Hard Cider Index

by William Tell

As much as I am attached to Apple computers and their associated technology and despite the high regard that I have for the company, they really need to get on the ball in the repair and service department. My experience with having Apple repair my computers that were still under warranty has not been pleasant. I have had two instances in which I had to have computers repaired and neither one was done satisfactorily. The first machine of mine that need repair was a Performa 6300. It had a well known motherboard problem that required that the board be replaced. Tech support over the phone was very good. They knew of the "known" problem and would send someone out in a few days to fix it. True to their word a young fellow arrived at my door within a few days. In about 15 minutes he swapped out the board and replaced it with a new one and went on his merry way. I reset the System settings (date, time etc) and spent the day happily working on my seemingly good as new compter. The next morning I fired the thing up, sat down to work and then noticed that my calendar program was on the wrong day. I thought this was odd, but perhaps I had set the date of the computer inaccurately the day before. I opened up the date and time control panel and noticed that indeed the date was set wrong - by about 40 years. It was showing some date in the mid 1950s. I reset the date again and then went on about my business. During the day I noticed that other System settings had reverted to their default. I reset them to my settings as I discovered them, puzzled and a little worried that I might have been handed another defective motherboard. The next day after booting I immediately checked the date. Once again it was back to the mid 1950s. On the verge of calling Apple again, I remembered that I had read something about this problem, the inability to hold System settings, in one of my Macintosh related books and decided to try to track down the passage. After spending about an hour wading though the tome I found the reference "System settings may revert to their default after a shutdown if the motherboard battery is dead or has been disconnected". I decided to check to see if this was the case. I went through the procedure of sliding out the motherboard (following instructions from the manual) and low and behold there was the wire to the battery dangling disconnected. I plugged it in, set the System setting and went through several restarts to reassure myself that there was no further problem. There wasn't! The repair person in his haste had neglected to reconnect the battery after he had replaced the motherboard.

This is a minor issue for someone who is technically savvy enough to asses the problem and reconnect the battery, but for the average Macintosh user this situation would be an additional headache entailing more down time and an additional visit by the repairman. It is also very unprofessional, reflects badly on Apple and cost the company more because these home visits by technicians are not cheap.

But on to repair problem two.......

I have a TAM (Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh). It is a beautiful machine. A great machine and a delight to own. It's got one of the best sound systems I have ever heard. Unfortunately, because of a technical design flaw, many of the TAMs also have one of the worst intermittent static buzzes emanating from a set of speakers that I have ever heard. It's like you just got your expensive new Rolls Royce and discovered that there is a huge scratch in the paint work - sometimes. Not good!

To their credit Apple has been working hard to track down and fix the problem. I was notified that they had finally got the problem licked but that it would entail sending the whole machine down to Texas.

I don't let this machine around the block on its own, so it took some persuading to get me to send it down to Texas. The good news was that there was a two day turn-around time, so the machine would be out of my sight for only a few short days. They sent me a huge box to ship it in and with a concerned, yet hopeful heart, I sent it off to the land of the yellow rose.

Then I waited. And waited. And Waited some more. After a week and a half I was beginning to wonder if perhaps my machine had been kidnaped enroute to the repair center by maybe some unemployed PowerComputing workers. Concerned I gave Apple a call. No the machine had arrived safe and sound and was still sitting on the dock waiting to be processed in. WAITING ON THE DOCK! In my opinion, I told him, the only thing that should be waiting on the dock should be dock workers. He assured me that waiting on the dock did not mean out and exposed to the elements, but just that it was in a holding area waiting for the next available repair person. Hardly reassured I informed him that I had been told that there was a two day turnaround time. "They told you that" he chuckled, "No, we have a 10 day to 3 week backlog". I explained that the fate of the Western World depended on me getting the machine back as soon as possible and if that unmoved him that my kids would have a bleak Christmas if their dad was thrown out on the street because he couldn't do his job sans computer. He told me to call back in a few days.

This I did, and repeated every few days, for the next week. First I was told that it had failed a CD test, then I was told that they were waiting for a part. "How long had they been waiting for the part"? - "5 days"!

Then after almost three weeks, without pre announcement the big brown box containing my repaired TAM arrived on my doorstep. Just happy to have it back I eagerly set it up, looking forward to buzzless sound. I had everything in place and looked in the box for the last item, the power cord, so that I could plug it in. No power cord! They had not sent the power cord back with the machine. Pissed I grabbed a spare power cord I had lying around and plugged that in. I fired it up and waited -- no buzz. This was terrific now I could show off the tremendous sound capabilities of the TAM to visiting relatives this Christmas without having to worry about the potential of explaining away a random buzzing noise ("Hey Will did you have to pay extra for the buzz?").

I had left a CD in the CD player of the machine when I sent it off (I know I shouldn't have done this - I forgot it was there). I decided to fire up the CD to put the speakers through their new and improved paces. Nothing! I open the CD player and the CD was missing. They had taken it out and neglected to put it back in before sending it back to me. I mentally added this fact to the list of things to complain to Apple about as I grabbed another CD and plopped it into the player. Tried to start the CD up and got the message that the CD player could not be found. Restarted the computer and tried again. Same message.

Called Apple.

After putting me though several procedures they informed me that it appeared the repair person had not reconnected the CD player internally before sending it back to me. I would have to send it back to my "friends" in Texas and endure another 10 day to 3 week wait. At this point I started having fantasies of Santa Anna resurrected and leading the Mexican army in an assault on the Texas repair facility (Alamo II).

To top it all off they sent no paper work back with the machine explaining what had been done to it and why. Although the buzz appears to be gone I do not think we can call this "experience" a successful encounter with Apple repair service.

I understand that much of Apple's repair work is contracted out and not done "in-house". This may be the case but it is still Apple's responsibility to oversee the quality of work that is being done in their name. Apple is batting two outs in two pitches with me and that is not a good average. I hope that they are doing better by others because it is clear that this level of service is not acceptable and damages both Apple's reputation and also Apple's bottom line, due to repeated repairs on the same problem. If firms working for Apple cannot provide them with quality service it is important that they fire them and move on to firms who will.

I would like to hear about your repair experience with Apple - Good or Bad. If you have an interesting story to tell it may appear in this column.

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Willam works for a large Internet company and divides his time between Silicon Valley and Bern Switzerland. He feels qualified to comment on all things Macintosh because he often takes potshots at his son's Apple.