apple blues

[substitute]

The hard drive on my 15" Aluminum Powerbook G4 is clearly defective and has been for some time. It likes to hang and say "disk0s3: I/O error" into the logs at times when certain files are touched. The Disk Utility thinks the drive is fine and so does the "SMART" status. Maybe a cable is loose in there. The voice of authority in the form of dr_strych9, who

Comments

[sachmet]

My SuperDrive on my 17" PowerBook failed about three months ago, and I finally got into an Apple Store to have a "Genius" look at it, after talking with AppleCare over the phone. They claimed that I couldn't get anything done under warranty because the bezel on the front is slightly cracked, and so I must have physically abused the computer for the SuperDrive to not work. Never mind the bezel's been like that for almost two years.

It's a shame I like OSX so much, but OSX isn't available on any other hardware.

[scromp]

I understand your complaints about Applecare; I don't buy it myself, but then, we don't have a store here either so I'd have to mail the thing off which I tend to prefer not to do.

Disks are crappy in general, though, and go bad a lot. I wouldn't specifically hold too much of an Apple grudge about a bad disk. It's gotten to where I replace disks in important machines when they start nearing their MTBF rating whether they're showing signs of hoarkedness or not. :/

I hate disks.

[substitute]

Oh, the knock on Apple isn't because the disk died. It's just an IDE hard drive like all the others. I'm mad at them because of the ridiculous dance I'd have to go through to get it replaced, because they promise so much with AppleCare and then train their employees to humiliate you out of it.

The drive is a Seagate or a Toshiba and drives, like you say, fail.

eep, this got kind of lengthy

[kiteflier98]

They do so much so well, and then the Reality Distortion Field intervenes...

Man, that sounds so much like the allergist I was describing from the other day. I had some complaints about the office staff not telling me that they weren't familiar with patient assistance programs. I could have had the meds I needed a long time ago if I'd known. Instead, when I explained that the pharmaceutical company contacted me the first time the application was sent in because they didn't have a script with it he replied, "They said they didn't get the script..." I wasn't trying to place blame in that case, just to state the situation. He acted like they could do no wrong, so I had to describe several other examples such as sending in paperwork that said SAMPLE ONLY on it even though I clearly stated in a letter that they would need to call the company to get the correct documents because they hadn't been available online. I don't think they even bothered to read the letter. GAH.

[brianenigma]

The few times I've had to use AppleCare in the past haven't been bad at all. It might depend on the store you go to or the particular "Genius" you get. Both times were related to the 17" G4 PowerBook. Once was trivial and fixed right there in the store (a clippy thing on the underside of the spacebar broke, so they put in a new spacebar.) The other was a faulty backlight and involved sending the laptop out for repair and waiting. And waiting. Their repair facility was out of a particular part and once the waiting got to be long enough, they gave be a brand new laptop (1.6 GHz, compared to the 1.0 GHz I brought in.)

On the whole, the experience has been not super-outstanding-great, but as good as I would expect. The geniuses have been helpful, and I think happy to work on something that is not yet another "my iPod stopped working" issue.

[sistermaryeris]

I deal with the "you're guilty until you prove you're not" attitude when I try to return things at Best Buy. Ha.

They might as well just say "So, when did you STEAL THIS?" when you try to use their customer service. SO rude. I dislike that attitude in electronic dealings, but it seems to be the norm.