[Brit Ben]

As some people may recall, I had a number of issues with my Ti, not least of which was a repair by an apple approved service centre which has further damaged my Ti 500.

I called Apple Service fnally, to get some repairs done, now that I have about 10 days where I don't need the machine.

This is invariably going to be a saga, so I may as well document it for the eventual scathing letter to Jobs.

Call No.1 )
Dec 21st 11:30am

Helpful, open case, Phone support is only valid for 90 days, even though I want to arrange a repair, I need to have phone support, confirmed that the machine is under warranty. Suggested buying a one time support instance at $59. I have to call back to AppleCare Admin to arrange payment, then I will be transferred back to front line support. Assigned a case number.

Call No. 2)
Dec 21st 11:50am

Called, Selected option for apple care admin. Explained that I had to pay a per instance charge, to get warranty work done, and that I had a case number. Was transferred. Speaking to someone else who again took all the details. explained that I had to call apple care admin to arrange payment. I told him that I thought that was who I was talking to. He told me it was frontline support !!! Very apologetic, put me on hold. Spoke with Apple Care Admin, they told him that I couldn't arrange a company Purchas Order for business support over the phone. Suggested that I go buy applecare off the shelf from my local apple reseller. I explained that I didn't want to do that because they broke my machine in the first place, Offered to get me another reseller's number. I have to go buy applecare from them before I can request warranty work to be done, even though I AM STILL IN WARRANTY. Enquired after turnaround - 10 working days. No loan machines available. Unlikely to have machine back by january 3rd.
Asked to speak to a support supervisor to confirm what I was being told. No supervisors available, Someone from Apple Customer Relations will call me back today or tomorrow.
Very polite, but not very helpful.

I await their call, and in the meantime, I will have to go and buy applecare to get the machine shipped.

Apple, get a grip, this is why business customers don't like dealing with you.

Ben.

[The Placid Casual]

I feel your pain....

In the iBook forum I have posted my experiences of Applecare in the UK....It has been (is) a real nightmare and turned into an epic of Tolstoyesque proportions, it is just not good enough

[seanyepez]

I absolutely hate Apple's 90-day phone support policy. They are really cheating us out of our money here.

Even Dell includes a whole year of phone support with their base warranty package.

[cbr600f4]

Hear your pain. I bought the 3 year plan, but doesn't mean Apple actually fixes what they are responsible for. have lost my faith in Apple, I don't want to, but they have burned me once too much. Oh well, was a nice ride while it lasted.

Nick

[LtKernelPanic]

Damn. I guess I should count myself lucky. Both times I had to call about my Pismo they were great. They sent a box right out and I had it back 4 days later. The other time they shipped a new battery out overnight express. I was impressed. However I agree that the 90 days phone support sucks. And one thing I don't get if you're calling to request a box for a warranty repair, how can they charge you for that?

[Brit Ben]

Originally posted by LtKernelPanic:
<STRONG>And one thing I don't get if you're calling to request a box for a warranty repair, how can they charge you for that?</STRONG>

Yep, thats the bit that I don't understand either. Neither did my finance department, who are now spitting and muttering very evil things about apple. Thats one more company and 130,000 possible business customers who won't be using apple hardware. We've just been banned from purchasing from Apple as a result of this lack of service.

*Shrugs, I get a new dell. No big deal*

Ben.

[vmarks]

Here in America I've heard the rumour that AppleCare is such that you can cancel it and get your money back, pro-rated. Also, I'm sure that you shouldn't have had to buy anything to simply get warranty service done.

This sounds like Apple UK jerking you around. I would ask to speak to a supervisor and get the money spent refunded with a letter of apology to your company- tell them in no uncertain terms that they'll lose the whole company as a possible customer if they don't act right.

Otherwise, get used to that dell... (Personally, IBM Thinkpads are more robust, but it doesn't matter if you run Windows on it- Windows turns all good hardware to crap.)

[tonton]

That's odd... my experience with Apple Asia has been fantastic. Great phone service, great repair service, they replaced my screen even though there was evidence it had been tampered with (whew!). They replaced my DVD drive without question because I said some CDs wouldn't mount, and they replaced my motherboard because one channel of my audio out died.

And they certainly didn't charge me for the return box. That sounds really crappy.

[Brit Ben]

Originally posted by vmarks:
<STRONG>Here in America I've heard the rumour that AppleCare is such that you can cancel it and get your money back, pro-rated. Also, I'm sure that you shouldn't have had to buy anything to simply get warranty service done.

