Shopping experience trying to buy an iMac at a BestBuy and Apple Store in Topanga

Ok, this is a double-feature!

How hard is it to make a purchase at Best Buy or Apple Store in Topanga?

Very very hard if not impossible!

Our tale starts off at the Best Buy in Topanga.

A client wants a new computer, so we go to BestBuy, she decides on an iMac! Awesome! We wait… and wait… and wait for a salesperson… nobody around! uh, okay… we start hunting and chasing down workers, we hunted down 4 and none of them where able to help us – claiming “I don’t work in this department” or “I don’t have the key” and some other bullshit excuses. One even totally forgetting that we needed help! The ones we where able to talk to – one was saying we need a driver for the printer because the Macs come with iLife 08… wait… what??? And another said they didn’t offer a rebate on a printer when I knew specifically that there is a rebate.

Finally frustrated we storm out of there – and as luck would have it – what we think was a manager was near the exit as we where leaving and we let him get an earful of what we thought, and continued on our way to the Apple Store.

The Apple Store is in the Topanga Mall, which means a lot of walking and trying to figure out just where you are going. Hopefully you are not making a big purchase cuz you will have to figure out a way to get all that back to your car!

In a few moments a salesguy comes up to us, we ask about the printer rebate and tell him everything we want: 20″ iMac, Printer, Airport Base Station (I actually picked up the base station and handed it to him)… everything we need to get her online and running. Should have been a quick in and out and not taken more than 5 minutes – 10 minutes tops.

30 Minutes later after the very pushy salesman insists on showing us a demo AND insists on buying “One 2 One training” which we said NO to repeatedly – he’s FINALLY ringing us up and we noticed he scanned some card… we ask about it and he was trying to brush it off as “nothing”, we insist he stop and explain it and he says “oh it’s the One 2 One training” and we both practically scream at him at the same time “NO! WE TOLD YOU WE DON’T WANT IT! TAKE IT OFF!!!”

We finally get back to the office and I start setting everything up. I’m ready to do the network – I reach into the bags… and… uh… where’s the Airport Base Station???

Did he actually remove the base station and tried to sneak in the “one 2 one” training???

We where furious at this point!

I handed the base station to him at the register!!!
Are they getting a major kick-back for every “one 2 one” training they sell???

APPLE, THIS IS RIDICULOUS!!!
SERIOUSLY! I am sick to my stomach over this!

You need to retrain your employees to listen to what the customer wants and NOT PUSH SOMETHING THEY DON’T WANT ONTO THEM! Going so far as to actually ringing it up!!!

So a few days pass and Apple sends me an email requesting feedback… so I let them have it – with very bad ratings on just about everything.

Rating:
Best Buy
0 out of 5
Pros: no customers in the store, no lines… wait… maybe it’s because of:
Cons: good luck trying to buy something! or finding someone to help you! and if you find someone to help you – good luck on them knowing what they are talking about! (iLife 08 needs a printer driver! WTF???!!!)

Rating
Apple Store
1 out of 5
Pros: If you can just walk in, take something off the shelf and buy it – it’s not bad.
Cons: Good luck trying to get what you want from the sales people. Double-check your receipt and make sure they didn’t sneak anything in that you didn’t want! Good luck finding parking. And you better not buy anything heavy cuz it’s a long walk back to your car!

Why you should use VMWare Fusion instead of Parallels

I think my forum thread speaks volumes for Parallels tech support.
This does not even include the emails!
Still unresolved as of this posting!

Treat your customers like terrorists and everything will be fine…

How to anger a peaceful geek:

I arrive at the server farm parking lot, take a ticket, and spend 10 minutes finding a parking spot! Ended up on the roof.
Get all my gear (backpack, tool bag, and 2 servers), go down a few floors (thankfully there are elevators), go to the lobby and announce I’m here to go to the server farm… and I’m told they their policy has changed and now I have to go through the loading dock! I’m even given specific instructions to get there.

Ok, whatever…

I go towards the exit I was told to go through, and I’m a little suprised that I don’t see a guard there to open the gate. Ok, someone will see me through the camera and let me through… nothing… I push the call button… nothing! I start honking and pushing the call button… nothing!

Ok, I go back up through the way I came in, expecting the guard to know where I was going… he’s charging me $2 because I’ve been here for 21 minutes! Um… yeah, trapped in your parking garage! He immediately gets angry when I decline to pay, so we’re arguing for a minute, and tells me to take it up with security.

It’s not about the money.

I backup and park, and go back to the lobby and talk to security,
they tell me to take it up with parking!
WTF???

Fuming I realize there’s a parking office with a manager inside! I go in and explain the situation… and she too tells me to take it up with security in the building, they have nothing to do with eachother.

wait… what?

After arguing my point a little while longer, she admits that there have been allot of complaints lately due to the new policy, an that she will allow me to go without paying just this once…

With that I left, got back in the car, drove up to the parking toll collector, without a word being exchanged I handed him $5, he gave me $3 change, I drove away.

