update (or lack thereof)

No word yet from Apple, sent the email yesterday so lets see what tomorrow holds. 

The mysterious case of the ladybug laptop

Hey folks,

Its been a while but for now I want to make sure that I get down to business. I have been a fairly outspoken Apple fan boy for the better part of 10 years now, I used to have nothing bad to speak of about this company....

USED TO being the prerogative statement here, as of a conversation I had with a Apple care specialist named Ted I am not exactly where I stand with the company I once held in such high regard. From this conversation I learned that Apple has decided to blame me on a issue that could not possibly be my responsibility. As outrageous as it sounds, and this is going to be a completely unbelievable Apple has accused me of infesting my laptop with lady bugs, they even have images to prove there point!

before we go into the details of this particular issue though lets discuss my customer history with Apple and there portable laptop that I have owned. I have bought 1 Apple laptop in my entire history with the company however because of continuing and ongoing issues Apple has in the past seen it necessary to replace my laptop with newer models no more than twice. Once with my Powerbook and again with the Macbook Pro of wich today's article is about. So in reality if anything this should be teaching me that perhaps Apple's portables are not the pinnacle of quality that I once thought. but that's not the only product that ive had to have replaced by the company, I have had no less than 4 iPods replaced by the company. Each one that was sent back to me had different issues, at one point they actually lost the product somewhere in the depot and it took an executive "email bomb" to have it retrieved, for my troubles I was refunded for the iPod and given a new one, a generous move considering the ramifications that the company could have been for not helping me in that issue.

So now we come to today's issue, the mysterious case of the ladybug laptop. Originally I had sent my laptop out for two issues, ones that had been plaguing my laptop since i had received it from apple in April as a replacement for my Powerbook. these issues where the following:
1. My slot loading super drive would take media but not properly eject it, basically the disc would get stuck before it could properly exit the super drive making it impossible to use the drive.
2. My screen had a portion in the middle that was becoming brighter when you darkened the screen
So I called Apple care and asked for a product specialist (I have learned that talking to these higher level techs is really the only way to have the issues fixed)I reported all my findings and asked for a box to be shipped to my house and was given my case number (111836351) and repair dispatch ID (D19920136) and I sent the box out. A few days later and a status report or two on, and I see that the repair is on hold so I call in and am transferred to a Depot specialist who informed me that the laptop had experienced "Massive and irreparable water damage" I was quoted 1,250 to have the laptop repaired which was apparently right on the verge of what apple called the "repair to replacement threshold." At this point I was upset, beyond upset I was being told that my laptop could not be repaired under my Apple care for an issue that had been plaguing my laptop since I received it from apple as a replacement for my previously defective laptop and I said that exact statement representative who repeated to me "Sir I am writing down that you accept that you are the cause of the water damage" at which point I became incredibly upset. If I wasn't upset at that point the situation was made worse when I received a direct threat from the depot specialist telling me that "if it wasn't broken before, it definitely will be now" as far as customer service goes, a line like that will generally receive a screaming voice I however decided to be decidedly calmer, I quietly but curtly asked for my laptop to be sent back as soon as possible, at which point the depot rep hung up on me.

Now lets talk about this for a second. Not only was I directly threatened by this employee but I was also hung up on, two acts that besides being rude also caused me to become increasingly upset at the quality of customer service that I have sadly come to accept as being Apple Care. I decided to let a few days pass at which point I would call the company again and try to even things out.

On Monday December 8Th, 2008 I called into Apple and at 12:01PM was helped by "Ted" (extension 2516) He understood my situation and agreed that the previous depot rep who I had talked to acted in a completely unacceptable manner and decided to investigate my issues further. After waiting on hold he told me that there was nothing that could be done for me concerning the laptop, I politely reminded him that this laptop was a replacement for a defective laptop and now i was dealing with just another defect after which he decided to try "one last option" at 12:06PM I was put back on hold and at 12:11PM Ted came back and told me that after looking at some images sent to him from the depot he reported to me that he saw bugs on the main logic board, not just any bugs, he saw lady bugs on the main logic board, he said because of this Apple had decided to take the position that I had somehow gotten the bugs into my laptop and that they would not fix my computer or help me with the cost of fixing my laptop. Ted however did agree that the bugs where far to big to somehow wander into my laptop and concurred that these bugs where probably in the computer during the manufacturing process (Illegal alien bugs if you will)I was speechless and flabbergasted at what had been what I thought was a simple repair could turn into such a stupendous issue. It became clear to me that this laptop had been jinxed from the moment it was made, at any rate I thanked Ted for helping me, as a final note he suggested that I write this blog article and send it to anybody at apple who would be willing to listen and so here I write my final opus on the Macbook Pro (early 2008) that was sent in for repairs, damaged with water from the get go and infested with lucky lady bugs.

