Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Computer Followup

Oh, and in that last post I made reference to picking up my computer. The guy called early enough this morning (after having been given explicit instructions not to call before 11: I do business with America, so I get to stay up late and sleep late) that I wasn't sure what he was saying, other than I could go pick it up. Fine, I thought; that was fast enough. Maybe I judged them too harshly.

Nope. I had to walk down there this time (the U-Bahn which services that part of town is down until Dec. 21), but I didn't mind because it was a very nice day and I didn't have anything else to do. When I got there, though, I was right back where I'd started. "My computer's ready?" I said. "Ready," said a guy, "but not repaired." Huh? "Your case number doesn't exist. You can't expect us to repair it for free, can you, and we need authorization from Apple." I thought I'd gone over this on the phone with them the day after I'd dropped it off. The guy was angry. "Don't leave with that until you initial this form which says we didn't repair it," he warned me. Then he delivered a tirade in German that was much too fast for me to follow. He glared at me with his steel-grey eyes and I suddenly noticed the pupils were like pin-points. I was getting the creeps.

The form initialed, I walked home. Only an hour each way, but I was now shaking with anger, so I called Apple's hotline again.

The guy there was completely shocked by my story, especially when I told him about the guy who'd called my machine "shit."

I now have another place to take it, although it's going to cost me €100, which isn't particularly good news, since I don't have €100 and can't say when I'll have that to spare, and I'm trying to get to New York in mid-October for a couple of important meetings.

But I have the computer back, and I have complete instructions for getting the repair done.

OmniLab, however, is being de-listed by Apple as a recommended repair shop. I'll take my victories where I can get 'em.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dunno whether it's any help to you now, but for Mac-related stuff I'd recommend fuxdata (fuxdata.de) in Prenzlauer Berg, it's a small place but they know their stuff (a company I once worked for used to swear by them, rather than at them, which is the normal state of affairs with hardware suppliers). Other than that there's Gravis (gravis.de), Berlin's biggest (I think) Apple dealer.

Ed Ward said...

No, I know them, but I have to use a place Apple authorizes, or I don't get the free logic board through the logic board replacement program. So...off to Card Services in Neukölln.

Anonymous said...

Aha, you have to go somewhere Apple says? Interesting, 'coz I'm an iBook owner mysqll, though fingers crossed it's still alive and well. That reminds me, must look the battery up to see if it's one of the exploding sort.