In Praise of Apple Care...

I have had an iMac 27" i5 for just over a year. About a week ago, I was getting disk write errors when importing MP3's (legally - from Amazon ). I could then point iTunes to the files and all would be OK, but it happened a couple of times. "Hmmmmmmm..." I thought to myself. Then a couple of days later, the computer would not boot up at all... just the white screen with the Apple logo and the little circling thingy and an elongated oval bar kind of thing under that which had never shown up before. Technical, yes? Anyway, booted it up with the install disk and ran Disk Utility to verify/repair. Well, after some errors being found, the HD could not be repaired! Wheeeee. So, I tried using the Tech Tools disk that came with my Apple Care stuff. It wouldn't install at all. What tha ?? So I called Apple Care this past Monday (Predident's Day) and told them the deal and what I had done, hoping they would come up with another idea other than reinstalling. I DID have everything backed up, though. Whew!

So, the very helpful, friendly and located in the US rep said I had done everything they would have told me to do, and that the only thing left was to reinstall. She was then very thankful that I had everything backed up and she wouldn't have to tell me all my stuff was gone forever.

So I got my case # and hung up, ready to erase the drive and reinstall. So, the erase part went great. But the reinstall failed.

Tried again - failed. Tried a new erase, then another reinstall and the drive would not mount. Uh-oh.

Called Apple back. Gave them my case #. The rep had the history and I told her what was up this time. She transferred me to a "supervisor" in a few seconds and this new person said that there was a decent chance my drive was flaking out. She was going to send a new one out that day (Monday), should arrive by Thursday, and someone from the Mac Authority here in Nashville would call to set up an in home swap out. I asked if I could just drive the iMac over there and get a drive faster, but for warranty reasons, that was a no go.

As I was fooling with the computer while on the phone, I finally got the reinstall to work. I notified the Apple Care person, but she still wanted to send the drive since even though it could work now, she though that if there was a hardware issue, it could fail again in 2 days, 2 months, who knows?

So I am prepared to wait several days for the new HD, but at least I got it back up and restored from my Time Machine back up for the time being.

30 minutes after hanging up with Apple, I get a call from Mac Authority. They have all the info, and think that the drive will be there the next day! They will call as soon as it arrives and set up a replacement time. Cool!

The next day, they call and the drive is in! Overnight shipping on a Federal holiday... not bad. I couldn't get home to meet them that day, but set up a time for Wednesday. Since my system was up and running still, I had time to wipe the drive. Wednesday, the Mac Authority guy showed up on time and 40 minutes later, I have a new hard drive. An install of OSX and a painless Time Machine restore later, and all is right in the world!

SO.... if you're going to drop some change on a nice computer, get the extended warranty and back up all your stuff. Time Machine is so ridiculously easy to use, I can't imagine not using it. As I had the computer for just over a year, I would have been SOL. Well not really, as I did get it back eventually, but if there was a problem with the drive that cropped up later, I would have had to handle it all myself. If I had been available when the drive came in, I would have been down for just about 24 hours. I call that pretty good service!

Thanks!!! And remember, just 'cause it's not Windows, that doesn't mean that nothing can happen to it! ;D

I agree!
I don't buy extended warranties but AppleCare is an exception. I had the Logic board on my MBP go south six days before it's three year anniversary. Thanks to Apple and AppleCare my MBP was good as new at no cost to me with a four day turn around on mail out service.

I strongly recommend Apple Care to anyone who is buying a new Mac. I didn't buy it when I bought mine but my wife did when she bought hers on the same day. Since we live more than two hundred miles from the nearest Mac Genius outlet, driving it in for repairs can be a problem. With Apple Care, they have sent someone to the house twice for her computer, fixing the problem each time, and at no extra cost.

I had a similar experience about a year ago with the drive in my Mac Pro. since I am nowhere near a service center or Apple store so they cross shipped a replacement. Fortunately a 10 year old culd probablyhange that drive in no time.

The rep I talked to did not have me repeat a bunch of troubleshooting steps I had already done. Fortunately I had cloned the drive about three days before. Had a similar positive experience last week when I called about an iPad problem. Been using Macs since the LCIi days. I've only called support a few times but the result has always been positive.