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Memo to Apple: Respect Your Resellers
An anonymous reader writes "As Apple opens more and more stores across the country (they are going to hit 88 by the end of 2004, according to top Apple retail honcho Ron Johnson), small independent dealers claim to be taking it in the shorts: five are suing Apple for all sorts of nastiness. Here's an interesting prescription for how Apple can make things right with its resellers and still open lots of shiny stores for the masses."
In my experience, Mac resellers and independant Apple servicing companies SUCK. Of course, I live in Pittsburgh, and it's a 45 minute drive out to the suburbs to get to a service center. Intelligence obviously isn't a prerequisite in these parts.
.25mm by 3mm GAUGE in the SCSI board. That kicked ass.
:P
Last time out, the assneck employee spelled my name wrong on the invoice. Twice. Despite the fact I was still wearing my work ID AND I SPELLED IT AT HIM. Then there's the several phone contacts with said service place- during which they'd refuse to specify what problems were encountered with the hardware, hang up without prompting, and generally go the extra mile to prove to me that they're dumb like toast.
Oh, and a G4 we sent in for servicing came back with a
Oh, and they charge the original list price for Mac games that were current in 98-99. Like I'd pay 50$ for Oni.
High prices, mentally challenged staff, and one hell of a commute. All in all, orders of magnitude better than the place that used to be in Downtown, which (somehow!) sucked even MORE.
Unfortunately, since recent Apple hardware seems to be about the same quality as Gateway or Dell (as opposed to, you know, better), I've had to deal with these people at least once a year. It's that or drive seven hours to Philly.