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by Michael Cote.
Original Post: PeopleOverProcess.com: On Cutting in Line
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I've been lucky enough to still be on the PPC platform with my PowerBook and the service has been just fine so far. In fact, when I had it in the shop last, the Genius commented something along the lines of, "oh, with your PowerBook it will be no problem." That is, reading between the lines, he could be interpreted as saying, "good thing you don't have a MacBook."
Back when the MacBooks came out, when I heard there were no more 12" Titanium laptops I was quite miffed. I've come to find the 12" PowerBook the perfect size: it works as a desktop (optionally, with an additional monitor), a laptop in the living room, on airplanes, for bed time reading, and anywhere I want to take it. While the 13" may prove to be the same should I get one someday, my opinion was "why screw with a good thing?" And plastic casings? What up with that?
In short, I'm a fanatic about my 12" PowerBook.
Members of the Best Platform Deserve the Best Support
Several commenters reprimanded Dave for expecting faster customer service from Apple. Seven to ten days seemed lengthy for him. The funnier streak were people getting on Dave's case for worrying that his space bar was squeky, e.g.:
Oh yeah my keys make noise and I don't like to wait for service.
Please for the sake of the wasted bits in your blogs trade in your Mac for a Dell. And blog PC users with your inane blather.
Now, the response to this is best expressed with an analogy: if I went out and bought a BMW with tinted windows, if that tint started to bubble and sag, I'd be rightously pissed. You don't buy a BMW so that you can live with annoying little problems, you buy it because you want perfection. (I should mention I don't know if BMW's are perfection -- I drive a Volvo -- but you get the point.)
The same is true for an Apple. I could go out and buy a Dell or even a ThinkPad and I'll be accepting of annoying little problems (though less with the ThinkPad). In fact, much to her consternation, when Kim, my wife, had a Dell I'd often tell her, "oh, it's just a Dell with Windows...what do you expect?" when she had "little problems."
For me the point is not that I want to be treated like a "business user," nor do I want to pay that premium. But I do want to be treated like someone who paid a premium for my laptop, which I did and will more than likely continue to do.
Call it a "luxury user." To be frank, that is the story Apple has sold for the past 10+ years, right into it's current PC vs. Mac campaign. Luxury is their brand. We all know that being an Apple customer means the door man will lift the velvet rope for us, letting us cut in line, while those suited, "productivity" losers wait outside writing their Excel macros...
Of course, the funny thing is that there actually is a cut-in-line card you can get, the ProCare card -- strangly, only available in-store.
Paying for The Bitch Option
Sure, it's "bitchy" to complain about a squeaking spacebar and 7-10 day turn around time. But I feel like I, and any other Apple customer, has paid to have the privilege of being bitchy and picky. It is Steve Jobs's world we're buying into after-all. Otherwise, we might as well go get a ThinkPad: after having used one for a week they're not so bad except for the OS...and I understand their service is stealer.
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