(no subject)

[substitute]

There is another post about this which will arrive at an indeterminate time later on and is inaccurate. Then I will delete it. This is because Livejournal is a piece of shit and they broke post by email again, but it's pointless to file a support ticket because they either already know or don't care, and they never post anything to support or status when anything is broken either.

Today I went to the apple store because my powerbook had a case crack and a hinge fracture. The large comfortable young man at the genius bar declined to service this under applecare and insinuated that I had damaged the laptop by getting it wet and banging on it. He obviously hadn't liked me from the start when I came in late and was anxious because I'd been removed from the repair schedule. He even pretended to go in the back and talk to "another genius" while he jacked off or had a smoke, like a fucking car salesman. Repair would cost $1000. So I got to be publicly humiliated by this son of a bitch and now if I want a working laptop I get to suck Apple's cock and buy yet another laptop from them.

Thanks, apple! Thanks, genius bar! Thanks, applecare!

I don't think I'll be going back to the Newport Beach store any time soon. I haven't wanted to hit someone this bad in a long time.

Comments

[hersheyjumper.livejournal.com]

I'm currently having issues with DHL. How bout you take care of DHL for me and I'll show the genius bar where they can stick their Idiot Quotient.

[burntcurtis.livejournal.com]

Which guy was it?

bastards!!

[lil-om.livejournal.com]

if you want, i can have my buddy who works there take it in for you.

Re: bastards!!

[substitute.livejournal.com]

nah, it's over. i'm just pissed because I lost the game today and because he was a dick. i'm getting a new laptop. hello, debt.

[substitute.livejournal.com]

Eh, I don't want to go there. He was just socially inept and kind of a cock.

[substitute.livejournal.com]

DHL seems to be stuck in 1989. They're very slow and they take order tracking attempts as an insult.

[bruisedhips.livejournal.com]

dude. write to apple and tell them who did that. seriously.

[substitute.livejournal.com]

it's not worth it. i just don't want to see his face again. i'll go to south coast plaza.

[hersheyjumper.livejournal.com]

So it seems. They gave me a bogus story about what was delaying my package. Told me it was in customs when it was a baggage workers strike. They didn't even get what country it was in right. I don't think they even really checked for me.

My "express" 1 to 2 day shipment has now taken over a week and it hasn't even left the country of origin. They think it might get on a plane by Friday or so.

Most things I don't even care about. This particular item is a musical instrument and I DO care.
I'm so mad I could spit.

How bout I go spit on your buddies at the genius bar.

Just walk up, spit, and leave.

[mendel.livejournal.com]

I remember when DHL didn't really touch the consumer environment at all and were only well-known as the company you went to because you needed to ship a pallet of something. They didn't want to deal with people who didn't ship pallets all the time, then, but they still accepted the business. I suspect they added the consumer courier service in and kept the same people -- who are now even more bitter that they are handing over light envelopes and parcels instead of haulin' pallets.

Re: bastards!!

[conradsdebt.livejournal.com]

HELLO

Wait, what?

[citizenx.livejournal.com]

Man, I'd totally prefer to hand over light envelopes and parcels instead of haulin' pallets?

[nikolasco.livejournal.com]

Replacement casings aren't terribly difficult to pick up on E-Bay. On the other hand, using them requires a few hows of screwing (and possibly soldering) around. I picked up a replacement monitor frame, with hinge, for about $150 for my brother's iBook. I also still need to finish the repair job.

Re: Wait, what?

[mendel.livejournal.com]

Naw, you put them on a forklift of some kind or another and away you go. But DHL was a logistics company that dealt with the logistics and shipping departments of other companies, so you were always dealing with people who did commercial shipping, whether office workers or the guy on the loading dock, and they know how long things take and how much they cost and how to pack things. Then all of a sudden you're picking up and delivering hand-sized parcels from eBay sales to people who might be at home when you stop by.

