So I was one of the early owners of the 15″ Powerbooks here in Japan, and I have the problems with the white spots on the LCD. As long as I have it replaced before my first year of ownership is up, they’ll replace the LCD for free.
The problem is that I use my Powerbook daily. I use it for mail. For web surfing. For blogging. For playing music. Watching DVDs. I haven’t found the time to return it to get it fixed since I bought it.
Today I was thinking about purchasing for myself an iPod. It’s almost a running joke because for those who know me well, it is very surprising that I don’t own an iPod already. So I went to the Apple Ginza Store today and before I bought the iPod, I went to the Genius bar to inquire about replacement LCD screens for my Powerbook. Here’s how it went:
Nitta-san of Apple Japan Ginza: How can I help you?
Me: Well I have one of the early 15″ Powerbooks with the white spots. I want to have it replaced, but I use my machine daily and in six months I haven’t had the opportunity to send it in. How long does it take?
Nitta: Well we can’t do the replacement in the store, it has to go out. So it takes about 5 days.
Me: 5 days? That’s unacceptable as I use my machine daily. Do you have a replacement program or a loaner program? I am willing to pay to rent a machine if need be.
Nitta: No, I’m sorry, we don’t have any such programs.
Me: So do you have any advice for me on how I might get my LCD panel replaced while still having access to my data, the OS, my applications?
Nitta: I cannot think of any way other than to send it in and wait 5 days.
I left angry. I did not say “thank you.” I was extremely frustrated.
Needless to say I did not purchase anything from Apple today.
The frustrating thing for me is that since I have bought my Powerbook, I have been really pleased with it- aside from the white spots. I have promoted the Apple laptops to many friends and colleagues and I can probably name 4-6 people who purchased Macs since I bought mine last fall.
Not only that, I promote Mac apps on my weblog constantly.
But Nitta doesn’t know that.
I’m going to write to Apple Japan and complain about my situation. They gave me a defective product and require me to give up my computer for 5 days in order to have it fixed. It seem very unfair to me as a consumer if the product does not meet the specifications and a replacement is not offered in a timely manner (to me, 5 days is NOT timely.)
So don’t talk to me now about Apple products as I will only get angry.
man you re lucky, I heard stories of people who had to give it up for 3 weeks… but they should have loan programs up…
hehehe. been there, done that
If you want to borrow the g3 I was telling you about while you get yours fixed, let me know (I’m leaving town on Wed, so catch me before then)
yeah, i’m pretty sure 5 days is one of the shortest repair times out there for computers. my dad had an IBM thinkpad that took weeks, though that was a few years ago. oftentimes you have to send it in just to find out how long it takes.
I sent mine in to Apple Japan for the whitespots and it only took 3 days (including takkybinning it to and from Niigata). YMMV.
Now if they would only fix the unevenness of the lid
Happy birthday, Gen-san.
I am sorry to hear your problem.
I suppose, not knowing who you are and how you are familiar with Apple, the Apple Store Genius gave you the bureaucratic version of the answer.
I know Apple’s repair service is (usually) much better than that. The turn around time for such popular problem as the ‘white spots’ should be 3 (or 2.5) days in Japan if you meet the following conditions:
1) you send them in before Wednesday
It will take a day for each trip and a few hours for the repair
2) you live in Tokyo metropolitan area
3)you provided all the necessary information/documents, etc
and
4)they have the repair parts in stock
I believe they answered 5 days, because if they say 3 days and if you sent the unit in on Friday or if they didn’t have the necessary parts in stock, you will be very upset and angry. I believe this is the real answer.
Actually, Apple Japan had been trying to build solution for such problem with NCR; it is called the QuickGarage. If you visit them with your Mac, they will repair it in front of you and you will have a repaired Mac and a smile on your way home. I am assuming the repair service at AppleStore Genius Bar came as a result of this successfull service.
But either Apple Computer, Inc. or Apple Japan had found some flaw with how the system is operated: how the parts are stocked or used. And because of that, now they put so much restriction to this great service.
Now they can perform limited service Apple grant them to do. They only provide parts for those limited services. I’ve just made a quick call to QuickGarage and found White-spot is not one of the problem they are allowed to work on.
I think this is a big mistake for Apple. They should be more scalable to bigger problems such as ‘White spot’ and iBook’s logicboard problem.
If the inventory is the problem, they should grant AppleStore and QuickGarage to perform such operation for limited time of a month or even a week; but it is also true that if they did it, all the other repair services will be delayed because LCD swap is a very time consuming service.
I feel lucky that I have chosen PowerBook 12″.
Hey Gen,
Happy B-day! You don’t own an iPod? Get out of here!
Wei
awww… sounds like the honeymoon is over… welcome to the real world.
hello,
actually, the apple Ginza store is NOT owned or operated by apple Japan. that store is owned directly by apple USA, and is not part of the operations of apple Japan, therefore not part of its proitability either. it is a completely different operation from apple Japan, which ofcourse still operates the virtual store at the apple Japan web site.
rgds
I think it’s all relative. I find 5 day turnaround with a retail store that handles the drop-off to be far better than any one else out there. Does that mean that you should settle for this 5 day abandonment? Of course not, continue your efforts to receive better treatment.
In the past years I’ve had experiences with BMW and Mercedes that make your Apple story sound like “perfection”. If only your story was as bad as things get, rather than the high level of service that others only dream of achieving.