And so I ask the following of you dear readers:

1. Please fix or replace my laptop, its obvious at this point that I have been both mistreated, threatened and accused of things I cannot possibly be the assailant of.

2. A formal Apology for the abysmal repair/replacement cycle I have been thrown into with Apple from somebody who matters at the company.

3. To commend the service of the representative Ted for his ability to cut away from script to realize that lady bugs in my laptop probably meant that I had an issue that needed to be dealt with some other way than through him.

I guess the only thing left to talk about with this is my previous repair histories with Apple, below in chronological order you will find my repairs on my laptop and replacement.

Powerbook

Purchased 7/28/04 Serial number (W843118JQW3)
Carry-in Repair- 3/14/05
Do-it-yourself Repair- 7/5/06
Mail-in Repair- 8/02/05
New Battery (old one died)- 11/6/05 web order number (W15850291)
Mail-in Repair- 1/28/06
LAPTOP REPLACED- New Powerbook Serial Number (W860523RSWZ)
there where 6 repairs on this laptop, I cannot find exact dates, the replacement to this laptop was issued on 4/10/08 with the new serial number W88134MYYJX


In essence I haven't had what we would call a satisfactory history with apple portable products, I can only hope that this issue can be resolved somehow and my thoughts could be reversed somehow.

thank you and good evening.

-Sam D. Rivers

Off topic: Subway jumper at 72 St/Broadway

Yesterday, October 11 at the uptown 1 platform at 72 st a young black man jumped in front of an oncoming 1 train.....I happened to be on the scene no more than 30 seconds after the accident.....I will keep the details short...I passed through the metrocard gate and immediately a dozen or so women are running towards the exit screaming to the MTA booth for help....."there is a man under the train!!!"

I go down the stairs and see the front of the train is in front of me, very few people stayed around to see what would unfold...no police at all on the scene for at least a minute...I could only see the feet of the body, they were still moving around. The consensus thus far is that the person died primarily by electrocution on the third rail.


This is where things start to be strange.....


-Absolutely ZERO media coverage of the accident
-After hearing a report from another witness, a bone chilling thought came to my mind....WHAT THE F**K IS GOING ON??? The witness was on the platform and saw the whole thing, she claims that there was a white man filming (with a professional video camera) the entire thing from the platform, from the time before the person jumped, until he was forced to leave, where he resumed filming the event from the opposing downtown platform. Here is the creepy part....I saw the same exact man filming...at the time I was in some shock and only thought to myself "he must be really fucking lucky to get this on tape"....after hearing that he recorded the entire thing something seems very, very wrong. Was this a staged suicide???? If so, who the f**k is this guy with the camera and why is there no media coverage???

RE: Apple.com Tributes Al Gore's Peace Prize Win

Listen, I am in full support of earth-friendly agendas and I think that Al Gore is doing (or attempting) something good with his time and money but this latest shit on Apple.com undid a few screws in my head. I never wanted to be the type of person that buys products based on a firm's politics but this garbage on apple.com really makes me question what the f**k I am doing supporting a company that so openly declares their political affiliation. I do not want this to be an argument about why i disagree with most liberal ideas (I said most because there are some liberal issues I support), I just felt the need to comment on Apple's recent homepage update. No legitimate, publicly-traded company in their right mind would post such a transparent message on behalf of a major figure like Mr. Gore without some type of financial arrangement. Remember, I said "in their right mind".....yea yea I know this is just a fucking rant but perhaps others out in cyberspace share the same sentiment.

Because the utility of the product is what drives me to my decision to purchase from a certain manufacturer, this will not likely stop me from supporting apple in the future; what WILL affect my future apple purchases (getting a little off topic) is their lack of a CONSISTENT quality control in China. I remember having the Original Macintosh and Macintosh II when I was young and first getting into computing and I CLEARLY can recall the EXCEPTIONAL build quality of the units. What is going on Apple??

Official 3rd Part iPhone apps??