If you ask me why I paid I swear I will smack you!

I get to the loading dock,
I park, get all my gear out again, and walk up to the guy sitting by the door.
I tell him where I’m going, and asks what kind of servers I’m bringing in… he’s expecting a brand and model… I simply say “Web servers” as they don’t have a name brand. Then asks for a serial number, and I look at him and say “there is none, they’re just plain rack mount boxes”… he keeps looking at them and I swear he wrote down “Intel Pentium 4″ from the front (there’s nothing else written on the front!), then he wrote down some numbers off the sticker on the backs – they’re not serial numbers!!!!

Whatever!

He mumbles something that I can’t understand, and give up trying to ask to repeat himself since he seems to have a problem dealing with people, but I assume it means for me to wait. some time passes by, then he mumbles something else again that I am just able to pick up to mean something about my ID.

Some more time passes by when I finally get an escort to the server farm.

As I’m leaving I get more upset.
What just happened here???
What was all this for???

If you’re thinking “it’s heightened security due to terrorists” I’ll smack you with my tool bag, because my tool bag nor my backpack where checked!!! Nor where the servers themselves!

Apple denies and refuses to repair failed logicboard

[Updated! See below.]
[Originally published at DTGeeks.com]

I woke up one day to a super-heated PowerBook that was practically glued to the desk by it’s rubber feet. Also heard a buzzing noise coming from the speakers.
I unplugged it, removed the battery, reset PRAM – no dice.

Took it to CompUSA who shipped it directly to Apple – few days later I got the call that my PowerBook was back and ready! Yay!
I insisted on checking it out while there, I noticed it was asleep, but since the battery does not hold much of a charge I asked to borrow a power supply incase it was about to cut out. Plug it in, open it up and see the desktop! YES!!! They fixed it!!! But that was a very short-lived victory as the screen then went black and heard that same buzzing noise… noooo!!!!!

It goes straight back to Apple, who then notifies me that nothing was done to the computer as it was “obvious abuse� WHAT!!! Wait, how on earth do you explain that it was asleep and at the desktop when I got it back! YOU DID SOMETHING!!! IT WORKED WHILE YOU HAD IT!!! Now that the fix did not last beyond 3 seconds you now blame me???

But, abuse? How? I was told by Apple that because of the dent near the power port, the metal casing was pushed into the logicboard, causing a short-circuit damaging the logicboard… I felt bad, as much as I protected my PowerBook, it did have a small dent, and I sadly accepted that it must be my fault – Apple said so. And it’s not covered by AppleCare.

I had mixed emotions, it was obvious that they had it working! But I was losing the battle and they kept reinforcing that it was abuse and that the dent on the case by the power-port caused the short.

I kept the corpse of my valued partner who provided me with nothing but loyal service with hardly a complaint – it was everything to me, my desktop, my work computer, my play computer, my network troubleshooting aide… I couldn’t replace it. I wouldn’t buy another metal laptop, especially not from apple, I swore. I was made to feel it was it was my fault – but I couldn’t help to feel it was also a design flaw. I mean – metal, no protection against it touching the circuit board?

Time went by, and now I really, really need a laptop, BAD!!! But I can’t afford it, I’m neck-deep in debt! Get a cheap Dell and try to get some form of Linux running on it? I mean, yeah – it’s cheap and practically “disposableâ€?, but I was made to feel that that was also the case with Apple PowerBooks – just a lot more expensive.

Out of desperation I looked around for options, and finally decide that, since I have nothing else to lose – to look and see if the problem can be repaired.

I was shocked, appalled and felt betrayed by what was found! And here I submit to you the evidence… Is it really my fault?

Well, now, as you can see in these pictures – what I was told by Apple now seems to not be true! While it is not visible that the case was pushed in at all, if it is – it would be pushed into an open space where there is nothing bur air – the logic board is no where near the case’s edge, As you can see by the network port – there is plenty of space!

This seems like an obvious logic board failure that Apple is trying to deny and coverup by accusing me of abuse.

[Update 4/24/07]
I took it back to CompUSA, showed them what I had found, and they agreed it was Apple’s responsibility to repair it as what I was originally told was not true.

I finally got tired of waiting and bought a MacBook.

Some time passes and I get a call that Apple is denying repair because it was brought in for service a couple of days before the warranty expired. But CompUSA would keep arguing with them about it.

I finally get a call from CompUSA that my powerbook was ready! working like a champ. Wait… what??? Really??? This has got to be a prank call!

I go to look at it, and sure enough! Fired up like a champ and works beautifully.

The tech told me that Apple refused to fix it, that they went ahead and did the repair themselves.

And, here’s the punchline…
It was never the motherboard that failed! It was the optical drive! They replaced it and it worked! The tech told me it was a common issue with 12″ PowerBooks. Replace the optical drive and presto!

Alas, I already had a MacBook… so I sold the PowerBook and it’s new owner is a happy Apple switcher!

Thanks CompUSA! And goodbye!