***** Regarding Apple Care and users' attitudes *****
Hello and Happy New Year!
I have just come across this list and this is a very informative and enjoyable group especially for Macintosh users and enthusiasts. I just read various comments from people about Apple Care, how long service should take, the quality of service, and whether to purchase the insurance or not. I would like to address all those concerns by responding about my experiences with Apple Care in this letter.
First of all I am an avid Mac user and enthusiast. I am in no way associated with Apple or Apple Care except as an end-user (customer) and consumer of Apple products. I have been using Apple products since the early 1980s with the Apple II series. I have also used nearly every computing platform and OS from mainframe to micro of the past 25 years, way too many to even begin to list. I have been using the Mac since the first Macintosh model (128k). The Mac has been my personal computing platform of choice ever since. That first Mac cost over $2,000 when it was introduced, just to put things in perspective. (Remember the Mac IIfx had a $10,000 price tag! Thanks Jean-Louis (Greedy) Gass�e.)
I have owned many of the various models of Mac produced over the years and still have several. I have had excellent experiences with Apple, Apple Care, and my Macs with very few break downs: THREE total on three different machines over the past TWENTY years! Some of my Macs have taken severe abuse and never even hiccuped. The Macintosh System OS rarely ever freezes and has NEVER crashed! In all that time and of all the Macs, I have chosen to purchase Apple Care only twice. Strangely, or serendipitously, those were two of the three machines that had problems. I choose not to purchase additional warranty because I feel confident about Apple's products and my ability to fix anything that does break down. Getting replacement parts has always been easy and inexpensive, and installing parts is very easy on a Mac, plus I like to tinker and upgrade, so I choose not to spend the extra money on warranty insurance.
Of the three Macs that have had a problem, the one Mac I did not purchase Apple Care for was a Mac IIci which I still have. One morning, over ten years ago now, I turned on the power and the internal hard drive was screeching. I was able to recover the data by booting from an external hard drive. (Always back up your data!) The IIci is a wonderful machine, after powering down, I just lifted the lid, removed the bad drive and replaced it with a new one I purchased at my local computer store. I have never had another problem with that IIci and that same drive is still working today.
On to the Macs I did purchase Apple Care for and how to effectively deal with Apple Care reps. The first time I purchased Apple Care was for the second Mac I bought, a 512k, in winter 1984/1985. This Mac was about $600 less than the previous one and this was the first I had heard of Apple Care, so I went ahead and purchased it. I am very glad I did, because I ended up with a completely upgraded Mac. At some point, the 400k internal floppy drive gave out, which rendered the Mac useless, no hard drives yet. I did have an external 800k floppy drive but the Mac 512k could not boot from that (the 512kE could, each early model revision had a new ROM chip set). I took the Mac to the Apple Care repair facility, no phone call center yet. Now, here is the important part and a lesson that took me years to learn: People do not like to be told how to do their job, no matter how new or incompetent they are at it. I probably know more about how to get around inside a computer, diagnose, and repair it than any rep or tech that has work on any of my Macs, however I have learned that it pays to act uninformed, not dumb, just uninformed, let them think they know. So, I know what is wrong and I am trying to explain it to the clueless rep, who eventually just writes up a repair order and says someone will get back to me with an estimate. An estimate??? I have Apple Care! Anyway, several days later I receive a call that my Mac is ready. I go to pick it up and I notice my Mac looks different. I ask the clerk/rep if this is indeed my Mac and it is. So I ask what was done. Well, there were no more 400k floppy drives, so they put in an 800k, which needed a new ROM set, which required a new motherboard, which required a different case back. Hmm, I quickly realize what I have, so I sign the repair order and take my new Mac Plus home! Whoo-hoo! Thanks Apple Care! So I am glad that 400k floppy drive died, because I ended up with a floppy drive upgrade, a ROM and motherboard upgrade, a RAM upgrade, a SCSI upgrade, and a case upgrade. The only original parts left on that Mac were the CRT and the front bezel/case.
The other Mac I purchased Apple Care for was a Power Mac 9600/350, which I bought reconditioned from Apple in 1998. The warranty period for reconditioned products was only 90 days, so I purchased Apple Care just to be on the safe side, since this was the first time I purchased a reconditioned item. Within the 90 days the CD-ROM drive was bad. I called Apple Care, explained the problem and the rep told me to take it to a service center. The repair was supposedly made, yet I have my doubts, because the tech could not replicate the problem and within a couple weeks the drive was not working again. I did not get mad. If the repair had been made, it was just a swap of the exact same model of CD-ROM drive. So I diagnosed and experimented myself and found I could get the drive to work properly by making some minor adjustments. (Somehow the original CD-ROM drive sat loose in the bay and would vibrate until not working.) Now that I knew what the problem was I decided Apple Care should fix this once and for all. Living in a metropolitan area, I called around to several Certified Apple Service Centers and when I found a tech who would listen and talk with me about the problem (and who actually knew about this exact problem) I took it in to that Service Center. The tech swapped the CD-ROM with a different make and model right there on the spot, right on the front counter. We made sure the drive sat secure in the bay, made adjustments and tests, and closed up the Mac. I signed the work order and Apple Care got the bill.
I never got mad, yelled, swore, nor cursed. I am sure that if I had done so, I would have two non-working Macs sitting around right now. Instead, I kept my cool and patience, and as a result, I have had very good results getting what I want and many pleasureable years of Macintosh computing experience.
Apple Care can be a valuable investment. There is much more to Apple Care than just hardware repair. As with the person who lives away from a service center, the shipping costs alone could justify the value of Apple Care. I know a woman who buys a new Mac every couple of years, she always gets Apple Care. She enjoys having and uses the Customer Service Support more than the repair support. Since Apple Care is transferable, this increases the resale value of her Macs.
The Mac 512k/Plus I gave to a friend many years ago. I still have the IIci and the 9600/350 along with several others, including a Pismo PB. The reason I came to this site is I am going to hot-rod these machines. Why? For the same reason someone hot-rods cars, because I want to. I don't want to buy a new Porshe, I want to hot-rod my old Corvette. Yes, they are out-dated, yes, there are better and faster, yet I am a tinker and I like to have fun!
Cheers! Have a great year!
Scott
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." -- Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan
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