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Apple Businesses

Apple Tops Consumer Reports List 156

Posted by pudge from the if-i-cannot-say-anything-nice dept.
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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Apple Tops Consumer Reports List More

Apple Tops Consumer Reports List

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  • Apple products: they're not just to keep the doctor away.

  • Linux -Os X switch (Score:3, Insightful)

    by curious.corn ( 167387 ) on Thursday May 29, 2003 @05:16PM (#6070968)
    You know... I somehow miss the hassles from tinkering with Linux distros: it taught me a lot of things. Sigh! My OsX only panicked twice in 4 months! (USB)

    • Re:Linux -Os X switch (Score:4, Funny)

      by torpor ( 458 ) <ibisum AT gmail DOT com> on Thursday May 29, 2003 @06:00PM (#6071337) Homepage Journal
      Funny, I was thinking the same thing about the effect which OSX has had on my OS chops, too ... since I 'switched' to OSX (been a Unix junkie for years) I've definitely felt a general happiness come over me. I don't get bothered by OS stuff, I just see it for how it is.

      So anyway, to cure my happiness, I got Plan9 for my BeBox, and as soon as I get a video card for it which actually works, then plan9 it is, baby ... well, we'll see, anyway. ;)
      • I swear on my life I'm being serious. They won't support anything outside the GUI.

        "What? You say you've been using to secure shell to remotely access your XServe? That's unsupported."

        I admin a little over 20 FreeBSD servers, and a few Win2k servers that run Cygwin. This is a new one to me.

        They'll support it if you purchase an enterprise support agreement, but you have to dicker with a sales person on the price...it isn't static. My client that has 5 OS X servers they wanted $15k (!!!) per year, or $

    • Re:Linux -Os X switch (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Hanji ( 626246 ) on Thursday May 29, 2003 @06:08PM (#6071420)
      The great thing about OS X is that you can have access to most of that low-level stuff (although obviously not all) if you want, but you also get a computer that "just works" when you want it to, and that you can get stuff done on without understanding every last detail of how it works, and without setting up every last piece by hand.

      Don't get me wrong, I like Linux, but especially for stuff like laptops with less common hardware, it's just not worth the hassle of making it all work (And before you mod me down, I have actually tried Linux, both Mandrake and Debian, and this comment is based on experience, not popular opinion from /.)
      • That's what I loved about OS X as well. And then I dropped my iBook... So now I am about to 'switch' back to Linux on a new to me IBM ThinkPad 600E with a blazing 366mhz P2. I miss my iBook..

    • Re:Linux -Os X switch (Score:3, Informative)

      by bedouin ( 248624 )
      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).
    • My OsX only panicked twice in 4 months!

      Use the "big arse download" combi updater instead of software update. It's generally safer.

      Dave

    • Re:Linux -Os X switch (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Yours panics that much? I've only had a few in a couple years.

      And even then I wouldn't call it a panic; the computer responded quite bravely. Ok that was lame...
    • I've only had one kernel panic since I started using the original OS X release. I also support five other Macs, none of which has experienced one yet. I finally saw one in CompUSA recently, so I know that the kernel panics now are a lot prettier than they were on 10.0. :-)

    • Re:Linux -Os X switch (Score:3, Interesting)

      by jtrascap ( 526135 )
      Indeed - I've had 2 panics, both because I pulled-out a PowerMate USB controller after a put the iBook to sleep - but it seem 10.2.6 fixed that for good (I've continued to do "bad things" to my iBook, and it now just keeps chugging along.) Never had a panic on the old G4/450 though...it's slow but seems to be a champ.

      But don't even GET me started on my Inspiron running RedHat. Feh! It's going out the door this week! Soon I'll be only Mac. Odd. But good!

      Now to get rid of my Sun 5 and a box of about 25 In
    • Obviously you've never had RAID mirroring enabled. This stuff is horrible. I've paniced 5 times today. That's about once every 1/2 hour. Tried reinstalling. Still does it. Nice big bug Apple. Hopefully they're get around to fixing this one.
      • on a laptop? ;-) Linux is rock solid. Never had a panic in over 1 year after having rebuilt a damn RAID-0 set by hand because of the system disk breaking down... What I would have preferred though is the kernel autodetecting the set.

