James Hooker

Well apple sent you a new laptop and a better one. the os you want to install on it is your problem. Apple does not sell them to have another ox installed. That problem is your fault not apples. Sounds like you made the wrong choice. As an apple and pc user I can see some of the issues you are pissed about. I have had a bad call with apples tech support before, not like you though. I have also had the same bad calls with dells. Sounds like your sisters laptop is working well and is your imac and now even your new macbook. I buy dells for the company I work for and the dells are really cheap and break on us all the time. They are cheap and you get what you pay for. The only problem I see they you have is the rebates and its not just apple that try and screw people over on them, sounds like you had the wrong info on the form though. I would say to you quit crying about nothing, you have the computers working so you have no issues to cry about. they replaced the pc for you and your sister. The only issue is you can’t get the drives for the os you want to put on the apple machine. That is not apples problem. The apples we use at work and great and run fine. I would buy them over dell any day of the week. If you do not want to use OSX then buy a pc. just quit the crying about nothing.

WOW … I am sorry to hear about the whole mess you went through. Don’t you feel way helpless as a customer supporting the companies by purchasing their hardware just to get this kind of service.
I thought I am the one that patented bad luck but your case sounds just like what would happen to me. So I do understand how you feel.
It is not like you purchased some 10 cents chewing gums.
Apple should be ashemd of this kind of service. I am still sitting here kinda shocked. It is not like they are a struggling company.
Steve is always busy making all these fancy key notes and campains agains windows showing how good his company and his products are. In your case this whole incident makes him look quite stupid. Paying more attention to inside support towards their customer would be nice. But as always about big companies it is all about the stock marked value.
Those horassing phone calls with threats are OBVIOUSLY from Apple employees. UNBELEAVABLE! And all you did was contributing to pay their wages.

Garry - thanks for the support.

Dave - How about the harrassing phone calls? I can’t believe that you are defending this behavior! — About the Mac OS… READ THE DAMN POST! I said.. i wanted a macbook pro so I could develop for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux on the same machine - i bought that machine, it broke…. they gave me one that isnt compatible.

May I suggest you read the post fully before opening your mouth.

Outsourced support is the issue. I’m glad they canceled the plan for expansion in India for that reason. That said, I think part of the issue is your attitude my Friend. You comment to Dave shows me that you probably were not patient with the support guys either and this will not get you good support no matter who you by your computers (or other stuff) from.

I do feel that you were wronged, so please do not scream at me

Bob

I did read the post and its too bad about the tech support but they did give you a better pc and its not up to them to supply you with a computer that will run Linux. I know you want to run the other operating systems as well but come on, did you really think that its apples fault and you should be able to run Linux. That is what you are upset about. Its a computer to run osx not Linux, even though it is an Intel chip its your fault for that issue. I am sure you would like to run an os along with os x but its not apples fault. How can you be upset that they went and gave you a better machine. I will agree with you that tech support sucks but its suck with most of the pc and even phone system helps desks. On your site it says you got this computer and there was trouble and in the end you get a better machine, but your not happy. You get a laptop with a broken screen and after going around with tech support they give you a new one and its fine. but you are not happy even though in the end you get a new computer. As for the support people, you had a person that was being a prick and calling you guys, that sucks but I am sure if they found out who it was they would have taken care of it. This could have been any other help desk and these things have happened before. The news had on a story about a lady calling Bally’s fitness center to ask about prices and the guy was rude and called her back at home and called her fat. Well that sucks also. But even after all that in the end you got taken care of. So some of the support you were given was bad and that is pretty bad apples part but to say go buy dell. Come on, how about really thinking about what you are saying. I do not think you have given it much thought. Get upset with me if you want but it sounds like you get upset easy. Maybe apple should buy you a car to take care of you since you cant run linux on your NEW LAPTOP!!!!

[...] My Experience With Apple Hardware reliability and customer support aren’t Apple’s strongest points. (tags: mac) [...]

I know James’ main issue about the MBP not running Linux is that it did, and the reasons why it doesn’t are “Apple’s poor choice in choosing proprietory closed hardware” for which it is had for open source to run on.

I have had this arguement many a time with my good friend here, and you can in part understand what he means, but unfortunately the world doesn’t work like this. You can argue that it is all Apple’s fault. Yes they could’ve gone with hardware that is more open, but 1. You would not get the same OS X Mac experience, and you would moan about that. 2. What other good totally open hardware is there that will do everything the current hardware will do? (Expecting James to post a long list at this point!!). There’s always too many parties and players for you to place blame on one thing. Yes, maybe it would be good if the world did work in a completely nice opensource way, but moaning isn’t always going to get you noticed for the right reasons and rally people to support you, instead can make a lot of people very pissed off at you.

I remember him telling me about the harrassing phone calls when it was happening, this was a total disgrace. Yes it was sorted, but some sicko still made James’ family feel very unsecure, threatened and uncomfortable in their own home and I can only imagine what he was thinking and feeling. Thankfully they have stopped, but the amount of phone calls etc with the police, Apple and many more etc.

