Around November, my 'puter started having some issues. Mainly, it would shut down in the middle of working in a file. At first it was annoying. And by the end of December it was outright maddening. So when I took it to the Genius Bar, they informed me that it would have to go to the Mac Dr. in Texas to be fixed. Oh God, this means I'll have to be without a computer for 7-10 days! But the Genius-on-duty says to me not to worry. If I wait until February, all the college kids will have their repairs done (which they apparently do en mass over Xmas break) and it should be a much faster turn around time.
So I wait. And while I am waiting for February to roll around, the problem continues to escalate. Now I can't even send e-mail and surf the net without a random shut down. No warning either. Nice. When the time finally comes for me to ship off my computer, the first repairs don't go as well as planned. Lo, and behold, the logic board needs to be replaced. Thank heaven I purchased the Apple Care program! So 14 days later -- yes, that's 14 days without my computer -- I finally get it back. I am so overjoyed that I begin to design right away and what should happen? You already know. It shut down on me again.
Back to the not-so-aptly-named Genius Bar we go. This time they seem to think I need more RAM. After all, I am running Photoshop Element and I could use a gig more. So I purchase it. But of course they don't have it in the store. So I wait another 4 days for it to arrive. I put it in my Mac immediately. I am amazed at what speed my Adobe software can process! Perhaps it is really fixed! Perhaps this was the answer and I can move on with ---- nope. It shut down again.
I call the Apple Store and ask to speak with a "Genius" again. Now I am mad. It takes me a long time to get there. They assure me that if I come in to the "Genius Bar" they will be able to help me. So once again, we trip over to the Apple Store. This, by the way, is a half-hour drive. The young man who helps me looks over the crash reports and asks, "Can we keep this for a while?" and I ask if he means a couple of hours (oh, so hopefully). He says, "Like maybe 4 or 5 days." And that's when it happened. I knew it would. That's why I asked Richard to come with me. I started to cry. And Justin, the Genius that he is, went and got his manager.
The manager was unable to help us. He kept insisting that all he could do was send it back to Texas and see that the repairs were "expedited." I couldn't talk, as I was still crying. In fact, as Richard was raising his voice and I was crying the look in this young guys eyes just kept saying, "I hope they leave soon." He did tell us that we could call the Apple Care line and ask for a customer service rep. This is exactly what we did, from the parking lot of the Apple Store. I was a mess; Richard was a knight in shining armor.
After a very long talk with "the Apple Goddess," I will be getting a brand new MacBook Pro. Finally, a person with a heart, a person who understood all my angst, a person, a real live person. And some resolution. I can only say I hope that in a couple of weeks this is all behind me and I am designing up a storm. I hope to open my Mon Ami Designs Shoppe on-line in a month. Let's all keep our fingers crossed, shall we?
1 comment:
Oh Amy, I was almost crying with you. It's not so much the futility of trying to repair something that isn't repairable, it's the denial on the part of the people who are "helping" that does it to you in the end.
So glad you found the Goddess. Please let me know how it goes... I have a new laptop in my future and I'm starting to doubt my recent conversion to the Mac way of life!
(ALL DONE really sums things up, doesn't it? I have said it a lot lately myself...)
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