Macdude:
"The guy with the broken key on the Powerbook: You are full of it. Apple replaces keys for FREE at any Apple Store. Does Dell do that at the Dell kiosk? No. Does CompUSA do that? Probably not. CompUSA guys get commission to sell you a PC, not a Mac. Do they transfer data from your Mac to your shiny new Dull at CompUSA? Install software for free? No. Free services at the Apple Store are an amazing service.
"
That would be me. I would love to be full of it, I really would. Unfortunately, this is a true story. I have absolutely no desire to lie or hide the truth... it's not like it would buy me anything.
I do have to give credit where credit is due, however - at The Grove, the Apple techs were amazing. They looked at me like I was nuts about the keyboard issue, and offered to fix it. I was delighted. I was so happy, I actually went back to the other store (in Mission Viejo) last week on Black Friday. I was delighted to see that things there had gotten a LOT better at that location. So I bought a ton of stuff.
As for vulnerabilities, you are deluded. OSX has quite a few. There are just reasonably few known exploits. The difference is the same as the difference between a motorcycle having vulnerabilities and a motorcycle sliding sideways through traffic.
Lots of Mac people are not Unix people (or even technical) and so they tend to buy the "hype". Well, that's fine. I still love OSX, and I'm still waiting on the new Intel Macs. So far Alienware and Boxx haven't been able to convince me they will supplant Apple (Despite my initial hopes)
Take care.
While I am sure Apple appreciates the fanatical devotion, you have to remember a few things:
1) Apple was not the first. Gateway had local stores long before. They failed because they had really crappy customer service, and officially because the "overhead was too high". Really it was that no one bought stuff there. Apple has done well so far, but there are issues.
2) Apple care was not willing to help with my keyboard issue. Neither in-store, or via phone. They wanted to charge an amazing price just to replace a cheap part.
3) Apple OS is NOT immune to trojans, spyware, or anything else. The OS is a bit better designed, the lack of a desktop user running as root helps, but I assume most of you have "javascript enabled" and "java enabled" checked? I have seen 3 pieces of malicious JS in the wild in the past two months. One of them tried to upload the address book from one of our sales people.
How many of you are running with auto-login? How many of you browse the web with an "admin" account? Do you even realize how vulnerable OSX is to viruses? Automator makes it simple. The fact that Apple is a fringe OS just makes it less useful a target. Ever heard of a virus for BeOS? Same reason.
4) I *am* picky. So I will buy a Personal Computer that suits my needs from a company that gives a darn. Irregardless of which company it is at the time. It used to be Sun. Then IBM. Currently Apple. Next, it might be Alienware or BOXX. Hard to say.
-WS
Well, I guess I'd be a "power user", since I code, draw, compose, and work on a mac. At work, I use a Sun SPARC workstation. I have windows client window on my SPARC for this little issue tracking app we have, and that is it.
However, as you guys may have seen from my seriously cheesed off post in the apple store thread, I probably am about to be a former Mac user (after using them since about 97). I am so fed up with the current support from Apple that I really can't stand it anymore.
-WS
I have to say that my service at the Apple Store in Mission Viejo has been decent.
I've been waited on quickly, even when it was busy, and I have had my questions answered.
My complaint? Every piece of advice I have gotten has been wrong. Let me give the most recent set of examples:
1) I bought a fireware cable in order to copy from my old mac to my new one. I told them I had upgraded my boot disk to a new SATA disk on a third party controller. I asked if that would work ok. The guy said "Let me ask a genius, one minute". He came back, and said "No problem".
Of course, once I got it home, it didn't work. It will only copy from the ATA disk. The SATA was not visible. There may be a workaround, but the mac "genius" didn't know it when I went in.
2) My .mac account got spam (sorry, targeted advertising) for the .mac "family pack". I thought that was a great idea, so I went and asked about it when I was buying a new G4 12 inch. They said "Yes, you just put in this number when your old account expires". Well, it doesn't work like that. When it didn't, I called Apple, who told me you couldn't upgrade an existing account.
3) On said g4 12inch laptop, I wanted to get 1 GB of RAM installed. I was told installation was free, the RAM was $500, and the install would take over a week. I took it to CompUSA (an authorized repair shop) who did it in 10 minutes for $30.
4) My wife broke the shift key on her new 12inch G4 (from above). It was not apparent if it could be fixed, so we called the Apple store. They talked for a minute, then put us on hold for 20 minutes, then directed us to call Apple Support. We did, and they informed us that even though the keyboard is covered, it would not be covered since it was "self-inflicted". Well, fair enough. We were informed that it would void the warranty, and that we had to send it in for ~$665 in repairs.
http://www.powerbookmedic.com carries it for $120. http://www.powerbookmedic.com/Powerbook-G4-Aluminum-Keyboard---BRAND-NEW-p-16506.html
We ended up just using tweezers to fix it. It took less than 5 minutes.
Basically, I have found the Apple store to be just plain pointless. I can't get advice, I can't get decent tech support, and the people are totally useless.
I'm actually really down on Apple in general right now, since I have spent almost $4,000 on Apple hardware in the last 2 months at the same Apple Store (plus the Tiger family pack, WoW, Garage band packs, Soundtrack, a keyboard, etc), and I could have gotten better support from Radioshack.
I'm now a switcher. I need a new machine for my desktop, and l'm not buying a mac. I'm buying a PC.
-WS
The Apple Store: Bad Customer Service at Your Local Mall
The Apple Store: Bad Customer Service at Your Local Mall
What type of Mac-Head are you?
The Apple Store: Bad Customer Service at Your Local Mall