  • Apple vs Dell (Score:5, Funny)

    by alispguru ( 72689 ) <bob,bane&me,com> on Thursday May 29, 2003 @05:17PM (#6070978) Journal
    The difference between Apple "Inoperable Failure" machines and Dell "Inoperable Failure"machines looks to be very small - the real difference between them is in machines that were "Broken but Still Operable".

    Maybe they're seeing people who got their computers working, then discovered they were running XP...

    [ducks, runs for cover...]

    • Re:Apple vs Dell (Score:1, Insightful)

      by BigBir3d ( 454486 )
      Of course, when looking at the number of units shipped, you think Apple could have a little better quality control (Dell sells nearly 10x the number of computers based on % of market).

      • Re:Apple vs Dell (Score:5, Insightful)

        by PurpleFloyd ( 149812 ) <zeno20@@@attbi...com> on Thursday May 29, 2003 @05:49PM (#6071251) Homepage
        That's a percentage graph. For every 100 computers shipped, Apple had fewer of them come back than anyone else; thus, their QC beats Dell's.

        Also, Apple's tech support tends to be freakishly fast. I had a friend get a Powerbook G4's mobo replaced in 3 buisiness days, including shipping. She thought that she mislabeled the package and Airborne was shipping it back to her; she called Apple and they asked if the problem was fixed. Believe it or not, it was. If it wasn't for the price, I would buy from Apple every time, and that iPod is giving me a serious case of geek-lust.

        • Now I could be wrong, but I think he was referring to how with fewer numbers of units shipped, QC efficiency should be higher.

          The larger your QC department gets, generally the higher the percentage of bad machines that slip through, theoretically.

          • Re:Apple vs Dell (Score:5, Interesting)

            by klui ( 457783 ) on Thursday May 29, 2003 @08:37PM (#6072543)
            I think Apple's QC efficiency is higher is due to them not having to account for the support for every possible piece of hardware that's out for x86-based PCs. You would get crappy drivers, bad or marginal hardware, the whole works. I tried a Dlink RealTek-based 100-baseT ethernet card in my Mac and I could transfer one way reliably. Put the POS onto a PC running Windows and it's fine; put a DEC-based card in my Mac and things are fine.

            Would QC efficiency be higher if you make more products? I really don't know, and I don't care as long as I'm not within the percentage who are hit, regardless if it's Apple or Dell.

            • Re:Apple vs Dell (Score:3, Interesting)

              by PurpleFloyd ( 149812 )
              In my experience, PC manufacturers won't do anything about 3rd party hardware; they tend to not do anything for tech support until it's gone. The only issue would be with things that failed so badly as to hurt other components in the computer; a rare case to say the least (although I have seen it happen). As for QC, it tends to be independent of number of products made. QC efficiency is probably similar: you pull a certain percentage of products off the line and test them, no matter what the number of pr

            • Re:Apple vs Dell (Score:5, Interesting)

              by Cokelee ( 585232 ) on Friday May 30, 2003 @10:16AM (#6076395)

              The hardware problem is Dell's fault. Not in your case with the DLink NIC, but with the hardware THEY sell. Everything made for them is made to certain specifications-- you're not getting the retail equivalent!

              Michael Dell wants CHEAP hardware, and he gets it, at a cost to his cutstomers. Much like FORD has done lately, they've been trying so damn hard to save a nickel they're losing customers left and right because of producing poor quality (of course now they're trying to drastically change all that).

              To your last comment: I've been the statistic you're talking about. 6 times out of 30 Dell machines. 20% failure. So the percentage matters when you're buying more than one machine.

        • Re:Apple vs Dell (Score:3, Interesting)

          by dhovis ( 303725 ) *

          I had to have my iBook(2001) serviced because it was having this wierd problem where the Airport reception was dependant on the angle of the screen hinge. I had already figured out that it was probably a pinched wire in the hinge, so I took it to the Genius Bar at my local Apple store. I showed them the problem, they decided that it needed to go to the repair depot to be fixed. They warned me it might take up to two weeks.

          I left it with them on a Saturday. They packed it and shipped it out on Monday, o

          • I wish my story was like yours. As it turns out the service has been the one horrible flaw on the otherwise wonderful experience of owning a TiBook.

