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My Mac is dead, I need it tomorrow

C

covertsurfer

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 18, 2007
579
7
I am considering getting a Macbook Pro for business use. Currently I have Dell onsite support. If I get a Mac and it dies and I need it the next day for an important presentation what solutions do Apple offer? Dell will come out and fix it on site.

Thanks
 
It depends what dies. If it's the whole logic board, it won't be fixed for tomorrow. Also Apple doesn't come to your home to fix it, you have to take it to store or wait for them to pick it up. Remember that if hard drive dies, you'll lose all your data, so make sure that you have a backup
 
If its within warranty and its a hardware defect, they'll replace it. But you'll probably have to wait 4-5 days for them to ship it and it to come back. If you're out of warranty they'll just point at you, laugh and will ask for ludicrous fees to fix even the most minor of defects.
 
covertsurfer said:
I am considering getting a Macbook Pro for business use. Currently I have Dell onsite support. If I get a Mac and it dies and I need it the next day for an important presentation what solutions do Apple offer? Dell will come out and fix it on site.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Dell's support in that respect, at least from what I've seen in a business environment, is tough to beat. At one company I worked at they've shipped replacement servers shipped next day no questions asked. I haven't heard of any Apple enterprise solution like that.

We had a sizeable art dept. that had around 3 dozen Macs including G4 PowerMacs from 1999-2002 up through the Intel 06 MacPros in productive usage but we closed the doors at the end of '08 and liquidated all the Macs so never had the opportunity to check out the response time of Apple in a business environment.
 
Semiopaque said:
We had a sizeable art dept. that had around 3 dozen Macs including G4 PowerMacs from 1999-2002 up through the Intel 06 MacPros in productive usage but we closed the doors at the end of '08 and liquidated all the Macs so never had the opportunity to check out the response time of Apple in a business environment.
Click to expand...

Does that mean for 9 years you had Macs and didn't have any issues with them in all that time?

I think my boss is on edge whether to allow me to get one for the prime reason, if I have some critical work and I don't get it back for a week, I'm screwed.
 
covertsurfer said:
I think my boss is on edge whether to allow me to get one for the prime reason, if I have some critical work and I don't get it back for a week, I'm screwed.
Click to expand...

This brings up an important question to anyone here who does presentations: if you have an important presentation coming up, do you have any backup hardware in case of hardware failure or do you just cross your fingers and hope for the best?

For the OP, is it possible to borrow or rent a spare Mac in case of hardware failure?
 
covertsurfer said:
Does that mean for 9 years you had Macs and didn't have any issues with them in all that time?

I think my boss is on edge whether to allow me to get one for the prime reason, if I have some critical work and I don't get it back for a week, I'm screwed.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's what I mean. There were some minor software issues occasionally and networking problems here and there, but the hardware was solid the whole time.

That said, though, perhaps we were very lucky. There's enough posting on these forums to show that hardware issues do arise and, just to clarify, we did not have any Mac notebooks - all were desktops. Hardware lines also change over time, too, so I don't personally know how the more recent ones perform over time.

We kept the G4s for so long because they worked and were totally functional for our needs. I still have two of the G4s at home from there that still work fine, though their age is definitely showing now (also have one of the 06 MacPros from the company too and it still flys).
 
Skuman said:
This brings up an important question to anyone here who does presentations: if you have an important presentation coming up, do you have any backup hardware in case of hardware failure or do you just cross your fingers and hope for the best?

For the OP, is it possible to borrow or rent a spare Mac in case of hardware failure?
Click to expand...

That's a good point. I wouldn't do any critical work on a Mac or a PC if I didn't have a backup computer - regardless of the support plan. I have had too many things that crop up that, in the event of a hardware failure, even if I could get it fixed the same day it just isn't fast enough.
 
covertsurfer said:
I am considering getting a Macbook Pro for business use. Currently I have Dell onsite support. If I get a Mac and it dies and I need it the next day for an important presentation what solutions do Apple offer? Dell will come out and fix it on site.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Have you actually tested your Dell warranty?

Because at my work we have priority Dell onsite support, usually a technician arrives and attempts a fix / troubleshooting but I have never ever had Dell fix a problem within 24 hours. At best it takes 2 to 3 days and once it took over a week - Dell couldn't fix the laptop and wouldn't replace it until they did more testing.

Dell won't change over your laptop without first attempting to fix the problem, certainly never 'next day'.
 
covertsurfer said:
Thats helpful info, thanks although we have used them once and think they replaced a motherboard onsite
Click to expand...

Sure. I had that happen a few times with users Dell laptops too, but sometimes the time between reporting and fixing the problem isn't guaranteed within 24 hours. Parts availability and technicians are just two variables.

Our Dell Corporate Support only guarantees 'service' next day - onsite.

But I agree Dell's support is far better than HP. Some horror stories there.
 
You'll be fine if you have a decent backup in external HD, a bootable backup (clone of your HD). Usually hard drive dies first so with good backup you can still use the machine. And if you're using Office, just play the file from PC
 
Hellhammer said:
You'll be fine if you have a decent backup in external HD, a bootable backup (clone of your HD). Usually hard drive dies first so with good backup you can still use the machine.
Click to expand...

Does that still apply with BootCamp, ie/I can boot from external clone and run Windows?

And if you're using Office, just play the file from PC
Click to expand...

Do you mean use a PC?
 
covertsurfer said:
Does that still apply with BootCamp, ie/I can boot from external clone and run Windows?

I'm not sure but I guess you can



Do you mean use a PC?
Click to expand...

Yes. If you have Office for Mac, you can copy the file from external to your PC, if your Mac dies (very unlikely) and play the presentation.
 
This is a big reason Macs are not big in business. Apple have the best consumer support in the industry, better than Dell, HP etc. Unfortunately Apple can't offer great business support like Dell's next day on site because it would not be financially viable. The best Apple could do would be to team up with Dell, so that on site engineers could service Dell's and Macs, it will never ever happen but in a perfect world.
 
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