Don’t do business with Mac-Pro, an Apple VAR in Campbell, CA. Why? Because they were rude to me, did a terrible job of working on my PowerBook, and the owner wouldn’t take care of the situation to my satisfaction.
That’s right, I am using my column to complain about customer service.
The story starts with me deciding to change out my hard drive in my 1.5 GHz 17" PowerBook. A bad move for two reasons. 1.) It’s a complete pain in the ass, and 2.) It voids your warranty (see reason 1). But, I am the fearless editor of a Mac magazine, gosh darnit, and I have changed out the hard drives on many a PowerBook, and by golly I could do this one, too.
Or so I thought. The short version of what I did to my machine is that I cracked a proprietary ribbon cable that connect the upper half of the housing for the unit (keyboard, power button, and trackpad) to the bottom half (the logic board and all its goodies). So, though I was able to take it apart, change out the drive, and put it back together, I couldn’t power it up.
Of course, the first thing I did was take it apart again to see if I had left anything disconnected. Then I put it back together again. Rinse repeat…I dissambled it and reassembled it 15-20 times over the course of the weekend, and managed to break off a screw tab on the housing in the process.
Yes, I know all of this was STUPID.
So, come Monday, I was faced with three choices. I could take it to a local Apple Store, where I knew the Mac Geniuses were already swamped because of the release of Tiger. That likely meant my machine would be shipped off to the repair depot, and it would be a few days before I got it back.
Option 2 was to send it to my friends at TechRestore, who could have it back to me by Wednesday or Thursday if I hustled to get it shipped off.
Option 3, however, was to take it to Mac-Pro, one of the only VARs left in the San Jose area. If they did their own benchwork, I figured I might be able to get it back more quickly. Besides, I had been meaning to stop by and meet the folks there for two years. A quick phone call to find out if they did in-house repairs, and off I go.
Now that I have outlined my own poor decisions that led to me breaking my laptop, I’ll tell you why I am riled up.
When I got there, I spoke to Lach Khiatani, who works in service. He told me he could look at my machine on Wednesday, and when I asked if it could be faster, said I could expedite the order for US$50. Absolutely, I said. OK, he said, it will be Tuesday.
Now, personally, it being Monday morning, I think that a $50 fee should get me same day service, or at least get me bumped to the top of the queue. That’s what you’re paying for, after all. Since Tuesday was still faster than Wednesday or Thursday, however, I said, great, thanks, and have a good day.
Though Mr. Khiatani told me he would call me on Tuesday to tell me what was wrong with my PowerBook, he didn’t. Presumably this would have been to get my OK to proceed on repairs, but when I called there on 1:00 PM, and was told that I had broken my ribbon cable (as I had told them I thought I had done), I wasn’t worried that he hadn’t called to get my OK.
Furthermore, he said that I could call back around 4:00 or 4:30 to see if it was ready (though no promises were made).
Here’s where I start getting testy: At 4:37, I was told it was almost done, and that I could pick it up Wednesday morning. "If it’s almost done, can I pick it up today?" I asked. But, since they were closing in 23 minutes, apparently, I had to wait for the next day.
"Lach," I said (and these are exact quotes), "I have to be honest and tell you that I am a bit frustrated to pay for an expedited repair only to have to wait until the original [un-expedited] day to pick it up."
"Would you prefer that I had told you you needed a new logic board?" he threatened.
Flabberghasted, I told him no, and he said, "Some people don’t appreciate it when you are honest."
I was stupefied at this point. Here I was being threatened by someone I was paying to work on my computer, and, to top it off, he was telling me he didn’t appreciate me telling him my frustration.
Now, I don’t know how this story comes off for those reading it, but I assure you that I was being reasonable, polite, and professional. I felt that my $50 had gotten me little or nothing, and I was frustrated by it. When I expressed that, I was threatened and told my honesty wasn’t appreciated.
However, this man still had control over my computer, and I spent enough time in both the computer repair business and the restaurant business (in years past) to know not to push this any further.
Please understand that this still isn’t why I am writing this column.
