10.2.4 Killing Battery Life

Milanek writes "The iBook/PowerBook battery seems to be permanently incapacitated by the 10.2.4 update. " I had this problem as well - had to get my battery replaced last week. It was a painless exchange, but still annonying.

Comments

in-capacitated??

[Spudley]

"incapacitated"... batteries... capacitance... hehehehe!

do tell - was that an intentional pun? :-)

More lessons in the reasonable world

[Mikey-San]

Let's do it your way:

Guy: "My battery isn't working right."

Dude: "Okay, lemme check it in and check it out for you."

Dude does his diagnosis. Battery is hosed. Replace battery, Dude says. Guy comes back the next day.

Dude yanks one off of the shelf.

Guy goes home.

Dude's internal service report reads: "Replaced battery with one from the shelf."

Dude: "Hey, Ordering Man, I replaced that Guy's battery with one of the twenty you ordered from the distributor instead of getting one specially shipped in from the manufacturer."

Ordering Man: "Okay, I'll pay our distributor with the reimbursement from the manufacturer."

Dude: "The manufacturer doesn't reimburse us for the warranty repair when they don't send us warranty parts. I mean, who would? They don't have any way to know for sure that we actually ordered something and did a repair."

Ordering Man: "So how do I pay our distributor?"

Dude: "Normally, we don't pay for the batteries we replace under warranty."

Ordering Man: "Where do you normally get your batteries?"

Dude: "The manufacturer. Is that a problem?"

Ordering Man: "Not as long as we pay our distributor."

Why does this sound like an episode of Bastard Operator from Hell? Because your "high and mighty, the customer should never understand that there are real people with real logistical problems on the other side of the counter" stance is just the kind of mindset that spawns classic BOFH stories.

Let's look at the scenario a little higher up the ladder.

Ordering Man: "Hey, Distributor Guy, we used three batteries as warranty replacements."

Distributor Guy: "What the fuck are you smoking? We pay the manufacturer for those! Where's our money for those!?"

Ordering Man: "You mean the manufacturer--"

Distributor Guy: "Of course not, you asshat! Do we look like a service provider? Where. Is. Our. Money."

Ordering Man: "We're keeping our customers irresponsibly happy!"

Distributor Guy: "And you're making our lawyers happy. Money, please."

Or from another angle:

Distributor Guy: "Here's our monthly invoices."

Manufacturer looks over the NET-30s.

Distributor Guy: "These ten thousand batteries here, they're warranty replacements. Please give us that money back."

Manufacturer: "You were talking about smoking crack earlier ..."

Oh, wait!

It doesn't always work that way in retail! Sometimes, the person above you doesn't get paid until you sell things! (See Bungie's old Rant on how video games get shelf space for more goodies here.) So you might think that this solves the problems itself, right? On the contrary, it causes more!

So we have this scene instead:

Distributor Guy: "Here's our monthly invoices."

Manufacturer looks over the NET-30s.

Distributor Guy: "These ten thousand batteries here, they're warranty replacements. We don't need to pay you for /those./"

Manufacturer invoices Distributor, who is $100,000 short because of warranty replacements. Distributor, meanwhile, invoices all of those local shops doing replacements with store stock for that $100,000. Well, the local shops can't/don't/won't/shouldn't pay because the customer didn't pay anything--it was under warranty each time.

Local Shops say to Manufacturer, "Give us this money, so we can pay Distributor, who can then pay you!"

I won't even get into lines of credit and all of the messes that come with /that/ stuff.

How is this remotely good for you, the end-consumer? Is it really so hard to understand these kinds of logistical concerns from that side of the counter?

Seems like it. I have to explain this more and more these days, as people want EVERYTHING IN TWO SECONDS FLAT. They can't hold on to their machine while the new battery arrives and eliminates all of these problems (and thus, reducing your beloved shop and manufacturer's internal costs and troubles, IN TURN making your shit cheaper in the long and short run), because that just "isn't good customer service". I can't tell you how many times a loaner computer has been demanded of me because of a dispatch (mailed-in) repair or I'm repairing a machine that isn't functional. By your logic, I should just give the guy a new computer off the shelf!

Part of good customer service is the good customer. Someone once told me that, and it's the complete truth. In this world, you get what you give.

If you're upset with a shop's service, they DO have an obligation to make it right. If you're an asshole, making un-thought-out and unreasonable demands, they have the right to be human and watch you walk out of the door.

Instead of acting like a toddler and taking your toys home, if it takes more than a few business days to get that battery, /complain to the source of the delay./ Getting uppity with the local shop puts an extra step in between that and your complaint getting to the manufacturer (yes, a good shop will bitch to the manufacturer when they can't get parts on time, don't worry about that ;-)) ... It also will get you an annoyed sales or service department.

We're humans, Goddamnit. Treat us like we are, and understand that we don't like waiting a week for a part we should get overnight or within two business days, either. "Just give me one off of the shelf" is a more complicated imperative than it seems. ;-)

-/-
Mikey-San