This sounds like Apple UK jerking you around. I would ask to speak to a supervisor and get the money spent refunded with a letter of apology to your company- tell them in no uncertain terms that they'll lose the whole company as a possible customer if they don't act right.

Otherwise, get used to that dell... (Personally, IBM Thinkpads are more robust, but it doesn't matter if you run Windows on it- Windows turns all good hardware to crap.)</STRONG>

Thanks, I'm in Canada, so It's Apple whoever in Canada. This has nothing to do with applecare per se. The system is STILL under it's manafacturer's one year warranty. It has everything to do with Apple's brain dead policies. I have to speak with Apple Support to get them to accept the unit for repair, and it costs money to speak to them. I don't see why I should have to pay to speak to them to get warranty work done. It is a hardware problem, resulting in massive scratches in the surface of my CD / DVD's.

Apple already lost my company as a customer. That was dictated on Friday after we found out we had to pay them to get a unit returned under warranty.

As for the Dell, I'll run Windows XP, god help me.

Ben.

[Brit Ben]

Originally posted by Brit Ben:
<STRONG>
I await their call, and in the meantime, I will have to go and buy applecare to get the machine shipped.

</STRONG>

Which of course never came. Why am I unsurprised.

Ben.

[waffffffle]

I've called up apple a bunch of times recently and never had to pay for support. I had some serious motherboard problems with my pismo back in april and while Apple messed up quite a bit (sent it back to me still broken, but downgraded my OS). But I never had to pay a cent because my machine was under warrantee.

Then last month I called up to ask about buying new DVD drive for my Pismo, since it was then out of warrantee. They told me the price ($500, of course I didn't buy it) but they didn't charge me. I asked about the base station recall they were having as well. I found out that Apple was taking them back quitely, if they were within a certain serial # range, and had certain "symptoms." However my base station was working fine at the time.

I called back a few weeks later when the base station finally broke. It wasn't under warantee anymore, but they took it back, again no charge for phone support.

[Danni]

Ben, I am in Canada too. They tried pulling that stuff with me when I was sending my daughter's iBook off for minor repairs. I told them that I was planning to buy Apple Care in the very near future but that the issue here was hardware and I simply wanted them to send me a box to send it off for repairs. I knew what I wanted repaired and I was not asking for any support whatsoever from them so there should be no charge for the phone call. The lady finally agreed, made a list of what needed to be repaired and sent me a box. I received great service... got the box Friday, sent the powerbook off Monday, got it back on Friday of the same week and they even repaired stuff that I hadn't mentionned. Needless to say, I was very pleased with Apple's service. I think the trick here is to be firm but very polite when requesting that box. Don't give up on Apple and for pete's sake, don't go over to Windows.

Danni
Friends don't let friends do Windows!

[Brit Ben]

Originally posted by Danni:
<STRONG>Ben, I am in Canada too. They tried pulling that stuff with me when I was sending my daughter's iBook off for minor repairs. I told them that I was planning to buy Apple Care in the very near future but that the issue here was hardware and I simply wanted them to send me a box to send it off for repairs. I knew what I wanted repaired and I was not asking for any support whatsoever from them so there should be no charge for the phone call. The lady finally agreed, made a list of what needed to be repaired and sent me a box. I received great service... got the box Friday, sent the powerbook off Monday, got it back on Friday of the same week and they even repaired stuff that I hadn't mentionned. Needless to say, I was very pleased with Apple's service. I think the trick here is to be firm but very polite when requesting that box. Don't give up on Apple and for pete's sake, don't go over to Windows.

Danni
Friends don't let friends do Windows!</STRONG>

Hey Danni, thanks for the message. I will try that tack on Wednesday. Obviously they have shut down for the new year now, and I can't begrudge them that.
What a pain.

Ben.

[Brit Ben]

Originally posted by Brit Ben:
<STRONG>

Hey Danni, thanks for the message. I will try that tack on Wednesday. Obviously they have shut down for the new year now, and I can't begrudge them that.
What a pain.

Ben.</STRONG>

Thanks for the advice. I called back in, eventually spoke to an Apple Care Canada customer relations rep, who, upon clarifying the situation several times, explained that he could arrange to have the box sent to me directly. I await my box which should be with me by Monday, then I need to wait for the repair

Ben.

[Danni]

Glad I was of help!

Danni