I'm getting a lot of traffic from people looking for yesterday's entry about Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. If you're one of the Russell Crowe-seekers, the bit about his new film can be found here.
You all know I love my iBook, that it's my most prized possession. That doesn't mean I'm a blind follower of the Apple herd, though. Macs have flaws, and I'm here today to tell you that Apple customer support sucks.
I've had my iBook for ten months. At the end of June, the power cord began to fray at the point where it connects to the computer. The fraying accelerated at a remarkable rate until last week, whenever I would touch the cord while it was powering the computer, painful little blue sparks would shoot from the now-exposed wires. Then, last night, the power adapter would not work at all.
My warrant information indicated that I still had two months of protection left on this computer. It also said to check the Apple web site for an Authorized Apple Service Provider in my area. Locating the correct information on the web site was more difficult than it ought to have been, but I did find it. (I can't even find the information again in order to link to it for this weblog entry. Wait! Here it is, buried on the site.) I printed a list of local Authorized Apple Service Providers and called the first one on the list.
"I'm sorry," the man told me, before I could even tell him my problem. "You'll have to call Apple directly. We can't help you." What kind of service does an Authorized Apple Service Provider provide?
So, I called Apple directly.
I waited on hold for eight minutes before somebody answered (my phone here at work has a handy call-timer feature &mash; I love it!). This is not a long time compared to Microsoft wait-times (sometimes over an hour!), but it's not nearly as quick as one can reach a live person when phoning Dell.
I tried to explain the problem to the fellow who answered my call. He stopped me, though, and told me that my iBook was out of the 90-day free phone service period. In order to continue, I'd need to purchase five days of additional service for $50.
A little black cloud formed over my head, just like in the comic strips.
"But we'll refund your money if it turns out to be hardware problem," he assured me. (As if a faulty power cable could be anything else.)
I gave him my credit card information and tried to explain the problem again. The fellow readily agreed to ship me a replacement power adapter, but noted that my credit card would be billed $80 until I returned the faulty part. And by the way — that replacement part will take five to seven working days to reach me.
The entire call took 27 minutes. I was on hold (listening to 80s New Wave music) for bout 22 of those minutes.
Now I'll admit that none of this is unreasonable. It's moderately acceptable customer service in relation to industry standards. Still: it sucks ass. I'm being charged $130 and have to wait up to two weeks in order to get a replacement for a faulty part. Only when I return the bad part will my $130 be credited to my account.
Compare this to Dell's customer support. I've dealt with Dell's customer support several times; I owned a Dell laptop, and my largest client uses Dell computers exclusively. (I need to go set up three new Dell laptops this weekend, in fact.)
When I need to contact Dell customer support, I'm able to reach a live person almost immediately. It never costs anything to speak with them, no matter how old the computer is. If the computer is under warranty and a replacement part is needed, Dell just ships the part out and doesn't monkey around with credit card information. Even if the computer is out of warranty, Dell's customer service is free and helpful.
Apple should take lessons from Dell.
As a postscript, I've become a little nervous about the future reliability of my iBook after having heard stories from others about the fragility of Apple laptops. It makes me nervous that Apple might not have actually engineered these computers to last.
Nevertheless, I love my iBook.
What if you could transfer "virtual skills" — skills developed on-line and in computer games — to real life? For example, maybe I could find some practical real-life use for clicking things with my right index finger. Well, Steven Garrity has come up with a concept that would be an ideal use for some of Joel's virtual skills.
On this day at foldedspace.org
2004 — Unexpected Encounters 'Who would have guessed?' we said as we drove away. 'Four Willamette Bearcats at the same party.' Three from a single dorm!
jd:
i think you could've taken yr receipt and walked right into an apple service center (i would've recommended macforce.com or the computer store) with the ibook and offending part and gotten a replacement on the spot. at least that's how things USED to work.