I love Apple. Anybody who knows me knows this. I carry my PowerBook with me almost everywhere. I have owned the first generation Newton, iPod, and iPod photo; I've owned maybe 8 or so different Macintoshes in my life, including curios such as the G4 Cube. I started back in 1982 with a lowly 48K Apple II+.
So when I hear of Apple screwing over and burning a loyal, faithful, and good personal and business customer — specifically, my friend and co-worker Neal — it really saddens me.
Don't get me wrong. They've made me downright mad before. When Steve killed the Newton not too long after I bought my MessagePad 2000, I cursed him loudly. When they unhired me (illegally, I might add) after hiring me to work at one of their retail stores, I was seething — though still not enough to bring legal action against them; how does one, after all, sue one's dream company?
But still, for almost 23 years now, I've been a zealot, a true believer, one of the insane fans who will travel to San Francisco or Boston just to go to MacWorld.
So to read of how they keep screwing him over is just plain demoralizing.
Come on, Apple. Get it together already, will ya? I've seen you work wonders and pull off last-minute miracles before. Pallets of iPods for Oprah on 48 hours notice. An Xserve G4 for me on 24 hours notice so I could pull the rug out from under Michael Dell in his own back yard.
So why can't you make good on a simple PowerBook G4 17"?
Comments (4)
The simple fact of the matter is that even insanely great companies are staffed in large part by drones who have neither intelligence, nor authority, nor decision-making power. This can make entire divisions of even the greatest company look like a bunch of idiots to the public.... which in turn leads to poor public perception, which leads either to improved processes, or bigger problems. Apple is in its "media darling" phase again, which means they think they can do anything they want and get away with it.... we've been here before (can anyone say early 1990s?), and when the tide turns, and the problems are publically addressed, then maybe something will happen.
Posted by PHB-in-untraining | March 17, 2005 12:17 PM
Posted on March 17, 2005 12:17
I am so lucky: I've had no problems whatsoever concerning my PowerBook (15"). I hope life continues that way - living without it would be sooo hard!
:-)
Posted by Sebastian | March 17, 2005 1:38 PM
Posted on March 17, 2005 13:38
Oh, but I remember one time I was calling Apple Support about something, and the guy promised to send me more info via email - but he didn't.
Fortunately it was neither critical nor urgent. Otherwise I would be the one complaining here.
Posted by Sebastian | March 17, 2005 1:39 PM
Posted on March 17, 2005 13:39
Hah.
When I worked for apple tech support, we were the bastard stepchildren of the company. If steve jobs had his way we probably wouldn't have existed at all. It was so nice to be hated by both the people we were trying to help and the company we worked for.
Most of it was completely out of our control. The Applecare agents have next to zero authority to do anything other than get yelled at and apologize a lot.
And yes, the repair centers bite big time. Tell your friend he was lucky he didn't have an ibook, because it would have been out of commission for closer to a year, most likely.
Posted by ex-minion | April 10, 2005 2:49 AM
Posted on April 10, 2005 02:49