Apple Support Gets an A+

Unfortunately, technology can sometimes be a flaky beast, and things will at some point go wrong.  Most folks also know that if a piece of electronic equipment is going to go wrong, chances are it will happen fairly early into its life.  Factory stress tests and diagnostics are good, but companies can’t leave a brand new computer, laptop or TV on test for days before it goes out the door.

And so it came to pass, that my two week old MacBook Pro developed a fault.  It had been running perfectly for a few hours a day when I noticed the screen start to flicker.  Imagine you are in a room and someone flicks the lightswitch on and off at random intervals.  That’s what my problem was, the screen would dim and then brighten repeatedly, also causing the illuminated Apple logo on the lid to pulse in unison.

I left the machine on test for a couple of days but sadly the problem continued so after repeatedly cursing under my breath I gave Apple technical support a phone call.
Firstly, the call centre I was connected to was in Ireland and the technician was extremely helpful talking me through the initial support phases trying everything out.

Sadly as expected, this wasn’t a problem that could be resolved over the phone so a repair had to be booked.  I am still smarting from when I received a faulty Dell Studio Hybrid computer a few months ago, which was repaired and came back covered in scratches.  So the prospect of sending another new machine off to a third party repair company (especially such a beautifully crafted block of aluminium goodness) filled me with dread.

But this is when the quality service started.  Less than five minutes after giving my details to the Apple support line I received a phone call from Group 8.  Group 8 handle most of Apple’s repairs in the UK, and they arranged for the machine to be collected via UPS the next day.
I should point out at this point in the proceedings that UPS were the weakest link in the chain here, when the delivery drivers assistant turned up with the cardboard box and didn’t realise he was picking something up.  Leading to “hilarious” blank looks when Sally asked about collection paperwork.  He also took the machine away without giving anything back to us, and handing over £1000 worth of hardware without so much as a receipt made me rather nervous.

Cutting to the chase, on Tuesday morning I checked the Apple support portal and the repair status was showing as “Delayed by customer”.  The customer certainly wasn’t delaying it, so I gave the support line another call.

This time I spoke to an extremely helpful Italian chap who kept me on hold for a few minutes and terrifying me by saying “It doesn’t look like the notebook was delivered to Group 8″.  Fortunately when he came back he told me the reason for the delay was simply that Group 8 hadn’t updated the support system when they received the machine.  Phew!

So I gave Group 8 a call direct and the receptionist had my details with thirty seconds, told me the engineers has tried to get hold of me the previous day (which is actually true, I had missed calls on my home land line phone) but couldn’t leave a message as I have just upgraded the phone to a dual band Skype/standard one.

What then stunned me was the receptionist transferred me over to the technician who was dealing with the machine!  I have never had this happen with any large manufacturers support before.  You usually have to do the dance around various level support staff but never actually get to talk to the man behind the curtain with the screwdriver.

Naturally, they had been unable to replicate the problem on the test bench but I had included a note detailing the problem with the machine.  I also fortunately took some video with my iPhone of the problem happening.  The technician (Brendan) was sure it was a simple case of replacing the screen but they were keen to ensure that was definitely the cause of the problem.

I uploaded the video in question to Twitvid directly from the phone (at this point I didn’t realise even though my iPhone is paired with the MacBook you can still retrieve the photos and videos taken with the camera on any machine, even a PC) and also included a couple of other YouTube links showing a similar problem.

The next day Group 8 called back to arrange delivery of the repaired machine for the following day, and didn’t even quibble about delivering it to my daytime office address.
All told I was incredibly impressed with the service I received from Apple and Group 8.  From receiving the machine on Monday to shipping it back out again took 48 hours, and it came back in as perfect condition as when it left.