Comment by tokyodude | Hacker News Reader

Comment by tokyodude | Hacker News Reader

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I'm actually a little disappointed in Apple's service considering the cost of their hardware and the cost of AppleCare.

Back in the 80s and 90s many companies excellent service was you'd call customer support, they'd express ship you a replacement for free and you'd send back the broken item. They would take your credit card number just in case you didn't send the broken item back but otherwise it was on their dime.

I had this experience with NEC 21 inch monitors, 2 different video card companies, and Matrox hard drives as just 4 companies off the top of my head. Yes, NEC FedExed me 70lbd 21 inch monitors over night. No idea what it cost them but the monitor cost me around $2500 in 1995, certainly comparible to an MBP.

Compare to Apple, they were going to service my MacbookPro and I was without it for 2 weeks. The only reason I was able to get by is I had just bought a new Windows laptop for VR so I'd have something to use while they serviced the MBP.

It made me wonder why they couldn't do it the way those other companies did. Send me the new machine, I'll transfer my data, wipe the old machine, send it back. Even if my old machine is unusable (and therefore I can't get the data off) I'd still prefer the instance service I use to get. Just give me a new machine, factor that into the cost.

The fact that they didn't do as good a job as those other companies was disappointing.

They generally do a better job if you have a nearby Apple Store (an official not a third party one). Unfortunately if you don't have one of those you end up a little worse off.

On the plus side, most brands don't have stores in the majority of non major cities. Apple Does. So they're ahead of a lot of brands in that regards.

You can get repairs usually done same day or within 1 or 2 days in the worst case if you can walk into an Apple Store in most cases (with some exceptions obviously) - for both iPhone and Mac.

EDIT: The comment below points out they only have stores in 22 countries. I agree in some regards that is low but I would suggest it is probably high compared to many brands for not requiring a 2 week turnaround as you had above.

The repair experience for MacBooks (not iOS!) is abysmal, even at Apple Stores. Whereas other vendors (HP, Dell, Lenovo) will happily send you customer-replaceable parts (keyboards, disks, etc.) or a technician for on-site NBD repairs even with their standard warranty plans, Apple requires you to buy Apple Care (~10% premium) and then you still have to wait for appointments and repairs at the Genius Bar. This can easily take a week or two, and they do not provide a loaner devices so you’re without your computer for the duration of the repair. I’ve been told that there are professional Apple Care plans that do provide them, but they come at a (even higher) price.

I think the main issue here is the availability of repairs, if my sony ps4 breaks down, I most likely won't take it to sony as they will take 3 weeks to send it back. I'll prolly take it to an individual shop and get it done within a day.

Also the other downside e.g for iphones is that apple is not selling genuine screens... you broke your screen on your $1500 iphone? cause thats how much it costs in the EU... you will get a knockoff screen if you want to get it done in a day, if you want you can wait 4-5 weeks for them to get back to you, unless you live in london, paris, berlin etc.

Are MacBooks really that expensive? The MacBook Pro retina with 516ssd is a lot cheaper than the Microsoft surface book and around similar to the XSP, but the XSP is much lower quality.

An i9 macbook pro is 3100 with Applecare and tax its 3800. If you don't buy the Applecare they can charge you whatever they like to fix it because you wont be able to take it elsewhere. Have fun when a new battery costs you $250.

Regarding the XPS with 6 cores, 16GB ram, 512 ssd it still comes in closer to 2K you could bank the extra 1800 and use part of it to have it fixed if you dropped it.

The surface laptop 2 seems to start at around 1K doesn't appear to be the in the same ballpark although with integrated graphics, a lesser display, and lesser processor it also doesn't look to be in the same class.

You can buy a MacBook Pro 13" 2018 edition with retina and 512gb for 13000 danish kr, if you use the students discount. A similarly specced 13" XPS is around 12000-14000 danish kr.

A 512gb surface book is at least 21000 danish kr, because it only ships with the 15". A 256gb one is around 12000-13000 danish kr.

Dell XPS laptops have user-upgradable RAM and SSDs.

The RAM is soldered on.

This is incorrect, at least on 9550 / 9560. It's extremely easy to upgrade both of them, just open the back without even fully disassembling the machine.

It is the case for the 13-inch ones.

FWIW my experience has been mostly ok, there have been highlights and one pretty major let down. This comment copied from elsewhere in this comment section:

edit: I should also point out, I've never bought AppleCare.

I have had a few run-ins with Apple over the years. Mostly semi-positive. These have been where I've had to take my main work machine in for repair and they've quoted me 14 days, but then turned the repair around in a few days. They've also often thrown in unrelated free stuff too. Last time when I took my Macbook Pro in for the free screen replacement (due to delamination) they also replaced the battery (it was bulging slightly apparently, I'd not noticed) and top case (the trackpad click wasn't reliable), totally free and not required (years out of warranty).

The one case that really sticks in my mind though was when I took a 13" Macbook (pro I think) in to have the keyboard replaced (the trackpad stuck). It was a US model with a US keyboard that I'd bought off the company I used to work for, and I figured that while they were replacing the keyboard they may as well put a UK keyboard on. The Apple reps on the phone, then in store both said this was a reasonable request (as I also thought) and so I left it with them.

I get a call a day or so later saying that they couldn't do the repair because "they had to replace components like for like". Bear in mind this was a paid for repair, not under warranty. I was willing to pay for the parts and labour. Apple confirmed that the new UK keyboard would work, but they weren't allowed to repair the laptop with a different keyboard. Nothing I could do could change their mind, I'd hit a complete brick wall. No keyboards could magically fall through the cracks in the back room and no favours could be done. As reasonable a request that all involved continued to think this was, they wouldn't do anything.

They even called around local apple dealers and none of them would do it either because they were all constrained by Apple's back-office systems.

In the end I bought a genuine, brand-new top case (keyboard, trackpad, integrated battery) off eBay and did the work myself, it worked just fine. No idea where it came from originally.

I guess this shattered any remaining idea I had that Apple was anything other than a machine. The operations side made so efficient by Tim Cook is also incredibly inflexible and as soon as you stray outside the bounds of what it has accounted for you hit a wall. As friendly as the geniuses and store employees are, Apple is not your friend.

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