So, I’m sitting here wondering how my husband would feel if he waved me off to the OR for another stent installation, expecting it to be a two hour wait, only to have the hospital misplace me, refuse to diagnose me, refuse to operate on me, and, eventually, confess that they never actually had any intention of doing anything to me because soon my insurance would run out, oh, and maybe he should just get a new wife.
Yep, that’s where we stand with AppleCare and the PowerBook repairs.
It seems that if your Apple computer is in an environment with cigarette smoke, and mine was, Apple considers that “accidental damage” and refuses to even open the case to determine if said computer has a malfunction that is actually the result of cigarette smoke.
“We saw a yellow spot on the back of the PowerBook, so you’ll have to pay for it to be repaired, because we believe it had been around cigarette smoke, and Apple considers cigarette smoke to be accidental damage.”
After my husband sat on the phone looking mystified for half an hour, he said, “You’d better talk to my wife,” and handed me the phone.
What can I say? I guffawed my way through the next 15 minutes; it was a ludicrous assertion, and I’d hate to be the person who has to give that news to anyone. Eventually I said, “Well, does Apple have a list of what is considered accidental damage, or are we just making this up as we go along” I did quit giggling long enough to say, “I’m not mad at you. This isn’t your fault.” No reply. Just silence.
I was on terminal hold for the next 45 minutes. Not even any of that nifty Apple muzak. Just air. Maybe if I hadn’t laughed?
After 30 minutes of terminal hold, we called on another line. Hey, we have enough phones and phone service carriers to tie up the Apple store! Childish really, to put anyone on terminal hold. Must remember not to laugh and make jokes when I’m being hosed.
At one hour and fifteen minutes I turned to my husband and said, “You know, I like to get flowers after I get f***ed in the a**, don’t you?” He cracked up, agreed, and someone started talking to him.
Well, he exploded, said he’d be in to pick up the powerbook and hung up. Then he said, “Don’t worry, we’ll get you another laptop.”
I have another laptop, an HP. Of course, he meant another Apple laptop, I know that. The problem is that I don’t want another Apple computer. I couldn’t buy AppleCare again, it wouldn’t do me any good, would it? And without AppleCare to cover Apple’s well-known “problems” with its products…well, you see my point.
This isn’t the first time Apple has hosed me. Hell, it isn’t even the second or third time! But, it is the most glaring, insulting way anyone has ever said to me, “We sold you junk, we don’t honor our guarantees, and we expect to keep you as a customer.”
I wasn’t this unhappy when I found out Santa Claus was a hoax.
You know, the American Brand of political correctness isn’t so acceptable in other countries. I doubt that Apple’s policy of not honoring their AppleCare service contracts, when an iPod or iPhone has been around cigarette smoke, is going to go over as well in other countries as it does in the US and Canada. And, without Apple being able to grow worldwide…the US economy is tanking and credit cards are becoming harder to get here, making Apple products less accessible to Americans…I’m just saying the coolth of Apple products might not be enough to overcome non-American social norms in areas of the world where cigarettes sales are a strong economic factor, and Apple products aren’t.
As the US’s economic power fades, so will it’s ability to export its own special brand of arrogant, insular, “PC” standards of social acceptability.
The world is changing. Apple is just one of many American companies which doesn’t seem to have factored that into its marketing schemes for the future. But then, maybe Apple just doesn’t plan on treating customers outside the US with the same contempt it’s presently raining on its American customers.
Maybe Apple wouldn’t have refused to diagnose and fix my PowerBook if I lived in France. That’s a happy thought! That means we Americans are “special.”
I’ve heard people in France get better health care too.
I wonder what time on Monday the florist will deliver my bouquet from Apple?
