A painful Apple recall process

First: it's not a mandatory recall. You didn't need to replace the iMac hard drive.

Second: Western Digital hard drive failures are not directly Apple's fault. Apple package the product but it's only indirectly their fault -- Western Digital screwed up here.

Third: The affected products are all past their warranty date. Apple are being better-than-average by offering this recall at all.

Does this makes Apple look like a "dysfunctional, hideous and dystopian company"? Not in my opinion. In fact, you sound like you've gone completely off into ridiculous hyperbole-land.

> I am surely able to do it, considering the poor skill level of your staff. You should offer this as an option.

You don't have any backups of your hard drive (which is why the easy options all disappointed you) but you think you're skilled enough to replace an iMac hard drive? Do you have a full set of Torx screwdrivers and suction cups? Maybe you should sell your Torx screwdrivers and buy a backup drive.

Every time Apple does something that someone doesn't like, everyone has a bitch and a whine about how that'd never happen with Steve around.

Get over yourselves. Sure it would. Apple haven't all of a sudden decided "oh look Steve is dead, we can be as terrible as we like now."

In short, I called Apple and politely walked through the issues and they did not hesitate to help me out, even after noting that I lived geographically close to many Apple stores (Grand Central, 5th Ave, etc), but also acknowledged the difficulties in actually getting to them.

We reserved some appointments each day for "walk-ins" and these became available every hour, however they were immediately snapped up within 5 minutes of become available.

My point is that, this is a reservation, much like an eye checkup or dentist appointment. If you miss your reservation, that is your responsibility and not ours to try and fit you in. The booking process is explicit in reminding you not to be late.

If the OP genuinely did get turned away for being 5 minutes late, then that is quite harsh, however I think its more likely that he missed his allotted appointment time and in that case it is 100% his fault for not making it. And oh yeah bringing up the Steve Jobs point is so irrelevant and is just hyperbole.

The recall itself is another matter which IS Apple's responsibility and probably should have been handled better.

I've had good experiences with Apple, and I've had horrible experiences with them. The bad bits usually correpond to me being in a foul mood or being short tempered when I'm talking to them. That, interestingly enough, correlates with my desire to tell everyone and their dog about how bad it was while I was dealing with them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/24/your-money/why-people-reme...

Let's all take a moment to be grateful we live in such wonderful times. Technology like Apple makes is awesome, it works more of the time than it doesn't, and yet it does not define who we are at our cores. You are alive and human - take the time to go out and smell the fresh air, talk to a stranger and find the things that bring you joy.

And then share the good bits with us on HN! :)

This is certainly something Apple should look into. Their main customer base is the mass market of tech-unsavvy consumers, people like my parents, who don't know how to find that button and believe, rightly, that Apple stores are full of condescending youngsters who treat them like idiots and give them bad advice.

Not to be too terribly snarky hopefully you've learned some valuable lessons here in dealing with Apple. You should have expected tech support to have regurgitated the contents of the email. The only reason you would have had for calling them is finding the name of the 3rd party company that would be fixing your computer and how to go about arranging that service.

The second thing you've learned is the Apple geniuses aren't, well, geniuses. They're simply more knowledgeable than average, which takes care of 80% of the problems a typical customer will experience. The important thing to know is they're not doing the work. And, hello, since this was a general recall there were probably a boatload of machines "upstairs" waiting to be repaired. They told you 2 weeks because they prefer to under promise and over deliver and have your machine back to you in a few days.

I know Apple can do seemingly amazing things, but good grief you need to have realistic expectations.

It seems that many blog for publicity or driving traffic (both valid reasons), which leads to using simple publishing tools (tumblr, svtble, weebly, etc), custom domains, links to the author's other content, a personal profile, and an overall media-centric approach. Curious why the OP went with this approach!

Getting an email about a recall is painful? You think the vendor posting a recall notification in a newspaper works better? Or did you expect a personal phone call? Really, what is the problem?

Why did you call tech support? This is a recall, not something that can be fixed over the phone. You should have followed the first advice to make an appointment.

And really, what is the problem of having to make an appointment for the Genius bar? Have you ever been in an Apple Store recently? It is crazy busy. You want an appointment.

I've done this three times now, including for an iMac that needed something fixed. You make an appointment through their web site, show up on time, things get fixed right away or they take your hardware in. Both times it worked really well. I have nothing good to say about Apple support.

Nothing but complaining going on here. Move on.

It took me years to be willing to buy another Apple product, which was an iPad Shuffle. Turns out I really liked that product, and Apple had finally started to fix its tech support process.

I now own tons of Apple products, including several macs, an Apple TV, iPhone, iPad, etc. My last stop by the Genius bar resulted in no questions asked replacement of a few pieces of Apple gear that had broken (headphones, a bluetooth keyboard). I was extremely impressed.

A recall is a different thing, since it is ultimately a decision about the cost of the recall vs the harm to the brand of not doing the recall... this leads to the desire to have the recall be as inexpensive as possible.

Nonetheless, I hope this isn't a sign that Apple is reverting to its old ways.

I mean, I'm sorry you had a bad experience, but you could've inflicted less pain on yourself by doing your own last-minute backup on the first indication that it was difficult to get a hold of Apple Support. I'm sure you have your reasons why you chose not to, but dude you waited two weeks. In that window, you could have backed up your drive so that you'd be free of worries when Apple finally comes around to replacing your hard drive!