would do – I told him to jam it up his ass and stormed off.
Downstairs I eventually had the Manager turn up, look at the case ID, and swap the battery over for me immediately, all the while apologizing for the treatment I’d received – ever so slightly condescendingly. I suspect she just didn’t want the agro, or was not used to customers demanding their rights, and just wanted to get rid of me.
As I told her, I can appreciate the need for GENIUS BAR appointments when something is wrong with the computer or something needs diagnosing – maybe even if such hasn’t been done online with the Apple Support team. But Apple HAVE to realise that insisting on appointments for MINOR TRIVIALITIES or things that DO NOT NEED DIAGNOSIS must be attended to as walk-ins !!
Not everyone has the time to make an appointment, especially when the next one is 7pm Thursday and you live 2 hours from the city, just as not everyone is a complete noob when it comes to Apple gear, although I have never seen anyone treated as anything but that by the GENIUS BAR staff.
How these guys (and yes, girls) can be called “geniuses” is beyond me – they even balked at my machine when they saw I have it TRIPLE booting (OS X, Windows 7 and Linux), using rEFIt, a pre-boot boot menu (and it is NOT rocket science !!). None of them knew how I’d done it nor that it was possible, and one guy even said that it was because of that setup I was having battery issues !!
As a friend on Twitter said today, “in a world where everything is meant to “just work”, the trivially easy becomes overwhelmingly complicated.”
Thoughts, Apple ???
