My Switching Experience

cgchambers · Jul 13, 2007

Airwalk,

I sympathize with your situation, I have been fighting my new mac's on and off since April. I have been dealing with 2 seperate Apple Stores, one across the street from my house, and one across the street from my office. I have had 3 laptops replaced by them now, and they have been nothing short of wonderful for me. I actually just posted the story earlier this week. To summarize, I would go in and explain my situation very politley and professionally, they would look at my machine and take care of it, (like I said, replaced it three times)

When I was finally so frustrated I wanted to switch to a different type of machine, (from a MacBook Pro to a MacBook) they happily obliged and gave me 10% of retail.

I hope you are able to stick it out, and good luck

xstep · Jul 13, 2007

D3v1L80Y said:
Advocating this kind of behavior probably won't serve you too well. ...

In the end, the best course of action is to remain cordial at all times. Don't raise your voice and speak politely. You are more likely to get a break if you are calm, cool, and collected than loud and boisterous.

I'm advocating a last ditch effort tactic. It may not work and he'll just be invited to the exit. I am not advocating he be mean or a bully, but simply raise his voice so the other patrons can here of Apple's embarrasing problem. It equates to immediate poor advertising within reach of customers who might be considering a purchase then and there. Yes it is manipulation. The guy spent $3500 and continues to have problems with the third machine. I'd be ticked off too.

I can only hope a fix to airwalk331's problems comes soon and he has the great experience with his system as most Mac users do.

On a side note, I think Sherman Homan had he best starting suggestion. Reinstall the OS from scratch (I do this on new machines) and leave out any third party extras. At least then airwalk331 can confidently say he has not caused the issues. Well, if he doesn't trash anything he shouldn't.

dtravis7 · Jul 13, 2007

D3v1L80Y said:
Advocating this kind of behavior probably won't serve you too well. Loud and demanding customers don't put retail workers in defensive mode, they merely tick them off. You are more likely to start trouble and an argument by stomping your foot and throwing a tantrum by "talking loudly"... not to mention disrupting the other patrons. In my store (when I worked retail) I would sooner eject the person from the store empty-handed if they acted that way. Retail employees are people, too. They are simply doing their job and talking loudly at them in an effort to manipulate them is nothing more than bullying and poor personal conduct.
If you want further action taken, then target the company, not the store employees. Call the BBB and have it handled properly and professionally.

Agreed. I have a friend who does that very thing in stores. Raises his voice, Insults. Amazing. He has been escorted out of many stores and told NOT to return or else the police will be called. Most of the time it gets him no where but laughed at or looked down on. Being that way really does not work. You can be firm without being crazy.

baggss · Jul 13, 2007

schweb said:
Respect for opinions is paramount, flaming or trolling is not permitted. Someone who consistently does nothing but bash Windows is not complying with our forum rules.

Agreed. I have not seen anything of that kind in this thread so I think we are safe. I was merely pointing out to this individual that not everything is a bash and some of it is based on fact. Respect for opinions is a two way street.

airwalk331 · Jul 13, 2007

Talking loudly (as long at the customer is justified- which I am) WILL put the Apple associates in a defensive position I've worked in retail for a long time. if the customer is justified it really does make a retail associate feel stupid and its completely fine as long as you're not insulting anyone/thing or being disrespectful in any way.

And you know what? If I did return this machine within the next week and a half, I would get a full refund and NOT pay a restocking fee because A it's my 3RD MACHINE IN 2 WEEKS and B I haven't had a fully working mbp for more than a week.

professorjay · Jul 13, 2007

If this is still an ongoing problem w/ no resolution, I also second filing a report w/ the BBB. I've found it helps if whenever you talk to someone ask their name first, and try to imply that your keeping it as a record in case you need to take further action.

I've used BBB once, and it was over a measly $10 w/ my cell phone company. But on principle it frustrated me to no end for a month that no one could tell me where this charge was coming from. I then asked my provider for all the names and numbers of the people I had been in contact with. What do you know? The next day a rep called me directly, and immediately dismissed the charges. Too late though, as I'd already filed a report w/ the BBB the day before. Even though the problem was resolved, thanks to the BBB a higher-up Verizon rep sent me a personal letter w/ her direct contact to make sure this situation was handled. Just my experience, hope it helps.

D3v1L80Y · Jul 13, 2007

airwalk331 said:
Talking loudly (as long at the customer is justified- which I am) WILL put the Apple associates in a defensive position I've worked in retail for a long time. if the customer is justified it really does make a retail associate feel stupid and its completely fine as long as you're not insulting anyone/thing or being disrespectful in any way.