According to an anonymous source at 9to5Mac.com, Apple and Electronics Arts (as well as other unnamed sources) are in the process of porting EA's line of iPod games to the iPhone. This latest speculation brings up a number of issues in my head.

When I look at the current lineup of EA iPod-based games (Solitare, Mahjong, Tetris, Bowling, etc) the controls for them are fairly simple, using just the iPod clickwheel and center button as the controls. I am a little skeptical about how fluid the controls will be for anything more complicated than card games and bowling. As we have seen with 3rd party games such as the NES emulator, it is possible to implement decent controls although they are not perfect. The problem is that major video game firms (with the exception of EA) would not dare enter into the iPhone-only game market for the reason that the margins are lousy. I will not pay any amount of money for ported iPod games to play on iPhone and I am positive that 99% of the people whos 3rd party apps were removed in the 1.1.1 update would agree with me. I WOULD pay for fresh, innovative, and more graphically enhanced games from companies other than EA...

Continuing with the official 3rd party app speculation, it is also being reported that Apple will be adopting T-Mobile's sidekick SDK and distribution models. To summarize, the Sidekick model involves 3rd party developers applying for a "key" from Apple, which essentially opens up the iPhone platform for app development, developers test and compile applications and submit only stable and functional concepts to Apple for for stability and compatibility testing. If Apple follows the T-Mobile model, they would at this point release the app for sale.

To me this could go either way for consumers in the sense that it could bring some first class applications to the iPhone and potentially iPod Touch platforms. The possible downside for consumers is that because Apple has the final word in what is released, we could see a slew of Stock and Weather-type iPhone widgets which are nice features, but are in essence more novelty than hardcore app.

All this means very little right now is it is pure speculation but lets just look at two different sides of this issue...

Consumers who have unofficial 3rd party apps (or who lost them in the latest update) will unlikely support anything related to this idea of buying additional apps from Apple. The general sentiment among iPhone customers is that Apple has become concerned only with money. As a side note, do all you people who believe this think that Apple Inc. is non-for-profit company??? I am not going to get into it in detail but Apple Inc. is in business for ONE SINGLE REASON....to produce the largest PROFITS possible for its SHAREHOLDERS. With that said, many people still feel hesitant about giving more money to the Cupertino-based firm with many even feeling betrayed or "gauged" by the price drop last month.

Other users who for whatever reason choose not to jailbreak and load 3rd party apps may be attracted to "official" applications. Although there are a myriad of programs that allow for simple jailbreaking, many do not feel like "de-flowering" their new devices. Still, with this target group, many will be weary of the applications....especially when you factor in that the numerous "hacking" groups will most likely release a hacked for-free version of the apps shortly after the "official" ones are released.

Truthfully...these rumors do not interest me in the LEAST....I personally have no desire to purchase games for iPhone, apps possibly, but not until they are proven to be worth the cost and more importantly if they provide me with some additionally utility that I need with my iPhone.

I am waiting until Apple releases its much delayed and highly anticipated Leopard OS which is reported to have many new UI and infrastructure updates/improvements, many of which are supposeded to be closely integrated with iPhone....

Just a thought

throwing around idea's for stories this morning with Peter, and a concept came up, which lead to a question.

...If Apple were to fire CEO Steve Jobs from the company, would that necessarily be the downfall of the company?...

Through our conversation I think we've come to some conclusions and also opened up some questions to be asked in the future.


Questions:
1. Considering the products currently being released where already in the pipes for the company. So has Steve really innovated anything at the company other then being one hell of a hype machine?

2. Once the product lines get elderly (seriously how long till one iMac just looks like the one next to it?) what new products short of a holographic display system will start the company anew

Who knows what the future holds for this company, i think that now more than ever we must hold some criticism for this company especially as it grows into the future

Conclusions:

Apple will probably do fine with the current market saturation and word of mouth dispersion that if Steve left nothing would change except the company would lose a mouthpiece

Product lines will be continue on track as they have been for the past couple of quarters (this is talking in the sense that Steve has already left) Johnathan Ives gets promoted to head of Product R&D industrial design, Phil Schiller takes over as the CEO of apple and its business as usual.

ibrik 2

cousin peter (a contributing editor) thought this image was much more appropriate (so do i)


in his own words
"i really have no sympathy for people who bricked their phones"

you know what.... neither do I really

except if your traveling to europe... but then you should have the money to pay for the freggin roaming charges seeing as you have to be relativly wealthy to travel to europe now