Apple is a great company (small success story)

[langis.elbasunu]

I recently bought a used mid 09 macbook pro 13 from craigslist. its out of warranty but it was a great deal so I decided to buy it anyway. The computer was overall dead mint aside from a wonky G key...no biggie.


Anyway, ive been loving this computer so far. ITS GREAT! The other morning i grabbed the computer and noticed it was only on 2% battery after being plugged in all night. I plugged the magsafe in and it would say (not charging).

For the life of me I could not get it to charge the battery. SMC reset didnt work. Then, the computer shut down and failed to boot up at all even while plugged in. My heart sank. So off to the genius bar i went.


When i got there i was a nervous wreck, especially since while i waited to googled the problem and saw many issues that said new logic board 1200 bucks, etc.

Sat down with Chris and he saw i was a wrck and said "dont worry, youre in good hands." He didnt even check to see if the machine was under warranty or not at this point. He tried a few things at the bar and got no results so he said he was going to test it out in back. again he told me not to worry about it.


So about 10 minutes later he comes out and says "weve got some bad news."

I can feel the bowels start to knot at this point. the idea that i just dropped over 500 bucks on a unibody paperweight made me ill.

He said "I looked around in there and didnt see anything that caught my eye; it was a little dusty in there but i cleaned all that for you.''

Then he says "your power adapter is fried"


Oh Thank GOD!!!

in one swift movement he went over to the storeshelf and grabbed a brand new one.

as he unwrapped the new power adapter he pointed to the little apple logo on the box. "see this? A lot of other companies wont do this." he said. No questions asked, no hassles, just a brand new power adapter for my computer. Its even the new 90 degree kind that i didnt have before and it clicks in place much better.

He left me with these words. "Were different than the rest, we take pride in these machines. We hate it when something goes wrong. Ask for me personally at the store if you have any issues in the future."



this simple gesture has had me tell the story many times already and people have said that they should get a mac now.


Thanks for taking the time to read my story.

 

[orfeas0]

wait, they gave you a charger for free? well, good for you, but in my experience with apple, they don't really help... I guess it's because we have no apple store here in greece, only companies that represent them. they actually should make an apple store in athens! macbooks here are becoming more and more popular! if they open a store they'll win big bucks!

 

[Funkymonk]

I went to an apple store with one of the nicest person I know once. She's a classmate of mine and wears a hijab. A hijab is the headscarf some muslim women wear. They were incredibly rude with her.


Not saying that's apple. You just met a good person. thats all. People have plenty of good stories about apple but I've also heard a lot of nightmare in real life and these boards.

 

[nunes013]

congrats on your win!! this is what Apple is all about even though there are some people who wont get anything from the genius bar there are more stories like this. They have great customer service which is why I love Apple. Whenever I call they always go the distance to help me.

Congrats again and if this is your first Mac welcome aboard!

 

[alt]

Lulz. This doesn't happen to everybody though. Most of the time you will get charged or rejected.

 

[ender land]

I went to an apple store with one of the nicest person I know once. She's a classmate of mine and wears a hijab. A hijab is the headscarf some muslim women wear. They were incredibly rude with her.


Not saying that's apple. You just met a good person. thats all. People have plenty of good stories about apple but I've also heard a lot of nightmare in real life and these boards.

And even if someone is a "great customer service rep" 99% of the time, there will still be a few days a year where their kids keep them up all night, their car breaks down, etc.

People are, well, people.

 

[mulo]

wait, they gave you a charger for free? well, good for you, but in my experience with apple, they don't really help... I guess it's because we have no apple store here in greece, only companies that represent them. they actually should make an apple store in athens! macbooks here are becoming more and more popular! if they open a store they'll win big bucks!

+1 there are far too few apple stores in europe, the closest one to me is 600 miles away.

 

[orfeas0]

+1 there are far too few apple stores in europe, the closest one to me is 600 miles away.

600 miles? you're lucky then! what country do you live in, and is there an apple store there? And do you know where in europe are there apple stores? i know there are in england but where else.?

 

[Mabyboi]

Every apple associate is different, but it sounds like you lucked out and got a really nice one. Be greatfull for what they have done for you and if you have any more problems only go back to that guy!

 

[simsaladimbamba]

600 miles? you're lucky then! what country do you live in, and is there an apple store there? And do you know where in europe are there apple stores? i know there are in england but where else.?

Paris, Hamburg, Munich, Frankfurt, Oberhausen, Nice, Montpellier, Milano, Roma, Torino, ....
Just change the fr to some other country code and there you go: http://www.apple.com/fr/retail/

Btw, mulo is from Denmark, as stated in his or her location status, though it is not visible when replying.

 

[ZilogZ80]

I went to an apple store with one of the nicest person I know once. She's a classmate of mine and wears a hijab. A hijab is the headscarf some muslim women wear. They were incredibly rude with her.

