Hi All,
Prepare for a looooong message here. I've got lots on my mind.
Anyway, not many of you know this but I've had some major problems with my newly bought PowerBook. It arrive on december 4th and did show some weird fan behaviour that I wanted to have checked out.
I did take it to a local dealer, who had never seen a 1GHz PowerBook so they said "oh this is normal" but I knew, deep inside they were wroooong. So I called Apple Support and they sent a box that I was going to use to sen the PowerBook to Holland (over Xmas!).
Anyway, it turned out that the computer came back in the exact shape as it was sent off. Nothing had been done to it! When I then contacted Apple Support and complained the transfered me to Apple Customer Support and the girl there (a gem!) did a check and found out that the complaints that Apple Support had transferred to Holland was NOT the same complaint I had made, and if the technicians in Holland had read the letter I sent with the machine, they WOULD have found out what was the real problem.
Oh well, the girl att Apple Customer Support than suggested that we'd send the machine to an Apple Center in Stockholm to have them look at it. It took a few days until I got an email from their technician saying "Oh yeah, this machine has some problems, we're going to replace the logic board for you, so it'll take a few days".
Then after a week I got another email from the technician "the logic board seem to have fixed the fan problem, but the logic board isn't healthy, the machine is crashing like crazy, so we have to replace the new logic board again".
So yesterday I got an email from the girl at Apple Customer Support that my computer now finally was healthy and that they've even checked the computer over night at the technicians home, to be sure that it was working normally in a home enviroment. Excellent Service!
OK, this isn't over yet... the story that is... so keep reading.
I decided to email "Steve Jobs" the other day, just to get off some steam. I was very polite and all that, but I just had to complain to someone, especially since the 1GHz PowerBook was the THIRD (3rd) PowerBook in 4 years I've had that has had major and smaller problems more or less out of the box.
I wrote about the Wallstreet I had that burnt up from heating problems and it took a year before I finally got it replaced with a new machine, after 4-5 trips down to Holland. I then wrote about the problems I had with my Pismo (I counted to 8-9 smaller problems that together was making me go nuts) and also about the Apple Center here in town that were so ignorant towards me.
The Apple Center in town had more or less changed all their personal some 3 years ago, becuase their new boss decided to have a provision based salary instead of the steady monthly salary. A problem for the technicians since they really couldn't make a provision on warranty work, so they all quit their job and instead came in a gang of not-so-experienced technicians.
One of those technicians was told several times about my problems with the computer and that I needed him to contact me through email since I'm voice handicapped. Something that he totally ignored and after my mother and my husband had made about 5-6 calls and the guy never ever emailed me back, I gave up! I just didn't have the energy to fight anymore with him and tried to live with the small glitches and problems the Pismo had.
So you can imagine my happiness when I finally could order a new computer and the happiness I felt when it arrived on december 4th. You can also probably imagine the disappointment I felt when I found out that it had a weird fan problem (the secondary fan never turned off - something that shouldn't be like that).
Anyway, I emailed "Steve" and explained all this and today I was contacted by a senior executive at Apple Sweden about the letter I had sent to Steve Jobs!
They wanted of course to know more about the Apple Center in question that had been so ignorant but they also wanted to appologize about my unluck with the three PowerBooks I've had for the last 4 years. I sure had been unlucky to hit those 3% problem machines three times in a row! (wonder what the odds for that is?).
So, to show some good faith they did offer me an AppleCare Protection Plan for 3 years for free.
I must say that was exactly what I needed! I can't afford the AppleCare for a PowerBook (that's about $500 USD in Swedish currency) so it was a great offer and it sure ensures me that if I ever have any hardware problems I will get help!
Excellent service and it proves that it helps to complain to the right person!
I had emailed the CEO of Apple Sweden and also sent him a snailmail letter, but he hadn't answered any of them, but emailing "Steve" helped, even if Steve Jobs probably will never see this email, at least someone in his staff wanted to make up for all the misfortune I've had.
/Petra
