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It has been almost 9 months since i bought my MacBook Pro from Apple’s online webstore, and it is turning out to be a combination of both a dream and a nightmare. I have learnt a few things from this ordeal, and i shall touch on that at a later stage.

As a product, i love it. I don’t think i have ever been this attached to a gadget in my whole life, eventhough there has been so much obstacle along the way. The attention to details is unmatched by no other, and needless to say those nifty little value added stuff on this machine. Maybe i got really sick of using Windows OS (which i still use using Parallel), but Mac OSX was a breath of fresh air to me. Something that i actually look forward to playing around and do new things on the OS. The way i work and organise my stuff has changed and i began using more of iCal for to-do lists and planning, as well as using iSync for synching with my Nokia N70. All done without worrying about how software or drivers to install on a Windows machine, it was more or less pain-free. Put in .mac, you get yourself a pretty complete solution to keep your life in order.

That was the fun part. Actually USING the product.

The most unpleasant part of this Apple world, to me, is the purchasing and support. It drives me batshit insane ALL the time. You would have thought they got it all figured out by now, being a large international company and all, but damn have they got some seriously annoying way of doing things. When i first put in the order for a refurbished (this is deadliest mistake i’ve made) MacBook pro through the Apple website, It took more than 4 weeks before i get a hold of the “right” machine, or so i thought. I made numerous phone calls, them delivering to the wrong address, sending me the wrong spec machine the first time, numerous visits to the Apple shop (Digilife chain reallly sucks) and in the end of that 4 weeks, i have myself the right spec machine that i ordered.

A month ago, i find myself with a laptop with a struggling cpu fan on the right side. So i thought, why not, get it fixed sooner rather than later. I drove to Leederville service center only to be told there is a 3 WEEKS waiting before it will even get looked at. Don’t tell me Apple got the idea that everyone who owns a Macbook Pro has spare machines lying around just in case it breaks down and require 3 freaking weeks to get looked at. So i asked if there were any other alternative, which luckily there is another service center far far away but closer to home. Good, i told myself. Drove in early the next day only to find out the serial number on my laptop is not covered by the warranty anymore. Turns out that the serial number on my laptop doesn’t match the one on the invoice.

Great.

Hoping that it can be sorted within the hour by a simple phone call, ended up costing me $120AUD in phone calls, half a day away from work and $20AUD to drive down and park in the city. The issue could not resolved. I got passed on from one department to the other, like some sort of a morning tea doughnut box. To me, it seems like i talked to everyone who worked in Apple Australia. Everytime i called to check what the progress was, i was told there wasn’t any resolution and i would be given a call back (i didn’t realise customers have to always take the initiative). Nobody ever did. Finally one day, they said it will be escalated to a supervisor, of some sort, and told, again, i will be given a call back mid next week. I waited and waited, and even gave them the whoe week to reply back but no, it was silent.

I’ve had enough of the waiting today and gave them a call to demand an answer. After 4 weeks of piss farting around, one of the lady which my call was passed to told me that as far as they are concern, they have shipped the right machine out to me and theres nothing they can do about it. I was shell shocked. I argued that it was their fault that they sent me the wrong machine with the wrong serial number etc etc but she wouldn’t budge (i guess this is a typical trained warrior-like customer support right there). As i put down the phone, i felt worse than being scammed on ebay, it was that bad.

For a first time buyer of Mac product, how bad can a first impression, like the one i described be? I am being denied legitimate warranty cover because of a mistake by Apple’s own “auto management” department? And they did not even admit that there is a possibility that they were in the wrong. I asked myself again and again, what the fuck am i going to do now? They sent a box with the CORRECT serial (with match their record) to me but with a machine with the WRONG serial in it (remember, its refurbushed, so it has been mucked around). How am i going to prove that? I am very close to giving up on this. My laptop’s fan on the right side is dead, i’m not covered with warranty, and i can’t get an Apple Care for it. Like i said, it is driving me batshit insane.

Anyway, there are few lessons here:
1)do NOT buy refurbished goods from Apple.
2)avoid, if possible, from ever buying online from Apple, because if you are unlucky, couriers will deliver your goods blindly.
3)ALWAYS check the serial number when you get your stuff and match it up with your invoice (Can’t blame me for now checking. I didn’t even know what the hell the blue apple logo is at the top left corner of the screen!)
4)Get yourself an Apple Care. You want to avoid the customer service, do it safe, even if its gonna hurt your hip pocket.

Oh well, maybe i should email Steve Jobs regarding this. Last resort.

Tags: mac, apple, macbook pro

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