Apple Support

supanatral

supanatral

Registered
I must say, I've been quite unsatisfied with apple support! I received three months of support complimentary when I purchased my Mac book pro.

I called them up and after trying to be up sold by buying into the apple care package which would allow me to keep on calling up for support, I explained my issue concerning a network issue (VPN). I was very clear in explaining my issue and explained that a PC could dial into the vpn but not a Mac. They told me to contact my computer administrator (which is myself). They refused to help me simply because it has to do with network, even though the issue can obviously be traced back to my Mac.

Later I called asking them how I can share a folder for other users to see on my network. Please note that this is simply a question on how to do something, not an issue. They told me that they can't help me however they could help me set up FTP instead, which would be a round about way of getting it to work. If I were to set up a ftp, it would be a pain to get files off of it and put files on it, but I accepted the help so he walked me through enabling FTP. When I got to the point where he instructed me to enable FTP, I noticed another option to enable Windows sharing (which is what I originally wanted). He could have easily showed me how, but instead he put up a big fuss and would only help me enable FTP. So I enabled windows sharing and it did what I wanted it to do.

In my opinion, Apple guaranteed me 90 day complimentary support and not 90 day limited complimentary support. I feel that legally, they have to support me if I have an issue with my Mac within the 90 day time period since it was not specified as to what they would and wouldn't support when I bought my Mac. Is that correct? Or am I gapping somewhere?
 
They guaranteed you technical support, not 3rd party software support. Connecting to a VPN is just that. You proved that by saying a PC could dial in, but your Mac couldn't. The issue is obviously the computer being dialed into and how it is setup.

Helping you recover data lost in a crash, or fix an issue with Apple software or Hardware on your the machine that is covered, is the whole idea behind the warranty.

That (network thing) would be akin to expecting your car dealer to fix the road you live on, under warranty, because it was full of potholes and gave you a bumpy ride.
 
Ok, but if a pc can dial in and work correctly proves to me that the unix server and the pc I setup works correctly. Then you take the pc away and put a mac there, and it does not work, all thats left to believe to fault is the only thing you changed, which is the mac. Now, a even bigger reason why I don't believe its a server problem is becuase Mac OSX is built off unix, so in other words, I'm dialing in from a computer that is practically Unix into a unix server which should be very smooth (in theory). Plus, they didn't do enough diagnosing to even prove to themselves where the fault lies.

After that I told them that because this was a mac osx issue and they wern't willing to help me even diagnose it, I pushed a bit to recieve support so they passed me onto someone further up. The apple employee then offered a suggestion that macs may not dial into VPN's the same as a pc does, which I appriciate that atleast she's thinking about my problem. After I asked her the difference how how a pc dials in compared to how an apple dials in, she told me that she "has not recieved the appropriate training on this matter and so she is unsure asto what the answer is." Being an IT person myself, I understand that their it is impossible to know everything, however, if I say at work that I don't know and that's all there is to it, then I will be fired. The appriate response is "I'm not too sure about that, could I put you on hold for a second while I ask someone that will know?" I can even respect that they do not know how a PC dials in because that's not the computer that they support, but someone at apple has to know how a apple connects to a VPN network because someone had to have programmed Mac OSX.

I appologize if I gone on a rant, but it seems that every time I call them up they decide not to support me because of one excuse or another. Because I work in IT, I can usually figure things out on my Mac book pro, so when I do have quesions, they are usally very in depth so they are never able to support me even if it is on their own product. Not to mention, even though I graduated from high school in June, I still feel more qualified, let alone half the people on this forum then the people that I've talked to at Apple.
 
What VPN client do you use on the PC to connect to your VPN server at work? If it's the Cisco VPN client, you need the Macintosh version and you need to copy the profile settings that you have on the PC to the Mac. You'll find a version on the following site (I got this link from an Ubuntu forum).

http://realvpn.real.com/#download

Next time, please don't forget to include the client software you're using as well. All you said was that you were dialing to the VPN. You were not specific about the VPN client used on either the PC or the Mac, nor were you specific about the type of VPN server that was being accessed (Cisco, OpenVPN, etc.)

The issue here seems to be the VPN client you're using and the VPN server being accessed, which is why Apple can't help you. They're only there to help you with problems that reside on your Macintosh, not on how to connect to something using the Macintosh. That question would be better sent to the company that's makes the VPN software.
 
I was using the vpn client that came with Mac OSX and the PC was using the vpn client that came with windows. There were no 3rd party software involved in the clients.

I'll try the cisco vpn client and see how that works.
 
OK, now the question remains: what kind of VPN server was being used at the location you're trying to connect to?

Also, have you tried manually copying over the settings located on the PC over to the Mac? In other words, look at any settings that might be used on the PC VPN client and make sure that the same things are enabled on the Mac VPN client.
 
I just quit Dell - so I'll let you know how Dell handles it.

You buy your PC - you spend an extra $200-$400 on a hardware warranty - complete care - the works. You go to connect to the internet, it doesn't work - so you call Dell. While it is true that certain agents will help you, their policy is more or less is to run diagnostics and verify that the NIC and/or wireless nic are working. If they are, they can offer to restore the computer back to the factory settings.

Don't like that option? "No problem - we'll transfer you to advanced support". You get connected to Dell-On-Call - their "Premium Fee-Based Support". You pay them $99.00 and they go and fix the problem. Nevermind you spent $400 on a complete-care warranty that came with phone tech support ... that "tech support" was for issues relating to your warranty. (oh, and Dell-On-Call wouldn't touch your VPN issue)

Apple *DOES* push the Applecare a bit too much if you ask me .. but I think everyone should have Applecare - just because of the fact that the cost of replacing components is ridiculous (Apple gouges you for parts)

Applecare is, in my opinion, overall - good. They have to draw a line in the sand somewhere. Could you imagine, "Yeah I'm on my iMac .. I've booted into windows .. and its blue-screening every 2 minutes with random bluescreen messages ... it doesn't boot into safe mode. Works fine in Mac OS X"

EDIT: The scenario at the bottom is actually rogue spyware / virus symptoms - seen it lots :)
 
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