I had a similar experience with Dell. The tech fixed my laptop right at my desk. I'm not sure what type of corporate coverage my employer had at the time, but the service was great.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Did I make a "career limiting decision" by going with a MBP?
- Thread starter gwerhart0800
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I had a similar experience with Dell. The tech fixed my laptop right at my desk. I'm not sure what type of corporate coverage my employer had at the time, but the service was great.
Silly question...could you just pull the drive out and bring the machine in the apple store with a smaller drive? I mean it's just a cooling fan that we are talking about here?
That's what I do. Just swap out with the original drive.
OP I just wanted to say that Apple machines are very much in the enterprise space. I used to work for a very large software company where many users use 30" displays hooked up to MBPs all day (though some have mac pros too) , especially the developers. This same company has the coin to afford a dedicated in-house mac repair depot for each office site, complete with "Apple Certified Macintosh Technicians."
So Apple sort of meets large business half way by letting them do their own hardware repairs under warranty via the Self-Servicing Account Program. I don't know if other vendors do that sort of thing but...knowing certified techs who can give you certified tech only CDs was a wonderful thing
They also had a pretty good cache of case shells and logic boards for some reason...To "swap" the drive in an early 2008 17" MBP requires substantial effort to take the laptop a part to reach the drive. I have done this when I upgraded from the original 250GB to a 500GB drive, but I would still need to scrub the old 250GB drive because it has my stuff on it too. Were this a newer MBP with an easier to access drive, it would be less of an issue.
So Apple sort of meets large business half way by letting them do their own hardware repairs under warranty via the Self-Servicing Account Program. I don't know if other vendors do that sort of thing but...knowing certified techs who can give you certified tech only CDs was a wonderful thing
My company is a long way from being Apple friendly. I am in a research organization that has the latitude to purchase non-standard work laptops, but the rest of the company must purchase from a limited set of Windows laptops. I do know of a few VPs that have Macs ... I will have to ask them what their plan is for hardware issues with their machines. Apple needs a better plan to move into the Enterprise world.
My oldest son goes to the University of Colorado in Boulder and they have on-site support for HP and Apple products. It was one of the decision points for selecting a 13" MBP for his laptop when he started there last fall.
No if you're paying for onsite/next-day service. They either fix it, or they hand you a replacement. No idea what that costs, but it's most likely worth it for business users. Maybe not for average consumers, though.
Ship it without a drive? All our corporate laptops have a sticker on them saying "Customer keeps HDD" or something like that. It is explicitly forbidden to ship the laptop anywhere with the drive still in it.
They can't, and they dont (As you have found out).
How does this help your case? People have rightfully said that a Windows laptop would be a better choice. The fact that you already have a Mac and that very few employees in your company use Macs doesn't seem to make any sort of difference.
As any good corporate security policy should. Quite frankly I would switch out the hard drive regardless of how difficult it is if I allowed anyone any sort of access to my machine, even if you plan on watching them do the entire process. On-site repair by a third party is a huge security vulnerability.
If they were an enterprise company then I'd agree with you. It's pretty clear, however, that their primary focus is the consumer market.
Lots of universities are Mac-friendly campuses these days, but this isn't a great path to pursue with regard to the Apple Enterprise discussion.
OP has made some really interesting points and valid points, and i agree with them. Since, it is Steve Jobs b'day today, i have decided to defend his honor (in this equation, defending Apple's honor = defending his honor). You have had the 17" MBP since 2008, between then and now, how many times have you had to take your MBP for your any kind of repairs? Let us say, take whatever that number is and compared that to numerous repair tickets you yourself said you had to create while using Dell laptops. How do they compare?
You have had the 17" MBP since 2008, between then and now, how many times have you had to take your MBP for your any kind of repairs? Let us say, take whatever that number is and compared that to numerous repair tickets you yourself said you had to create while using Dell laptops. How do they compare?