To be honest a lot of what James has said all has foundation. If I went through all this I’d feel the same. Let me tell you this post doesn’t get across all of the upsets and frustrations he went through.

I agree with James when it comes to choosing Apple Online or the retail stores. James will agree with me when I say that the staff at the Bullring Apple Store were fantastic to him. The manager delt with him swiftly and he did leave very happy and full of faith in the competance and understanding of the retail store staff, this is something I have always known, as my grandad often pops up to the Sheffield Meadowhall store with his iBook I got him and they help him no end (and he can be very hard to teach!).

Bad stuff always happens with large corporations, despite there best efforts. You always get someone who has just had some bad family news so is horrible on the phones when you ring up, some sicko out of Apple’s immediate control decides to torment your family or you just get unlucky with a product. I always think that its how the companies handle themselves after this to see you right is how they should be measured. Now in this case theres good and bad points. When dealing with people face to face, I’m sure James would agree he was more than adequetly dealt with. However over the phones away from the personal stores things went downhill. Communication was terrible and it all resulted in disturbance and distress. I’m sorry to anyone who disagrees wtih me here but this IS something Apple can improve on, and should, FAST. It’s too easy to turn a blind eye, say its just bad luck, to shut up moaning and get on with it, and its too easy for people to slack at their jobs at Apple (and others).

One reason why Apple retail stores are so good is the people who are there realy know their stuff, their personal, friendly, and dam passionate about Apple and it’s products and services, so do all they can to see it done right, and it just works! Other places in Apple don’t seem to have this magical spark, which is a dam shame.

Apple should learn a lot of this and will hopefully take note. There is some healthy critisism in this post, despite all the moaning and whinging a lot of you see. See through the emotional stuff and there is definate lessons to be learnt for Apple here.

(Sorry for the long and winding post!..it’s kinda late!)

Here are a list of my 2 words which I feel sum up things I have said:

Listen, Apple
Quit moaning
Retail Store
Not Dell
Treated right
Communicated with

hi there i am james’s mother and just to correct a few details or let you know, the phone calls, which the police listened to as he left them at all hours of the morning,our phones had to be unplugged at night, he just left messages on the 1571 service the police officer that listened to them told me that he had never heard anything so discusting in his life, as what my so wrote was was the tip of the iceburge, believe me it was a lot worse and went on for 6 weeks not three, also just to say the ipod that i still have not been refunded for is 16 weeks now and the fault it apples and not the 4/6 weeks that apple say, on the whole there our experience with apple and apple products has not been good i anyway shape or form, and you could say that everyone has problems, BUT we have been fobed off, in every meaning of that word, instead of a large corporation taking responsability for its mistakes, it does not, if we make a mistake we appologise and try if possible to correct it, this has not been done at all, it just gets passed around to you go away, and gets forotton about, the after sales service is disgraceful, i have delt with one decent person at apple finally this week and so far, who in formed me that my issue with the ipod nano was now being delt with and proberbly with take a little while longer, the funny thing is the refund i am waiting for, for the nano, the product is now out of date, as the newer small version is now on sale, so for all the people who critisised james let you have a peadophile ring you parents and family at all hours of the night and day and in some occaisions 25/30 times and see how they like it

Here here.

The nano is a good point, I’d forgotten that the newer nano had come out in the mean time. I hope the good person you spoke to at Apple pulls through for you, they kinda need someone to change their bad reputation at the minute.

Personally I’ve never had a bad experience with Apple. I’ve never had to phone their support lines up or anything in the 3 years I’ve had Apple stuff. However I too had to wait for AGES (about 6 months) before I got my rebate back for an iPod mini when they did that student offer last time (I brought my Grandad’s iBook at the time).

I know James has unfortunately had nothing but upsets along the way and that it seems to be as they push more and more mainstream and start to rush things, which they didn’t do when I brought my equipment, hence why I’ve never had a problem. I know a lot of people who have had problems now that Apple are cutting more and more costs and expanding more and more, they’re starting to loose that glossy edge at times. A dam shame, and I hope they bring it back before I buy my next product! I don’t want these problems too!

The manager of the Apple Store said to James in person that “Apple’s don’t usually go wrong, but when they do they go wrong massively and everyone knows about it”, which is true. I’m usually the first to brag about Apple and how good they are, but I can’t deny the stuff that James has gone through with them.

As I said above, see through the moaning that a lot of you see. Forget that it’s Apple and read it again, if you’re a big Apple fan, would you want to be treated like that by anyone?

Right,

Jim - we need to talk. I have a few points here.

1) prove to me without reasonable doubt that these malicious phone calls were in any way related to Apple? We had a period (in our old house) where we had nuisance calls, pretty bad ones too and since then took up the initiative to not disclose our number to anyone - at all. I cant see any reason how or why Apple would disclose your telephone number to:
a) Anyone
b) A malasian nuisance caller, who will be paying international rates to call you
without very good reason.

