
One Big Reason For Apple's Market Share Gains. - MaysonL
http://www.notebooks.com/2008/11/07/my-apple-curse-strikes-again-but-apple-store-saves-the-day/
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bk
This is fine and dandy if you live near an Apple store. If you don't,
especially if you go overseas with a US bought product, things get much less
pretty.

Non-US Apple has refused to handle my US warranties, so the only recourse was
to ship it to the US for repair, which means you're without your machine for
several weeks.

I think with companies like lenovo or dell that cater to corporate customers
worldwide you probably end up with better service in more "remote" locations.

When I was living in NYC, owning Apple products was relatively painless
because of the Apple stores there.

~~~
davidw
> I think with companies like lenovo or dell that cater to corporate customers
> worldwide you probably end up with better service in more "remote"
> locations.

I had really good results with a US-bought laptop here in Innsbruck, Austria,
which in some ways qualifies as 'remote'.

[http://journal.dedasys.com/2007/11/20/and-were-back-in-
actio...](http://journal.dedasys.com/2007/11/20/and-were-back-in-action)

I was dreading dealing with who knows what sort of awful bureaucracy, but
instead it was simple, fast and convenient.

------
nihilocrat
_his is a ridiculously fast turnaround- Apple took less than half of the
estimated time to complete the repair._

Promise less, deliver more.

Even if you think you can find a solution for your client in three days, tell
them it will take a week. If your estimate is accurate, they will (probably)
be happier than if you told them it would take three days originally.

~~~
vulpes
This type of service really depends on location. A store here in Boulder is so
backed up you cannot make a same day or even next day appointment which means
the 5-7 day repair is suddenly 7-10 day repair and even then its closer to 10
business days than 7. While thats not the case in less busy areas, it really
does depend on the store, so they aren't delivering more because they're
Apple, but because they don't have as much work to do.

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redrobot5050
The other reason they might be gaining so much marketshare is that some of
their customer base is opting to buy new machines rather than have relatively
minor repair work done.

(The Mac Book he bought for $325 comes to mind.)

~~~
DougBTX
Todo: get in a position where people are _looking_ for excuses to buy my
products.

------
queensnake
From your lips to God's ear but, that they have so many problems in the first
place would _scare_ me off of Apple.

~~~
kirse
I agree. If this was a post about a Dell laptop you'd read endless amounts of
comments lambasting Dell / Vista / PCs and hear every single PC-to-Mac switch-
story about how the Mac does everything short of being a free energy device
that powers homes.

Of course when it's an Apple product that fails constantly it's just a "lemon"
or "fluke". We'll see how Apple support turns out once they get their dominant
market share every Mac fan dreams about.

P.S. It doesn't involve free upgrades to new computers. Secondly, I'm sure we
all remember how Dell was renowned for their amazing customer support before
they got to #1.

~~~
potatolicious
But it costs _more_ to provide customer support as a smaller player - you have
to provide the same geographic availability of service providers, the same
ratio of support techs per customer, all without the advantage of economies of
scale. IMHO Dell's fall from customer service heaven is purely a result of
their own obsession with budget computers and the race to the bottom. So long
as Apple remains a premium brand I don't think they'll have trouble keeping
good service.

I am a Mac user myself, and while my laptop has been far from trouble-free,
I've had zero trouble with customer service. Every single time my phone call
has been answered in less than 2 minutes, nobody's _ever_ hassled me or tried
to weasel their way out of a genuinely defective part, and many reps have even
offered more expensive solutions (i.e. shipping the machine back to Apple
instead of visiting a local shop, or full machine replacement) instead of me
having to badger them for it. I am currently entitled to a "new" (read:
refurb) machine because I've had so much repair work done on mine (twice to
the shop).

While it certainly sucks that my laptop has had these problems to begin with,
the fact that the service is there to back you up means I will be an Apple
customer for some time yet.

~~~
aneesh
I run Windows & Ubuntu, and I would shudder at the thought of having to ship
my laptop in. That's a lot of time to be without my computer.

I've honestly never encountered a problem that required the manufacturer's
support. More than a handful of my Mac friends have had to ship theirs in.

~~~
potatolicious
This is, of course, anecdotal, but my roommate had his Dell break down a while
ago. Spent about 5 hours on the phone arguing with one support rep or another
before they agreed to send a tech out the next day to look at it. His computer
was hunky dory the next day (better than Apple, who took 4 days round-trip
from time of call to time laptop was returned), but IMHO the aggravation
required for it just isn't worth it.

Also, FWIW, you don't ever have to ship your laptop in (unless you are doing a
full replacement like me). Plenty of service providers will look at your
machine without taking it away from you for extended periods. They won't come
to your house though.

------
PStamatiou
"The process was painfully slow and took nearly three and a half hours to
complete"

wtf do you do at the genius bar for 3+ hours? I can imagine maybe 1 hour
talking to the bored apple genius guy, convincing him that i am just as geeky
as he is, but anything longer than that and I'd be annoyed.

~~~
mattmaroon
Just drink in the genius.

~~~
unalone
I know it's fun mocking the Geniuses, but they've always given me pretty
excellent service. The name's kind of ridiculous, but don't knock a good
thing.

------
lhorn
Hm... I get exact same stripes about twice a month, usually when it gets
really hot, most commonly when watching a movie via Hulu or iTunes. But it
always goes away if I turn it off/on. I never bothered going to an Apple store
because I couldn't reproduce this reliably. Perhaps I should. Has anyone here
tried to fix a similarly unreliable problem?

~~~
kqr2
You should consider getting a laptop cooler. It does a good job of keeping my
macbook cool.

~~~
lhorn
I considered (and agreed with myself) Thinkpad T500 which is in the mail. :-)

------
mhb
Wow. That counts as a positive experience?

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bayareaguy
I've had good and bad experiences with different apple "genii". One time I
needed to replace the little detachable extension cord segment that goes from
the power adapter to the wall outlet and the guy at the palo alto store was
hostile to me and flat out _refused_ to give me a part number or any useful
information (other than to suggest I purchase a whole new $100 power adapter).
I eventually found someone on craigslist who was willing to sell me theirs for
$15. But another time when my GPU failed a guy at the emeryville store saw to
it that I was sent a new powerbook by overnight delivery.

------
azsromej
If you're going to experience failure, it's awesome to have the company make
that easy. I do have two Dell laptops at home (ages 4 and 5 years) that have
never had a single issue. My wife's macbook had a battery failure within 2
years, but Apple replaced it even though it was out of warranty. We've since
sold that one, and got a new one, and I hope it continues to work without
issue.

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pavelludiq
Are macs really that crappy?

~~~
tdavis
I can see why you'd ask that, considering that two incidents could so
rationally be considered a representative sampling. I don't know, do people
really pose such stupid questions?

I've had a MBP since 2006 and the only time it had to be repaired was after a
drunk guy poured a litre of Sprite into it. I've also owned a Mac Pro since
February that has given me no issues. Provided this clearly superior anecdotal
evidence, I must wonder, "Are all macs really this good?"

------
weegee
I've had nothing but positive experiences with Apple at their Genius Bar, and
on the phone. I don't know of any other manufacturer that has such an in-store
experience, but it sure was nice not having to ship my machine out and instead
just get to leave it there for a couple days while it was repaired under
warranty. my previous Mac, a 12" powerbook, worked perfectly for the 3 years
that I had it.

------
ScottHanson
Apple is for faggs only.