            Had a little accident with it, dropped actually, but a very small drop, maybe two feet. Apparently it landed just precisely the wrong way though, the case crumpled on the corner noticeably, but it seemed to have done it's job and protected the inside. It didn't seem like any real damage, still worked fine in every way, just a little cosmetic damage, though I f

        • Re:Apple vs Dell (Score:1, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward
          Price is an excuse, $799 gets you an eMac with all the software, $50 gets you an extra 500 MB memory (not in Apple but in the internet) and you get everything you need. $1000 gets you an iBook. Go fancy, for $1800 get an iMac with 17' lcd and rock, lots of exclusive software and the amazing OSX we are talking about. I bought a Powerbook G4 2 years ago when it first came out, used for work everyday and only had to replace the keyboard ($79 shipped from Apple) when the cat threw my coffee on it. For the same

        • Re:Apple vs Dell (Score:3, Informative)

          by mjdth ( 670822 )
          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.

          • Re:Apple vs Dell (Score:3, Informative)

            by galaxy300 ( 111408 )
            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 und
            • IBM has gone down the road of making nice, durable, reliable laptops. They are not "shiny" or "sexy" but they sure do last. I have a ThinkPad 600X (1999) that I bought used last year (leased to some big corp in town for 3 years) and it only has on problem, the modem jack doesn't work (you can see the disconnected wire). I am very impressed, and my office now only buys ThinkPads for the salespeople.

              To bad we can't get that kind of reliability from our desktops (generic built to order from someone in Broo
              • Couldn't agree with you more about Thinkpads. However, make sure you get the prograde models(T series and A series). The consumer versions(R and G series) are just as crappy as Dellpads.

                BTW, trade in your 600 for a T series with the 1400X1050 screen. You won't regret it.

          • Dittos to the parent, even strecthing to third-party hardware. The (discontinued) VST FireWire CD-R/W drive that I ordered from the Apple Store on-line arrived DOA. I got on the phone with Apple, and the support guy started to give me an RMA number. There must be some sort of "overhead cost" caculator running in the background over there, because he stopped after about 10 seconds, and said "Never mind. Just toss it out. We'll ship another." And they did (using UPS ground instead of FedEx for the replacement

        • Re:Apple vs Dell (Score:2, Informative)

          by Anonymous Coward
          Argh. A Machead spreading Mac FUD? WTF? Go to www.dell.com [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???

        • Re:Apple vs Dell - listen to this iBook / G4 story (Score:5, Interesting)

          by blakespot ( 213991 ) on Friday May 30, 2003 @12:26PM (#6077742) Homepage
          I managed to drop my 4 month old iBook 700 (with the nice IBM "Sahara" G3) onto a tile floor which cracked the lid casing and opened the main case a bit. Took it to the Apple store and they gave me a fix cost and send it off. Told me it would be back in 5 days.

          Two days later I got a call saying it was back and ready to pick up. They had to replace part of the case but also replaced the motherboard, which knocked up the cost of repair. The fellow at the Apple Store noted that a call was not put thru to me to ask my "ok" on that (since it was more than we orig. asked) and crossed off the additional charge, without me even raising the issue.

          Better than that, perhaps, is what happened a month or two earlier. I had bought a Dual G4 800 right when it came out, summer of '01 and got it with a combo drive (DVD player / CD-RW). It had trouble reading some discs on occasion, so I put off getting it serviced. Almost a year later I was 2 weeks out from warranty expiration so I took it in to Apple Store, showed them the prob and they said they'd get it replaced. Machine was serviced on sight and ready the next day...and indeed a working drive had been swapped in...

          A working SuperDrive.

          ...perhaps I should've pointed it out like a truly honest lad, but instead I just bought a pack of DVD-R's and had some fun at home.

          I love Apple. I will never willingly stray. Never.


          blakespot

  • What a strange coincidence that this story appeared right after a story about the Apple firmware update for slot-loading combo drive problems [slashdot.org].

    I still love Apple. Without them, I'd probably be dead.

  • No questions asked (Score:5, Informative)

    by awtbfb ( 586638 ) on Thursday May 29, 2003 @05:20PM (#6071003)

    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.

  • the truth about this (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 29, 2003 @05:27PM (#6071069)
    Once, in the late 80's, I was young and was over at a friend's house. He father had two of the old B&W Macs sitting on his desk. One had a crack in the screen and was obviously broken. The other looked like it hadn't been touched in a while.