Certainly not something you can blame Apple about as, like all companies, they will have a policy against discrimination. If you have a problem with an individual employee then complain to the manager of the store. Complaining to us will solve nothing!

 

[freddy-b]

nice story!

This story made me cry.

 

[Ledgem]

as he unwrapped the new power adapter he pointed to the little apple logo on the box. "see this? A lot of other companies wont do this." he said. No questions asked, no hassles, just a brand new power adapter for my computer. Its even the new 90 degree kind that i didnt have before and it clicks in place much better.

He left me with these words. "Were different than the rest, we take pride in these machines. We hate it when something goes wrong. Ask for me personally at the store if you have any issues in the future."

That was nice of him, but I find it kind of weird that he made a point of proclaiming why Apple is different than the rest. Based on your join date it doesn't seem like you're a recent "convert," either... I might understand him saying that sort of stuff to someone who made it known that they were completely new, but even then it strikes me as a bit weird.

 

[Funkymonk]

Certainly not something you can blame Apple about as, like all companies, they will have a policy against discrimination. If you have a problem with an individual employee then complain to the manager of the store. Complaining to us will solve nothing!

Lol you completely missed the point...

 

[JamesGorman]

Similar Story

When I had my first iPod touch, 1st Gen. I tried to jailbreak it, and i kinda buggered it up. Needless to say, I sent it to apple to see what could be done. A few days later I received a call from apple saying "we know you tried to jailbreak your ipod, and if you tell us what program you used, we'll send you out a new iPod touch". I told them the company, and within 5 days, I recieved my brand new iPod touch.

 

[whooleytoo]

Nice story.

On the other hand, Apple power adaptors are rubbish in my experience. We've had 4 MBPs in our (small) company - various models - and we've had to get 5 new adaptors for them.

 

[ZilogZ80]

Lol you completely missed the point...

Which was..?

 

[tjb1]

When I had my first iPod touch, 1st Gen. I tried to jailbreak it, and i kinda buggered it up. Needless to say, I sent it to apple to see what could be done. A few days later I received a call from apple saying "we know you tried to jailbreak your ipod, and if you tell us what program you used, we'll send you out a new iPod touch". I told them the company, and within 5 days, I recieved my brand new iPod touch.

Oh yeah?

Ive had good success with Verizon then I will call back again and get a complete ****head, just depends on the person...

 

[gonnabuyamacbsh]

Which was..?

first there was a story about something nice being done in an apple store and then that guy posted a story about something not so nice. why attack him for posting the other side? I've had employees rude to me in apple as well, I've also had some employees being extremely nice. I'm not allowed to complain either?

 

[croooow]

...Then he says "your power adapter is fried"...in one swift movement he went over to the storeshelf and grabbed a brand new one...as he unwrapped the new power adapter he pointed to the little apple logo on the box. "see this? A lot of other companies wont do this." he said. No questions asked, no hassles, just a brand new power adapter for my computer...

I'm glad you found someone at an Apple store willing to do that. My wife, son and I all have iPhones and we all had USB sync cables that were frayed at the dock connector end. I took mine to the store and, after seeing that it was a manufacturing issue, they got an extra cable in the back of the store to replace it.

I took my wife and Son to the store soon afterward (as they got their phones after mine, their cords did not show the fray as soon as mine. The store only had one of those cords in the back so they only replaced one and placed an order for the second. We had to come back a few days later despite their being a wall full of retail boxed versions of the exact same cord.

I don't know if your Genius Bar worker got in trouble, but it seems that mine was not willing to even entertain the idea of getting one off the shelf.

I went to an apple store with one of the nicest person I know once. She's a classmate of mine and wears a hijab. A hijab is the headscarf some muslim women wear. They were incredibly rude with her.

There are some rude people working at these store. I remember being in one when I was deciding which model to buy recently (I ended up with a 15" i7 with a HR screen) and two Blue Shirted Apple retail store employees were parked at the store's only 15" on display with the HR screen. I waited and waited next to them patiently letting them know that I (a customer) wanted to look at one of the higher end products in the store. I was well dressed (just came from work, where I dress professionally) so I did not appear to be someone just killing time (otherwise I would have just gone to one of the open machines) and they were not actively using the computer, just parked in front of it, pointing at it once in a while.

They are rude and know very little about computers. I will not make any large purchases at an Apple retail store again. my iPhone 4 and MBP were ordered on line and the experience was much nicer (I got my iPhone 4 the day before release, so no waiting in line and the MBP was BTO so retail wouldn't be an option anyway.)

Apple is a great company but many of the retail store employees are awful (at least in my area)

 

[stevemiller]

i'm happy the OP got a replacement adapter without any hassles, but the whole "we're better than other companies" attitude from the associate would have rubbed me the wrong way.

i once had a best buy employee (that hadn't really helped me at all) hand me one of those customer satisfaction surveys, and as he did so, he took the liberty of checking off "totally satisfied" for me. so i punched him in the ear.

well... i wish i had.