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More Apple Tech Support Tales |
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 Inspired by Jonahan, who, in turn, was inspired by John Manzione, I have decided to post my Apple tech support / Apple Care story. It's a sordid tale of skullduggery and intrigue. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry. It'll be more exciting than a rabbit with a pancake on it's head. But most of all, it will make your corneas explode in exactly the same way a bowl of Corn Bran wouldn't.
It all started back in April of 2001. There was Jonahan, Spoon, Giant Phil, a bag of sharpened sticks, two dozen midgets, and me. Wait, there were no midgets. Come to think of it, there were no sharpened sticks either. Now that I think about it, there was only Jonahan and me. Anyway, we were all going on that magical 2 hour drive to CompUSA, (the Apple store had not opened yet, so CompUSA was all we had), to purchase my new G4 PowerMac. I got the 533 Mhz Digital Audio version, and an Apple 17" CRT studio display. When the time came to purchase it, I thankfully, (and regrettably), decided to get the Apple Care.
Well, after about a year of everything working fine, I noticed that the video on my monitor was kind of shaking. It was very minute, but seeing as how I do a lot of work in Photoshop, and the fact that I spent $500 on the damn thing, I wasn't going to let that slide. I checked the obvious first, hooked up another monitor to the card, made sure no pins were bent, etc., and all signs pointed to the monitor. So I called Tech support, spent an hour or so on the phone, and eventually they had me send it in.
A week later I had it back. I was so excited. So I expeditiously hooked the monitor up, and turned on my Mac. 30 seconds later, I was curled up in the fetal position on the floor covered in Corn Bran, and cold milk, while having epileptic seizures. The reason for this? There was no video. Not even a shaking one. None. I checked everything, double checked it, and then for good measure, triple checked it. Finally, I called Tech support. An hour later, they were sending a box to me to send the monitor in again. A week later, I had my monitor back, and it worked.
When I say it worked, I mean it worked for about 6 months. Then the video started the shaking again. It was right around Thanksgiving of last year. I called tech support, and explained the situation. The guy on the phone said he would send me a box to have it sent in.
3 weeks later, I still hadn't recieved the box. So, I called Tech support again. I told them that I was suppose to send my monitor in for the third time, and I had never recieved my box to ship it in. He apologized, and suggested that I take it to the Apple Store, (2 hours away mind you), to get it replaced. I asked him if he was sure it needed to be replaced, and he said yes.
So on Christmas Eve I drove to the Apple Store, and lugged that heavy ass monitor through the Easton Town center, to the Apple Store. They checked it out, verified the problem, and told me that Apple Care policy was to send it out 3 times. They had to send it out once more. Okay, fine. I know how policy works, do it. They said they would get it fixed, and then ship it to my house. But warned that it may take awhile since it was the holidays. I said that was fine. It was however not fine.
2 weeks go by, and I still haven't gotten it yet. So I called the Apple Store, explained the situation and they put me on hold and go try to figure it out. 20 minutes later they came back and told me the bad news. My monitor, that was dropped off 2 weeks ago, is still at the store. It appears they are waiting for a box. I am furious. They promised to send it out the next buisness day, and have it at my house in a week. I say fine. It was however, not fine.
A week goes by and I still do not have my monitor. I called the Apple Store again. They put me on hold, and then come back to tell me that even though they finally got the box, they still haven't shipped it. They have dropped the ball so many times at this point, it almost seems humorous, in that "not at all humorous" sort of way. The guy promises to ship it tomorrow, and says it will arrive at my house in a week. I say fine. It was however not fine.
A week and a half go by, and I get a message on my answering machine. "This is the Apple Store, your monitor is ready to be picked up." Oh my God. They didn't ship it to my house. I called them, tell them the situation, and they say they can ship it out on Monday (this was a Friday). I politely decline. I am not falling for that again. Besides, my Uncle is coming up for my brother's birthday, and he lives 10 min. away, I will just have him pick it up. That went surprisingly well.
Now, by surprisingly well, I mean that he eventually got it. He had to go through all kinds of crap to get them to give him the monitor, even though I left his name, address, description, etc. But that is beside the point. The monitor is now at my house, and I see the address that they would have shipped it to, had they tried to ship it to my house. The only thing correct on the label was the state. The address, city, and zip code were all wrong. Thank God it wasn't shipped to "my" house.
Again, I get all giddy and hook the monitor up, only to be let down. It was not only still shaking, but now the left third of the screen had a double picture. I called tech support, and told them the whole story. They decided to finally replace the monitor. They said they would send out a box to ship it in, and I was reasonably pessimistic. But much to my suprise, I did get the box when they said I would. I immediately shipped it out.
Now, at this point I was dealing with ONE person at Apple, I had his line directly, and he told me that if I don't receive my new monitor in a week to call him. A week went by and I called him, and called him, and called him. He never returned my calls.