    We were playing with Legos in the room when the father came in and starting chatting with us .. in the course of the conversation, we started talking about computers and I asked him if his Mac worked.

    All of a sudden, he stopped cold and stared out the window, with his mouth half-open. I thought maybe he was having a stroke or something, but eventually he swallowed and said in a monotone "THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH MY APPLE COMPUTERS. THEY WORK PERFECTLY."

    And then he left the room. It freaked me out a little. My friend looked at me and shrugged. "Don't ask him about those computers. My mom has a Tandy that she uses to do her work and every time we talk about the Apples dad spazzes like that, so we just don't talk about it."

    I didn't think about it much after that, I mean I had this one friend who freaked out anytime you touched his guitar without washing your hands.. people are like that sometimes.

    But over the years I noticed this more and more. Apple computer owners simply don't admit any problems with their machines, and when confronted, their eyes glaze over and they refuse to talk about it.

    Friends, girlfriends, relatives; Mac Classics, Powerbooks, iMacs... I've seen it with all of them. The funny thing is, it's only the Mac owners, folks who just use a Mac don't seem to suffer from it.

    I wondered about this for a long time, ever since that strange day in 1988. That is, until last week.

    That's when I saw the sunflower. It's on the back of their necks.

    Every Mac owner has a small sunflower-shaped tatoo on the back of their neck, just inside where the hair grows. It's about 3mm in diameter. I'd never noticed it before. I didn't know what to make of it at first.

    I was fooling around with this cute graphic designer friend, just teasing her one night, and I saw it. Then I saw it on my uncle, a hard-core Mac user. Last week I saw it on our Unix sysadmin as he bent over to pick up a cable for his iBook.

    Well I had to find out what this was about. I tried mentioning it but they all denied its existence. Just yesterday I went to the nearest Apple store and waited and watched.

    Yes, it was as I thought. Every new Apple purchaser was taken to a small, gleaming white room with a curtain, supposedly to pick up their Mac. As they came out with their bags, some of them stopped to rub the backs of their necks.

    Now I understood.

    I also understood why Apple made it so difficult to become an Apple reseller: the store had to have "Special Equipment".

    I have no idea what that tattoo means, or what happens to those poor people in that smooth white room, but I can tell you one thing: I'm not touching a Mac ever again.

  • The only problem with Apple service... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 29, 2003 @05:54PM (#6071293)
    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.

  • Beats Dell in my Opinion (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 29, 2003 @06:00PM (#6071341)
    Apple's response to my bitching about not getting iLife with my new 12" PB was to send me 3 copies immediately.

    Dell's response to my having to unplug a new harddrive to get XP to install to a "c" drive on my new Dell was, "it's an OEM version of XP, that's what you'll have to do".

    Last Dell I'm buying. Last Windows machine.

  • And in a parallel Universe somewhere/somewhen... (Score:5, Funny)

    by irving47 ( 73147 ) on Thursday May 29, 2003 @06:12PM (#6071457) Homepage
    Apple failed all consumer reports for not adequately dealing with the customers calling in for hardware/software issues on X86 compatible clones people built in their garages.

  • Apple's customer base wont settle for poor service (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 29, 2003 @06:31PM (#6071640)
    I've worked repairing Toshiba, Compaq and Apple laptops.

    customers who have problems with their Tosh. or Compaq laptops are by far more laid back about delays in service and rarely complain about cost of repairs.
    where as when anything goes wrong with an Apple laptop it's far more frequent to get a customer that'll complain like their throats ben cut.

    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. when I know the service procedures for other manufacturers is nowhere near as streamlined as Apple's

    • Re:Apple's customer base wont settle for poor serv (Score:5, Informative)

      by mooredav ( 101800 ) on Thursday May 29, 2003 @07:58PM (#6072289)

      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.

      • Granted, Apple replacement parts can be freakishly expensive, but why would you expect a manufacturer to do anything special for an out-of-warranty product? The point of a finite warranty is that it's finite; if you want more, you can pay for it (a form of insurance). All computers fail eventually; there's a normal curve for when they fail - if you don't buy the extended warranty you're taking the chance that you're not in the small sigma on the left side of the curve.

        I don't buy extended warranties eith
        • So why should I expect a 4-6 year old computer to die? Hell I stored one of my apples in an attic in Oklahoma for 3 years (110 degrees and more) and it works without a hitch.