This is something that has worried me ever since making the switch in October '08. I went off the reservation and bought a MB while the rest of the company uses PCs with Win and Linux -- so I am IT for this machine. (yikes)
Fortunately I have not had any serious issues thus far. I travel extensively so a laptop is my only option. I do have an old Thinkpad X41 that I could resurrect if I absolutely had to survive for a week or use my iMac at home -- neither is ideal. More than likely I would go buy a netbook out of my pocket and use that to survive for few days using webmail, etc.
IBM/Lenovo did/does have a good program for business users. My recollection is that it was about $300 for 3 years for the onsite program -- slightly less for 24 hour mail-in. Usually this process took 3-4 days (ship, repair, ship - one each).
After going through security a few weeks ago a zapped my MB pretty good with static. When I brought it up it completely lost its mind as to what decade it was and wouldn't let me reset it for a few reboot cycles. My fears were starting to come true. Fortunately, it eventually worked itself out.
In any case, there is definitely a market for quick turnaround for the appropriate mark-up for business users IMHO.
Fortunately I have not had any serious issues thus far. I travel extensively so a laptop is my only option. I do have an old Thinkpad X41 that I could resurrect if I absolutely had to survive for a week or use my iMac at home -- neither is ideal. More than likely I would go buy a netbook out of my pocket and use that to survive for few days using webmail, etc.
IBM/Lenovo did/does have a good program for business users. My recollection is that it was about $300 for 3 years for the onsite program -- slightly less for 24 hour mail-in. Usually this process took 3-4 days (ship, repair, ship - one each).
After going through security a few weeks ago a zapped my MB pretty good with static. When I brought it up it completely lost its mind as to what decade it was and wouldn't let me reset it for a few reboot cycles. My fears were starting to come true. Fortunately, it eventually worked itself out.
In any case, there is definitely a market for quick turnaround for the appropriate mark-up for business users IMHO.
OP has made some really interesting points and valid points, and i agree with them. Since, it is Steve Jobs b'day today, i have decided to defend his honor (in this equation, defending Apple's honor = defending his honor).
I had three Dell "work" laptops prior to the current MBP, a CPx, a D505 and a D520. The CPx was from 2000-2003, the D505 was from 2003-2006 and the D520 was from 2006-2008 ... yes, I got out of the last Dell a bit earlier than the normal 3 year HW refresh cycle. The CPx had the keyboard replaced twice and one of those times, they replaced the MB, but just as a precaution. The D505 had a wireless antenna issue for which, they replaced the MB, Wireless card, and finally the antenna. The sequence for that one was that they sent me the wireless mini-pci card and I did the swap myself. When that failed to fix it, they sent a tech to my house with the MB and antenna the next day. The D520 did not require service. One of these laptops did get a new battery in a battery recall, but I can't remember which one. In all cases, if the tech was doing the repair, they were either at my office or my house the next day. In the case of the wireless card, it arrived the day after I called Dell with the issue and the tech with the MB/Antenna was there the day after that. With the CPx, I was not docking the laptop and used the laptop keyboard as my primary keyboard device. With later Dell laptops, the laptop was docked and an external keyboard used when at home or in my office. With the Mac, I am always using a USB keyboard when at home or in the office.
So, if you are alluding to the measure of HW quality versus amount of service pain I am feeling, I am not sure that it is possible to quantitatively measure the value of on-site, fast, deterministic, but more frequent repair versus non-deterministic, must take the equipment to repair shop, possibly less frequent repair.
Others on this thread have implied that any enterprise use of a Mac laptop is not in keeping with Apple's focus on consumer products. I would argue that Apple has been courting enterprise users with the changes to incorporate Exchange connectivity in to various productivity applications. Apple needs only to step up to the plate in the area of support to truly make an enterprise user have the equivalent service that others already provide.
While I am sorry for your delayed service, Dell (with our corporate contract) has always shown up within 24 hours to make a repair.
Courting, or throwing them a bone? Again your argument that Apple "needs to step up to the plate" rests on the assumption that Apple is trying to make some sort of heralded foray into the enterprise world. Aside from the XServes and a few exceptions here and there, they can't and don't compete with Microsoft in enterprise. They are sticking to what they're good at- providing consumer electronics.
So what?
So what do you want?
Are you looking just to rant and rave? OK. You've done that. Apple Care sucks for Enterprise.
