Thanks Apple

I know there are many who don't like Apple. But I wanted to post my story.

I purchased a Quad Core Xenon Mac just over three years ago. During the past couple of months it became clear that the FireWire port was having some troubles. I suddenly realized that I was almost out of warranty. I took the computer in and it turned out that it was 6 days past my extended warranty period of 3 years. They extended the warranty and fixed it anyway. Almost. The repair didn't fix the problem. So I brought it back in. After 9 days waiting for a new Logic board and a firewire cable harness, they called to apologize for the inconvenience and to tell me what they would like to do. They wanted to GIVE ME A NEW COMPUTER.

So last night I picked up my new Mac Pro Quadcore with the Nehalem processor. It was a very cool way to be treated. I have a 1 year warranty on the computer and I bought the Apple Care 2 year extended warranty for $199. How cool is that?

I'm not sure any other company would have handled this way.

As a side note, the past 3 or 4 weeks have been some of my busiest ever. During this time I have mixed 20 songs on my little white MacBook!!! Thanks to Pro Tools unlocking PT 9, I was able to do the work and no one noticed any sonic difference. Luckily the track counts were small, and I didn't need to use many virtual instruments, since it was all just mixing. It reminded me that I don't need all those expensive plugs to do the work.

Steve

Nice post.

I too have almost always been happy with Apple and their products and service.

Good service and customer care should be rewarded!

I'm not an Apple guy but that's certainly good service.

Great story.

I, uh, swing both ways, using PC and Apple. I haven't needed to call Apple itself, although one of their techs has been super great with helping me out. I've had fairly good luck with customer support from HP so far as well.

I'm glad to see that they did this. My experiences with them have been pretty bad. Years ago they wanted around $700 just to check (not necessarily fix) my computer monitor. I bought an Envision monitor for around $150 instead.

Years later when my internal hard drive on another Mac died, they said my warranty was no longer valid since I had opened the computer. I explained that I opened it to add another drive so that I could work, as well as to add memory. I mentioned that this upgradeability was one reason why I chose this Mac. I believe they have changed this now, but back then they told me that the warranty was void. My Apple Care was a waste of money.

Good to see that they've changed.

I don't know when they changed from the draconian model that Eddie experienced (I remember other complaints from back in the day, but never had any occasion myself to invoke Apple service in the bad old days), but I've had a couple of experiences in the past year or two that were simply stellar. Nowadays Apple seems to strive to exceed their customers' expectations. Maybe they can do this because they own the retail outlets now

I can't speak to years ago. I had installed my own hard drives, and RAM from OWC. They didn't care about that. They gave me my drive back, and the 8 Gigs of RAM. I have to buy the new DDR 3 RAM chips, but It's way cheaper than the DDR 2 chips. And OWC will give me a rebate of $55 for each 4 gig block of the old RAM. That means that my new 8 gigs of ram will only cost ME about $40 when it's all done. It should be here tomorrow by 10AM.

Steve

That was a good outcome, but I would have expected any company to honor your warranty 6 days past the end date. I would have been outraged if they didn't, particularly when you paid for that extra coverage. And you know it's often cheaper to junk a 3 years old computer than to try to fix it. So I'm not surprised. The disappointment is when they tell you "we can't fix your old computer but we'll give you a break if you want to buy a new one."

Great to hear positive stories about Apple! Thanks for sharing your experience.

Best, John

Glad you`re finally coming out Ken.

Knock on wood, I`ve never had an issue with any of my Apple products: 2 Power Macs, 1 iMac, 2 iPods...

I have a similar "good customer service story" re Apple. I arrived at the last Nashville NAMM show with a broken computer. My new MacBook Pro--with the i7 processor--gave up the ghost in the passenger lounge at LaGuardia airport in NYC. I took a cab out to the Apple Store in the Green Hills mall the night before the show, and two guys tried to fix it. They couldn't. So they offered me a new computer right on the spot. I hadn't even bought my original from Apple--I had bought it from J&R Music in NYC (to get a rebate and escape sales tax). The Apple Store guys knew that from the history, but gave me a new computer anyway. Saved my bacon.

BTW, the two guys in the Apple Store were Matt Storey and Johnny Thompson. Both musicians, both heroes. If you're ever in Nashville and you have a Mac issue, ask for these guys. And tell 'em I sentcha.

Finally coming out? I thought I've been rather blatant in swinging both ways for a while!!!

These kinds of stories ease the financial pain of buying Apple computers somewhat. I haven't had any troubles with the ones I have but I'm not a long time customer either.

My experiences have been mixed - sometimes stellar, sometimes "too bad, buy something new." I have a friend who had a dual G5 that malfunctioned; apparently it was a "known issue" affecting that line, and they replaced his computer for free. Very cool...but it wasn't so cool that they didn't inform owners of the problematic models that they might experience a problem, the nature of the problem, and what to do if they experienced the problem (like car companies do when they discover a defect).

While we're on the subject of stellar customer support, I'd have to mention PC Audio Labs.

Another Apple fan here - just bought a Mac Mini last week. Although I'd been using my G4 Powerbook to type on, about two years ago I had bought an Apple wireless keyboard for about $80, but after a while decided I liked typing on the laptop better. So when I got my new Mini, I went to put fresh batteries in the wireless keyboard, but found there was some corrosion and one of the batteries was stuck at the other end of a deep compartment and I couldn't get it out. I called the local Mac Store and asked if they could help me get it out, and they said yes, bring it in. When I took it in, they asked me my name and address, and then looked up something on the computer. The tech person said, "I'll be right back", and when they returned, they handed me a brand new Apple wireless keyboard for free, without even looking at my old one - quite a nice surprise! That's some great customer service.

That's funny !