New Procare and OneToOne really is worth the cost
I was really disappointed to hear the negative response to the new Procare and OneToOne services, I headed over to my local Apple Store and got the scoop, so to start my rant, first, if you are on posting in this forum, you do not need OneToOne, but go to any Apple Store and you can see how usefull of a service this is to 90% of people who buy it, im not sure about your local Apple Stores, but at mine, the creative is top-notch, he always answers all my questions, even about Pro-apps, and the few times I have stumped him, he actually emailed the engineers at Apple that he knows and gave me their responses! You can't get one introductory training session for $99 ANYWHERE, much less 52 one hour sessions on Final Cut. Plus, its a moot point, but they give you a pen and notebook to keep track of your sessions and the specialist I talked to said the sessions are more structured now and you can actually request to see a certain specialist/creative everytime you come if you want which is awesome for me because I have a good relationship with the one creative. I also want to stress, at no time, have I EVER EVER EVER felt like / tried to be sold anything, during any of my procare sessions, never did I think the creative was thinking of anything but training me, did procare sessions lead to me buying software or products at the Apple Store a few times? Yes, but those were my choices, not bs a salesperson pushed on me.
Off the bat, the other Procare services before, really well, they sucked, alot, it was muddy and confusing, no one really knew what fast-track was or anything, but the new procare is really much more structured and focused.
Firstly it is being totally refocused on business users, you can apply it to up to 3 computers now.
Complete setup: (while its super easy to do from an old mac to a new one), is focused on users switching from a PC to a mac which the included migration assistant WILL NOT transfer, and many people have no idea how to do themselves anyway, and for a comparison geek squad charges $130 to do this alone, nothing else.
Advanced Reservations: meh, self explanitory.
Yearly tune-up: nice for non-technical users, people with no time, buisness users, I never used this service, im not sure if many people did
Backup Consultation: Sitting at the Bar for sessions, you have no idea how many sob stories I overheard of people who had no idea how to backup, that harddrives fail, balh blah blah, the consultation could be nice if you need it.
Fast track: These next two are big, I was really really frustrated with the confusion of the fast track of old, but with the new Procare service you can drop off your computer if you cant get in to see a genius, and if you can, fast track is a way to see you as soon as possible, before you had to wait for someone to show up late to an appointment or whatever till you were fit in, now the way I was told it, you walk in, you show them your card, and no matter what, you are the next person in line. No ifs ands or buts.
Rapid repairs: This is truly, finally worth the $99, in the old procare, rapid repairs was like, oh we have the part in, we will try to get to you first, now, rapid repairs is, "first on the bench" which I was told means, if they have the part in stock (all mine have been, although this seems to vary from store to store) after your problem is diagnosed, the genius literally takes your computer in back and someone starts on it immediately, no waiting no, well we are busy, its here it is, fix it NOW.
Maybe I drank the cool-aid, I don't know, all I want to say is that I love my procare membership, I love the sessions, and I love the Apple Store. So its $4 a session instead of $2 now, If what I was told was true, and Apple keeps its word (I will be using my remaining Procare membership to test this) its still the best computer training / service money can buy.
(PS. I think my Apple Store is one of the best out there from what I have read from others)
