My Appleless Future

Posted by aoctavio in rem
Rating: 0/5 Votes : 0

Last week I brought my broken MacBook Air to a Genius. The hinge had broken, this is a common problem as reported by by engadget. I got a chance to see what Apple's policy really is. They know it is a problem, but will repair it under Apple Care only if the machine looks pristine. A single scratch or a mark may make it impossible for the Genius to help you. End result? I've been traveling all over the US with a broken machine. I've had conversations with at least three people that were thinking of buying a Mac laptop and I've told them don't do it unless you have to.

I've bought 25 Macs in my life. Used to be I bought a Mac pretty much every year for a member of my family. The last Mac I bought was this Air a year and a half ago. My wife got her job to buy her a MacBook Pro 15' and I may get my job to get me a 13'. I will also attempt to hackintosh a Dell. From a loving relation with Apple I am now in a confrontational one. They'll win but they will not get my money as much as they used to. I will still use their products, because I have them, but I will think very hard about alternatives when I need to replace them. The hardest thing to replace is the iPods. I don't know of any other Mp3 player that works like the iPod with podcasts and with Linux. I may end up getting a Pre if they go GSM at some point unless Microsoft, makes the Zune Mac OS X and Linux compatible

.

I will use my broken MacBook Air for traveling a 2000$ machine is now worthless except as advertisement against Apple.

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Comments

Posted by
on July 27, 2009, 10:17 pm

Alfredo, it's sad to hear that some apple store is not honoring an apple care (or just plain warranty) for the situation you describe. I can imagine the frustration. Anyway, I just wonder: have you tried to bring your mb-air to a venezuelan authorized service center?

As macs are relatively scarce here the local technicians are more than willing to work and they deal directly with apple. They have honored my (latin american & caribbean

apple care for little unimportant issues like: random shutdown, discoloration, battery suddenly dead and finally screen flickering. I guess my macbook had it all.

Now, the downside is that if some replacement part is required it has to pass thru venezuelan customs, so expect the usual three weeks delay, but once the replacement part has arrived it is usually only a few days of waiting to get the issue fixed.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
D

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Posted by www
on July 29, 2009, 10:43 pm

Yeah, yeah Alfredo...if Apple were a woman, I'd say you have been having the most passionate affair over the years. You fight, get back to her, swear this time is for real that you say goodbye, reconcile when you realize she has something none else can give you, fight back, and so on and so on.

In the end, Apple is the love of your life! :-)

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Posted by aoctavio
on August 9, 2009, 1:45 pm

That's nonsense. My house used to be a Mac only zone. At some point (2004

I had as many as 5 Macs (a server and a Mac for each member of the Family). The joke among my friends was that I was running out of users. In late 2005 I bought my first non Mac PC in 20 years, it was a refurbished Gateway Tablet that I wanted to use and try Vista on it. It's still in use, while not a single Mac from that time is functioning now. Right now, there are 7 machines at my house (still running out of users

, each member of the family, except me, has a MacBook Pro, I have the Air, but my main machine, since about a year ago, is the Dell XPS m1330 (with Linux and, now, Windows 7). The other two machines are netbooks (an Asus 901 and a Dell mini 9) that we share and use for travelling as necessary. So, Apple has lost my heart now, like every single "love of my life" has. Better be practical, than romantic...

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