What sort of doors has having this opened up for you? I'm asking this here since I mainly use a MacBook Pro and I have other Apple users asking me to troubleshoot their Apple products. Just wondering if it would be worth my money and effort.
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ACMT Certification?
- Thread starter lostnomore
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Is that still around? I would skip it entirely. No one asks for it , even on a help desk someone will be expected to be a jack of all trades including Wintel, not only Macs. You don't need to be certified to work on your friends computers.
Even if you were it wouldn't make a difference. Maybe helping as a line tech for a third party Apple reseller but even still, nowadays more and more people are just going to the Apple store direct or sending their hardware to TX for repairs.
Even if you were it wouldn't make a difference. Maybe helping as a line tech for a third party Apple reseller but even still, nowadays more and more people are just going to the Apple store direct or sending their hardware to TX for repairs.
I have done a lot of repairs myself, but lack the certification.
What I really want are the Apple Service Toolkit and product documentations.
What I really want are the Apple Service Toolkit and product documentations.
Maybe I should explain further. I live in a rural area, not in the U.S., of about 20,000 people when you factor in all the towns, farms, and ranches. Between this area and other areas of population is a whole lot of nothing. The nearest Apple Store is 2 hours away, the nearest Apple authorized repair facility is 75 minutes away. So, close enough yet still far enough. I've had many requests over the years by other Mac owners to troubleshoot and repair their stuff - software and hardware. I refuse to troubleshoot warrantied products, and so I send them to one of the other two places. I've done plenty of my own on my own stuff which is why people ask me. Sometimes I'm successful, often I'm not. So having some sort of Mac-specific training that I can do online I think would be a tremendous confidence boost and would likely increase my diagnostic success rate, so that's why I'm wondering if this ACMT certification would be of benefit for a guy in my situation? So yes, I know that nobody would be asking to see the certification, but it would be for the confidence and hopefully a much higher success rate. $299 for the materials and $300 total for two exams I think might be worth it in the long run, but I don't know for sure which is why I'm asking those here who have it.
Two questions:
Will you make enough money to recoup the investment in training and testing?
If you know anyone at the Apple certified center, have you asked them about ACMT cert? They would have a better idea than most and you might be able to work out a deal with them too do onsite repairs or at least work with them for access to parts.
Good thoughts. I don't expect to recoup the investment for quite some time, but the knowledge might also help me save some money on my own upgrades/repairs. As for the nearest Apple certified center, talking to them is a good idea.
Not only would you be on the hook to train and certify but in order to make repairs to Macs you would have to register as an AASP and set up a repair area that meets Apple's requirements prior to them shipping you any repair parts. You also need tools, some Apple parts (protective covers for batteries when the computer is open, weights to check calibration on ForceTouch trackpads, etc). I work for an AASP, though we provide outsource IT support for large companies and I sit at a customer site - we had to get a bench, table and floor anti-static mats, spill kit, fire extinguisher and probably a couple other items for a dedicated repair station before Apple would certify my customer site location as a ship-to destination for parts. Sure, the repair station could be used for repairing other computers but each tech has enough room at their own desk for repairs so it was annoying to have to do that.
I don't know what Apple's agreement for AASP reimbursement for warranty repairs is but you likely won't recoup the startup costs very quickly if that's ALL you're doing.
I don't know what Apple's agreement for AASP reimbursement for warranty repairs is but you likely won't recoup the startup costs very quickly if that's ALL you're doing.
Apple is probably one of the most totalitarian company out there.
I had a customer spilled something on his computer and he wanted it repair with new parts.
I did an online chat with Dell and was able to add the motherboard to cart.
Did Dell cares about who I am? Nope.
People being able to order parts from Apple and replace the parts themselves would be horrifying to Apple.
The Genius bar would be pretty empty except for the people taking in their computers for repairs under the warranty.
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Apple wants control of the customer experience as well as the quality of the repair. That's why they keep a tight control on who is permitted to repair their systems (warranty). Dell couldn't care less. If you do the fix, it saves them the cost of an on-site repair. Dell is not all that concerned about the ownership experience. Say what you like about Apple, but they have the best service and support.....by far.
I am sooo.... sure about that. The people who had their iPhones bricked after replacing their screens must be having good experiences too.
Next thing you know, Ford would only allow its cars to be repair at its dealers for the "customer's experience", of cause.
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The phones bricked were not warranty repairs by Apple. They were third party repairs. The cause/outcome of that is a different debate. I am referring to Apple repairs under WARRANTY. If you take your system in for a warranty repair, you want to do that with Apple. Not "Peter's 'Puters".
And yes, under warranty Ford will insist on their authorized repairs centers do the repairs to keep some controls in place. Having some two bit backyard mechanic booger up the repair is the "customer experience" that they want to avoid. So "Tony's Transmissions" is not going to do a warranty repair because Ford has no idea how competent the technicians are or how (or if) they were trained.
Again, my post referred to warranty repairs.
And yes, under warranty Ford will insist on their authorized repairs centers do the repairs to keep some controls in place. Having some two bit backyard mechanic booger up the repair is the "customer experience" that they want to avoid. So "Tony's Transmissions" is not going to do a warranty repair because Ford has no idea how competent the technicians are or how (or if) they were trained.
Again, my post referred to warranty repairs.
Having had a number of warranty repairs done by Apple I agree fully with you. They have been by far one of the best customer experiences for warranty repairs I have had.