A Hidden Genius at the Apple Store
21–30 of 58 posts
Re: A Hidden Genius at the Apple Store
#22I work for a small shop, so I know very little about how big players work, but I was under the impression, that every company takes data in account, while making product decisions.
Most every company will take the data they have on hand into account, but some companies are much, much better at funnelling quality information back to themselves than others.
A Compal laptop doesn't have the benefit of having a lot of data from previous models incorporated into its design, because sales, support, and repair takes place at 3 or 4 levels of indirection.
Re: A Hidden Genius at the Apple Store
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
They do for corporate customers.
correct me if i'm wrong, but I thought "the Dell Guy" that comes is a 3rd party company? They'll come to your office and fix your machine, but I'm not sure that guy is a Dell employee...
my father was one of those guys for this area, and he didn't work for dell
Re: A Hidden Genius at the Apple Store
#24is this really that different from, say, Dell? I imagine their tech support also has a database or two.
I bought a Dell server 3 years ago, its power supply is now damaged (because of a power outage and failure of the surge protector). It is unclear whether there is more damage, but the first thing to do is to try using a new power supply. I called Dell to order a new power supply. They didn't have it in stock, but promised to get back to me by the next Monday. They never got back to me. A week after that Monday, I cal…
Also, to be Fair - Dell is optimized for supporting the poweredge line with a support contract, which it offers in 4 Hours turnaround time. Since 1999 I've had roughly 600 Dell Servers under active support at three companies in the Bay Area, and have probably called dell about 20-30 times. They've never missed their support window of 4 hours (come close several times, but by the 240th minute, I've always had part and a body on site). Ironically, Apple still doesn't make it easy to purchase that type of support for their product. The typical answer is "Take it to the genius bar" - Apple is optimized for consumers, Dell is optimized for corporations.
Also - None of the people who come on site, for parts or labor, are actual "Dell Employees" - they are subcontractors that are typically certified on a number of platforms - Dell is just one of them.
Re: A Hidden Genius at the Apple Store
#25is this really that different from, say, Dell? I imagine their tech support also has a database or two.
I bought a Dell server 3 years ago, its power supply is now damaged (because of a power outage and failure of the surge protector). It is unclear whether there is more damage, but the first thing to do is to try using a new power supply. I called Dell to order a new power supply. They didn't have it in stock, but promised to get back to me by the next Monday. They never got back to me. A week after that Monday, I cal…
I bought a Dell laptop a few years ago, and the main battery went flakey. I still had a service agreement in place, so I called them up. After a few minutes dancing around the "I don't have Windows installed" prelude I explained the behavior and was all set.
Had a new battery show up at my house either the next day or the day after, with postage-paid packaging to send back the old one. Pretty sweet.
Re: A Hidden Genius at the Apple Store
#26Just an example of how Apple has changed the build of their equipment for ease of maintenance: I had someone give me an broken iBook G4 and ask "Can you see about getting the data off the drive?". Here are takeapart instructions for it: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-iBook-G4-14-In... 14 pages, 60 screws. Compare to a recent MacBook: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-MacBook-Unibod... 3 pag…
HP's Envy line, essentially MacBook Pro clones, has the exact same design. One latch removes the metal panel covering the battery and hard drive. They actually paid attention to the details of the MBP, not just the aesthetics, when creating their own premium line.
Re: A Hidden Genius at the Apple Store
#27Just an example of how Apple has changed the build of their equipment for ease of maintenance: I had someone give me an broken iBook G4 and ask "Can you see about getting the data off the drive?". Here are takeapart instructions for it: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-iBook-G4-14-In... 14 pages, 60 screws. Compare to a recent MacBook: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-MacBook-Unibod... 3 pag…
"3 pages. 3 screws.
That's progress."
I wanted poke around inside my new Thinkpad X100e. Might be four screws I had to twist, and they were designed to not fall out; they loosen up but stay in the cover hole, so no more concerns over lost screws. Very nice touch.
Re: A Hidden Genius at the Apple Store
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
They do for corporate customers.
correct me if i'm wrong, but I thought "the Dell Guy" that comes is a 3rd party company? They'll come to your office and fix your machine, but I'm not sure that guy is a Dell employee...
The guy who came to fix my current laptop was a contractor. Also very concerned about my giving a nice service rating. (Which I did, because he was good.)
Re: A Hidden Genius at the Apple Store
#29Just an example of how Apple has changed the build of their equipment for ease of maintenance: I had someone give me an broken iBook G4 and ask "Can you see about getting the data off the drive?". Here are takeapart instructions for it: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-iBook-G4-14-In... 14 pages, 60 screws. Compare to a recent MacBook: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-MacBook-Unibod... 3 pag…
The big problem I have with Apple is that they sometimes have the tendency to be a bit too restrictive for apparently no good reason. Their most recent MacBooks have no door which allows you to quickly replace the battery which is fair enough (it’s a feature I personally don’t really need anyway).
The battery, however, is still pretty much the same as before. There is not much you can do wrong replacing it all on your own when it stops holding a charge (which will happen sooner or later). It’s not harder than replacing the hard drive or RAM, really. Yet, contrary to the hard drive or the RAM, you lose your warranty replacing it.
Were my battery to stop working I would have to drive 400km (two times 100km to the nearest place Apple deems worthy and back) and be unable to use my MacBook for a few days. When the same thing happens to my current 2007 MacBook Pro (this actually happened to me a few times but that is another story) I just have to call Apple and they send me the battery. All I have to do is hand the UPS guy my old battery.
Apple, don’t treat me like an infant. You are selling me a product called MacBook Pro, trust me with disconnecting a freaking cable! I like your small cars (iPad, iPhone) but it would be very nice if I could continue to buy nice trucks from you.
Re: A Hidden Genius at the Apple Store
#30Just an example of how Apple has changed the build of their equipment for ease of maintenance: I had someone give me an broken iBook G4 and ask "Can you see about getting the data off the drive?". Here are takeapart instructions for it: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-iBook-G4-14-In... 14 pages, 60 screws. Compare to a recent MacBook: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-MacBook-Unibod... 3 pag…
"3 pages. 3 screws. That's progress." I wanted poke around inside my new Thinkpad X100e. Might be four screws I had to twist, and they were designed to not fall out; they loosen up but stay in the cover hole, so no more concerns over lost screws. Very nice touch.
It may well be progress, but as this guy describes Thinkpads are unreasonably friendly to disassembly. They have little graphics on the underside to show you what size screw goes in what hole on my X61, and the hard drive comes out with just one screw