Adventures with Apple

So my Christmas Break from school means one thing:  I have an insane amount of free time (ha!), but more importantly I don't depend on my Mac nearly as much as I do the rest of the year. (Barring summer...)

My SD slot wasn't working, and it was starting to get annoying, so I brought it into the local apple store for a genius bar appointment. They took it to fix (I think replace!) the logic board.

So in the meantime I'm without a decent laptop... I'm using my old laptop, which is running a bit on the slow side at times, but is still barely bearable. I'll live for the week or whatever it'll take them to repair it, as long as I get it back before I really need it again. Ideally, I'd like it right now so I can catch up on all the photo editing I'm months behind in, but that can wait until I get it back...

On an unrelated note, I thought I'd comment on Apple's customer service process in comparison to certain other cough Dell cough companies.

A few years ago, the motherboard on one of our other brand computers went out. We dealt with it by getting online and doing live chat with multiple (at different times) company representatives who were probably in a different country. (You know, the kind who can barely speak English, let alone write it!) Eventually, they agreed to send us a bunch of parts for us to replace. Before the parts arrived, (or maybe shortly thereafter) the computer started working on its own, so we sent the parts back.

Pretty soon, the computer stopped working again, and we contacted the company again. They agreed to send out parts and a tech. It took them weeks to get the parts BACK to us that were sitting in our house not more than 48 hours ago!

Eventually, the issue was resolved and we haven't had any issues with the computer since...

Compare all that to Apple's approach:

I brought my computer into my genius bar appointment. I was immediately greeted by an employee of the Apple store who asked what I needed. Since I went in the day before Christmas Eve, the store was rather crowded.

I sat down and waited at the genius bar (I had issues with parking, so my appointment got postponed 45 minutes after the original time - which meant about a 15 minute wait before my appointment.) Someone who seemed knowledgeable (the only question she had to ask someone else was whether it was okay that I upgraded my ram myself - it was fine!) and was very helpful. She filled out the paper work on her magic tablet, printed it, and I was out of the store in less than half an hour with my computer waiting for repair.

Now I'm waiting to hear back so that I can go pick up my computer again... According to the tracking information provided, it's status is "Shipment to repair center pending."

Hoping to get it back before the new year, and by the weekend of the 8th at the latest!

Anyways, that's the end of my rant. Hopefully you don't find it too dull... :)