          Granted the parts are significantly more intricate. Never the less, I expect them to work forever (or at least until i'm dead).
          • Never the less, I expect them to work forever (or at least until i'm dead).

            The existence of computer repair shops would seem to indicate you'll be disappointed at some point in the future.

            If you could somehow seal the parts from breaking down (glues, solvents, solders, etc. drying out) and keep them in a static-free, temperature and humidity controlled environment (thermal expansion, rust, static etching) then you could expect them to last quite a while.

            I guess you're just extraordinarily lucky if you h

  • That's only part of the story... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Chief Typist ( 110285 ) on Thursday May 29, 2003 @06:31PM (#6071648) Homepage
    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.

  • I agree, most of the time. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by chasingporsches ( 659844 ) on Thursday May 29, 2003 @07:11PM (#6071940)
    I have been a mac user for years and their customer support has been very good, until now. I go to buy a 15" powerbook last week and i find out that i am not qualified to receive anything out of AppleCare because i am (a) a student and (b) a resident of Florida. The guy couldn't explain to me why, but thats what he told me. He told me i am unqualified to receive support from apple because i'm a floridian college student. WTF? Does anyone know about this? I thought they had good customer service before. But now i'm not so sure. Why they would say "yeah, we'll give support to this child in new york, or this parent in washington state, but forget those floridian college students"?

  • Now THIS is Killer Support (Score:5, Interesting)

    by zonker_rob ( 677280 ) on Thursday May 29, 2003 @07:16PM (#6071975)
    I got a Pismo PowerBook (my 2nd) off Ebay and it arrived with bright blue lines in the screen For those who don't know, a screen swap is $1050 and up. The Seller, Ebay, Paypal, Trust-E, all offered nothing -- zero help from any of them. Insurance I paid for on the shipment was denied by the carrier.

    I was so bummed I thought I would call Apple, just to learn if I had been ripped off by the seller, or if the multiple verticle blue lines in the display could have in fact been a shipping issue.

    I called Apple and talked first to a CSR who chuckled when she looked up my name because of the many Macs I own. Then she forwarded me to a tech, who spent 45 minutes explaining the details of how my problem could have possibly been caused in shipping, but was not a certainty. But, since I did not buy it from an authourized reseller, I was SOL on warranty work. I told him he blew my mind with his kindness in speaking to me for so long for free. Then we hung up.

    20 minutes later the tech called back and said they would take a look at it "just to see" if it was an Apple problem, and I would see a pre-labelled post-paid return shipping box in the mail tomorrow. I sent it in and FOUR DAYS LATER had my Pismo back in hand with a brand new screen at no charge.

    My next computer? Guess.

    • Re:Now THIS is Killer Support (Score:5, Interesting)

      by rfovell ( 226905 ) on Thursday May 29, 2003 @08:51PM (#6072616)
      ...20 minutes later the tech called back and said they would take a look at it "just to see" if it was an Apple problem, and I would see a pre-labelled post-paid return shipping box in the mail tomorrow. I sent it in and FOUR DAYS LATER had my Pismo back in hand with a brand new screen at no charge...

      I've had nothing but good experiences with Apple Support. Of course, the best thing has been that I haven't needed much support :-)

      Remember when the Wallstreet PowerBook G3 AC adapters were being recalled and replaced? I had to replace one on my own a few months prior to the recall. I bought the exact same adapter that Apple had just started shipping in the recall program. It made for a tight fit in the AC adapter plug, but it didn't seem too bad.

      After a few months, tho, the wear and tear owing to that snug fit broke whatever board the adapter plug is attached to. This was just as the recall program had gotten into full swing. My PB was long out of warranty, so when I called Apple to explain the problem, I wasn't looking for any service. I called to warn them they were looking at a looming issue. The guy who fielded the call passed it to a supervisor who (to my astonishment) offered to fix my PB for free.

      That's not all. The supervisor called back several hours later, asking me if I would mind shipping my PB to Apple HQ rather than the repair center. I would not be getting the PB back, tho. On receipt, they would ship me a brand new TiBook. I did, and had the TiBook the next day.

      Soon thereafter, Apple started shipping a replacement for their replacement adapters. These didn't fit as snugly.