I worked in a call centre for long enough to know, that if we need to disclose numbers to anyone, there is at least a 7day paper trail to go through. You need the consent of the data subject (you - this is usually given when you give them your number) then you need to justify the disclosure of information to your information commissioner and data protection people. My experience with large companies tells me this would take Apple upwards of 2 weeks to do properly. I cant see a member of staff having the time, or incentive to give your number out to any old Malasian because these guys - like all call centre staff usually cant make outgoing calls unless they are listed and as soon as they close one call, another pops through.

I feel it is just a massive coincidence that Apple and Malasian Super Idiot are related in any way - think of how many people hold your phone number…who could have sold it on?

Regards the mac problems, thats life. Personally I’m skeptical as to how the aluminium got discoloured, even though I did see it myself. I’d love to know how they explain that one.

In closing, I’d like to echo iAndy’s comments -

Yes, maybe it would be good if the world did work in a completely nice opensource way, but moaning isn’t always going to get you noticed for the right reasons and rally people to support you, instead can make a lot of people very pissed off at you.

Anyway Jimbo, chances are you’re sick of reading my point of view and want to get back to your own - thats fair enough.

I have an Acer laptop….running OSX…..its bloody ace!

G

To both Dave and Gareth: Read the post PROPERLY.

The Linux Thing - I actually said that even though it sucks, its something that will get sorted in time - for which dave used as a basis for his defense of apple.

The Phone nuber: Gareth, in not one point in the post did I say that Apple sol my number on to anyone else. I pointed out that the phone calls started literally within the hour after talking with Apple reps in multiple Asian call centres, and that after speaking with several of the managers they told me that there was a major malaysian call centre… and yet after I filed a complaint, i get a random phone call saying there was no malaysian call centre? - even though i actually got through to one. What was to stop some sicko in this call centre to write down our phone number because he heard a womans voice, and pop it in his pocket?

Anyway Jimbo, chances are you’re sick of reading my point of view and want to get back to your own - thats fair enough.

—- Great, thanks for the assumption.

And in regards to the quote you quoted from Andy… Moaning? Ive got every right to… and just relaying my experience with them. Whats the alternative.. say “oh thats life” and let companies continue to treat people this way? No.

I think its a leap of faith too far to consider it a coincidence. I don’t think for one minute that some random in a Malaysian call centre could give a fiddlers fuck about UK data protection rules, Gareth. Nor that a random who wanted to make calls like they did would go through official channels to get a number. Nor that a random in Malaysia coincidentally picked James number out of a phone book an hour after speaking to a Malaysian call centre.

You can argue that it is all Apple’s fault. Yes they could’ve gone with hardware that is more open, but 1. You would not get the same OS X Mac experience, and you would moan about that. 2. What other good totally open hardware is there that will do everything the current hardware will do?

Don’t take this the wrong way because I have a lot of respect for you, but you speaketh the shite of bull.

1: LOL. Step away from the reality distortion field, fanboy Moving to hardware that has decent open support does not alter the “OS X experience”. A wifi card with open drivers and a wifi card with closed drivers do exactly the same thing. Open source friendly does not mean poor.

2: There is _loads_ of well supported open-source friendly hardware. Wifi, for example: Intel chips have decent open drivers (because Intel publish specs). Atheros is deliberatly unhelpful to the open source community.

Atheros chips are cheaper than Intel chips. Go figure.

Well apple sent you a new laptop and a better one. the os you want to install on it is your problem. Apple does not sell them to have another ox installed. That problem is your fault not apples.

I’ll bite. You speaketh the bull of shite too.

Nobody expects Apple to provide Linux drivers for their machines. But considering a chunk of MacBook users actually do run Linux people expect Apple to take it in to consideration.

Dell does it, and they do it well. They don’t officially support Linux, but they do have a team of dedicated guys who test their hardware with Linux and make sure it works well. These guys do a alot of work and contribute a lot of stuff back to the Linux community to make Dell PCs work really well with Linux. They do it because they know that a lot of Dell customers run Linux. In this case, it is usually large corporates running call centers etc as opposed to developers who need to run different platforms.

Apple have shat all over open source for years, I don’t expect to see them contributing patches to the Kernel to make something as important as fans work properly with their Laptops

I worked in a call centre for long enough to know, that if we need to disclose numbers to anyone, there is at least a 7day paper trail to go through. You need the consent of the data subject (you - this is usually given when you give them your number) then you need to justify the disclosure of information to your information commissioner and data protection people.

Or, alternatively, and far more likely, someone that worked for Apple wrote down the phone number of a customer with a nice sounding girly voice.

I do agree that since the Intel switch Apple seem to be rushing production, or at least letting the contractors who make the portables do it a little mroe sloppy all for the favour of high profit margins and share price, which is a dam dam shame. Apple are making loads on hardware, granted less money than they perhaps used to on certain iPod models, but still a lot. They really must clamp down on this lack of quality, they have the funds. (The iPhone to have 50% shear profit??!?!)

My Apple equipment has never gone wrong, but was brought before they started to head for the mainstream again.

I may be buying a new Mac soon, and this lack of quality is really worrying me.

Apple don’t have a monopoly. If its crap, don’t buy it. You can run OS X on any laptop these days