On Dec 9, 2011, at 5:28 PM, Thane Sherrington wrote: > At 05:26 PM 09/12/2011, John Steinbruner wrote: > >> My cousin: >> Pro photographer, used his MacBook G4 everyday for 3 years when the video >> suddenly went out. >> >> Long out of warranty, but he took it down wanting to pay to have it >> repaired. Turns out that parts were no longer to be had for those older G4's. >> >> Apple then gave him a brand new 15" Unibody MacBook Pro just because they >> could not repair his old one!!!!!!!!! All he had to pay was a 100 bucks >> cause he wanted the matte screen update. >> >> Is it any wonder he and I are Mac users? > > Let me see if I have this straight. He bought a Mac and used for three > years. It broke, so they gave him a brand new one, effectively for free? > How do they make any money with a business model that says "Buy one piece of > hardware and we'll just keep giving you new ones when they break"? > > T >
I can vouch for this kind of reaction personally. My laptop (2007 MacBook Pro) had some catastrophic motherboard failure when it was long out of warranty (warranty being 1-year, and this being almost exactly 3 years after purchase). The people at the genius bar were very helpful, called a manager over, and he offered to send my laptop to "the depot" to get whatever needed to be fixed, fixed. For free. Apple overnighted me a shipping box, I fedexed my laptop to repair center, repair was done in one day, and it was overnighted back to me. 4 days total. My laptop came back with a new logic board, new keyboard (had some discolored keys) and a brand new battery. The battery had still been holding 71% of the original charge -- I keep a log of battery performance -- so it wasn't even bad for 3 years! I'm still using the same laptop 1.5 years later. My sister has one of the low-end Macbooks. The old white plastic models (I think 2007-8). She did not have extended Applecare. After around 2-3 years of usage, the laptop had some aesthetic damage to the case--some of the plastic in the front was chipped and splintering. She took it in to the Apple store. Again, completely out of warranty, but no problem, they fixed it for free. That kind of thing _absolutely_ makes a difference for me. Yeah, Macs are more expensive. I'm not going to argue that point. Could I build something cheaper and more powerful--absolutely. I would never buy a Mac Pro or iMac for my personal usage. For laptops, I'm completely sold. My dad's lenovo just feels like a piece of crap in comparison. How does Apple make any money with this model? Well, before 2004 no relative of mine used a Mac. I got a laptop in 2004. My then-gf now-wife switched from a Compaq laptop to an Apple in 2008. Sister got her first Macbook in 2008. My mother got a Macbook in 2007. sister got an iPad. Mom got an iPad2. Several of us have iPhones now. etc. Believe me, if back 10-12 years on the Cyrix list, the overclocking list, or the HWG list somebody told me that I would be using a Mac in the future, I would have called them utterly crazy! Times have changed. Scott