Are you looking to get on a soapbox and mobilize us to complain to Apple (power in numbers)? Write a letter to Steve. Post it here and ask people to send it in as well.
Are you looking for a solution? If you job requires you to have a computer, take a vacation day and go get your laptop fixed. If your job is too important for you to take a vacation day, you need to ask for a raise.
So what do you want?
Are you looking just to rant and rave? OK. You've done that. Apple Care sucks for Enterprise.
Are you looking to get on a soapbox and mobilize us to complain to Apple (power in numbers)? Write a letter to Steve. Post it here and ask people to send it in as well.
Are you looking for a solution? If you job requires you to have a computer, take a vacation day and go get your laptop fixed. If your job is too important for you to take a vacation day, you need to ask for a raise.
OP has made some really interesting points and valid points, and i agree with them. Since, it is Steve Jobs b'day today, i have decided to defend his honor (in this equation, defending Apple's honor = defending his honor).
I've been using Dell laptops and desktops at work for the last 12 years now because of corporate policy. Over the ~10 machines that represents, I've personally never had a failure.
With around 2,000 Dell machines in total in our UK office campus we do have occasional failures. One of my colleagues for example did have an issue last year, but Dell came out and replaced the motherboard at his desk the same day.
I'm not sure what your defence was supposed to be, but I don't believe that Apple make computers that are any more or less reliable that the best mainstream PC makers - they use exactly the same off the shelf components as everyone else. None of them actually makes anything, the only bespoke items are the physical case generally and everything else is bought in from third party suppliers in China and assembled in China. The Apple logo doesn't alter that.
I agree with the OP that Apple are not making a convincing case for any advance into the Enterprise market. However I don't think they are interested in doing so, which is fine by me. Where I differ from the OP is that since Apple can't offer on-site 4 hour repair or replacement, I would never have considered buying one for work use in the first place.
Why bother with the expense of putting in Exchange integration if you don't want anyone to use it? Logically speaking, I have yet to see a company spend money on software that they did not want anyone to use. Apple clearly wants Enterprise users to be using their iPhones as the Exchange integration and the remote wipe features were touted at the roll out as being done to benefit Enterprise users. So, I continue to stand by my argument that this is not a "bone", but Apple is purposefully adding needed Enterprise features to their code base so specifically improve Enterprise adoption rates and based on recent surveys, they are succeeding. Offering equivalent service offerings is a logical step to complete the set of requirements to satisfy Enterprise needs.
I'm getting confused about what you're actually trying to argue now.
You spent the first couple posts complaining about the lack of enterprise hardware support available for Apple machines.
More recently you're defending what you perceive as Apple's "eagerness" to enter the enterprise world by citing the adoption of Exchange support and mentioning the push to get the iPhone into the hands of more businesspeople.
Which is it? How can you argue that Apple is serious about enterprise solutions on the same level as Microsoft/RIM when you started off with complaints about their tech support? Hardware support would have been the easiest thing to change and would logically be the first thing to be "improved" for business customers if they were actually making a big push. Adoption of Exchange was more of a begrudging concession than anything. In addition the iPhone really isn't competing strongly with the Blackberry amongst business customers.
Haha...i was just joking, i thought i made it clear, i agree with the OP's points. I have a Dell desktop (made that point when Geekbench scores came out), i have had it since November 2007, and i have never had any issue with it (never had to use tech support, on-site repair, etc.). As for the OP's purchase of a MBP for work, that was a personal choice, but you just have to keep it in mind that whatever happens to it, you made that choice to switch from PC to MBP (and obviously the service catering is different with MBP). Ultimately, it comes down to the choices you make, and sometimes you have to compromise somewhere. MBP is a great machine, but if something does go wrong, it is a pain to get it fixed (especially when you do not have easy access to Apple store/service).
This thread is going so far off topic.
My first question is, what right company would allow any user with sensitive data have it on a portable laptop. If your company is so concerned with their assets, regardless of laptop manufacturer or design, they wouldn't let it leave the shop. There are many tools to prevent this and that should be the focus. I mean there are tools to encrypt the drive, encrypt the partitions, and if you don't have the credentials well that its wiped. Also in the TOC of any repairs they have legal due course to protect against this scenario.
