Recently my dear MacBook Pro 4.1 had trouble with the internal keyboard and trackpad. It randomly failed to work after a period of uptime in MacOS and Windows XP.
Because Apple has the policy to deliver support via Authorised Dealers I had to miss my Mac for 4.5 weeks. I don’t have AppleCare but the computer was still in it’s one year warranty period.
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photography by Kristel van Beek
20 Mar: Dear Steve I: The support problem
posted by: martijn, at 20 March 2009 22:47 GMT+1, 22 March 2009 22:52 GMT+1
The nearest Authorised Apple Dealer is iFactors in my hometown Breda, they have a technical department in Zoetermeer (60 kilometers away) and after a call they told me that it will take 2 weeks.Write a comment for this article
The evening after I brought my Mac to iFactors I realized that I needed the computer 1.5 weeks later and the salesperson who took my Mac in told me it can endure 2 till 3 weeks. The morning after I called iFactors that I would redrawl the computer the same evening, which was fine. Because of a human error the computer was taken to Zoetermeer and they hold it for 1.5 weeks but they didn’t touch it. When I collected my computer I had to pay 90 euro’s because no error was found but when I would return it for the next checkup I would get my money back if a hardware error would arise. I paid the money although it is a strange request.
The weekend I had my Mac back (I had a gig with Repent, my VJ crew) I discovered the flaw. Which I reported by email at iFactors immediately the next Monday at the same time I handed my Mac over for the second time. 3 weeks later I got the message that my Mac was fixed.
I’m happy that my Mac is back but now I have an american keyboard instead of an european version which are different from my external apple keyboard.
To compare all of this with my experience with Dell it is fair to say that it was very bad. According to me it is not healthy for a company like Apple to give such lousy support.
For 200 hours (4.5 weeks) I could not do my job properly (I had to work at my Dell computer). I could rent a computer via iFactors for just 300 euro’s per week which would be eventually 1350 euro’s. When I decided to buy a Mac instead of a windows computer I didn’t really thought that support was such an issue at Apple.
Strangly enough Apple Support cannot be reached by email, only by phone and plain old paper letters.
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