While I love Apple…

… I’m really kinda’ sad about a recent experience I had with getting a repair on my PowerBook.

I own a Titanium G4 PowerBook – initially released in 2000/2001 and I purchased it brand new, directly from Apple.

I’ve used it every day since then and have had virtually no problems with it. In fact, I like to boast that I’ve very rarely even had to reboot the machine (which is a credit to the stability of the operating system) except when new software so demanded. I even frequently don’t even close the lid, preferring to just leave it open overnight so that e-mail is waiting for me when I get up in the morning.

But just the other day, I needed to close the lid. And as I did, using an even amount of pressure (not forcing anything or feeling any feedback that anything wasn’t 100% “right”), the right-side hinge simply snapped. It looked like this:

Holy crap! I almost started crying. Tina just looked at me and started to comfort me. But then I got pissed. Why did the hinge snap? How did this happen? Why didn’t I feel any feedback or resistance? The portion of the hinge that was still attached to the base was frozen in place. It’s like the hinge seized up mid-close, and I simply pulled it beyond it’s means.

OK. I took a deep breath. The machine still worked… the screen still worked… it was just a broken hinge. Apple, I was SURE, would cover this even though the machine was out of warranty. You could tell, just by looking at the machine, that it was in pristine condition – well maintained by someone who took VERY good care of their equipment. I knew, based on past history with AppleCare that I would need to send the laptop into their facility for support. I figured, however, that I could start at our local Apple Retail Store to see if they could at least handle many of the details.

I scheduled time at the store using the online scheduler – really slick, actually. And after only waiting for a few minutes after I got there, a Mac Genius was ready to listen to my problem. It didn’t take much listening, however, for him to understand the problem. But after a conference or two outside of my earshot, he “regrets to inform me that there was nothing that Apple could do as this was out of warranty.”

WHAT? I’ve got a GREAT machine… in almost PERFECT condition. It wasn’t dropped, hit, mistreated or otherwise abused to cause the hinge to snap. For what other reason than a manufacturing or design defect could this have happened? The Mac Genius wasn’t sure about that, only that he couldn’t actually help me.

What he offered to do was to type my problem into their system so that when/if I called AppleCare’s 800#, they would have a case number and would be able to read about the problem from someone who actually saw the machine firsthand. He was actually kind enough to include a comment that the machine WAS in perfect condition. But again, there was nothing they could do because there was no longer a valid warranty.

OK. I figured I could call the 800# and get to someone who had the power to make an exception. I called. No luck. I called again and asked for someone a bit higher. Still no luck. In fact, they told me that they had NO RECORD of these types of problems with this model PowerBook but that the repair would run me about $700!

At this point, I went online. It didn’t take me long to find www.powerbookresq.com. And in about 30 seconds, my eyes settled on the link that led me here. (Yes, that’s where I got the picture used above.)

I couldn’t believe it! Not only was this a KNOWN problem, Apple would also have to know about it because they, at some point, MAKE THE FRIGGIN’ HINGE used by powerbookresq to fix other Powerbooks! Not to mention the fact that PBresQ fixes this problem for $269, including shipping. WAY less than what Apple would charge to fix a problem that should NEVER have happened!

Now, I need to fully disclose that I absolutely love the company and love the products. This experience, while frustrating and possibly not very cool, won’t change any of that. And I’m guessing that Apple knows this, too, if by no other means than my purchase history. But I would have hoped that this would increase the probability of a little rule bending to fix a problem with a product that they made and wasn’t caused by me.

About two weeks ago, I found this little blog, After Apple. As you can see from this article, Adam clearly details Apple’s intimate knowledge of the problem I had: “The PowerBook Titanium was the king of the road, until you opened it the 333rd time and the hinge decided it was time to move on in life.”

So now I am doubly sad… first that my PB sputtered and second that its creator knew it would and didn’t care.

Sigh.

But I forked over the money to PBResQ. They fixed my baby up and I was back using it in no time. According to them, the glue used by Apple during the manufacturing process isn’t that great. So they use an epoxy that should outlast the rest of machine. So far, so good. Thanks, PowerbookResQ!

Promises, Promises isn’t just the name of a Naked Eyes tune

Man I really hate when someone tells me that they’re going to do something and then fails to live up to their promise. I hate it even more when it’s something that’s created excitement and a bit of longing.

Ok, so I was at the mall on Saturday. I talked with this manager of a cellphone store who told me that he could get me a new cell phone that I wanted… but that he had to work his connections with the distributor to get it. I was supposed to call him on Monday to make it happen.

I called on Monday… and he told me that the phone would be there on Wednesday. I am now excited and I work on convincing Tina that I really need the phone (not that there was much convincing to do as my current phone has been on a Peruvian Death March for several months now). But all in all, I’m excited that I’m going to get this new phone.

So I call on Wednesday. Phone’s not there (I had asked for 2 of them so that Tina could get one, too, so when the distributor told the manager that he only had one, the manager didn’t get the one). But the manager tells me that he’ll get in touch with the distributor and call me back in an hour.

