Audiophilia

Done with the Appletastrophe… I hope.

March 2, 2009 at 3:27 pm (Ranting) (apple, rants)

So I just got back from the Apple Store. Let me fill you in on what happened.

So last Thursday, 2/19/2009, I brought my MacBook in to have the palm rest fixed. It’s a little defect, it happens, it’s a pain in the butt, but oh well. I brought it in, they gave me my slip, I went on my merry way. I got a call the next day happily proclaiming that my MacBook was fixed, and that I should come get it. I went for it that very afternoon.

Here’s where it gets weird. The palmrest, keyboard, and mousepad had all been replaced, but the palmrest had been put on incorrectly. It had a gap by the clasp that you could fit a coin into, and the bottomcase (a fancy term I learned over this mess for the bottom of the computer) was cracked. I was worried, because I had no idea what kind of force it would take to crack the bottomcase like that.

Apparently, a lot. Doug, who I assume was a manager of some sort, looked taken aback when I showed him. He took my computer and put on the new palmrest/keyboard/mousepad (it’s all one unit, or something of that nature), but didn’t have one of the two parts for the bottomcase. He told me that I would get a call when the part was in. I got that call a few days later, and a couple days after that (exam week, don’t ask) I brought the computer in, and gave it to a fellow named Evan, who sassed me quite a bit when I informed him that Apple would be covering the cost of the repair (about $903 plus tax, in case anyone cares. Another fun fact, I paid $850 for the computer). I was miffed, but I went along with it.

So I picked my computer up Sunday, fresh new bottom and everything, took it over to the Pru, sat down with a coffee from the bakery, and booted it up. It seemed fine, I was satisfied, so I folded it up, put it in its case, and slipped it in my backpack. When I opened it up later that evening, the screen wouldn’t light up. I could see faint silhouettes of things on the screen when I got right up close, but it was basically unusable. Suddenly the nature of that bottomcase crack came into my mind. I set up an appointment for the next day with the Apple Store, and I intended to get a replacement. I was not going to continue playing Pin the Tail on the Faulty Hardware (or craftsmanship, but that would be mean to suggest, wouldn’t it?).

I brought it in and Pat saw me. He ran it downstairs and came back up claiming it was just a loose cable. I wasn’t backing down. His associate had just confirmed with me that it’s physically impossible to crack the bottomcase while the topcase is being put on, and so that means (in my Occam’s Razor mind) that it must have been a) dropped or b) compressed. If this went wrong the very evening after Doug shook my hand and told me nothing was wrong with this computer, who was to say that something else wouldn’t go wrong later? I mean, the reason I bought my MacBook was because my last laptop died a horrific death after it fell off a table. I couldn’t save that computer’s data because I didn’t act quickly enough to work with it after it broke, so if something else was going to happen, I didn’t want to have to start over again. I told him that I wanted a replacement, something I KNEW would be all set, and here’s why Pat offended me:

1. Telling me that my problem was not as bad as that of other repairs that had to be done.

Well, gee, that’s comforting. MacBooks break worse than mine? Good thing those computers aren’t mine… oh wait! YOU DROPPED MY COMPUTER. My rationale is that I don’t want my computer to end up as one of those “worse cases.”

2. Telling me that, if had a PC, the repair would have taken much longer.

Yes, but I don’t have a PC. I have a Mac. Further, I’m less offended by how long it took than by the fact that something keeps going wrong. If I knew I would be without my computer for a total of five days, I’d be fine, as long as I knew it would work when I got it back.

3. Telling me how he was trying to do what was best for the company, as well as the customer.

I would hope that a happy customer would be enough for a company, but let’s be realistic, a company needs to make money. Also being realistic, the company covered repairs that cost more than my computer did and then some. The frugal decision would be to stop fixing this out-of-date relic (overstatement, I know, but the Apple Store views a 2007 model like it came from the pyramids) and put something newer and more reliable in my hands. Heck, I’d have to go out and re-buy all of my adapters and everything since the new MacBooks have all new slots, so it’s not like you wouldn’t make some money.

4. Telling me how many MacBooks he’s had, and indicating how dysfunctional one of them was.

Why is this going to comfort me? Knowing that computers will break, even if you’re the guy who gets paid to fix them? I know computers will break. I’m not concerned with it being invincible forever, but I want to know that, when I go home, this repair is done. I want to know that I won’t have to drag myself back so they can finish their job. I want to know that this is taken care of before I leave, and I had “known” that the other two times, and both times I was let down. Let this repair be done so that the next thing that goes wrong can be an act of God or my fault instead of yours.

5. Trying to buy me off with an iPod case.

This was the absolute, MOST offensive thing that Pat did, and it’s when I finally backed down. I realized that there was no way that this man was going to make things right when he said, and I quote,

“I want to make things right. I want to make sure that the company has done what it can, and that you are happy when you leave here, so I want to get you whatever will make this right. We can provide some service, or maybe get you a case for your iPod–“

I cut him off there. I didn’t want to hear how he wanted to make my computer issues (aka, the Appletastrophe) “right” by giving me a case for my iPod. Sure, I’d love a new case for my iPod, but that’s not the issue. Sure, I could have milked them for a gift card, or some accessory. I’m sure there’s something in that store that I would have liked, but by no means were they willing to give me what would make me happy, what would make things right: peace of mind.

I wanted the peace of mind to know that, if I went home and set this computer on my desk, nothing was going to go wrong. I may have overreacted on how likely it was/wasn’t that this computer would break again, as they had it working there in the store, but the same thing happened last time. I had their word that things would be fine, and yet it had a cracked bottom or a malfunctioning screen. I wanted to start fresh. My computer and I are damaged goods; once my MacBook crossed that threshold, it wasn’t the same anymore, and that’s what I wanted. I wanted something that would work the way it was meant to without some risk of something else happening. I don’t expect perfection, but I do expect to be able to trust the company and product I have invested nearly $1000 in.

The entire affair lasted about an hour, and this was by no means the entire engagement, but consider this the Greatest Hits of the Apple Store.

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