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Apple Tops Consumer Reports List
memoryhole writes "It seems Apple has come out on top in recent Consumer Reports surveys regarding technical support and hardware failure. Way to go Apple!"
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I had the misfortune of having my logic board fried by an "analog" hotel phone line within the first year of owning my Powerbook. Apple swapped it out for free.
Free Airborne shipping back & forth too.
is their delivery carrier.
Airborne seems to leave packages at random times at my doorstep, and sometimes will honor my signed instructions to them if I'm not there, sometimes will not. Their customer service sucks as well. Any problems need to be kicked along a chain of command that moves with the blazing speed we've come to expect from slugs and other slimy invertabrates.
Subscribers will see that the eMac scores higher than the low-end machines by Dell, HP, Sony, Gateway and eMachines. Even with a higher price it gets a better overall score.
:-)
They say nothing about it having a one button mouse, though
Also: the Consumer Reports website is an excellent source of information. Well worth the monthly or yearly subscription.
Keep a few Linux boxes on your network to play around with. Since I've switched they still handle all my grunt work (privoxy, spamassassin, firewall, dns).
it's quite funny sometimes when they get all riled up and resort to the old "I'm gonna trade it in for a PC" line.
You just described me.
The motherboard on my first Mac died one month after the warranty expired. I wouldn't pay for a new motherboard. I told the repair rep that I'd replace it with a PC. She gave me a phone number. I guess it was their pissed-off-customer hotline. The new rep agreed to cut the price in half, so I bought the repair.
My iBook returned less than 72 hours after I mailed it across the US. Still works great today. Count me in for a new G5 / PowerPC 970.
NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
freakishly fast and freakishly lenient. I had my tiBook screen break at one of the hinges a month after my warranty was over. I called an apple store for a quote and they said "somewhere around $700, but we can cover this one for you." i have no clue why, but they saved me $700 when i should have had to pay.
I bought my first mac a few months ago, a 12" iBook, and it has been badass. It had a catastrophic failure at one point that rendered it unable to boot. I got on the phone with Apple and they sent me a box the next day. I shipped it on a Tuesday night, waited a day, and it was waiting for me at work on Thursday with a new mobo and processor.
Apple's custormer support has impressed the hell out of me, and this will not be my last Mac.
Based on my recent experiences with Dell (I manage a network of roughly 100 Dell desktops and 20 Dell laptops), Apple is not only freakishly lenient, they're also in the minority. Dell has done absolutely nothing that they didn't have to do to fix a computer. 1 day out of warranty? Too bad. Had it for 31 days? Can't return it, and getting it fixed is a pain in the ass. I only wish that they would follow Apple's lead and be just a little more helpful, considering that the "just small enough to pass under their radar" customers are getting jacked at every opportunity. And oh! if only I could get a tech support person with a reasonable facility with English!
We've started buying IBM laptops lately and have had half the problems. Pretty soon, I'm going to start looking at another vendor for desktops as well....
seriouslyexcited.net
Argh. A Machead spreading Mac FUD? WTF? Go to www.dell.com and build a comparable machine for yourself. Compare feature for feature and performance point for performance point. When will folks get over this "macs cost more" myth???
First, I am a Mac fan and have never owned a PC. I do, however, run a PC network at work and have built and supported numerous PC's' for friends. The last time a friend of mine bought a Gateway it was hell. The shit OEM hardware and drivers didn't do what it was supposed to do. The DVD dropped frames (and this was a high MHZ P4). After weeks of complaining for my friend (he was a novice), I was able to get them to solve the problem. It was not a fun experience. It also mirrors the experiences that I have had with Dell. Now to my Apple experience. First, there is a problem with some of the optical mice that came with the newer CRT iMacs, they tend to die. I was in the Bellevue Apple Store the other day and a guy had his mouse there. He went to the genius bar and talked to someone, he walked out with a new mouse, without a hitch. My work has 8 of these dead mice, I asked and they said to bring them in. I don't even have to mail them anywhere. I helped a friend with her iBook. For some reason it came with 128 MB RAM instead of 256. My friend was on vacation but the iBook had been shipped to me for this reason. Apple saw my name and sent me new RAM the next day. I had it all ready to go for my friend when she got back in town. I have to Macs myself. A tower w/17" LCD Studio Display and a Lombard Powerbook G3. I have had excellent service on the two problems I had, with the same practically next day service that so many other of these Slashdot posters have mentioned. They both replaced the power management board in my PB and the backlight in the Studio Display. That sums up my experience. I think from this entire discussion it can be seen that the Consumer Reports conclusion is valid, and not just the ravings of people trapped in the so-called reality distortion field.
This was a minor problem compared to some. I have a new PM Dual 1.25. I installed some aftermarket RAM. My Mac didn't feel right after the install. No major panics, but programs like photshop began to hang ect. Apple Hardware Test wouldn't load so I called Apple. The Apple tech had me on the phone for over an hour, reseting firmware, moving RAM to different slots ect. We came to the conclusion "bad ram". Told me to replace the module and if there were further problems they would walk me through any procedure to solve the problem. What more could I ask? It was bad ram and the problem was solved. I just counted 47 programs on my dock, one major design program that requires a security dongle and must run in Classic. My Mac is rock solid except Entourage doesn't close sometimes. Looking for a new mail app!
The key word is "percentage".
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
I had an original (beige) G3/266 Motherboard crap out on me at work. My boss wanted to send it to whichever shop said they could turn it around the fastest. After 2 MONTHS of them screwing around, my warranty ran out. I spent a few days dealing directly with a senior support person at Apple. The day the blue and white G3s came out, he offered to just swap the old G3 for a new one with similar specs. When he said they had about 10 of the beige units left, I jokingly asked him to delay the order until he HAD to give me a blue and white. He laughed and said that he had planned on doing that anyway. The very next morning, I had a brand spanking new G3/350 tower sitting on my desk. I can't say enough about how cool they've been to me over the years. I assume that unlike other tech support farms, Apple likes to hire people who also "drank the cool aid". Whatever you think of Macs, you have to give Apple some respect for the way they handle (most of) their business. My mom (!) was forced to change her own motherboard on a Packard Bell 286 years ago because her warranty "didn't include labor". They were happy to send a new motherboard, they just wouldn't cover the cost of having the work done for her. I have to say, that gave me a whole new outlook on (a) customer service, and most importantly (b) my Mom. Whenever any of the gamers I am acquainted with brag about building their own system, I love to tell them that my mom not only preferred DOS to any windows system, but she also swapped out her own motherboard. That was probably 11 years ago... Just 2 weeks ago, she retired her 286 and bought a 1Ghz 17 inch iMac. O.K... I'm gettin' all misty now.... Anyway, Apple's support is awesome.
Someday a real rain is gonna come...
Sure, Apple like any other business has limits, and has to say no to customers sometimes, but it was pretty rare when I was there. They had very clear and specific lines of escalation for all manner of customer issues.
Another thing is that the agents take a lot of pride in their work, and are given a lot of latitude in helping customers. Not only are customers satisfied, but the support agents are satisfied too.
I've tried to apply all that I learned at Apple to where I'm working now, and it's helped me be the best Macintosh support agent here, and among the top 1% of all agents, which admitedly isn't hard considering that 98% of the rest are all Windows product related agents.
We need Macintosh power. I *am* Macintosh power!