AppleCare via The Apple Store--Wonderful!

Not everyone knows that the new Apple Stores accept repairs at the Genius Bar on iMacs, iBooks, Power Macs (B&W G3 and later) and PowerBooks (G3 Series and later). All repairs on iMacs and Power Macs are done in the store as are some 'Book repairs. Most repairs on the iBooks and PowerBooks are sent away but the Store does it for you so you don't have to be home to accept the box, ship and receive your 'Book back from a courier. The geniuses will even help you troubleshoot a problem with an older Mac if you bring it in. If the problem requires a technician, they will introduce you to one of the local Apple Authorized Service Centers.

Last week we conducted some deferred maintenance on our Macs and discovered that the 13 GB hard drive on our original 400 MHz iMac DV SE was on its last leg. It had been making a loud grinding/clicking noise for a month and installing software on it (updating Mac OS X to 10.1 for example) gave verification errors. Micromat's Drive10 said the mechanism was bad and it failed the voltage test as well. We called AppleCare, set up a case number and confirmed that the Apple Store in Tysons Corner, VA, could handle the repair. On Sunday we decided to give the Apple Store a try.

Before this we had taken any Mac needing repair to Micro Center, stood in line for 20 minutes to leave it and waited 1-3 days for a technician to look at it and call us with what needed to be done for approval. Usually, a part was needed that was not stocked and a couple of more days passed. It took a week to ten days but they always did a good job, right the first time. Micro Center is an Apple Authorized Service Center and we have been happy with them.

We carried our iMac through the mall and into the Apple Store. It seemed to get fairly heavy by the end of the trek so we made a mental note to bring a suitcase wheelie to pick it up when repaired. Back at the Genius Bar, Neal Emerald and Lee Fairbanks were on duty. Macs Only!'s frequent readers may remember Neal who has been a contributor from time to time. This is the first time that we had met him face to face. Both we busy helping people with a software issue, one an iBook and another a PowerBook, and young lady's new iBook was being updated to Mac OS X 10.1 for its proud new owner.

In 5 minutes, Lee was free and he took our case number, AppleCare Registration number and iMac. He told us that the 13 GB hard drives are no more so we would be "forced" to accept a 20 GB model instead. His prognosis was that our iMac would be ready on Monday (remember this was Sunday afternoon at about 2 pm) if the drives were in stock or on Tuesday/Wednesday if not. They offer a service of stripping the data off the old hard drive and installing it on the new one for $50 but none of our data was critical so we did not opt for it.

Back at Macs Only!'s Global HQ we settled in to watch what was left of the second half of the Rams-Giants game since the Ravens were being slaughtered by the Packers. As we happily (sorry NY/NJ friends!) watched the Rams eke out a one-point win, which may help our hapless Redskins if they ever start winning, the phone rang. It was Lee and our iMac was ready--it was just after 4pm! After we had left, things lightened up at the Genius Bar so Lee did a few of the "easy" repairs including putting a new 20 GB hard drive in our iMac. So when the Ram-Giants game ended, we remembered to grab our wheelie and headed back to Tysons Corner mall, just a few minutes away. Neal said it wasn't necessary to bring the wheelie since those picking up or dropping off computers can drive up to the rear and ring the doorbell--hmmm, how does one find the rear? We'll remember that and look for the way if there is a next time. Lee fired it up to show me it worked. He had installed Mac OS 9.1. After exchanging a few Mac war stories we left.

Back again, we installed Apple DVD Player 2.7 and updated to Mac OS 9.2.1. Then we installed Mac OS X 10.0.3 on the same partition and updated to Mac OS X 10.1. The iMac is just used for web surfing and email by guests so Mac OS X 10.0-10.0.4 ran fast enough. However, Mac OS X 10.1 is much faster. Here are some time comparisons with a 450 MHz G4 Cube (see here for comparisons among OS X versions with the Cube):

Average Launch Times in Full Seconds with Mac OS X 10.1

Application	400 MHz G3 iMac	450 MHz G4 Cube
Startup Chime to Login	64	68
Login to Desktop	13	9
Shutdown	5	4
Classic Mode	44	46
Scroll in Acrobat 5	217	82
AppleWorks 6.2.1	2	2
IE 5.1.2	2	2
Mail	2	1
System Preferences	2	1

Surprisingly, the iMac holds its own against the Cube in startup and application launch times. The G4 shines when handling Mac OS X's graphics as illustrated by its much faster scroll time for the 144-page Virtual PC 4 Manual PDF file loaded with color images.

In addition to our iMac's hard drive going south, last week our original iBook's AC adapter suddenly burnt through the cord at the connector that plugs into the iBook and we found, with a borrowed AC adapter, that the backup battery we had bought for it was dead as a doornail. We handled those issues in a few minutes over the phone to AppleCare and a new AC adapter and battery are on their way. We'll have to send the bad battery back but not the AC adapter.

After a series of repairs from motherboards to graphics cards and seeing the eBay resale value added by having AppleCare, we now highly recommend AppleCare for all of Apple's products. What some people don't know is that AppleCare for Macs with unexpired one-year warranties can be bought from retailers other than Apple. AppleCare is list priced at $149 (iMac), $249 (iBook and Power Mac) and $349 (PowerBook) but retailers frequently discount it. For example, SmallDog.Com sells the same AppleCare kits for $129, $209 and $299.

All in all, Apple's Customer Service has really improved. From our recent experience, including an easily replaced AirPort Base Station, it has got to be tops in the industry today.