It's like the shipping equivalent of having to move from a senior sysadmin or programming position, where you really only have to deal with other IT professionals, to a front-line support position.

[nosrialleon.livejournal.com]

because the SCP store is known for having better customer service.
er. waitaminute.

[frobisher.livejournal.com]

This is going to sound stupid, but if you complain that's at least one more complaint, and the problem may get that slightly closer to being fixed. It's not about getting that guy in trouble, although that will probably be the way it's handled if at all, but about the right to be treated decently.

Yeah, I was right, it did sound stupid. And I'd probably not do anything about it either, but the lack of respect for one's fellow person really does piss me off. Well, at least I got to complain. Go me.

Perhaps I should go listen to "20th Century Man" now. :-|

Re: bastards!!

[substitute.livejournal.com]

augh it's you

[substitute.livejournal.com]

everything at the newport store is fine. it's probably not even him, it's fucking probably just me. i just don't want to see his face again.

[tuliphead.livejournal.com]

is it called a genius bar because it takes a genius to fix an apple product? is there some subtle or unintended irony in this name?

[substitute.livejournal.com]

Yes, and yes.

The people at the genius bars are very competent, and this guy is no exception. He was just a prick to me today.

[friendly-bandit.livejournal.com]

Odd thing about DHL is they are very good in Europe. They are the standard (or so I am told).

[substitute.livejournal.com]

They're Germans. For the longest time they were the only express mail company that could even reliably get your package to Europe. Fedex or UPS would hand it off to some unknown local beret-garbed wine drunk and you'd never see it again.

That still happens

[zebulon-y.livejournal.com]

UPS actually has local offices, but Fedex has no presence in Italy, for instance, and passes it to "local contractors" where your precious goods become Untrackable.

And delivered to the wrong place, in one case I am aware of.

No, Jean-Claude! Again you have backed over the box!

[scromp.livejournal.com]

They also sell about every replacement part you could want at and . You may pay a bit more than on ebay, but they're usually in stock and brand new parts too.

..said having just replaced both my powerbook's hard drive and keyboard.

pbfixit's guides are fantastic.

I don't know if I'd replace a case _and_ a hinge from those sources though, you are getting into about $400 territory, might as well get a new one.

You can shave off about $300 on a new one with a refurb, look for "Apple Certified Products" in the right sidebar on the apple store site. If you have a superdrive now, you could get the cheap one and swap drives too. ~$1700 vs $2300.

(Can you tell I just went through these decisions myself?)

[scromp.livejournal.com]

hurr, html is hard.

pbfixit.com and powerbookmedic.com were attempted links above. I will leave the webz0rizing to the professionals for the rest of the morning.

[substitute.livejournal.com]

This one was a refurb, and I bought another on the site.

When I fix mechanical things myself the results are humorous but not practical. If I get a wild hair after I've moved all the data off the old one I may try but I'm not going to expect the monster to live. :)

[scromp.livejournal.com]

Laptops in general do suck to take apart. Powerbooks are not too bad, lots of tiny screws. Easily the worst part is prying the top case off, which is basically an exercise in grimacing and doing something that feels really wrong and hoping you read the web page correctly until it pops out and everything still seems to be intact, whew. Gets me every time.

I recommend never even attempting to take apart an ibook if you can avoid it.

[flipzagging.livejournal.com]

I just experienced the Genius Bar for the first time, in downtown SF. I was trying to use their free computers to ssh into my server, but the guy wouldn't deviate from his script about how great iPhoto was.

He looked shocked when I mentioned I wanted to run Terminal -- not for security reasons, but because, quote, "I don't know anything about that..."

[substitute.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's just weird.

I know the puters in the Apple Stores are set not to let Terminal run for the more obvious security reasons, but I've never encountered a "genius" there who wouldn't know how to use it. Maybe he was just the concierge guy? There's usually a less well-trained person at each bar who's just there to put people on the list and answer dumb questions.