Apple Finally Lose My Vote

[mike.x]

Sorry for the over long post - and I am posting it in numerous forums tonight - but this is an email I've sent in full to MacUser Magazine here in the UK. I am trying to raise awareness amongst fellow professionals about Apple Computer's abysmal Customer Service toward professionals who champion their use in all cutting edge media industries. Please remember I am not a troll - I am an established audio professional with over 14 years experience in Macintosh. I wouldn't use PC/Windows by choice and am not looking at a platform war - it's not about that - I'm just pis**d off at the experience I and others have had..... please read on if you will.

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Re your Editorial 17th October 2003 (Page 5 - by Kenny Hemphill) Sorry for the long letter but you need to read it to appreciate the full story.

The penultimate paragraph struck a chord when I read through it. "It's not acceptable that a Powerbook or iBook that develops a fault in its first few weeks of use takes several weeks to be repaired"

I am a Professional Audio Engineer and reliant on various Apple machines in my job. 22nd August 2003 My 6 week old 17" 1GHZ G4 Powerbook suddenly refused to wake from sleep. I Forced a restart to be faced with a Kernel Panic. I went through every troubleshooting method known to me - A mac user of 14 years OS 6.x through OSX 10.2.6. I eventually removed the kernel extension that enabled my Airport extreme board. I was able to continue working but there were other niggling issues so I called the Apple Care Lines.

Initially a fantastic experience - my Mac would be picked up in a previously shipped packing box and shipped to the Official repair centre in Germany. This would take no more than 10 days. As I was off on holiday the following week I decided to return the unit just before I left so It would be back upon my return.

Back from holiday - Box delivered by DHL on the Monday morning (Logic Board had been replaced) - BRILLIANT! - or so I thought. Something still niggling on the sleep/power-up aspect of the machine. Closing the display would put the unit to sleep but plugging power to recharge would wake it up. If I didn't get the screen open quick enough it wouldn't light up and I would have to force a restart. Intermittent problems started happening running Protools projects on my Firewire 800 external drive (checked against another 17" Powerbook AND FOUND TO BE WORKING PERFECTLY) where the drive would lose contact with the machine and cause system crash - A full blown OSX Crash - Hard Restart again. To cap it - the Left USB Port wasn't recognising anything - not too clever when you are plugging in external peripherals and software dongles to do your job.

Call to Apple - 35 mins - it would have to go back again. OK - this time it took a week to turn round - acceptable if everything had been fixed. Trip to Luton this time. Opened box upon return - A new battery had been installed - full inspection and test. USB Port Still not functioning, FW800 still intermittent, unit still waking when plugged in. BUT at least I had been given a new battery!!

Call to Apple - 3 mins (a record so far) Many Apologies - they would despatch a(nother) box to me and would sort it asap. 4 days later (Friday) - still no box.

Call to Apple - 25 mins - I Requested a new machine as I had no faith in the ability of them to repair mine. Customer service rep said
1. 3 or 4 repair attemps needed to be made before a new machine could be requested.
2. They had no record of the previous call requesting a box
3. They would note my replacement request and mark this as a priority.

1 week later - SOME PRIORITY! - the box arrived to collect the machine. It was the wrong size and would never have contained a 17" Powerbook. (I fortunately kept the previous 2 boxes for posterity) I shipped the unit back again and waited.

1 week later - call to Apple. "They are waiting for a new Logic Board!" I requested they kept me informed.
1 week later - call to Apple. Same response.
4 days later - Monday 13th October 2003 - My machine arrives back out of the blue.

I anxiously opened the box. Not my machine it seemed - scratches along back where the lid has been prised off by a screwdriver. Serial number sticker in the battery compartment removed from mine and applied carelessly to this one. No spring in one battery release clip - battery half falling out upon unpacking. My flawless 17" display had been replaced by one with a glorious light stuck pixel almost dead centre and the keyboard seemed to be raised in the top centre around the t,y and 6 keys. I decided to press them down to check if it was just a poor fit. Bang - the machine powers off instantly. Any pressure around the casing in that area - same effect.

Call to Apple - I demand a new machine now. Each return has been accompanied by service report saying "full test and inspection". Obviously this is NOT the case. They pass me between themselves playing ENYA's interminable drivel as music on hold. I talk to a tech who asks me to unclip the keyboard and see if anything is caught underneath - I have to explain that the keyboard is not removable on a 17" Powerbook! - He suggests that as this would be the 4th repair they should replace my machine.

I am passed back to Customer services who say they will request the repair reports and call me.

Today 22nd October 2003 - 2 full Calendar months after the machine first went away to be repaired - I spent nearly an hour arguing my case for a new machine. I was even told that they hadn't called me as the reports only came back yesterday and they were a bit busy - to which I drew attention to their message saying they were "busy because of increased calls due to the success of recent product announcements" - which I said wasn't endearing to customers with old products that they couldn't get repaired to their satisfaction.

I now am typing my last email (on an external keyboard!!) before I lose the machine again for who knows how long. If (and that's a big IF) I get it back by then end of next week - 31st October - I will have been without a 100% working machine for 10 weeks out of the unit's 16 week life with me. I subscribe to various online Audio Professional Forums, am responsible for purchase advice for other Audio Professionals, Educational establishments and have an extremely long standing relationship with the foremost Audio, Film and Digital Media training centre in the world. All these people will be made aware of the disgusting lack of service - including being told that my warranty would not be extended by the amount of time I've been without the machine.

People I talk to are disgusted - APPLE is meant to THINK DIFFERENT. I cannot talk to anyone above a Customer Services Rep. I was told they have "non-public facing managers". If I could have flown to Paris and confronted Steve Jobs at the EXPO - I would have. But it shouldn't be necessary. My God it's hard enough having swum against the tide of PC/Windows know-it-alls over the years knowing my product is vastly superior without being dumped on by faceless telephone voices who have no authority to put me through to someone high enough up to make a decision that would have resulted in a happy customer. They are only doing their jobs, but that is Cr** company policy. If they'd given me a new machine (or repaired this one properly) I wouldn't be telling the world about how bad they are as a company. Surely they don't need any negative publicity.

This Machine cost me two and a half thousand pounds - I can't afford a replacement whilst they mess me around. What would it cost for them to get me a new one and repair this one and sell it off as refurbished on their wednesday morning apple store? I'd have done it to get rid of the weekly annoying phone calls from a seriously pi**ed off customer!

I'm now getting ready to copy this to BBC's Watchdog and every Apple based forum I know of. Maybe I can write back soon to tell you Im happy again - but at this moment things look very bleak. Oh, and by the way, do a search in yahoo for "apple bad repair" or "apple bad customer service" - it makes for interesting reading. Mine is not an isolated case.

Still - Roll on OSX 10.3 - mine should arrive next week. Wonder how it'll run on my Backlit Apple Portable, SE/30, Powerbook 520c, Powerbook 1400 or G3 Beige!

Yours - Still a fan of Mac but not of Apple


Mike Exeter