philcrissman.com

Disclaimer: I am going to write a disclaimer at the end, but I’m going to write it at the end so I don’t completely ruin the story. So when you get to the end, you should read the disclaimer. But not now, don’t read it now, because it will ruin the story. You don’t want to ruin the story.

My wife’s iMac died on Tuesday. Incidentally, the same day she was leaving for Thailand, which is maybe nice, because it doesn’t inconvenience her, but was also not so nice because it means that a) I can’t get at any of the files on the iMac, and there are quite a few of them that I’m going to need this week, and b) we can’t discuss our options on what to do about it, because she isn’t here.

I took it to the Apple Store Thursday morning. I had made an appointment, and was early because I forgot what time I had made the appointment for. But there I was. The genius (no, not being sarcastic, that is what they call them. Actually, now that I think of it, I wish that had been my title when I worked in IT. It has a nice ring to it.) turned it on to confirm that it was indeed not booting, and it proceeded dutifully to Not Boot for him. We stood and were impressed by it’s lack of activity for a moment, and the genius did some more poking around and declared the logic board to be the culprit. Isn’t that just like a logic board, I thought (if you are from the PC world, this would be the “motherboard”, which actually makes even less sense than calling it a logic board, when you think about it).

Also, we discovered that the AppleCare warranty had run out on this machine.

There was a solemn silence.

Finally, I asked how much a logic board was going to cost.

Around $500, I was told.

Really, I said.

Plus labor, said the genius. Another $85.

Aha. That’s about a third the price of a new iMac, I said.

Half the price, he suggested, helpfully.

I told him I was going to have to ponder this.

I wandered around the store contemplating the iMacs, MacBooks, and MacBook Pros, and mentally budgeting money that didn’t really exist. Finally, I went back to the genius.

I’m going to have to keep pondering for a bit, I told him. And I took the iMac back and went home.

My first thought was that I would buy the part and do the repair myself. Some folks pointed to some helpful websites, and I looked around for awhile, but most of the sources I found for the part were the same (or more!) than Apple would charge for the part. So really all I would save for my trouble was $85 in labor by someone who did this all the time and who would be responsible if they screwed it up.

I checked eBay, but most of the parts I found actually said that they might not work(!). Well, at least the sellers were being honest.

Now, I just happen to have a good friend on the west coast who runs a Apple repair shop. So I decided to email him and ask if he had a good part he could sell me, or if he knew a good source for one. Naturally, he asked me what sort of iMac it was, the serial and the CPU speed, and so forth, which I happily supplied.

Then he wrote back saying, You should call Apple. Don’t go to the store. Call them, be polite, explain the situation, and that the part is defective; the capacitors are faulty. Ask them to replace it; be polite, but don’t take no for an answer.

I had opened the iMac to have a look, by that time, and about eight of the capacitors had indeed popped. This is not really normal behavior for a good computer component; it should just keep on running. I also knew, from my IT days, that Dell had had a similar problem, and had needed to extend the warranty on a large number of motherboards for a similar issue.

Thus armed, I called Apple.

I started by talking to a first tier support rep, who explained that since AppleCare had run out, they really couldn’t replace it any longer. I said that I understood, but explained my position, a paraphrase of the reasoning above, and asked if there was anything else that could be done.

He said he would check.

I worked on a current Rails project while being on hold for 5 minutes or so. When he returned, he thanked me for holding, and said that he was very sorry but that they couldn’t replace the part.

I asked if he was sure. Was there anyone else I could talk to? I may have reiterated my original reasoning. I was still programming, while on the call. I had all the time in the world.

After some back and forth about how it really wasn’t possible for me to get the part replaced when it was outside of warranty, he said that he could connect me to customer relations.

That would be great, I said. I really appreciate it! Thanks! I’ll wait.

And wait I did. Still programming away.

Finally I spoke to someone from customer relations. He looked over the details, and told me again that since it was outside of warranty, I’d have to pay for the repair myself. I repeated my thoughts on why this sort of failure seemed irregular, and asked whether there was any way it could be replaced by Apple.

We talked for awhile. He was a nice guy. But no. Couldn’t do it. Here’s what he could do: if I was thinking about buying a new Apple to replace it, I could get a $100 off coupon.

Hmm, I said. Hmmmmmm

I may be replacing it sometime this year, I said, but not really that soon.

We talked for awhile. We looked at every angle. Turned out, the logic board had already been replaced once before, in 2006. Bad news, since that meant that it had been replaced once under the terms of the extended warranty/replacement program (which had also expired), so no more replacements for me.

I was so… so close to just taking the $100 coupon and calling it a day. But I asked once more, Isn’t there anything else we could do?

A pause.

Let me check, he said.

And he did. I waited.

When he returned, he told me that while the warranty and replacement program had both expired, Apple did want me to feel that they stood behind their products, and that they would cover the repair of the iMac.

Not only that, I gave him my zip code, and he found an authorized Apple repair shop that is literally only two blocks from my house.

Not only that, but he advised that part of the problem that made this happen was possible shorting within the iMac casing, and that if I asked the repair tech to increase the gap between the mid-plane assembly and the logic board to reduce chance of shorting, this could prevent the problem from reoccurring with the replaced hardware.

I thanked him. Profusely.

So, sure: they really didn’t want to replace it; I understand that. But they decided to, and then were even more helpful on top of that. Apple may have their faults, like any other corporation, but this customer service has earned them a recurring customer for a long time coming.

The thing is, (and I hope they realized this), Apple totally wins by doing this. I’d like to get a new MacBook or MacBook Pro for Amy later this year; but if we had to drop $600 to repair the old iMac, that would push this purchase Yet Further Into The Future, maybe even into next year. So by helping me fix the iMac, Apple is actually creating the opportunity for me to hopefully wander in this year and buy a whole new machine, complete with the brimming goodwill of a satisfied customer. So, win-win, right?

Disclaimer! I am NOT trying to suggest that mere persistence and politeness can get Apple to bend over backwards and fix anything and/or everything. I’m sure it won’t. Sometimes when a part is out of warranty, it’s just out of warranty. If it were the hard drive that had gone bad, I think I would have been out of luck. So I’m really not trying to give people a blueprint to get free repairs, because I think in most cases that simply won’t work. Rather, I was just so impressed with the customer service, and the total reasonableness of everyone I dealt with along the way, I just wanted to write the story down. Yes. I am probably an Apple fanboy for life, now. Sue me.

Disclaimer, 2: Don’t actually sue me. I don’t have the time, and really, it wouldn’t be worth it.