Snacking with Adel

(First published 0n 8/06/2009 12:27 AM; http://abs-cbnnews.com)

A large part of this column is about user/consumer experiences and your stories about how things go down in your adventures in free enterprise. I hope to get first-person accounts as to how your after-sales experiences turned out, if you tried to return something or have it fixed or replaced (in most instances, merchants will no soon return your money after they get it then they would part with their first born.)

I figured, where best to start than a story of my own?

FULL DISCLOSURE. I am an Apple nut, a Mac evangelist and long-time fan and apologist for the company, not because I own stock, but because I am a part of that rarest of consumer breeds, the Thoroughly Satisfied Customer. I began my Applehood with the Apple II in the early 80s, and worked my way up the ladder to a Macbook Air today. My fandom extends even to my extracurricular activities, being a longtime moderator of the Philippine Macintosh Users Group, and have been a member of the Board of Directors and chairman of the organization for two years straight. Yes, I drank the Kool-Aid. Wherever I go I tend to be known as the Mac Guy, the Walking Wiki and Mac Hardware and Software Troubleshooter Extraordinare. Everyone in the office comes to me for advice in the office. Everyone. Even ABS-CBN CEO and Chairman Gabby Lopez asks me stuff. I kid you not.

BACKGROUND. I currently own a year-and-a-half old Macbook Air; that’s the impossibly thin, incredibly lightweight laptop that never fails to turn heads at Starbucks. It’s not cheap, it cost me an entire term’s teaching fees and more to pay for the darned thing, and despite it being underpowered compared to the latest models, I love it to death. Which of course means I take care of it.

THE SYSTEM. Before I go on with my adventure of going toe-to-toe with Apple Inc. Here’s how laptop warranties work with them. All portable units have a one-year international warranty, which is a good thing, because parts and services are notoriously expensive for Apple. One of the advantages of being a Mac user is something you can avail of called AppleCare, which is an extended comprehensive two-year warranty, as long as you purchase the insurance plan and activate it within the first year. So when something goes wrong, just bring the Mac to the Service Center.

MY PROBLEM. No big deal really. It was just a loose, wibbly-wobbly hinge. When you open up the lid the LCD screen lifts up a little off-kilter. Must’ve come loose somehow. Otherwise, everything worked fine. I was just afraid it might worsen, so I brought it in.

REPAIR 1.Yes, the warranty covers it, and yes, it can be fixed, said the repair center. No sweat. Took a week, which wasn’t too bad because I requested for, and got, a service unit so I wouldn’t have too much separation anxiety and could continue to work—I’m as dependent on the Air as much as I am with air in my lungs. (Props to PowerMac Center for acceding to my request for a temporary unit.)

BACK TO NORMAL. It was normal, at least for a couple of days. I got my Air back, and the hinge was fine. Then, as I was shutting down for the day and closed the LCD lid of the Air, I heard an unsettling metallic snap, ad discovered that both hinges had become completely loosey-goosey. If I didn’t prop it up against something, it would fall on its back on the table. Repair FAIL.

REPAIR 2. I brought it back, and would have been overly irritated had they not agreed to lend me a service unit again. (In the Mac world, something like this was just a minor nuisance, because of the ability to clone precisely, bit-by-bit, the same setup on another Mac. Cool, right?) Since, like before, they had lent me another Air, I wasn’t put out too much.

WHAT PUT ME OUT. I got a call a week later, when they told me I had to pay P33,500 to repair my hinges. Yes, I had to pick my jaw off the floor. The repair guy said that, due to the vagaries of production, there was no such extant part as just-the-hinges. To replace the hinge meant that entire top of the Mac, meaning the lid and the LCD screen, which in their inventory was just one single part—would have to be replaced—and it wasn’t covered in the Applecare warranty. Much as they wanted to accommodate me, their hands were tied by policy. I wanted to faint. Holy crap. A white Macbook that was even more fuller-featured than my Air would cost around P55,000. The cost of the LCD part plus the cost of Applecare (P12,500) is almost the price of a brand new Mac, right?

THE ARGUMENT. Of course, one simply doesn’t roll over for things like these. Three main consumer-side arguments: (1)Aside from the ridiculous notion that the hinges and the LCD seemed to cost the same in the eyes of Apple, (2) the fact that it’s not covered in the warranty, with the implication that part of the fault is user-negligence (and a slight on my character that I’m trying to abuse the warranty), (3) there’s also the issue of the specific warranty on the repair itself – that some negligence on their part aggravated the problem; they didn’t put it together properly. Who’s to say?

OPTIONS. Two untenable options for me the way things are at this stage: (1) use the computer as is,(which gives a new definition to the word floppy), or, (2)buy a new one. A third, more doable, option – fight it.

THE FIGHT. The charming and efficient Sales and Marketing Director Lesley Ang of PowerMac advised me to elevate the case to a higher power – Apple Inc. itself! Lesley said, call the hotline and make your case, maybe they’ll give in and relax the rules. They’ve been known to. Urban legends persist that directly emailing Steve Jobs gets results, so why not? I know he’s not been feeling well lately, so as not to bother Steve, I just called 1-800-1-441-0234.

THE PHONE CALL. The hotline was available 9-5 so I called first thing in the morning last Friday. I got through to a call center agent who immediately reverted to Tagalog as soon as he realized where the call was coming from. I was glad because I was able to emote better in Pilipino. Sympathetic, he put me on hold as he brought up with my situation with the proper Apple department. Then the guy from that department got on the line and asked me to explain my situation again, which I did, and then again to his boss, who asked probing questions as to the particulars. The call took over an hour. (I was a bit apprehensive because I wasn’t sure 1-800 calls were really toll-free in our country.

THE RESOLUTION. Yesterday I get a call from the PowerMac service center that the Apple mothership had emailed them Friday asking about my case, and requested for photographs of the unit. They deliberated on it over the weekend, and then called them up this morning to go ahead and order the part from Singapore and charge it to Apple, immediately repair my unit and honor the warranty.

MORAL OF THE STORY. Do what you have every right to do. Sometimes things still turn out the way they’re supposed to.