dcranston said:
But here's the point you're missing, and why AppleCare consistently wins Consumer Reports best Service every year:
Granted. Personally I think those surveys are corrupted by ballot-stuffers and apologists, but that's just my opinion.
AppleCare and the warranty with your product covers your entire purchase: hardware & software. While you mention service plans provided by Dell, you fail to mention that when you call Dell with an issue, they blame Microsoft. You call Microsoft, and they want $40 just to talk to you, with no guarantee of an answer. I paid the $40 once, and they REFERRED ME BACK TO DELL! I called Dell, they said it was definitely software-based, and wasn't something they could help me out with or that was covered under their warranty.
It's disappointing that you had a bad experience. It shouldn't have happened. The copy of Windows you get from Dell is an OEM copy, so your OEM is responsible for handling support of that product. But to counter your own personal story, I have 2 stories of co-workers with Dell desktops, one who had a Dell phone operator help them getting a printer driver issue sorted out (and it wasn't even a Dell supplied printer), and another who had some CD burning software issues fixed over the phone. They were both very happy with Dell's software support.
With regards to hardware, I also have a personal Dell vs. Apple story. My Inspiron 4100's IBM Travelstar hard drive started making clicking noises, and occassionally wouldn't spin up. I called Dell late in the afternoon to report the problem, and by 10am the next day, a Dell tech. was at my office, replaced the hard drive, and left me the old hard drive and a return postage box, as I wanted to attempt data recovery. All in all, what I would call excellent service. On-site repair is part of the standard Dell warranty.
When my new 1.6GHz G5 arrived and was crashing and freezing straight out of the box, I needed to pack everything up, take an afternoon off work, and take it back to an Apple dealer. 2 weeks later, a replacement system turns up, but now this one has the 'black screen of death' problem with its Radeon 9600 video card. Another trip back to an Apple dealer to get that one fixed before the warranty runs out...I just need to pick a time when I'm not going to need the G5 for work. If there was an onsite warranty, it wouldn't be a problem...the video card just needs to be swapped.
So, that's my real world experience and my homework done. I'm not saying that the actual quality of Apple's phone support isn't good...I found them to be helpful and friendly when I was calling about my G5. What gets me is that for the premium price you pay for an Apple, the basics of the warranty agreement don't even stack up to that provided with a $500 Dell desktop. 90 days phone support, 1 year return to base? It wouldn't matter if you got a free foot massage and a 5-course banquet while you waited for a Genius to look at your problem...that's still a lacklustre warranty, it doesn't compare to what the competition is offering. The only kind of 'professional' a return-to-base warranty is suitable for is a courier driver, since they obviously don't mind driving around all day dropping off packages to people.
So we're right back to where we started I suppose...you've had a crappy experience with Dell, I've had good experiences, you've had good experiences with Apple, I've had mediocre ones. Now let's all take a moment to sit back and pray that nothing ever goes wrong with our shiny pretty glittery expensive hardware.
