So yesterday it took a further half hour of explanations at the Apple Store, because the manager I was told to see was not in. But eventually, a full refund was offered, and I have to commend the staff for being friendly and helpful throughout.
Meanwhile, Maurizio reports that he has his Macbook Pro back from repair, and it is still hot and it rebooted twice randomly yesterday. I get the feeling that for each new switcher Apple is gaining, they are going to be losing several long-term customers and evangelists due to sloppy support and sloppy hardware. Doesn't seem like a very good way to build market share to me.
I'm currently downloading Ubuntu to figure out if I can cope with Linux these days. If so, I'll be looking for recommendations for PC laptops. Main requirements: it should be quiet, and not look completely hideous. I don't suppose anyone does them in brushed aluminium, do they?
I bought a Macbook Pro on 12th April, at the Regent Street Apple Store. Less than a week later, I was reporting Macbook Woe, in particular complaining about the overheating and the vibration. When I called, the Apple support line advised me that the laptop needed to be sent back to them in order for them to check it out; I agreed with them that I would get in touch to arrange this as soon as I returned to the UK.
I got in touch with Apple today, and was told that because they could not identify the problems as a hardware fault, they were not able to arrange collection of the laptop. Instead, I needed to travel to my nearest Apple-authorised repair centre, to have them check the laptop was indeed defective.
I should mention here that I've compared the Macbook Pro with two identically-specified machines, and neither of them exhibit the vibration or heat that this one does. I'm therefore sure that this is a dysfunctional laptop. Sadly, Apple doesn't want to take my word for it, despite the many well-documented problems with this first batch of laptops.
I called the nearest Apple-authorised repair centre, and it is 45 minutes away by car and only open on weekdays (actually, it turns out it's over an hour away according to Google Maps). This means that to have my defective and expensive laptop checked out, I need to take half a day out of work and make a lengthy journey. This is not satisfactory, and so I called Apple support back to explain. After having the call escalated, I was informed that there's nothing Apple can do about it, and my only other option is to return the laptop. The catch? Purchases must be returned within 10 days.
My next move was to call the Apple Store on Regent Street, to find out if I can return it. I was called back within 5 minutes after the operator had checked with the management, and told that I could return it for a refund and that hopefully I'd be a happy customer again.
Yes, well. This is a last resort, but I'm so furious about the way that Apple are treating me that I'm going to do just that: return the Macbook Pro for a refund, revert to my old Powerbook, and reconsider carefully whether I ever want to buy an Apple product again. With that kind of after-sales care on an expensive professional piece of hardware, I'm really not sure I want to take the risk.
It's oh so quiet ...
I just noticed the bagel is an empty front page. Shocking - has it really been 16 days since I posted? I must have been out and about living a life or something.
Still trying to clear the backlog from the last four months in Amsterdam, but I promise I'll write soon. Things on the drawing board: Doing the Windows Thing, Queens Day, Stupid Stupid Stupid Telco, Book to Film, OSS Watch, Adventures With My Macbook, Holidays, and Things About Hippo. Possibly not in that order.