The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

Last week my old PowerBook died. I’m pretty sure the update to OS X 10.3.4 did it in. Lots of people are complaining about the same kind of symptoms I was having, but compounded with a laptop I’d been using as a primary machine all day every day for the last three years, it was just too much. By Tuesday it was crashing 5 minutes after booting up and taking 10 power button restarts to even get that far, so I decided it was time for a new one. By Thursday I’d decided that a maxed out 15” was the one I needed. Unfortunately it wasn’t that easy.

I didn’t have an extra $3K laying around so my options were either put it on a credit card I’d just finished paying off, or buy it through my business and try for a small business loan from Apple. At this point my old laptop wouldn’t even start so I needed a new one NOW. I called Apple and explained my situation and was told the fastest thing to do would be to go to a store and talk with someone there about the best option.

On Thursday, around 4PM, I called the Glendale Apple Store to see if there would be someone there I could talk to about business financing if I came by that evening. I was told there would be and that was that. I showed up around 7PM and the conversation with the guy at the counter went pretty much like this:

Me: Hi, Can I talk to someone about business financing for a PowerBook?
Apple Store Guy: He’s not here.
Me: Oh? I called this afternoon and they said someone would be here this evening.
ASG: Yeah, he left.
Me: ...
ASG: ...
Me: OK, well, I need to talk to him. Will he be here at this time tomorrow?
ASG: Yeah.
Me: Are you sure?
ASG: Yeah.
Me: What time will he be here tomorrow?
ASG: From like noon to 5PM.
Me: You realize it’s 7PM now and you just told me he’d be here at this time tomorrow right?
ASG: ...
Me: Is there someone at another store I can talk to tonight?
ASG: Maybe.
Me: Can you check?

So that guy runs off and some other dude calls the Apple Store at The Grove and they say there is someone and will be all night. By the time I get to the car I decide driving across town isn’t worth it and will just deal with it the next day.

Friday around 1PM I got to The Grove and found someone to help me right away. I spent about an hour discussion options and filling out paperwork. I explain the situation to him and that I need a computer as soon as I can get one because my other one is dead and I can’t get online or do work or anything. He tells me the process usually takes about 2 hours and he’ll give me a call the second he hears back so I can swing back by and pick up a new machine. Just to make sure I jot down my cell phone number on the application as well as the office one I’d already provided. All sounds good and I take off to get some food.

By 7PM I still hadn’t heard back so I call the store to check in. The guy I spoke to tells me that there’s no one there who can help and I should just try back the next day. Fine, OK, whatever.

Saturday, Noon. I call and this time I’m told that:
1. They have no idea what I’m talking about.
2. Without an account number they can’t look anything up.
3. The only way I’d have an account number was if I’d heard back from someone there.
4. I was welcomed to leave a message and the store manager would call me back when she was next in, which should be end of the following week.

Needless to say, I wasn’t excited about this.

I decided to wait until Monday and if there was still no word I’d just have to buy it with the credit card. So Monday rolls around and rather than play phone games I just go in. I know I have to go there to buy one regardless so that seemed like the best bet. I got there around 2PM and went to talk to the guy at the counter. Same story, he knows nothing, can’t look anything up, and there’s no one I can talk to about it until end of the following week.

Great.

So I buy a new PowerBook myself. The guy who got it for me was very helpful and within 10 minutes I’m walking out of the store new laptop in tow. I head home and set it up. Once I get it up, I start sorting though the backlog of e-mail that has piled up over the last few days, including a message sent at 10AM that day, from Apple Finance saying that my loan was approved and to go talk to someone at The Grove.

That’s right.

At 10AM it was approved, and at 2PM they told me they knew nothing about it.

I’m pissed. I call the store and ask to speak with who ever is in charge. I explain the situation and ask a million questions - if they knew my computer wasn’t working, and I was sitting by the phone waiting for them to call, why was I e-mailed? How come no one at the store knew this, etc… he had no answers. He said he’d be happy to return the machine I got and get me one on the loan, etc  He took my number and said he’d make things right and would call me back. The second I hung up I start wondering how this is going to work since I already have the hardware and had memory put in it, and have installed software, etc…

20 minutes later the original guy I talked to at the store called me back and said that the situation was as as clear cut, either he could cancel the loan and I could just keep the laptop I already have, OR I could come back down to the store return the laptop, which they would have to then send back to Apple as an opened return, and I’d have to get a new one under the loan, except the loan wasn’t good for a minimum of $3K, it was now a minimum of $5K, and they would also need some copies of some business forms for “final” approval which might take another few days.

Ugh.

Once again, Apple’s service is the armpit of the company. I kept the one I already had and just wrote this up on it.