      Part of my story is luck and timing. The rest is explained by killer support.
      • They got a knowledgable user on the line that pointed out a 'looming issue' so the smartest thing they could do was to get their hands on that unit ASAP to study the problem and fix it. no need to second guess that way. Hats off for management that actually has some INSIGHT in problemsolving; Exchanging yr PB for a Ti was a nice touch, thou. (of course you saved them a lot of money in the long run, so, it was just a case of honest, gentlemenlike behaviour..)
    • Back around 1995, I actually had a girlfriend who ran over her Powerbook 5200 (in the case). It was actually her company's powerbook. The 'book still worked fine, however the LCD was cracked and became a rather trippy lava light.

      I was fresh away from being an Apple tech for a local VAR, so I had a friend or two at the SOS-APPL line at the time. I called up the support line, explained the situation, and the girl on the line said that it wasn't covered under warranty, however there were a few things I could
  • Congratulations Apple! I've never actually had to use Apple support because their products are just too good!
  • After seeing applecare prices they better have good suport. And i have used their support and was inpressed. Thoses guys actually know their stuff wuhich is so rare in tech support these days. Now if only i could affort a powerbook.

    • Re:They better (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I'm willing to bet they don't "know thier stuff" as much as you say. Something wrong with this powerbook? No problem, we'll just swap the motherboard. I'm pretty sure most things get fixed this way. The time it saves to just replace a components then to troubleshoot it is probably a part of why their support happens to be so good.

      A/C $0.02 = -$0.02

      =)

  • I'm not suprised (Score:5, Informative)

    by el_munkie ( 145510 ) on Thursday May 29, 2003 @10:01PM (#6073053)
    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.

  • My experiences (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mrpuffypants ( 444598 ) <mrpuffypants@gmailTIGER.com minus cat> on Thursday May 29, 2003 @10:02PM (#6073056)
    I got an iBook in May 2002 for Graduation from my parents. I used it everywhere.

    Around December I was sitting in my dorm at college and leaned the chair back on the power plug (the part that goes into the ibook with the colored ring) and squashed it. I tried to make it circle again and it fit with some pushing. I got home for xmas break and one day went to pull out the power adapter from the ibook. The bare leads ripped out of the adapter, beckoning me with certain death at the hands of Apple.

    I called AppleCare, as I was still under my 1yr factory warranty. They sent me a brand new adapter in a postage-paid returnable box. All was well.

    Around March my new power adapter stopped working on me. I did the same thing and got a brand new one in the mail. Soon thereafter my batter y started holding no more than about a 20 minute charge. After calling AppleCare and talking with some awesomely helpful techs I got a brand new ibook battery for free in a postage-paid returnable box.

    Finally, last month my hard drive started making a "clicking" noise when I tried to edit this one song in iTunes. I called AppleCare and they advised me to bring it to the Knox Street Apple Store to get it looked at. I brought it in and they told me that the hard drive was on its last legs (which I already figured out by the clicking, but wanted to be sure) It was sent off on Friday, May 2 right before the big iPod party. I got it back on the wendesday the next week.

    I looked at the work order attached, and not only had they given me a new hard drive, but also swapped me out a new logic board...just to be nice :)

    Conclusion: I rave about Apples and how they work so great, but one of the best parts is that when they don't work, the support is a dream.

  • Not surprising. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Dr Reducto ( 665121 )
    It obviously helps that Apple makes the hardware AND software. Apple techs only have to know how to fix Mac hardware and software. It's based on the jack-of-all-trades dealy.

  • I love Apple support (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Iron Chef Unix ( 582472 ) on Thursday May 29, 2003 @10:44PM (#6073291)
    My contacts with Apple support over the last 10+ years have been 99% excellent.

    In fact, yesterday I called Apple because the cord on my iPod remote had started to tear near the plug. I honestly thought they would just tell me tough luck because it was mostly a cosmetic issue.

    The tech said they would be glad to send me a new one and it would arrive in 3-5 days. It arrived at my house no more than 18 HOURS later! Granted, some of that has to do with proximity (California->Oregon), but they sent it Airborne, when I would have been happy to get it in a week with ground shipping.

    I read posts about bad Apple service occasionally, but all I can say is that it probably just really bad luck or the caller was a royal pain in the arse to the rep on the phone.
    • Apple always uses Airborne Express. I really like that company, but they're a bit screwy when it comes to delivering stuff.

