Apple Store AppleCare, Nothing Beats It--Part II

In October we posted a note on this little-known feature of Apple's new retail stores. The hard drive on our iMac DV SE 400 crapped out so we took it to our local Apple Store in Tyson's Corner, VA. The Genius had it fixed by replacing the hard drive by the time we got home and that's less than 3 miles away.

Dana Baggett, our ace reporter and editor in charge of our New England office, had a similar experience last week when the video in his "new" Apple refurb G4 Cube and 17" Apple LCD arrived DOA. He drove down from Bailey Island, ME, to the Peabody, MA, Apple Store. From Dana,

"I had a great day. I got to Peabody about 9:30 AM, a 2 1/2 hr. ride from here. I couldn't believe the light traffic! I must have been behind the Boston rush hour. Last night David from The Apple Store suggested I get there at 10 AM when the mall - and The Apple Store - opened which was consistent with the last time I went to get the free Mac OS X 10.1 upgrade. But today the mall was already open at 9:30 AM. Christmas hours.

"So, I took a hike down to The Apple Store, as much to stretch my legs as anything. Whoa. It was open. I went in - no other customers there - and explained my mission. The first fellow to greet me - it turns out he recently moved from CT (for the Apple Store job?) - expressed dismay at my story [DOA video in an Apple refurbed Cube/17" LCD--ed]. He asked if he could help get the equipment out of the car. I'd brought a hand cart from home - it's a long hike from the food court mall doors to The Apple Store - but I said sure. He said he'd meet me in five minutes. We unloaded my stuff - I'd packed it into the shipping boxes anticipating one or both units would be set back to the service center.

"When we got back to the store, my greeter had alerted a Genius - Scott - who came out from in back in a minute or two. A very nice fellow, probably in his 20's. He was able to replicate my problem by moving the display connection on the underside of the Cube and diagnosed it as a loose video board. He opened up the Cube, pressed on it, felt no movement and said everything felt tight. But upon rebooting, voila. Video. He connected the display to another CPU and it seemed fine. He connected the Cube to a different monitor and it had video.

"As he was inputting his report on action taken on my AppleCare case, I asked if he thought the nick in the paint on the Cube metal shield could be touched up. He looked startled and took a closer look. [During the video check, Scott had also noticed that the Cube's case didn't latch properly. The inner assembly even fell out once.--ed]. Scott went into the back and reappeared with a brand new Cube "Plastic Case Assembly" with plastic protection all over it. "Look what I found," he said with a grin. And, of course, this shell is much tighter than the original and there's no latch problem.

"Scott has an interesting take on refurbs. He said many come from customers returning open box items. Sometimes a day or two after they were bought. They might trade up for a bigger screen, a portable, etc. But all such returns go back to Apple and become refurbished products. Scott said they consider them as "like new" but mine clearly wasn't.

"So, Bill, it was an outstanding day. I have my machine back and got started setting it up tonight. Everything seems fine and my Cube is absolutely gorgeous. A great customer service experience that wound up costing me almost nada. The store reps apologized that I'd had to drive down. But I was sure glad I did. I spent a total of about 1 1/2 hours there. Scott was outstanding. And, he got the hand truck and brought my stuff back to my car. You can't beat it with a stick.

"I realize I'm late to the party, but I am very enthusiastic about these mall Apple Stores. They remind me of LL Bean. No pressure to buy. Plenty of technical assistance and plenty of opportunity to get a hands-on experience. They have posted a generous return after Christmas policy. I encouraged a friend of mine - to whom I sold my iBook, whose teenage daughter is anxious to get into video production - to visit The Apple Store before buying anything. I likened it to a technical center. He may visit this weekend on a trip to/from MA. I'll be interested to get his reaction.

"One reason I came down from Maine instead of going to my Portland authorized repair dealer, is that the repair wait time is always five or more days before even a diagnosis - undoubtedly filled with PC repairs. Scott said that Apple has staffed the Apple Store repair centers purposely to cut down that wait time. He told me that if they can't fix a unit on the spot, it will be worked on within hours of being signed in. He said that the factory repair facilities are set up to deal with model-specific repairs."

Scott has since transferred to the soon-to-open Rockingham Park Apple Store in Salem, NH, which is much closer to our New England office in ME. On Saturday, a new Apple Store opened at the Clarendon Market Square in Arlington, VA, making two stores near our global HQ in Vienna. Last week, an Apple Store opened at Fashion Valley mall not far from our West Coast office in San Diego, CA. We must be living right or something.