Over the last few weeks I’ve had both my Powerbook G4 and my 3G iPod 20GB in for repairs. And there seems to be a lot of people who’re interested in hearing how my experiences with Apple Support have been, and how that whole thing actually works.
What you do is, you call up Apple Support. Most of my calls have been great, and I’ve talked to really nice people who took the time needed to help me, and even walked me through a range of things that had a chance of fixing the Firewire problem I was having with the Powerbook. Obviously it didn’t work, but it was nonetheless nice to be dealt with in a proper manner.
When it comes time to send in the device, Apple UPS’s you a box with the necessary papers and instructions, and all you have to do is place the faulty device in the box, and call back UPS. That’s it… They’ll pick it up, and while it’s gone you can track the progress of the repairs from Apple Support page.
My Powerbook was back in 4 days flat, and mind you it had to take a roundtrip to the Netherlands, where it most likely had its logic board replaced. Mr. iPod took a few days more, but in a little over a week I’ve now got a brand spanking new replacement.
So that’s how easy it is… I was pretty apprehensive about sending in my things, as horror stories have a tendency to flourish, but I won’t blink the next time I need to have anything repaired, that’s for sure.
So, did you get a brand new 4th Gen iPod, or another 3rd Gen?
Whoops… didn’t see the other post there.
Dam you Europeans with their efficient service! I have heard horror stories from my mates who tried Apple’s support in the UK though. I might just have to give Apple’s Asian support a little whirl to see if it’s as good as your experience.
The omens don’t look good though, I had a factory recall on my Dell Inspiron 8200 adapter (something about exploding or melting) and they said they’ll ship a replacement out to me in two months at the soonest. In the meanwhile I should not use my laptop at all. :(
Doesn’t haveing to repair both of your major Apple products bring concern about them and apple? Just wondering.
I’ve been holding off calling Apple to get them to repair my ethernet card in my PowerBook.
I’ve not had the best of times with Apple before when it comes to support.
Back in the old days of my eMac, I sent it away 3 times to be repaired (a screen ticking sound) and it came back 3 times apparently fixed – which was not the case.
Then when I asked for a replacement, my order disappeared, and it was only when I called them a month later (I had nearly forgot about it since getting a 12” PowerBook a month before my eMac had to go for repairs) the order didn’t exist.
I’ll be giving them a call on Wednesday hopefully.
my friend had the same problem with his 15” PB, the firewire port seemed to be bugging out. He hasn’t sent it in yet, I wonder how fast service is here in the states compared to other countries.
Just got my powerbook back today. Sent it to them wednesday. Pretty damn good. Same thing with the iPod. Those firewire problems are pretty odd, though. Hope they don’t return.
While I have heard the “horror” stories on line (obviously the happy customers do not post) but my experiences with Apple’s service have all been good. We have an original wind tunnel MDD and it had problems from the get go. (It was an early unit). Apple replaced the motherboard, on site, after we reported the problems. It has AppleCare but this was still under original warranty. My daughters 3rd generation iPod had problems with holding a charge. We sent it in and Apple sent back a brand new unit that was larger than hers as they no longer made her model.
Apple’s service and support may not be perfect but it’s head and shoulders above the other peecee vendors here. (U.S.A.)
Holy crap! That’s got to be the best not-on-site repair policy I have heard about.
fingers crossed
I’m currently waiting for the box to show up to ship my G3 iBook off to apple.
I booted it up the other morning and the screen went crazy with horizontal lines. Then I power-cycled it, and since then I get no signal whatsoever to the screen.
Even though I’m 2 months out of warranty, they said I qualify for a logic board replacement, free of charge.
Now, while my priority is obviously to get my work computer back up and running, I don’t think I’ll be able to breath easy until I get it back and know for sure that they didn’t have to format the hard drive.
My old ibook had the same thing (after Id sold it to a friend) it went to Apple and was back within a week, with all the files still on the drive.
I was very pleased as they were a new Mac user.
So, I just phoned Apple about the ethernet not working properly on my PowerBook.
It connects up and all ok, it’s just the data speed is really really slow. However, it shows up as being the correct speed.
I told him that the network runs fine over Airport Express, it’s just when using Ethernet. We went through some basic checks and then he was going to charge me £35 for more help?! This is what pisses me off so much.
Since getting the PowerBook, I’ve only ever used the Airport Extreme. Never needed to use the Ethernet, then when I go to use it, it isn’t working properly. So it hasn’t been working since I got the thing back in July.
I said I wasn’t happy about paying £35 so he basically said to use the Apple Support site.
I’m going to take it into the new Apple Store in Regent Street so that they can see the problem in front of them and then tell me it isn’t a hardware problem.
grr.
Yeah, that’s so stupid. You only have free phone support the first 90 days. You’d think that with the most expensive laptop on the market, they’d throw in some more free support…