      I called Apple support for the REP for the PowerBook 5300. They shipped me a box. Unfortunately, I wasn't there when the delivery guy called or stopped by, so he dropped the box off at the main office for my apartment complex. They left no note, so I had no idea that it was there. I called Apple again and they said that they would ship the box imediately. I got it 10AM the next d
      • I got a replacement keyboard for my iBook about 2 days before the warranty ran out.

        "The letters on the keys are rubbing off!"

        "And?"

        "It doesn't look nice"

        "And?"

        "Design is one of your unique selling points..."

        "Oh, alright then"

        This keyboard has lasted much better. Either the first one was just not up to scratch, or they coat the keys with thicker varnishy stuff now.
  • 1. Excellent Hardware
    2. Excellent Software
    3. Industry Leading Support
    4. ???????????
    5. Profit!!

    Note: ???? probably involves crushing Microsoft, something which Linux actually looks like it might do.

    P.S. I couldn't resist :)

  • Excellent support (Score:3, Informative)

    by fordgj ( 522469 ) on Friday May 30, 2003 @02:30AM (#6074318)
    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.

  • Some of my better experiences... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by cei ( 107343 ) on Friday May 30, 2003 @03:07AM (#6074438) Homepage Journal
    I kept AppleCare for my Powerbook 5300 for as long as they'd let me extend the warranty. Twice I had problems with the wiring to the display crapping out on me (they ran through the hinge, which always seems like a bad idea...) Both times I got it back via Airborne Express within a week at no cost, and in one case, I'm pretty sure they just replaced the whole display.

    Another time I was running a Workgroup Server 95 (Quadra 9500 running A/UX) as a print server. I was having problems at 7 AM CST on a Sunday morning. Called the support number and was patched through to an engineer at his house (I could hear a parrot in the background...) and he walked me through the solution.
  • How many computers are these companies actually shipping, ofcourse failures will be greater with the more shippments made, there are always going to be that bad "Apple"(pun intended, cause I like puns, I don't know why people always have to write if its intended or not but ok) so to speak. Maybe Apple has less because they aren't shipping as much as IBM or Dell or some other ones.

  • My Experience (Score:2, Informative)

    by Orion27 ( 671651 )
    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 procedur

  • Mysterious upgrades (Score:3, Interesting)

    by mixy1plik ( 113553 ) <mhunt&ecin,net> on Friday May 30, 2003 @08:46AM (#6075555)
    Here at my office we have a number of G4s, including a few Titanium Powerbooks. An older one (500mhz) was sent in for repair and it came back as a 667 (which was one model newer, too). Well, it broke again a few months later and we just got it back and it's an 867mhz machine.

    Go Apple!

  • The fixed my iMac free of charge... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by pressman ( 182919 ) on Friday May 30, 2003 @10:26AM (#6076500) Homepage
    even though I dropped it about 18" on it's side! It was a Graphite iMac DV/SE 466, the old clamshell version. I dropped it and it just plain stopped working. Even the molding on the front left was visibly damaged. I brought it into my local retailer. They asked me what was wrong, I said it wasn't working, they shipped it off and a week later it came back good as new and no charge! They had to have known that I damaged the molding. That it wasn't a simple malfunction. They didn't charge me anyway! I call that service!

  • Nothing but good experiences... (Score:3, Informative)

    by macthulhu ( 603399 ) on Friday May 30, 2003 @11:36AM (#6077284)
    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.

  • As a former AppleCare support agent... (Score:5, Informative)

    by AshBean ( 636866 ) on Friday May 30, 2003 @07:44PM (#6081612)
    ...I can tell you that customer satisfaction at Apple was job one. Unlike a lot of companies (like the company who's product I support now), Apple believes that customer support is integral to their business and outsourcing support to other companies in out of the question. (Actually, to be accurate, they used to outsource a portion of their support when I was there, mainly for call volume overflow purposes. They may still.)

    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.

  • A dubious distinction (Score:4, Funny)

    by er333 ( 32834 ) on Friday May 30, 2003 @08:29PM (#6081841)
    Apple has come out on top in recent Consumer Reports surveys regarding .. hardware failure.

    Apple is tops in hardware failure. Way to go Apple!

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