Why Is Apple Repair Giving Our Friend a Hard Time?

Tuesday, October 24, 2000

This one is liable to bite Apple where it hurts: someone we know had to send her beloved iBook back to Apple when it suddenly stopped working (keyboard failure?), and the first thing that customer support did was accuse her of pouring coffee all over it!

We hope someone in Cupertino reads this perfect example of how not to treat an Apple customer: first she experienced an unaccountable delay having the shipping container sent to her for returning the iBook for repair, then reported:

"I just got off the phone with Apple Repair. They told me that the reason they haven't reparied and returned my iBook is because there was coffee spilled on the keyboard, into the motherboard and processor, etc.

Very interesting, I said. Are they sure it's coffee?

Yes, that's what it says here, coffee.

Hmmm...very interesting. I haven't had any coffee for over five weeks now. Gave it up when I went through my stop-smoking program. Also interesting because the computer stopped working at approx. two in the afternoon at work and we don't have coffee at work."

Her first thought was that Apple had confused her iBook with someone else's, but a serial number check confirmed it was hers. The second phone call to Apple Repair resulted in the following:

"Now i'm really steamed.

According to customer service (who has rescinded on the coffee statement by the way...they are now saying "liquid")...there was still liquid in the computer when it arrived for repair. So much in fact that it was in the upper case, the lower case, CD ROM, motherboard, hard drive, processor...floating in liquid."

Now in reality if I had dumped a full cup of coffee or something else into my computer, do you think I'd be stupid enough to send it in for repair and say..."gee, i dunno what's wrong with this, the keyboard just stopped working."

[Friends, not only is this very nice lady a good friend of ours, but she also has been known to write a few nice words about Apple computers from time to time on the Internet. As far as we know, however, there has been no "pulling of rank" in this process (our personal observation over the last few years is that people who write about Macs have very low status with Cupertino anyway). Be that as it may, Apple Repair and customer support is in the doghouse (or worse!) with us until they straighten things out for this loyal customer and apologize profusely to boot. -- JHF]

Finally, this last quotation rouses the "big brother" (not to mention the Texan) in us and makes us want to bash someone. Call us old-fashioned, but this is no way to treat an Mac owner or a lady:

"Considering the problems i've had from the beginning with this even TRYING to get it to repair...I'd say it's jinxed and I'm probably not supposed to have a computer right now. But most of all I'm really, really sad and feel like crying. And I still have to PAY for the damn thing."

(For the record, no one asked us to write a single word about this, but we think it's important and wanted you to know.)