Is Apple service always this lousy?

[grandcider]

Still no satisfaction! Last Friday morning, I called Apple to complain about the service centre's non-responsiveness. The agent agreed that 6 weeks was a very long time for a latch repair and said she was emailing the centre's management to ask them to contact me. 5pm Monday and still no word, so I called Brilliant Ascent Development (BAD) and miraculously reached a human operator for the first time in many attempts.

She checked the records and told me that some part had arrived on the 12th. I pointed out that today is the 16th and asked why it had taken so bloody long in the first place. She sounded annoyed and gave some explanation about the laptop being at some warehouse and not at their centre. She said that they will call me in "about two days" to "confirm the collection date."

This is so ridiculous. BAD needs to change its name to AWFUL. I suggest that you avoid this place the next time you need your Apple hardware serviced.

[Oman Mercenary]

May I suggest "[email protected] - write an e'mail complaining about the lousy service and the run-arounds & - with luck - you'll get speedy action from publicity in the SCM Post.

But don't procrastinate - the column comes out on MONDAYS as I recall.

I've had to use it twice to chivvy up IBM/PCCW over the reneging of promised dates for delivery of Student purchased IBM's both one and two years ago.

It was very effective too!

[mobespierre]

as i recall i had some not awesome experiences with apple service here... i had to bring my ibook in for the battery recall, as well as getting the fan fixed. when i got there they did not have the batteries available, but wanted to take my computer to fix the fan. it took them weeks to fix the fan, never answered my calls of enquiry, and never called me to tell me the computer had been fixed.

i love me my mac, but holy cow! service! bad!

[HKNewBi]

Seeing as every time someone posts up with a minor pc problem, 5 people with a mac or iPod related usernames always pop up to post the most unhelpful reply of "buy a mac - they simply never go wrong", I have decided to get my own back: In future - buy a PC. They do go wrong (like just about everything else) but getting them fixed is easy.

Sorry, I know this is totally unhelpful and I am not seriously suggesting you shell out next to 10k to fix a broken latch, but, as they say, revenge is a dish best served cold....

Oh and before I get it in the neck, I am only joking and I love all apple products and their owners, especially for their appreciation for tongue in cheek humour, and of course the fruit which I eat damn near daily (my first ever PC was an Apple IIe but my first every fruit, so my mum tells me, was in fact a banana).

[punk]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

Sorry........ I digress....

I mean yes, it really, truly and whole heartedly is "that lousy". I had a wife once who fell under the spell of "Apple elitism" and swore upside down and sideways by those awful machines......

Thankfully I never fell under that spell myself and I always had access to help and a much larger vareity and choice in software. I am very happy to say I have since upgraded to a new and improved wife without the MAC Elitist virus in her.....

Thank goodness for that too.

Sorry you are having problems, but next time do some reading on sites other than the typical "I love my apple soooooo much" sites and you will see you are not alone in your problems.....

just my 2 cents...

sirant

Mac elitist? You must be a PC elitist. Going on 15 years a mac user. Never really considered myself elitist...Haven't had the same problems with Mac tech support. Certainly tech support issues are not limited to Mac users. Please refrain from insulting those with a different product preference...

[punk]

Seeing as every time someone posts up with a minor pc problem, 5 people with a mac or iPod related usernames always pop up to post the most unhelpful reply of "buy a mac - they simply never go wrong", I have decided to get my own back: In future - buy a PC. They do go wrong (like just about everything else) but getting them fixed is easy.

So according to your rigorous survey Mac's have technical issues 5 x the rate of PCs. To balance the issue in some vague sense, I'm on my third mac in 15 years and have never had to send any of them in for tech support. The current one, a beautiful (and powerful) 17" Powerbook hums at a steady pace.

Still, I'm probably missing something with the plastic style of the pc case and that retro 80's windows interface...

[HKNewBi]

So according to your rigorous survey Mac's have technical issues 5 x the rate of PCs. .

Read what I wrote again. It might make more sense the second time. I made no claims whatsoever about the reliability of PC's vs Mac's. It was more an observation on the behaviour of Mac users - although I may have got it wrong about the appreciation of humour bit.

I'm off to look at my new toaster. It has a brushed steel casing!!!

[larac]

Well now my mac has another issue - the usb ports don't work - CASE solution - 3 days to inspect, 2 weeks to get the parts and an interdeminate amount of time to actually fix it. Joy oh Joy I love my mac.

[punk]

Well now my mac has another issue - the usb ports don't work - CASE solution - 3 days to inspect, 2 weeks to get the parts and an interdeminate amount of time to actually fix it. Joy oh Joy I love my mac.

If there was a REAL mac store here this would change. In San Francisco if I had a problem with, say, my ipod, I could walk into the store and exchange it on the spot. Don't understand why they don't open one...