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Rant, with "secret" Apple tips ! - pdq - 01-16-2013
If you want to skip all the drama, just go to the bottom for some potentially useful "secret" Apple tips I recently learned.
So my father in law, who was a Dell guy, decided when he moved up here to get a Mac. He's well-to-do, and wanted a big screen, so I helped him get a 27" i5 iMac, with two years of AppleCare last year. Unfortunately, it was the one that had the problematic 1 TB drives, and he got notified of the recall.
No sweat- there's a nearby Apple store, and the drive hadn't died. As this was before the holidays, and they were swamped at the store, I said we've got until April for the hard drive recall, we'll wait until after the holidays, and the folks at the Apple store were grateful.
After the holidays, he wants to get this done, cause his previous Dell's hard drive died and he lost some things, so I ask the folks at the Apple store if it's a better time to bring it in. Yeah, that'd be great. I knew the actual repair only takes an hour or so.
So we back him up and take the iMac Sunday, and we make an appointment Monday AM for my wife to bring it in. When she comes back, she says they said 3-5 days. Really? This is his only computer and his connection to the world, so I'm hoping they're just sandbagging.
On Wednesday, no word, so I call the Apple store and find out you can't talk to a person any more. You get a recording that says it can understand sentences. What's the problem? "Hard drive recall". "I understand you want to make a return". "No-umm, Representative!" "I understand you want to make a return". Or press one for a Genius Bar appointment, or two for telephone technical support. Gah!
So I go down to the mall, and ask the greeter about the iMac. Using her mike, she checks- haven't gotten to it yet. "Do you have the parts? Is the repair done here?" Yeah, we just haven't gotten to it. "Do you have any idea when you might?" Nope. We'll call you, sometime. Go away.
Long story short, it gets done late the next day, and we get it on Friday. I'm a little irked that even buying AppleCare, for a recall of a defective part, you have to bring it in, it takes a week, and not only do you end up with a wiped (new) disk, it comes back with 10.7 and it left with 10.8 (downloaded, of course).
So when we get an email from the Apple store asking how we did, I kind of let em have it.
Turn out the manager calls me that night. Apologizes. Say yeah, people don't like the voice recognition answering. Says he'll pass on my various feedback suggestions. Nice guy, and we had a civil conversation, tho I hope his job isn't having to do this every day.
Anyway, he gives me two tips:
When you call the Apple store, if you say to the voice recognition thingy "I want to talk to the manager", he says it'll get you to a real person. Yay!
And if you have AppleCare or are still in warantee, you can go to https://expresslane.apple.com where you can write down what the problem is, tell them when you want them to call, and they'll call you at that time, prepared to fix that particular problem that you're having, instead of having to hold, explain the problem, and have them go through some damn support script. (I see that this has been mentioned by Gizmodo (http://gizmodo.com/5637618/apples-express-lane-is-their-faster-online-tech-support-service) before, but I'd never heard of it.)
Haven't actually tried either one of these -hope he wasn't just feeding me a line of crap-but I thought I would pass them on.
PS- if you find yourself in this situation, the easiest recovery seems to be Carbon Copy Cloning the whole drive to an external, then erasing the new drive when you get your Mac back, booting from the external (may need to be FireWire?), and CCC'ing everything back to the new drive. I originally went through the "welcome to Mac" setup the new drive ran, and tried to import from the external, and you end up with multiple accounts and problems. Just use CCC.
Re: Rant, with "secret" Apple tips ! - cbelt3 - 01-16-2013
Yikes . Agree on the voicemail hell thing. Our CEO said "We will never have a machine answer the phone unless there is nobody in the building." And even at night the customer service lines ring the security guard, who has training to take messages or even connect to emergency CSR people.
While I'm at it... - pdq - 01-16-2013
Century Link service sucks, but at least it's cheaper than Comcast suckage.
Re: Rant, with "secret" Apple tips ! - sekker - 01-16-2013
That was a terrible Apple Store experience. When I took my 2010 i3 iMac in for its 1TB drive replacement (right BEFORE the Apple recall), they gave me several options (which OS I wanted installed on the new drive) and did it quickly.
