

Is Apple suitable for the freelancer? - gma
http://effectif.com/mac-os-x/is-apple-suitable-for-enterprise

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robterrell
Apple gear is suitable for me. It might not be for him. But it sounds like he
didn't consider all of his repair options:

a) Every Apple store has a dedicated small business contact. If you call the
store, you can get to this person through the phone tree. They can make
special arrangements for businesses, up to a point.

b) According to <http://www.apple.com/support/products/mac.html>, if you have
AppleCare, you can request on-site or even mail-in service. I've used the
mail-in service a half-dozen times over the years.

c) Even in a world filled with Apple Stores, there still are third-party
retailers. A local shop (closest to me is <http://tenplus.com>) is likely to
give you better service.

------
JackWebbHeller
I can sympathise with the difficulties the Genius Bar cause.

I had a standard MacBook - about 2 months old - when I noticed, whilst working
on it on the train, after picking it up one of the screws from the underside
had become loose and fallen out. I spent a while trying to screw it back in
with my fingers on the train, just enough to stop it falling back out again.

When I got home I gave it a proper go with a screwdriver. Problem solved?
Nope.

Over the next few weeks this kept happening - not just with that one screw but
with about 3 or 4 (of the 8 in total). I got suspicious and took it straight
to the Geniuses.

I've calculated the total time, per appointment, to be 2 hours - 10 minutes
getting ready (shutting down, disconnecting displays and HDDs, etc), 40
minutes travel there, 15 minutes waiting, 15 minutes being served, 40 minutes
travel back.

Appointment 1 (2 hours elapsed): Problem diagnosed, genius did the
screwdrivering themselves.

Appointment 2 (4 hours elapsed): Screws still loose, genius took a look and
put in an order for some new screws.

Appointment 3 (6 hours elapsed): Screws have arrived, genius replaces all the
screws.

Appointment 4 (8 hours elapsed): Screws still coming loose. Genius 'resits'
the MacBook underside.

Appointment 5 (10 hours elapsed): Still no luck. Genius orders new MacBook
rubber base.

Appointment 6 (12 hours elapsed): New rubber base is fitted.

Appointment 7 (14 hours elapsed): Screws STILL coming loose. Genius orders
replacement of base 'fitting unit'.

Appointment 8 (16 hours elapsed): Genius fits new base fitting unit. This
takes 3 days so I can't use my MacBook at all during this time.

Appointment 9 (18 hours elapsed): Still no luck. Genius offers to replace
MacBook. But, I don't have an entire system backup (I was using BackBlaze and
had a hard drive crash the month before), so I have to fork out £80 for a HDD
to set up Time Machine again.

Appointment 10 (20 hours elapsed): Backup taken. MacBook swapped.

Appointment 11 (22 hours elapsed): New MacBook doesn't boot properly. ANOTHER
replacement...

... and finally I had a faultless MacBook again. All it took was almost an
entire day of my life.

~~~
JackWebbHeller
Also, forgot to mention the brilliant ending to the story. All this was
happening around the same time Gizmodo and Engadget were having fun reporting
"emails from Steve Jobs".

I emailed a copy of all my Genius Bar woes to sjobs@apple.com - nothing for 3
weeks, when one morning I awoke to a phone call from my local Apple Store.
They said they'd heard about my troubles 'via Cupertino' and promised me if
anything ever went wrong again, I'd get a full refund...!

~~~
gma
That's brilliant. Did anybody try any loctite on those screws?

~~~
JackWebbHeller
Can't say I know too much about Loctite (as far as I know they don't sell it
in the UK where I'm from), but they did point out that each of the screws had
a small amount of blue substance on their bottom half. Supposedly this was
meant to stop them coming loose, although clearly it wasn't much use...

~~~
youngtaff
You get Loctite as a brand in the UK more commonly known as superglue, the
other thing you can use is thread lock - somewhere like Halfords will stock
it.

------
bonaldi
If you want business support from Apple, don't use the consumer channels.
<http://www.apple.com/uk/retail/jointventure/> is the way in.

(As for the much-mentioned half-day of revenue, the store's also open on
weekends)

~~~
gma
Thanks for the link; I'll add that to the post.

Have you tried getting a genius bar appointment at the weekend in London? It's
not easy. Also, it's still work if you're self employed, and your time has a
value.

------
teilo
My company is Apple-heavy. Most of our users are on Macs, with a spattering of
Windows PCs and lots of Dell servers running Linux, so I have plenty of
experience with both worlds.

When I go to an Apple store, I ask for their business sales staff and I skip
all the bubbly "Oh is this your first Mac?" blue shirts. Often I call ahead,
and my hardware is waiting for me when I arrive.

When I have issues with hardware, I do not deal with the Genius bar, but as I
do with all other PC companies, I talk to a business support person at Apple
over the phone, and resolve most issues either on the phone, or via RMA. They
sometimes schedule me an "appointment" of sorts at one of the local Apple
stores, but I don't have to wait for anything. I drop off the machine, and
come back and get it later. They have bent over backwards for me on multiple
occasions, even allowing me to come pick up hardware after hours.

So yes, I think that Apple is especially good at small to medium sized
business support. Better experiences than I've had with Dell and HP.

------
gte910h
Applecare is one of the only warranties worth it.

I am surprised: Loaner policies, and ease of swapping to other apple computers
(migration assistant works from time machine) makes Apple great for freelance
in my opinion.

Also: Mail in service is far superior timewise than _going someplace in
person_.

