Apple’s Support Losing Support

Last year, when my school decided that every student needed a laptop of their own, many students bought Macbooks, or they stuck with the familiar and bought Dells. Both laptops were recommended though, but this year, the Macbooks no longer have a spot on the recommended laptops list. This change comes from a lot of work in the computer department of my school, when they need to call in Apple to buy new parts or fix unfamiliar things. They don’t like having to fix and order parts for the Macbooks, and although the problems are mostly the student’s faults, it still has to be done. While I don’t agree with the change, as I bought the laptop from Apple myself and not from the school’s online Apple store and have kept my Macbook in good condition, the change is still going to happen.

Now, I love Apple, so I hope this post comes of some help. One of the reasons that the Macbooks are no longer being recommended (and not even supported) next year is because they say Apple hasn’t been to good with support. While I don’t think believe this to be true, something needs to be changed either way. I have a good feeling the school won’t change their mind, but if Apple does a few things, maybe they can keep support of other schools. Now, the things that need to be done:

Get Things Done Quicker: The school is partly to blame for this, but I’ve noticed it takes way too long to get things fixed. I don’t have any specific examples, but it just takes way too long.

Be A Bit Nicer: When comparing computer companies, such as Dell and Apple, people always say that Dell has great support. While this may be true, as I haven’t gotten to test this myself, I imagine part of it is because Apple either is really nice about it, or refuses to do anything at all. It could depend on whether you have a nice Apple Genius (I had the same one twice, he’s a great guy), if you have had problems before (There is something called the rule of threes with Apple support, which says that if something major happens three times, whether it be different things, Apple just gives you a new one), or if your issue isn’t widespread. When discoloration started appearing on the white Macbooks, Apple ignored it, until enough people complained about it. Same way with the Random Shutdowns that were occuring. If you had an unheard of issue, Apple would simply refuse to help. Also, things also happen to break as soon as your warranty runs out, but that’s true with everything expensive.

Focus On Organizations: While some people may not be happy with this, Apple needs to focus more on organizations such as school or companies. If the support is done as a whole at those places, then it is more important then one person. If they don’t do a good job at a large organization, they could lose a lot of sales.

I doubt Apple, or anyone really important at Apple, will ever read this, but I feel it had to be said. I was annoyed when my school said they would stop recommending Apple laptops, and I’m sure Apple won’t be to happy with it either.

If you have any good or bad stories about Apple support, sound off in the comments.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 28th, 2007 and is filed under Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or Trackback from your own site.