[djgustashaw]

my dad has been having some problems with mail lately; for those of you who don't know, "mail" is the mac equivalent of outlook express. he called mac customer support today, only to be told he would be charged $50 to have a single question answered or could pay $250 for three years of support. apparently, apple only gives you 90 days of free customer support.

is it just me, or is this the LAMEST move ever done by a computer company? if someone can explain why they think apple has to do it this way, go ahead. but it still doesn't change the fact that, three years after we bought our dell with a standard warranty, dell still answers the phone and helps regardless.

i still love our mac, and i personally have never had any problems with it besides minor windows incompatibilities that are unavoidable. certainly, i haven't had any problems worth ringing tech support. but charging $50 bucks in addition to the cost of the call is ridiculous. my dad has sworn off macs now, saying we'll never get one again. as i said, i still love our mac, but this is just another advatage to put under the "PC/windows" column.

eh, i hope my dad isn't so PO'ed about this whole thing that he's gonna keep me from getting a mac for college.

PS- i have to say that apple does have some very good online message boards that can be helpful in diagnosing a problem, but message boards can't compare to good, free, tech support.

 

[lan]

Apple's have a short term 'stock' warrenty and such. Thing is do people who buy it ask what's up with the length and service included when they buy the computer? If you didn't, maybe it is a shock to get a $50 + the cost of call. That is pretty outrageous.

 

[hempcamp]

Quote:

Originally posted by djgustashaw he called mac customer support today, only to be told he would be charged $50 to have a single question answered or could pay $250 for three years of support. apparently, apple only gives you 90 days of free customer support.

It is pretty limited coverage, but they tell you up front what you're getting so it's not really fair to be ticked off after the fact. In my experience, AppleCare Premium is worth every penny of the additional cost. I lost an iBook to a screen failure because I was too stubborn to buy the extended coverage.

If it is a portable Mac, you can often get free software support by simply taking it in to a Mac Genius bar in an Apple Store or to another certified Mac specialist.

If your dad still has problems with Mail, I'm sure some of us here could help you answer your questions. Other than that, all I can say is "you get what you pay for." Pay a little extra for the premium coverage, and rest a little easier at night.

--Chris

 

[Sol_Zhen]

Most "problems" are user error. Ask a local computer guy to take a look at it.

 

[djgustashaw]

Quote:

It is pretty limited coverage, but they tell you up front what you're getting so it's not really fair to be ticked off after the fact.

very true, but we bought it at macmall.com and they don't make a big deal about warranties there. they just offer a "3 year apple care protection plan" without any description of the warranties themselves. nonetheless, it was our responsibility to know what we were getting into.

Quote:

Pay a little extra for the premium coverage, and rest a little easier at night.

well, if you're buying a powermac g5, another $250 may not be a big deal, but on a $1k laptop it sure is. thats a quarter of the price added just for the warranty.

Quote:

If it is a portable Mac, you can often get free software support by simply taking it in to a Mac Genius bar in an Apple Store or to another certified Mac specialist.

yeah, my parents are going to atlanta tomorrow so my dad is going to swing by the apple store with the ibook to see if he can get things worked out. hopefully he can, but the people who work at the atl apple store can be pretty pompous and rude in general. we'll see. thanks for the help offer! if things don't get worked out, i'd really appreciate it. the problem is that it's just not recieving his mail. my account is working fine, and i've done a quick glance-over of his settings and didn't see anything wrong. for what it's worth, our ISP is bellsouth.

but once again, i just don't see what the big deal is and why they to charge through the nose like they do. our dell has been out of warranty for two years and their tech support had no issues helping me through my first format a year ago (yes, i called tech support... but hey, it was my first format!!

).

 

[djgustashaw]

Quote:

Most "problems" are user error. Ask a local computer guy to take a look at it.

true, but i didn't mention in my above post that this will be the second time my dad has taken in the ibook for the same problem. the "mac expert" who helped him last time couldnt even figure it out. that's why he had to call the tech support. i hope it gets worked out at the apple store this time, though. someone else may figure it out.

 

[hempcamp]

Quote:

Originally posted by djgustashaw well, if you're buying a powermac g5, another $250 may not be a big deal, but on a $1k laptop it sure is. thats a quarter of the price added just for the warranty.

There is reason to this madness. Laptops are portable and take a lot more lickin' than desktop units, so Apple charges more for their coverage.

Do I think it's too much? Yeah, a little bit. But they have such a liberal repair policy that if you have pretty much *any* problem whatsoever with your laptop in the 3 year period, they will likely fix it for you within a matter of days, overnight shipping included. Which is what I mean when I say "you get what you pay for."

--Chris

 

[jpburton5150]

in order to talk to a real microsoft person u have to pay like $250 which really sucks cus basically the only other way is to just post on the user forums... damn monopoly

 

[TimSchirmer]

I think the whole idea of paying for customer support is totally dumb if you buy something new.

I mean... doesn't apple already mark up their prices enough?

Support should be part of the asking price of software.

Then again, i think the main reason they do this is: slow/elderly/unwilling to learn people!

They tend to lollygag and have trouble figuring things out and often refuse to read a simple user manual. Many of them would rather wait for 45 minutes to talk to a human than read two paragraphs. This is why lines are always so slow-moving at the post office, bank, DMV, pharmacy.etc.

For this reason i am more than happy to deal with machines. I always use tech support as an extreme last resort.

 

[got chow]

That's horrible to hear... Most computer companies are going to crap today in terms of customer service. That was one of the biggest considerations when I was buying my laptop. It goes around with me everywhere and things just break sometimes. I wanted a company with awesome support and no BS. It took a bit of searching and it cost me about $3k, but even after only a couple weeks, I don't regret any penny of it: http://www.voodoopc.com

Check out their rating on resellerratings.com: http://www.resellerratings.com/seller2044.html

And here is a picture of my laptop with black car paint, a custom "tattoo" that my friend drew for me and I submitted as a .tiff file, and all clearcoated over.

 

[jpburton5150]

damn i wish i had a laptop like that...

 

[Sol_Zhen]

got chow,

That's a sweet looking laptop!