ProCare Update...

So, I set off to the Apple Liverpool One store with my broken MacBook and my sorry tale of difficulties with the ProCare system as mentioned in my previous postings.

What would be in store? (No pun intended!)

Well, my Genius appointment was on time and I was met by a very enthusiastic and cheerful Apple Genius called James. He took one look at the fractured MacBook screen and eloquently described the composition of the LED panel. He then gently took me down the path to explain that the fault could only have been caused by some form of impact to the screen, even though there was no visible damage to the case.

And no, it wasn't covered by AppleCare.

D'oh!

Couldn't really argue with him as the fracture did look like it could only be caused in that way.

Strike one to Apple

Ah! But what about the issues I had with ProCare.

The email I'd sent into Apple had been noted on the AppleCare ticket I'd raised, so James wanted to know what the  issue was. I explained that the ProCare link on the Apple website didn't take me to a login page to enter my ProCare number but just to a normal login page. Hence, I was unable to book an earlier appointment.

Ha!

James responded with a double whammy. 

First, the login page doesn't ask for your ProCare account number, it asks for the Apple ID associated with your ProCare account. Eh! There's no visual feedback or any indicator on the login page, hence my assumption that the ProCare link hadn't worked. On checking, James confirmed that the Genius appointment had actually been linked with my ProCare account.

Secondly, the ProCare doesn't give you earlier appointments, it extends the available appointment period out by 14 days instead of just a couple of days.

Hmmm..

Second point I'm happy with but on reflection, the UI design and workflow process of the ProCare link doeesn't give you any feedback that your ProCare account has been acknowledged, so I do think thats a definite error on Apples part.

James advised me to provide my feedback via the Apple feedback page.

Ah! But the main link from the ProCare page on the Apple website is definitely borked! See:

One to me I think!

James responded with a remark that some changes were afoot with the booking system so that may be the cause of that. As it's a back end system that appears to be broken, I didn't labour the point but I would hope this gets reported back up to corporate my the store staff.

OK, so there are some issues with ProCare but I have to say that the staff in the Apple store were extremely courteous and friendly, and very helpful.

So I booked the MacBook in for a repair and should get it back fairly speedily because of the ProCare account.

On the way out, I stopped by to checkout the 27" iMac again - they've moved the big iMac from the edge tables to the centre tables since I was last there. It's made a huge difference to the problems of reflections of the glossy screen in the store. Good move!

I wanted to ask about using the 27" iMac as a display.....

But perhaps I'll leave that for another blog post! 

Who says we don't complain...

Following on from a comment on yesterdays post:

Don your issue is quite serious when you consider the money you have paid out, why is it that 'Mac heads' never complain but just make a lame excuse when Apple fail miserably with their customer service?

It got me thinking!

I was just going to wander in and just mention to the instore staff my problems - no big deal! 

But as the commenter says, it's quite a serious matter when a customer facing system craps out, especially when you've paid good money for it.

So I emailed Apple this morning to tell them of my problems and hopefully get the ProCare system up and running again.  I checked again this morning and both systems that I tried yesterday were still not working.

Will let you know how I get on.

Time to visit the Apple Store...

I got a MacBook back in March 2007, one of the plastic white ones. Unusually, I bought it on a lease and have been paying my monthly payments ever since. It reached the end of the lease about three weeks ago and I decided to keep the machine and pay around £100 to buy it outright. The lease also included AppleCare.

The Macbook has been a great laptop, with the only problem being a faulty battery, but Apple swapped that out on the spot for me a year or so ago.

Then just a few days ago, my daughter picked up the Macbook and said there was something wrong with the screen!

Oh noes....

I've just finished paying for it!

On examination, the LCD panel seems to have a great big crack going through it, but not on the glass, actually inside the panel - ouch!

It still works but the screen is obviously faulty in some way. She says she hasn't dropped it or dropped anything onto it and I tend to believe her, as there are no signs of any external damage. The laptop never leaves the house and it's mainly used for surfing the web in front of the TV.

With a heavy heart, I checked out the AppleCare on the Apple online system and to my relief, discovered it was covered for three years not two!

Phew!

Apple offer a service called ProCare in the stores that give you some extra benefits such as rapid repairs and a fast track option for the Genius Bar, along with some other services I'll probably never use. It's £77 per year but covers all your Macs so seeing as I have a few (!) and most of them I use to earn a crust, I thought it was a good investment and took out ProCare a couple of months ago.

Time to try it out, I thought.

I wanted to book a slot on Saturday morning and logged onto my local Apple store page. On the reservations page you can log in as a ProCare member and get "greater availability" of slots. Except, I couldn't logon :-(

Clicking on to the link, just took me to the standard login page with only the option of using my Apple ID. So I logged on and found they only had afternoon appointments left for Saturday. Now I could probably just turn up on Saturday morning and flash my card but I'd prefer to book in advance.

Interestingly, when I try and book through the main ProCare page on the Apple website, I get a 404 - how very un-Apple like.

It looks like a failure of the back end systems rather than the local store but it's still frustrating after paying for a service.

I just hope that they sort out the laptop with the minimum of fuss.

I wonder what's cooking...

I only realised this morning that other than the fabled Apple iPad/Tablet/Notebook thingy (© Mac OS Ken) that we really don't have a clue as to what Apple are cooking up for us next year. In fact, as the Apple iPad/Tablet/Notebook thingy is just a figment of our imagination and/or wishful thinking, there's absolutely nothing in the pipeline.

OK, so there are plenty of things in the pipeline, it's just Apple won't tell us!

For the past three years, we've always known something was being worked on, and had things to look forward to.

Ever since the iPhone launch, we had to wait for the release of the iPhone itself but then each successive upgrade to the iPhone OS was pre-announced and we had a waiting period before its release. However, since iPhone OS 3.1 was released, no word as yet about any new features of OS 3.2.

Show Leopard was previewed to Developers as long ago as June 2008 when the feature set was pretty much established and made public. A whole 12 months later it was publicly demonstrated and then released a few months later. As of today, Apple have not made any statements on the feature set or direction of the next release of the operating system.

As far as hardware is concerned, Apple don't provide a roadmap for any of the product lines so we're in the dark there too, although there are rumours of new Quad processor laptops in the near future.

So all is quiet whilst Cupertino prepares for the next big thing...

Is it co-incidence that all three streams of activity at Apple are all quiet at the same time?

Or should we expect some major synchronicity of all three streams as we move into 2010?

If there's one thing I've learnt after tracking Apples progress over the past few years, co-incidence is not the norm.

It's probably a good job they pulled out of Macworld 2010 when they did. Imagine the fever pitch of anticipation leading up to the traditional Macworld keynote announcement in this void, especially if Macworld was still in it's usual January slot.  What if the task they've taken on is so huge that it was impossible to co-ordinate and deliver or even announce in January.

Now they can focus on getting things right and then announce any new products or initiatives on their own terms and at a time of their choosing.

It's amazing to me that the Apple stock price is going through the roof and we have no idea what is in store, just the confidence that Apple can and will design further world class products and execute with laser focussed precision.

2010 should be very interesting.