4 days later, I called regular support, and demanded to know why I hadn't recieved my monitor. I get another guy who finds out it has been sitting at the place they do the exchanges for a few days, but hasn't been processed. He says I have to wait until Monday or Tuesday, and he would call me after he finds out what's going on. Then he says he will get the new monitor shipped to me. Wednesday I called him back. "Oh yeah, I forgot about that, hold and I'll check" is what I heard. Eventually he says it's all ready, and will be shipped tomorrow. I should recieve it by Thursday.
The next Monday I had my 17" LCD Studio Display.
I have always been a Mac Advocate. I have always promoted the Mac, and I have switched several dozen people from Windows to the Mac. This experience has hurt my evangelism. I find myself hard pressed to promote a company that put me through such hell. Although my view of Apple was severely hurt, my old passion for the Mac is slowly but surely coming back.
Time heals all wounds I guess. This site has helped a lot in getting me excited about the Mac again. But it will be some time before I trust Apple completely again. And it's stories such as John Manzione's that remind me of what I went through, and the sheer distaste of going through it again.
I only hope that with the switch campaign, Apple may decide to take a good hard look at their Tech Support, because although I am a Mac Advocate, and therefore more forgiving, others are not.
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April 26 2003, 4:24 PM EDT, by
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Comments:
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| Jonahan |
4/26/03, 5:07 PM EDT |
Wow...amazing story...I can't believe I didn't know all of that - we really need to get together more!
Anyway, It's hard to reconcile being a Mac evengelist when Apple does such things. Yeesh. And we should have entitled these articles "Tech Support Horror Stories" - except for my iMac one ;)
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| Anonymous |
4/26/03, 10:28 PM EDT |
Maybe you should have checked around before you bought the monitor. Many other people had problems with it.
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| anon |
4/27/03, 1:53 AM EDT |
Ken, the difference is that you didn't abuse your monitor like Manzione did his PowerBook. Your problem was obviously a component failure, his was physical damage. If I were Apple I would have treated him like that too.
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| Wasabe |
4/27/03, 11:01 AM EDT |
Here is a quote from mac whispers:
OEM sources have confirmed that the panel presently used by Apple in its 17-inch Studio Display has been designated as "End Of Life" by its manufacturer and will no longer be produced, as of May, 2003. This coincides with other information we have received suggesting a new widescreen panel is being ramped into production by Apple's newest LCD supplier Chi Mei Optoelectronics.
From what we can gather, it appears that substantial supply channel stocks remain of the present 17-inch Studio Display, plus, production will continue of the present model until well into May. Altogether, June or early July availability of the new widescreen 17-inch Cinema Display seems a certainty, as we have solidly verified the discontinuation of the present panel, the production ramp-up of the new Chi Mei panel, and the fact that Apple is the customer for this all-new 16:10 widescreen panel.
We have conflicting information as to the screen resolution of the new Chi Mei panel, so we will wait for more solid evidence to arrive before addressing the new Cinema Display's specifications.
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| Jonahan |
4/27/03, 4:33 PM EDT |
anon, I don't see how pushing in the button to open the laptop is considered "abusing the monitor". As he says: "I pressed the latch in front of the PowerBook to open it and found the latch wouldn?t let go. I wound up having to press my fingernail into the latch to get it released, and as I opened it I heard the faint sound of cracking."
Now maybe more went on than Mr. Manzione admits, but if we take his story at face value, then I think Apple would have to be at fault.
Also, something I've learned about buying Apple hardware: Never buy the first revision of anything from Apple! Of course if everyone did this, there would never be a second revision! ;)
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| Gary P |
4/27/03, 10:35 PM EDT |
By way of contrast, Mitsubishi Corp, the Japanese giant, came through for me big time when my Diamond Pro 2040u failed just a month before the 3 year warranty expired. They immediately sent me a brand new 2060u without question. Before the 2040u, I had a 21" Apple Studio Display that went thru the same routine described by the original poster: Defective when brand new, shipped back & forth 3 times, 3 months of hell and Apple stalling tactics, which finally ended when I furiously demanded my money back after the 3rd delivery was unceremoniously dumped in the street so carelessly that the Monitor's case was broken! Apple finally refunded my dough, but the experience taught me exactly what Steve Jobs thinks of his customers.
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| Jonahan |
4/28/03, 8:46 AM EDT |
I think sometimes that we idealize Apple and think they can do wrong (at least I do). That's why when we hear stories like this it shakes our moral fibers...
Just like any other company, and like Gary said, sometimes you have to get downright mean with them and DEMAND either your money back or a new monitor. Towards the end of the Airport base station fun-ness I descibed her e, I had to get pretty stern.
I don't think we would take a lot of B.S. like this if it wasn't Apple.
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| Jonahn |
4/28/03, 12:22 PM EDT |
Wasabe, that's cool - but iKen had a 17" CRT Studio. Old school ;)
That's a nice tradeup to a 17" LCD, btw - maybe part of the reason Apple gave you such a hassle, iKen....
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