The next morning, I call, and am told my machine is ready. Terrific, I say, and head down to Mac-Pro to pick it up. We fire it up, it turns on, I shut it down, close the lid, and notice that one of my RAM modules is taped to the outside. The gentleman I was talking to asked Lach about it, and Lach told me that the module didn’t fit. If you put it in, he told me, you can’t put the cover on.
Well, that’s mighty funny, because IT FIT WHEN I BROUGHT IT IN!
I didn’t sweat it, though, because I figure I can reinstall it myself, and I wanted to leave the store.
And this is where we come to me getting so mad I decide to write this column.
When I get home, I take out my PowerBook, and try to pop out the battery so I can take off the plate that covers the RAM. Only I can’t, at first. The battery release buttons weren’t letting go, and I had to work to get the battery out. At the same time, I saw that the RAM cover plate had been wedged in wrong!
No wonder the RAM "didn’t fit!" Unbelievable! So I get the battery out, and I see that there is a screw loose and upside down in its socket! That screw had been pressing up on the battery, which is why I couldn’t get it out!
Looking at it further, I see that Mr. Khiatani (or whomever) had mixed up two sets of very small screws in the battery bay. One set screws directly into the logic board, and the other set holds down the battery cover plate. The set that attaches to the logic board is shorter than the other set, and he had mixed up one from each set, and the one that was too short had never been screwed in, and he just left it there, where it flipped around.
UNBELIEVABLE!
Needless to say, I was able to properly sort out the screws, reinstall my RAM, and properly attach the damn battery cover plate. I won’t even get into the fact that the housing wasn’t seated properly (they told me it wouldn’t go together because of the tab I broke, but I was able to reseat the housing just fine, thank you).
At this point I am pissed, so I wait until the next day, Thursday, to call, when I am calm. I was told that Mike, the owner, was on vacation, and would be in on Monday, and that I should give him some time to settle back in.
I called on Wednesay, and talked to Mike. I told him my story, a much more brief version than this diatribe, and asked for my money back. I told him that I was happy to pay for the ribbon cable, but that I felt it appropriate to be comped the labor.
Now I have to say that Mike was super good at talking to an unhappy customer (me). He listened to my story, and went and talked to the techs. Not too surprisingly, Mr. Khiatani, and whomever else he talked to, told him that they hadn’t done anything wrong, that they bent over backwards for me, that they hadn’t mixed up any screws, and that I shouldn’t get any of my money back. The part about them not mixing up any screws really made me angry because it wasn’t subject to interpretation.
Mike, however, offered me $40 of the $160 or so in labor, despite what his techs told him. That was smart of him, to a degree, but unbeknownst to him, I had already compromised in my mind by being willing to pay for the labor. At this point, it was a princple issue, because the money involved just wasn’t all that much.
I, as a customer, wanted to know that my concerns were taken seriously, and that I was going to be offered appropriate compensation.
Again, Mike did a super-good job of trying to manage the situation, and I imagine that most people would have taken the $40 he offered, and walked away in a state somehwere between grumpy and satisfied. I spent far too long in customer service, however, and I felt quite strongly that getting my PowerBook back with a badly installed, almost-bent cover plate and mixed up screws, let alone being threatened by a socially inept service tech who doesn’t understand what’s appropriate to say to a customer, just wasn’t at all in the realm of reasonable.
Mike, however, only upped his offer to $50 back, the expedited fee in full, and I told him that just wasn’t good enough, and thank you for your time.
Of course, I was already writing this column in my head when I told him that.
It honestly makes me sad to have to publish this story. Apple makes life hard enough on its supposed retailing partners. Indeed, Mike told me that one of the reasons he couldn’t give me more back was because business was tough, but really, that just made it worse because "business is tough" is NEVER the customer’s fault!.
The reality, though, is that I can’t imagine not telling folks about this situation. I empathize with Mike’s situation as both a business owner and manager, but If the VARs want to stay in the Mac business, they have to bend over backwards to make their customers happy. At Mac-Pro, that certainly didn’t happen for me.