Apple scams its customers with its service protection plan
Written: Sep 12 '01
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Pros: hipster looks for inferiority-complex teens
Cons: "Service" plan makes any little problem a big problem
The Bottom Line: If you've no self-respect & require a plastic prop to look cool, then ibook's for you (and you've got bigger problems).
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| camper8's Full Review: Apple iBook Key Lime Special Edition 12.1 in. (M82... |
It all started when I noticed that the ibook display models in the authorized Apple store I visited had missing delete keys: every one of them. When I asked the sales guy about the missing keys he told me, straight-faced, that somebody was stealing them. "Why would that be?" I asked. He didn't know. Not a clue. Big mystery. I asked if they'd caught the thief and, the clerk said, "no, not yet." I then asked, "well, if no one's been caught, then how do you know that they're not just falling off?" He said that he didn't know for sure, but that he thought it was a thief. I believed him. Later that day, with the ibook sitting open on my coffee table (all but a few hours old) the DELETE KEY POPPED OFF my keyboard. Right in front of my eyes. POP. PING. nice arc and a high degree of difficulty in the dive off the board to bounce on the floor. Next thing I knew it was under the couch. Not a thief in sight; hmmmm . . . So I phoned 1.800.aplcare to ask if there'd be an unusual number of problems with keys popping off the new ibooks. The tech guy took a bit of warming up but eventually he told me that there had been consistent problems with the first "batch." I asked him what "batch" was selling now, and he suggested that they were still selling first one. Great. If I wanted mine fixed I'd have to take it in and leave it on the bench for about ten days to two weeks. And that's if everything came in on time and got fixed on time. And that was the day that I bought the thing. And it's the delete key! Needless to say, I took it back and got a new one. The retailer's return policy allowed me to do this. Oh well, one bad apple doesn't spoil the whole bunch, right? So . . . on to ibook number 2.
I get this one home, boot up the thing and, well, actually, that was it. It'd freeze every time I boot it up. Every single time. So I called 1.800.aplcare and asked for some care. No luck. The remedy, according to the tech guy was to reformat the hard drive and reinstall all the software. As the tech guy and I waited for the first disk to engage, the tech guy cautioned me that I should buy Apple's 3 year parts, labor, and phone support service package. Only $249.00 he said but worth having if your machine breaks down in a couple of years. I've paid for my G3 Pbook's repairs before and I knew how quickly the costs can add up, so I bought the 3 year deal. Meanwhile, the tech guy gets off the phone as I continue to install the rest of the software and when it's all done I restart the ibook. At least I would've restarted it, if it didn't continue to freeze everytime I tried to start it. Mind you, this is with nothing on the machine but the basic software that Apple ships preinstalled on the thing--no foreign installs to mess things up. Still, the thing wouldn't start. A second call into tech support affirms that the "support" term in their title is just a figure of speech. There's nothing that they can suggest that I do except reinstall the all the software again and reformat the hard drive again. Not exactly the kind of support that I was looking for.
SO I take back ibook number 2 to get number 3. So far, this one works fine, except that for some reason my internet connection (cable modem) works at about 1/4 the speed that it does on my thinkpad and my '98 powerbook (running 9.1). Well that's another mystery for tech support, and it's strike three in that they can't tell me anything that solves my problem. Meanwhile I get my 3 year Apple service protection plan materials in the mail and I find out that I'm not getting the 3 years that Apple advertises; I'm getting 2 years and 9 months. You see, Apple won't let me start my "3 year" coverage" when the 90 day coverage that comes with every new computer purchase runs out; that is, they won't let me start the coverage on day 91, I have to start it on day 1. In short, if I want to purchase what they advertise as their "3 year" service protection plan then it must run concurrently with the 90 day service plan that I was forced to purchase in buying the computer. And make no mistake, you're forced to purchase this 90 day coverage. Remember, there are three components to an Apple computer purchase: the hardware, the software, and the service. You can only customize the hardware part of the purchase option; the software and the 90 day service are fixed components in the deal. Now, the kind folks at Apple like to tell you that it's a complimentary service plan, and that its free with your purchase. But they must think that their customers are idiots if they think that we believe that the service is free. All the costs are built into the price of the machine, just as the cost of the proprietary apple software is built in. It's not a free 90 service plan. you've paid for it when you plunked down your dough. Apple knows this, I know this, and now you know it too. And yet they'll smile and take your money for the "3 year" service plan that runs at the same time as your 90 day service plan. What's worse, if you choose to subscribe to the "3 year" plan after owning your machine for 11 months, Apple will still back-date the starting time of your plan to the day that the computer was sold. In fact, Apple will allow you to purchase the "3 year" plan up to 364 days after the day that the computer was sold, so in fact they're actually galling enough to claim they're providing you with 3 years of service while they only actually cover you for 2 years and a day. In this respect, Apple loses all respect in my eyes as a company that claims to care for its customers. When I asked the "customer care" representive "why does Apple charge me twice for this service" it was as if the line went dead. Her response was total silence. After about 10 seconds I checked the line: "hello?" the Apple rep cleared her throat, "hm, ah, I'm still here. I'm thinking." What's there to think about? I'm getting ripped off, as are all of Apple's customers who are stuck with this arrangement. Her final response was that while she could see the merits of my complaint this arrangement is "company policy." I don't imagine that she thought this would make me feel better, but this was the best response that she could come up with. In the end, having a policy that's designed to rip off your customers is more reprehensible that corporate stupidity. If Apple didn't mean to do this, but they did it anyway, by accident, I'd feel better about this, I'd even expect that they'd do something to correct the matter. But they're not, at least not according to what I was told today. Do some basic math and see what this shell game means to Apple: say 10 million of Apple's 25 million customers buy a service plan (that's an estimate of 40% of their customers), and they each get ripped off on their 90 days of coverage (that's the minimum you can get ripped off): 3 months X 10 million customers = 30 Million months or 2.5 Million service years, and about 208 million dollars, give or take a few cents. Well, I'm getting my money back, for the plan and for the computer. It's over Apple.
Tomorrow the ibook goes back to the retailer, the plan gets cancelled, and I switch to a Sony Vaio. Do I expect that Sony's more caring than Apple? Not if all the epinions I've read on Sony are true. I'm not naive, but I've got more respect for myself than Apple's apparently got for me and millions of its other customers with protection plans. I won't pay twice for the same lack of service that I've outlined above with ibooks 1 and 2, and I won't remain an Apple customer just so Apple can net another 200 million bucks from a shell game at the expense of the customers that keep Apple alive. Steve Jobs gets a private jet as a bonus and Apple customers get scammed? Back that truck up.
And by the way, if you should happen to purchase my ibook and then call Apple either to ask for help because you're on the 90 day plan or to purchase their 3 year service protection plan (even after all that I've said), please be aware that your service coverage doesn't begin on the day that you buy the machine; instead it begins on the day that I bought it. Oh yeah, did they forget to mention that? That's policy too. So if it happens to sit on the shelf for 89 days, then you've got one "free" day of "protection," and you're down to 2 years and 9 months on your 3 year plan without even having opened the box. Apple's suggested that we "think different." Believe me, I am: Vaio. I'd suggest that they simply think . . . think about the customers. Because if Apple's not taking care of its customers, somebody else will.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 1799
Operating System: Macintosh
Processor: PowerPC G3
Processor speed: 501-600
RAM: 128
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 13-20
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Epinions.com ID:
camper8
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Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 0 members
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