Three hours later, no calls. I call the store. Manager’s gone home for the day. Store personnel have no clue what I’m talking about, but they give me the manager’s cell number. I call it. He’s not there and I leave a message.

But by this point, it’s now 3.5 hours after I was supposed to get a call back, I’m probably not going to get the phone today… and since I’m going out of town for the weekend, I won’t see it until Monday.

Bummer.

But I really hate it when people lie to me.

I was raised on McDonald’s, Burger King and Domino’s Pizza. I LOVE fast food… not just the fact that I think it tastes good to me (given my finiky food behavior), but that it’s just easy to get and I don’t have to prepare it.

But the truth is that I should eat healthier meals. And Tina’s been encouraging me to cut back on the calories – since my lazy butt has been on a couch for a lot of the last few months. 🙂

So I went to the grocery store to find something that would be fairly quick and easy to prepare to encourage better eating habits. I found the Healthy Choice bowls in the freezer section – more specifically, a Chicken & Rice bowl which was just perfect. I bought them by the boatload. I LOVED these meals.

Well, one day, I could no longer find them in the closest grocery store. I had to go online to find where else they were stocked. Visiting about 10 other stores in the Raleigh area, I cleaned out every one I could find. But the very next time I went back, there weren’t any in stock anywhere.

OK. Don’t panic. Go to the customer service desk and ask them if they have any in the back. No, none in the back. Alright, can you special order them? Sure. No problem. How long til they arrive? No clue. Fine, I’ll just check back later.

For three consecutive weeks, I would call to check to see if they were in. Nope. Never. Sorry. So at this point, I was getting REALLY worried, as I only had 1 or 2 left! I was going to have to eat out more often if I lost my bowls.

I decided to call the manufacturer. I wanted to know where they recommended that I get them. Wanna’ guess what happened? Oh yeah…. they were DISCONTINUED!!! I couldn’t believe it. Apparently, the Chicken & Rice bowl wasn’t very popular. I was crushed. Because now I was FORCED to eat out again!

But as usual, Tina came to the rescue. She told me to go and pick something else out at the store. After several failed attempts, I think I might have found another meal I like. Woo hoo! Can you guys tell McDonald’s that I won’t be around much?

I had an interesting day yesterday.

I love my car. What I love most is that my car has a bunch of cool gadgetry that makes my driving experience better than farfegnugen. But every once and awhile, some of that cool gadgetry goes Inspector Gadget on me.

The other day was my remote door locks. I have a nifty little feature called Passive Keyless Entry, PKE for short. PKE “senses” the presence of the keyfob and unlocks the door(s) when you approach and then locks the doors when you turn off the car, close the door and walk away.

The fob also has buttons for unlocking/locking the doors and popping the rear hatch. I realized things weren’t working the day I turned off the car, pulled the keys out of the ignition and the doors locked me in and then the hatch popped open. Taking the car to the dealer, I found that I had a VERY expensive problem or an even MORE expensive alternative. So luckily for me, I just had the VERY expensive issue.

After a week or so, the car was ready to go. The keyfobs were reprogrammed to the car and the mechanic demonstrated that everything worked as it should… and that my rear hatch shouldn’t pop as I’m driving down the highway. Of course, two days later, Tina needed to get in the passenger side of the car and we realized that the passenger door didn’t unlock with the driver’s door – which it used to do up to this point.

Tina feels like I’m not attentive as a result… and I’m pissed because I felt that the repair folks didn’t do their job and I was taking the heat. I grabbed the car’s manual, checked the appropriate pages, and saw how there were three PKE settings: Off, Driver’s Door Only, Both Doors. I followed the instructions to change the settings to Both Doors. But it didn’t work. Nor did it work the next dozen times I tried. Now you’ve got the background to understand what happened next.

As luck would have it, a lot of my interviewing trips were coming up, so I didn’t have time to take it back to the dealer until yesterday. When I talked with the mechanic again, his response was “the car doesn’t do that…” and “it’s not something I can set up for you…”. I pulled out the manual again, showed him where it said it was an easy setting to change.

After a half-hour of talking with other folks there who were supposedly “experts” on this particular vehicle, it was time to call Second Level Support from the Auto Manufacturer because no one there supposedly knew that the PKE system could unlock both doors. After ANOTHER half-hour, we found that there were a few possibilities… most likely it was a short between the ignition and the remote system receiver that was replaced during those expensive repairs. Of course, the only way to prove it was to rip open the dash board and test the wire. So I decided to live with the idea that the system only unlocks the one door for the moment.

But my favorite quote of the day came as I was getting back into the car to go home. The mechanic was smiling, joking about the extent to which they’d have to go to test that one piece of wire. And then, still smiling, he says “you’re the only one who wants that setting… everyone else wants us to turn it off so that only one door unlocks…”.

And I drove off… but wait a minute, didn’t we start this adventure by him telling me that such a setting doesn’t exist?