This morning, I found that my computer wouldn't connect to the internet via the ethernet cable that connects my cable modem to my laptop. The Airport wireless was working just fine, but I didn't have a wireless router in my apartment. So after spending almost 30 useless anytime minutes with Time Warner's crack support team (who simply kept rebooting the modem remotely and then asking me to reboot my computer to no avail) I marched my precious - yes, I have the same affinity for it as Gollum does to that silly little ring - laptop to the Apple store at Carousel Mall. There, a brilliant, nice man named Martin tested it and determined that yes, my ethernet port was indeed faulty. The remedy? To send my computer off to the Apple Gods someplace in California where they will replace the logic board along with the faulty port. They are usually pretty speedy with this type of service, but I am in the middle of writing my thesis and can't afford to be computerless at the moment. What's worse is that I can't pay a whole fortune for that kind of service because I am a non-income-generating student right now. The wonderful "genius" (that's the Apple name for these guys - I didn't make that up) Martin checked my Apple Care warrantly and saw that it had expired on May 7, 2007. Naturally. Well, he and his manager, Donna, worked their collective magic and authorized the repair under the warranty since it had just been a couple of weeks since it expired. AND, they are letting me wait to send it in for repairs until after my thesis draft is due on June 8. I couldn't have been more delighted or more surprised with the easy, intelligent, and purely excellent service that I encountered.
It's almost as if the Apple company realizes that their customers are valuable. What a concept! (It's sad that we don't have more stories like this about customer service. Everyone's just annoyed with everything everywhere, it seems.)
I did walk out of the store with an Airport Express, which took me all of five minutes to unwrap and install. I love how Apple products are so easy to use. Just plug in and go to town. And now I am happily online again.
As if I needed another reason to rave about my Mac. (By the way, I have NEVER owned a Windows machine. It was love at first Mac.)
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