Were you looking for a rant today? You’re in luck! You’ve come to the right place 🙂
My rant today is about Apple. In particular, the Apple repair service. As you’ve heard me complaining about for the past week, my MacBook Pro died. Being the skilled IT peeps that we are, we tried everything we could think of to get it back to life. Software fixes, reinstalls, all that stuff. Finally we gave up, and took it to the Apple store and made an appointment with the Genius Bar staff.
First of all, I made an appointment. We were late due to uncontrollable circumstances – a bad accident on the expressway made us sit in traffic for 10 extra minutes. When I got to the store I checked in and was told to wait. I sat there and waited for a while, then finally they took me over to the “tech” area. Then it was time to wait some more. And wait. And wait. FINALLY I was assigned a tech. I swear they had 3 techs helping people, and about 500 Apple sales people just standing around talking to each other! Ugh.
After explaining what was going on with my laptop to the tech, it was suggested that the laptop be sent off for repair. Estimated repair cost (*before taxes*), $575. Yes, that’s a ton of money for a repair, but given that a replacement MacBook with similar specs was going to be $2,100… it made sense to get it repaired. Granted, my laptop is 4 1/2 years old, but it has been so stinking solid and trouble free, it’s worth it. Remember I mentioned “don’t buy cheap shit” in an earlier post? This holds true for computers. It’s been a great investment, even though it was sticker shock.
So off my computer went on Friday. I was told the repair was around 3-5 days, and they would ship it back to my house. Sunday is not a business day, so on Monday I went searching around for my case # to see what was happening on my repair. Status on Monday morning was that it was being investigated.
Tuesday morning I looked at my case # and it was reported that my computer was repaired, and on it’s way back to me! And, the date on the note was Monday! I didn’t get a status email. I didn’t get a tracking number. Since I was curious what the heck was going on, I contacted the Apple store (they shipped the computer to the repair center).
The store tech looked up my case # and told me the laptop was still being repaired. Uh no, that’s not what my information says. It’s on it’s way to me. What the heck is my tracking number? When will it arrive? What repair was done to it??? Mr. Apple Store has no answers. They will investigate and give me a call back.
Next thing I hear from Alan on Tuesday morning – “your laptop is home!!”. What the what?? They shipped it and it’s at home already? Inside the box was a slip that explained they replaced 3 pieces of hardware, including the retina display. Woohoo! A new screen!! (but boo, my pink decal is gone!)
So far the laptop has been working great again, but just in case, it does have a 90 day warranty on it. Let’s just hope I never have to do that again, because for the amount of money I spent on the repair, I should have at least got an email from them about anything that happened along this process!! Seriously, the communication sucked.
And now… time to find a new decal for it. I’m sure going to miss my pink one!
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Great news! I will be able to post comments on your blogs again!! Thanks for stopping by! Commenting from my iPhone just didn’t work 🙁
Q: Are there any stores you’d avoid just because they have awful customer service?
Q: Did you go out to dinner on Valentine’s Day?
Nope, I had to stay home and save money to pay for my laptop. hahaha!
Ugh that’s a lot of money. I hope after that repair it lasts you another several years! I don’t think we spend a lot of money on my laptop (Paul takes care of that stuff) but I don’t really do anything on it but surf the internet, blog, and check email. I literally just had to look on the back of the screen to see what kind it is. It’s an HP haha.
Megan @ Meg Go Run recently posted…The Haircut From Hell
I occasionally have to stop into my local Apple Store for some help or to just ask a stupid question or at least it feels like a stupid question after I get the simple answer, but I always get good service even without an appointment. I would certainly let the store manager know that they dropped the ball on this one. I have an iPhone, Apple Watch, MacBook Air, Air Pods, and iMac so I am kind of deep into Apple. I avoid Best Buy like the plague. I have never received what I consider good service there.
We’re not an Apple family but Charleston only has one Apple store and it’s always slammed. I feel like they are so few and far between that they feel like the customer service can be Meh and people will still go because there’s not much choice in the matter. And yes, there are businesses I avoid due to crappy customer service- mostly restaurants though ;).
Amy Lauren Scott recently posted…Weekly Rundown: February 5-11
I hate ABC Warehouse. Walking in there is like going to a cheap used car lot. And yep on not buying cheap shit, that is why we have a color laser printer at home now instead of another cheap crappy expensive to operate inkjet!