I agree about the hassle of correcting any issue with the AppleCAre plan itself, but I’ve had nothing but good luck with AppleCare on Apple laptops.

Meh. I like their products, but the store is nothing short of frustration in colorful t-shirts.

Who is this Scott guy anyway? I mean, everyone knows that a real Mac guy buys a few extra Macs just in case an unforseen hardware failure occurs (spill induced or otherwise). I keep one in my freezer, two in the porn drawer that lost its purpose when I met the Internet, and a fourth in a hermetically sealed box upon which I have cast spells of protection.

And Apple? Pfft… Of course they aren’t to blame! I mean, who needs a vendor that will swap out your motherboard at an airport on your way to a conference in Vegas? You should know that you can’t just buy their products and expect them to support you! You need to do it through an obscure combination of steps involving a website, a 2 hour drive, and a meeting in a glass construct where geniusen outnumber shoppers thirteen to one. Oh, and when you go in for help, make sure to pick the Abercrombie kid who appears to have been laid. He’s probably indifferent to how you came upon your broken companion.

I absolutely love my MBP but not to the point where I would blindly defend Apple for having a terrible and inconsistent warranty and support practice.

Nice post, Scott. I get it. DIAF.

Thank you!!! I had given up the hope that someone would actually read and comprehend before knee-jerk apple defense mechanisms kicked in. You’ve restored my faith in the interwebs.

Many people expect flawless results from support from other vendors, and B&M if they don’t get it. Folks return well-used equipment to Home Depot and expect a full refund (the unofficial HD rental plan). Other tech vendors certainly get more abuse over far lesser customer service problems than this.

But why are people willing to put up with less than stellar results (to the extent of actively defending/supporting the vendor) from Apple? Is the religion that strong?

To Scott’s point, which many seemed to have missed, coffee was just the agent this time. It could be any number of things that trigger a failure, not all involving a mistake on the user’s part.

The “suck it up, it was your fault” type comments typically won’t float in the IT world. If Apple does want to get into IT shops this size, they need to provide something better than this.

As development of RIAs increases, I expect to see more and more developers opt for Apple hardware, if not software, as the design/creative tools are generally better. We’re already seeing the start of that.

When IBM sold off their laptop line to Lenovo, my company switched to HP specifically because of the service terms. I had a problem with an HP laptop once and the repair guy went to my house and did the fixes at my kitchen table.

Pete

2) Read the AppleCare agreement; icomes with onsite service (in most locales, including mine which is an hour from any Apple store), so that is an option.

3) You can mail the laptop to Apple if you prefer that. Your time can’t be worth much if you’re willing to drive that far.

4) Most Authorized Apple Retailers honor AppleCare, and can also repair most problems. (I suspect spilling coffee might require a bit more work than you typical shop would even want to handle, so they too might send it away. And the $1300 was for many replacement parts, which were destroyed by you, not due to Apple’s failure.)

4) No one should cover the cost of spilled coffee or laptops dropped out of windows without a hefty fee.

5) If you can’t live without, you should have a backup ready to go.

6) There are plenty of repair companies that will sell you on-site service (Apple uses them as subs for their on-site service; they been to my home twice, no-charge)
I doubt Dell would be onsite the next day if you didn’t have active current warranty service.

For now, I continue to love my Apples… my support time at home went WAY down. I no longer have to help my wife unload the camera, upload them to the web, printer stopped working, etc, etc… but, I’ll wait awhile before trying it at work again.

Take care,
-Jason

I will thanks

too bad the liquid didn’t enter through or touch the keyboard at all.

http://www.amazon.com/ProTouch-Keyboard-Protector-MacBook-Pro/dp/B000J02P1I