On 12/11/11 8:45 PM, Boating All Out wrote:
In article3vydnQiCw47z0HjTnZ2dnUVZ_radnZ2d@earthlink .com, dump-on-
says...
About three years ago, I sold my very decent IBM Thinkpad, made the
plunge, and bought an Apple MacBook Pro. Never had any problems with it.
Today, I was using it and the screen started flashing a little. Weird.
So I called Apple. I'm out of warranty, but...there was an issue with
the video cards on these machines, so Apple extended service for that
item to four years. So I'm covered. The tech made an appointment for me
at the Apple store. I'm not sure what the repair is, but "it will be
fixed," I was assured, and at no cost to me.
Interestingly, this laptop cost me less than the Thinkpad I had. I had
that machine for about five years, I think, before I sold it.
Boating related, because I run chart plotting software on the Macbook Pro.
So you used a Thinkpad for 5 years and sold it still working.
Now your Apple breaks down after 3 years.
You have a computer with a flashing screen that may or may not be the
same again, and an unknown time-consuming hassle before you'll know.
And you say that's why you buy Apple.
Riiiight.
D'oh. The screen flashing is only at start-up, and according to a
service bulletin from Apple is a known issue for *some* of the video
adapters Apple sourced from NVIDIA. Apparently the defect can show up
immediately or years after purchase.
What's important to me is that Apple extended the warranty for my model
laptop, told me about the extended warranty almost immediately after I
called, had a service bulletin number for the problem, and made an
appointment for me to have it fixed at my convenience this week.
I'll be in and out of apple store in 15 minutes...unless they are fixing
it while I wait, in which case I'll be there for an hour. There's no
hassle involved. If I am at the store for an hour, I can do some holiday
shopping at the mall, and avoid going there this coming weekend, which I
was expecting to do.
I buy Apple because of the ergonomics, because of the operating system,
and because of the first-class customer service. I've never spoken with
anyone at Apple who isn't in the United States and who doesn't speak
unaccented English. Apparently there are no "Peggies" at Apple support.
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