So the question is why don't you go to your in-house IT and let them handle it?
My first question is, what right company would allow any user with sensitive data have it on a portable laptop. If your company is so concerned with their assets, regardless of laptop manufacturer or design, they wouldn't let it leave the shop. There are many tools to prevent this and that should be the focus. I mean there are tools to encrypt the drive, encrypt the partitions, and if you don't have the credentials well that its wiped. Also in the TOC of any repairs they have legal due course to protect against this scenario.
So the question is why don't you go to your in-house IT and let them handle it?
100% of the engineers in my company have corporate issued laptops. In fact, there is no such thing as a engineering desktop configuration any more, laptops are the only option. (I do purchase servers when the $$$ is in the budget, but those are parked in a noisy lab.) I have a friend at HP (also an engineer) and HP just last year rolled out encrypted file systems to all engineering laptops. This is probably in our future, but my friend @ HP reports that it seriously slowed down his system. As to in house IT ... IT only handles software issues for end-user laptops, all hardware is handled through OEM service contracts. The software IT is now all handled out of Pune, India for end-users. Corporate servers are managed by local IT, but they also use OEM service for HW. The only HW that gets directly serviced by anyone in our company is the stuff we make. This is the end result of a long slide toward outsourcing of everything.
The Apple store in Boulder called me this afternoon to state that the fans were in and I could drop off my laptop tonight and pick it up tomorrow. I told the gentleman that I could not leave it over night. He gave me an appointment for Thursday PM and stated that it would be done in an hour. I will be removing my source code tree, and encrypting my Entourage data and my document folder before I hand it over. (I will of course be making a complete back up tonight.)
To have no downtime you really need a spare hard drive and a spare Mac. The spare Mac could be your personal Mac (assuming you have one), or if there were enough Mac users in your company (which it sounds like there are not), it could be a loaner laptop. When a part dies, take the hard drive out of your MBP and hook it up to the spare Mac (use an external enclosure; don't boot off it unless the computers are exactly identical hardware). Put the spare drive with a clean OS X install and no company information in the MBP and take that to Apple to be serviced. If the hard drive dies and can't be erased, you would have to eat the loss if there is unencrypted company data on it.
That's what I would do if I was in your situation, but I understand if that doesn't work for you (if you don't have a spare Mac or don't want to swap the hard drive yourself).
That's what I would do if I was in your situation, but I understand if that doesn't work for you (if you don't have a spare Mac or don't want to swap the hard drive yourself).
If you use your mac for important work, then it would be beneficial to have a backup computer, either at works expense or your own.
"Career Limiting?"
I would say yes. If you put this much pontification into a computer decision and have that many second guesses, and then you post this, yeah, you have career issues.
Hate me for posting this but let's be realistic here.
troutspinner
I would say yes. If you put this much pontification into a computer decision and have that many second guesses, and then you post this, yeah, you have career issues.
Hate me for posting this but let's be realistic here.
troutspinner
You know, if your company outsources their hardware tech support I don't think security is a huge concern there. Obviously physically securing whatever important data you may or may not have on your machines isn't important enough to hire a hardware guy to take care of those types of problems.
Given that you already outsource hardware support, why are you worried about an Apple Repair Shop?
Maybe due to an NDA signed by the hardware company providing PC support, whereas Apple probably has not signed one.
NDAs are a step in the right direction, but don't get to the root of the problem. NDAs only work with honest employees, and do nothing to prevent someone intent on breaking your security policy from doing so. Third party liability always turns into a huge mess, which is why sensible organizations with important data to protect don't do it.
It is an interesting question, for all of the non-Apple PC HW, laptops and server, the service is performed on-site under the supposedly watchful eyes of either the server admin or the owner of the laptop. I am assuming that it is the expectation that such a monitored repair is not a data risk. Give that HP is now headed down the encrypted file system route, that would be a next step in data security. Apple does seem to do on-site for servers, but not for laptops.