Apple Tech Support STINKS!

[bkiser]

Here is my story:

Bought a new PowerMac G4 on 3/23/02. Love it- works great! On 4/17/02, the CDRW mysteriously spits out the CD that was playing- weird. No sweat, I will call Tech Support. Call Tech Support and they say that my complimentary period began on 12/15/01, but if I would like to pay $49.99 for a one-time call or purchase AppleCare for $249.99, then they will be happy to help me. Um, no thanks. They give me the number to some support administration place which supposedly can fix the date discrepency. On 4/18/02, my wife goes into labor 10 days early, so the Mac is not exactly up on the priorities list.

To make a long story short, after dealing with various baby health issues for 3 months, I finally get the chance to call Tech Support. In the meantime, I have done a little troubleshooting on my own, and discovered the the CDRW opens by itself under the following conditions- 1. Mac is powered on. It occurs with all disks, under both OSs, while the computer is booting, while no one is logged on, and even with the IDE cable unplugged. It doesnt take a Systems Engineer (even though I are one) to figure out that this is indicative of a bad drive. Great- its under warranty! Of course, to get this warranty, I still have to pay $49.99 or $249.99 or carry my G4 100 miles to a service center.

If Apple really wants to win former PC users, then this needs to change- if my G4 is under warranty for hardware, I expect a drive to be put in the mail and sent to me, with a return box for the bad drive. I have had a Dell laptop for 3 years, and its had its fair share of hardware problems, but every time parts have been sent NEXT DAY. All I want is a stupid CDRW to be sent to my house- its not like I am asking for a motherboard or anything.

Needless to say, after dealing with Apple's snotting "product specialist" I will not be purchasing another Mac .

Am I just being a little whiny baby?

Brian
AIX RS6000 SP certified

[xaqintosh]

rather than call apple tech support, you should just consult the fine folks here at macosx.com for all your problems! wwe have experts in ALL areas.

[bkiser]

I would be more than happy to, as long as someone will send me a free (working) CDRW!

My problem is that they will not let me talk to someone about hardware without first going through every single possibility with their help desk guy first (for $49.99).

[boi]

Originally posted by bkiser
Am I just being a little whiny baby?

absolutely not. higher prices for computers had better = much better service. especially since their stuff rarely breaks and they have such a small customer base. they should treat us like freaking kings if something ever does break. it's the service that wins over a lot of customers.
i'm kind of disheartened to hear about this-- come on Apple! i thought you were made of better stuff. stories like this make you sound like a bunch of slimeballs.

[boi]

update: i was using my PC at home during a thunderstorm, and a bolt of lightning fried the ethernet card, which was permanently connected to the motherboard. i called Dell and they sent a guy the next morning to take apart my machine and give me a new ethernet card/motherboard. he put it back together, said "have a nice day" and left.

... he CAME TO MY HOUSE and FIXED IT FOR ME for FREE.

God forbid anything ever happen to my mac, it would mean buying a new mac.

[JetwingX]

anyone remember the golden old days of Free (yes FREE) tech support? i loved those days

[MikeMc]

Originally posted by boi
update: i was using my PC at home during a thunderstorm, and a bolt of lightning fried the ethernet card, which was permanently connected to the motherboard. i called Dell and they sent a guy the next morning to take apart my machine and give me a new ethernet card/motherboard. he put it back together, said "have a nice day" and left.

... he CAME TO MY HOUSE and FIXED IT FOR ME for FREE.

God forbid anything ever happen to my mac, it would mean buying a new mac.

When my daughter was first learning to pull herself up on things, she pulled herself up on a tray that I had sitting by my desk, with my Dell laptop sitting on it. She pulled down the tray, laptop, and a couple of big programming books that I have, all come crashing down... keyboard was not responsive anymore, and needed to be replaced. I thought for sure that Dell would turn away the warranty because it was my fault, but they not only sent someone out the next day, they sent the guy to my work. He swapped the keyboard, tested it, and left, no problem... he didn't even care about linux being on the box (which most PeeCee manufacturers throw a fit if you change the OS)... of course, from what I hear, they no longer have this high quality support...

[dixonbm]

Ok, since there are a few Wonderful Dell stories I thought I'd share my crappy Dell story.

One of my fraternity brothers got a dell last christmas, albeit without an ethernet card. The first card didnt work, neither did the second, third, or fourth. All 4 different brands. The one thing the cards would do was lightup. A connection existed on both ends from the hub to the nic card. But no internet. So we call Dell and they refused to even talk about the nic card since it was not installed upon purchase. I finally convinced them there was a problem with the computer...possibly the pci slots...after I told them about the four different cards.

So they sent out a new board...not a repairman. I and another fraternity brother installed the board, but the problem was still not fixed. To this day I don't know what is wrong with that computer. When we called Dell again to say the problem still wasn't fixed, they said the problem must lie with the nic cards and they closed the case. I tried to get my friend to call Dell again, but he just didnt' care enough.

So, I hate Dell.


As for the other Dell I've had the liberty of hooking up, one of its usb ports was bad.

Again, I hate Dell.