I have worked in retail and customer service jobs for over 15 years. One thing I know and understand completely is how to not only give, but also receive good customer service.
There is no need to put anyone on the defensive to get what you want. You also don't need to make anyone feel stupid to get what you want.
All you need to do is use a salesperson's tactics, namely the LAMA technique.

If you understand this technique and execute it properly:
+you won't insult anyone
+you won't make them feel inferior
+you won't make them defensive
+you will take control of the situation
+you will take control of the conversation
+you will get exactly what you want
+the person won't ever feel that they have lost control of the situation and will believe they always have the upper hand
+and you won't raise your voice even one decibel.

I have done this time and time again, and the other person was never the wiser. Manipulative? Perhaps, but it isn't combative. It is never acceptable or justified to raise your voice or put retail workers on edge, no matter how poorly you have been treated or how bad the issue is.

MaDDoG · Jul 13, 2007

Hi Airwalk...sorry to hear about your problems. I too have a MBP and have not had a problem with the latest downloads. In fact have not had a problem with one since the night I bought my MBP home and had a logic board failure when do a firmware update. Perseverence and persistance.

Remember this when dealing with people (Includes salespeople) You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.

shoelessone · Jul 27, 2007

ki99 said:
you should post a link of that blog, i would enjoy reading that

switch.shoelessone.com

(see sig)

Also, I just noticed I got 1 positve ref and 1 negative from this thread. Interesting!

jaline · Jul 27, 2007

schweb said:
Actually my friend, you're wrong. We are a Mac forum, but we're not here to bash Windows. As a matter of fact I find it incredibly uninformed and childish to do so.

Some of us choose to use a Mac for certain reasons or preference, but also see merit to Windows. To be honest Mac OS X is not the end all, be all...it certainly has it's problems and limitations as well...

Respect for opinions is paramount, flaming or trolling is not permitted. Someone who consistently does nothing but bash Windows is not complying with our forum rules.

Thank you.

shoelessone · Jul 27, 2007

jaline said:
Thank you.

seconded

McLovin · Jul 27, 2007

Did you return it or resolve the issue? That "It just works." slogan need to be thrown out.

MMATruman · Jul 27, 2007

I really hope my experience isn't like that. I am about to buy a MBP... But if it is, I hope that the Mac people are as nice to me as they were to you!

airwalk331 · Jul 29, 2007

I kept it, it's been running great. BUT I still haven't dled the new update because I'm scared to death to...

Austin · Jul 29, 2007

i think your apple store got a defective shipment...it's a possibility, because that happened before when my parents got identical dell laptops in one shipment...both of their laptops' keys started falling off and their hds failed. meh, just a suggestion: ask them to open up the box at the store and make sure it works.

airwalk331 · Jul 30, 2007

I don't know, this thread- seems to confirm something kinda like that.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=4925025#4925025

cwa107 · Jul 31, 2007

airwalk331 said:
Apple HAS TO adress this. Period. If they don't soon I may very well return my mbp and ask for a refund.

It sounds like the problem is fairly widespread, I've even noticed it myself, but I believe it to only occur while running on battery power. Otherwise, I haven't had an issue with the two 3rd party wireless routers I tend to connect to.

My guess is that Apple is working on it. Keep in mind that 10.4.10 hasn't been out very long, so it might be just a couple of weeks for a subsequent update.

mmoy · Jul 31, 2007

We have a MacBook Pro that's two or three weeks old and I've seen no problems with it. We have it with Boot Camp with Windows XP Home on a partition when the kids want to run their games. BTW, the MPB makes a decent game platform, at least compared to the other systems in our house.

I've seen no problems with hardwired ethernet or airport though we generally don't run it on batteries. At least not yet. I guess I'll watch out for the problem but in general, the machine has been a solid performer in a great form factor and with the level of power that I like in a laptop.

I just never get to use the thing.

The machine is for our son for college. I'd like him to start doing some development work on Firefox for OSX in the near future.

Mac_Attack · Aug 3, 2007

I just got my MBP 2 days ago and had no problems until today. Twice I got a message saying that I have to restart my laptop. It said it in 5 diff languages, I was really worried that something like this would happen to me since I read about it on the forum. I am currently running the extended Apple hardware test on my MBP to see if anything shows up.
I have not installed ANY updates from apple update yet and noticed that I have several to install. I'm thinking that I will just install these and see what happens.

I don't know if this is a Kernal Panic or not, I just hope its a software issue that can be fixed with an update, not a hardware issue where I have to send back my MBP.

dtravis7 · Aug 3, 2007

Install all the updates. There is a recent update that should take care of it. Do run the Hardware test though. If nothing shows up, install all the updates and see if the issue goes away.