Airborne AppleCare, part 1
Last week, we decided the time was finally right to send Beth's PowerBook in for repair. She has a 15" Aluminum PowerBook from last October that has the fairly common "white spot" problem. Obviously, it wasn't a big deal, but she's approaching the end of the 1-year warranty, so the sooner the better.
I called AppleCare last week - my first time ever dealing with them. Their phone system is semi-automated, and it asks you to speak the name of the product you'd like service on. I said "PowerBook G4", it said "OK!" and then disconnected me. I called back and did the same thing, and this time the disembodied voice said "OK! Connecting you with someone who can help with that" and then I got a message about being on hold for approximately 8 minutes. I figured I'd use the time to pull up the serial number of the PowerBook as well as a good webpage like the one I linked above about the problem just in case.
My hold time wasn't 8 minutes - no sir. It was closer to 15 seconds. I figured this was good, but the gentleman I started speaking with wanted to have nothing to do with me because I hadn't purchased AppleCare. When I told him I had the common "white spot" problem with the 15" PowerBooks from last October, he plainly said he had no idea what I was talking about, and that whatever it was, it certainly wasn't common. So I pleaded to him that the problem I have is, in fact, covered under warranty and Apple's very own support pages insist I call AppleCare about it. After giving him the URL and the article number, he still insisted on taking a credit card number from me to charge me a $49 fee, noting that I'd be refunded this fee if, in fact, he determined that I had this problem of which he was perhaps the only person in the world still unaware.
This attitude really put me off, but I figured the only way to move forward was to give in. As soon as I offered my credit card, however, he decided that just this one time he'd make an exception and do this for free. Gee, thanks.
All in all, it wasn't a bad experience, despite what my attitude above might indicate. I did have to argue with the guy for a minute or two, but once he saw the light, it went really smoothly. In fact, the very next day we had an empty box sitting on our door in which we were to place the PowerBook and send back to Apple on their dime via Airborne Express (now DHL). It was a pretty slick setup. Honestly, I've never seen a more well-designed "return box".
So this past Monday, Beth's baby left for Apple around 4:30 pm.
The AppleCare phone guy gave us a URL where we could check the progress. On Tuesday, it noted that they had received the laptop at 10:30, started work at 10:45, and finished work around 11:45. It shipped later that afternoon. Pretty speedy!
On Wednesday morning, the guy came to drop off the laptop, well under 48 hours after it'd left here. My thoughts of the phone incident were long-gone. How could you not like service like this?
I happened to be talking to Beth on the phone (and wearing no more than a pair of Star Wars Darth Maul boxers) when the delivery person rang the doorbell. I get a fair amount of packages here at home, and the FedEx guy, UPS guy and USPS guys all leave the packages on the porch, behind a planter, signature or no. I've talked to them about this, and it's a happy arrangement. Initially I didn't think twice about answering the door, since Airborne left the original shipping box on the doorstep the week before. While talking to Beth, I decided to fetch the PowerBook with her still on the phone to check it out, but after the delivery guy had cleared the area so as to not expose him/her to my nakedness. Can you guess what happened next?
Warning - graphic descriptions ahead.
I opened the door, and the delivery person was nowhere to be seen. However, they'd left a flyer saying they'd try again Thursday morning. Oh, the humanity! Thinking fast, I dashed to the bedroom, startled the cats out of their skins, grabbed a pair of shorts, hopped into them on my way back to the door, ran out the front door with the flyer and waved at the Airborne truck, which was now backing into our driveway to turn around. At this point, I was no more than 6 feet away from the truck. It was the closest I'd come.
He/she didn't see me as I continued to shout, wave my hands and run after him/her, all while barefoot (but at least wearing boxers *and* a pair of shorts), down the street. I really can't imagine how he/she could have missed a half-naked screaming man following them down half a block, but he/she did. Him/her can burn in hell. As a side note, while walking back into the house, through the wet grass, I noticed our neighbor across the street, an asian lady, was leaving for work. I wonder what she thinks about me now.
I need some kind of batpole, where I can slide down in a few seconds and be completely dressed at the end.
Comments
yes Brad, yes.
Posted by: rpg | June 17, 2004 10:13 AM
Airborne is the absolute worst delivery service. If a catalog or online retailer only uses Airborne, then I won't buy from them.
Posted by: Joe | June 17, 2004 11:13 AM
I used to get stuff from Airborne, and they'd always try to deliver at 9:30 am when everyone working was at work, and everyone else was asleep, so Overnight shipping would always take an extra day. This was mainly back when I still ordered from Outpost.com.
Posted by: Alphax | June 17, 2004 12:22 PM
We used to use Fed-Ex until we shipped our Apple 1 from the Computer Museum in California to our office so we could display it in our booth at the first MWNY. We witnessed the crate, (profusely labeled "Very Fragile! This End Up"), being thrown from the truck and then rolled up the stoop of our building.
Now we use DHL.
... and we don't ship Apple 1's. :-)
Posted by: Colin | June 17, 2004 02:57 PM
"being thrown from the truck..." -- living up the "Airborne" name, I guess!
Posted by: zzyzy | June 17, 2004 03:58 PM
It seems to be a common tactic with AppleCare.
I had a graphite Studio Display which suffered from a common problem (Knowledge Base article and everything!). However the lady at AppleCare UK denied any knowledge of such a problem and told me that since the monitor was over a year old I'd have to pay for the repair. Luckily I had all the article numbers to hand and informed her of the numerous threads about the problem on the Apple support forums. She finally decided to speak to her manager and when she returned the fog seemed to have cleared.
The experience from then on was very pleasant. Sturdy box for the journey to Apple and a nice quick turn around.
Its just a pitty that AppleCare insist on playing mind games with you from the start.
Posted by: cremegg | June 17, 2004 05:41 PM
Still chuckling at the thought of a half-naked, red-haired Brad in Star Wars shorts running around barefoot through the neighbourhood, yelling and waiving a little piece of paper. Good stuff ;)
Posted by: Jean-Luc Dinsdale | June 18, 2004 11:47 AM
Y'know, somewhere in there is a really good joke about Brad's lightsaber.
But I just can't quite figure out what it is right now. ;)
Posted by: Nathan Strum | June 23, 2004 02:34 AM