The only time I've experienced where a repair took longer than 1 business day was when they broke the Apple computer when repairing and had to order a new part (this was an early Intel iMac).
I DO agree that the absolute best way is to make a clone then just do a 'brain transplant' back onto the new drive.
Re: Rant, with "secret" Apple tips ! - decay - 01-16-2013
i wonder if you pushed for onsite... anyone here ever get that done?
http://www.apple.com/support/products/faqs.html
What service options does the AppleCare Protection Plan offer?
Apple may provide service through one or more of the following options: carry-in service (to Apple Retail Stores or Apple Authorized Service Providers), customer drop-off (to UPS stores in the U.S., for iPod and iPhone only), direct mail-in service, onsite service (for desktop computers), or Do-It-Yourself (DIY) parts (so you can service your own product).
Re: Rant, with "secret" Apple tips ! - WHiiP - 01-16-2013
pdq wrote::agree:
So my father in law, who was a Dell guy, decided when he moved up here to get a Mac. He's well-to-do, and wanted a big screen, so I helped him get a 27" i5 iMac, with two years of AppleCare last year. Unfortunately, it was the one that had the problematic 1 TB drives, and he got notified of the recall.
No sweat- there's a nearby Apple store, and the drive hadn't died. As this was before the holidays, and they were swamped at the store, I said we've got until April for the hard drive recall, we'll wait until after the holidays, and the folks at the Apple store were grateful.
After the holidays, he wants to get this done, cause his previous Dell's hard drive died and he lost some things, so I ask the folks at the Apple store if it's a better time to bring it in. Yeah, that'd be great. I knew the actual repair only takes an hour or so.
So we back him up and take the iMac Sunday, and we make an appointment Monday AM for my wife to bring it in. When she comes back, she says they said 3-5 days. Really? This is his only computer and his connection to the world, so I'm hoping they're just sandbagging.
Very similar to my story with my iMac 27" and the Orlando Millennia Mall Store. I still haven't gone back as it's over an hour drive. If they would allow you to bump up the drive to 3TB for an added cost I would do that in a heartbeat. As it is, I will wait for the failure and stay with external drives.
It was not a fun trip.
Re: Rant, with "secret" Apple tips ! - bhaveshp - 01-16-2013
WHiiP wrote:
If they would allow you to bump up the drive to 3TB for an added cost I would do that in a heartbeat.
Called my local authorized retailer and they confirmed they'd install a 3 TB drive (supplied by me) instead of the Apple replacement at no cost.
Excited by this prospect, I go to cancel my 2012 iMac order... and it shipped that morning.
Mixed feelings about that. Guess I'll get the fresh 1 TB drive ahead of selling the old workhorse.
Re: Rant, with "secret" Apple tips ! - WHiiP - 01-16-2013
bhaveshp wrote:
[quote=WHiiP]
If they would allow you to bump up the drive to 3TB for an added cost I would do that in a heartbeat.
Called my local authorized retailer and they confirmed they'd install a 3 TB drive (supplied by me) instead of the Apple replacement at no cost.
Excited by this prospect, I go to cancel my 2012 iMac order... and it shipped that morning.
Mixed feelings about that. Guess I'll get the fresh 1 TB drive ahead of selling the old workhorse.
I'm guessing that is NOT an Apple Store.
Re: Rant, with "secret" Apple tips ! - bhaveshp - 01-16-2013
WHiiP wrote:
I'm guessing that is NOT an Apple Store.
Correct. It was this Apple Authorized Service Provider. They're often much more flexible.
Can you find one in your area? Try here: https://locate.apple.com/
bhaveshp . . . - WHiiP - 01-17-2013
bhaveshp wrote:
[quote=WHiiP]
I'm guessing that is NOT an Apple Store.
Correct. It was this Apple Authorized Service Provider. They're often much more flexible.
Can you find one in your area? Try here: https://locate.apple.com/
Yes, there are a couple . . . still as far away as the Apple Store, but a phone call will let me know what they can do.
Thanks!