I wrote all of this on Facebook and LiveJournal in different posts, but I figured I’d gather it all here, for posterity and for you guys, the listeners.
I am extremely anti-corporation, but this is an exemplary display of customer service by Apple.
So, the story begins 2 Halloweens ago when my laptop took a 10 foot dive off of a stage at a Life Cried show in NYC. The LiveJournal post is here, if you want all of the gory details.
Anyhoo. The people at my local Apple store ended up being awesome back then and replaced the screen for basically the price of what labor should have been, which was cheap. They also did it very quickly, which was awesome.
Fast forward to recent times. I have been thinking of getting a new computer. My plan was to get a new iMac for the studio and hope that my Powerbook, which is going on 5 years-old now, holds up enough to play shows with. It has been slowing down a bit, but is still better than any p.o.s. PC I ever had, so I’ve been making the best of it.
Through all of this, I am feeling guilty about spending money on any major purchases. I may have to end up finding a new place to live in the 2nd half of 2010, I am still the only one working while my fiancee is in school, and I have a wedding to save money for. So, I made the adult decision to simply upgrade the memory and battery in my Powerbook and ride it out a little longer… and not spend a ton of money. It all sounded logical. I can double the RAM for like $100, get a fancy new 7200 RPM portable hard drive for $250 and a new battry for $100. Not bad, compared to the $4k I was planning on spending for a new, fully-loaded iMac.
So, long story longer, I go to upgrade and figure out that my Powerbook is having an issue with the memory where if I put 1 memory chip in the bottom slot, I can book up fine. If I put 2 memory chips in, my computer will not recognize the bottom slot. This translates to the fact that I have basically been only running 512 MB of RAM, rather than the 1 GB that I paid for, for the last… who know how long?
So, I made an appointment at the local Apple store w/ the Genius Bar. My worst fears were confirmed. It was a failure in the logic board, which essentially means that I might as well buy a new computer. The guy who was helping me quoted me a price that made me want to puke. I was ready to just say screw it when he looks at my computer again and asks me to hang on. He went back and spoke to someone, I guess a manager. He comes back and, out-of-nowhere, tells me that not only are they going to replace the logic board for me, but they are also going to replace the case because it “looks ugly” from the fall…. FOR FREE?!?!?!?!
Yeah. I swear. FREE. I should also mention that my computer is like a year and a half out of my extended Apple care warranty, so they really did not have to do anything.
They said that they would have it for roughly 7 days.
Fast forward to yesterday. I got a call letting me know that my computer was ready to be picked up. 2 days early, I might add.
Mind you, I was supposed to get the logic board replaced and they decided, for seemingly no reason, for FREE.
Here is everything they ended up throwing in:
– Logic Board
– Video Display Panel
– New RAM Chip
– Input/ Output Board
– Keyboard
– Top Case
– Bottom Case
– Display Housing
– Battery
Yep, you read it correctly. I basically got a new computer back. The only original part from my computer that is there is my hard drive!!
Seriously, there are like no words. They went so completely above and beyond anything that needed to be done.
I will be singing Apple’s praises for years to come.
So, everyone who is a fan of Cenotype, go thank Apple because all of my music is done on my laptop and they have saved Cenotype from oblivion a few times now.