On April 10th 2008 bough a rev a Macbook Air from Harrods in London. I'll admit at the time I paid over £2000 for it (ouch!) with 64Mb SSD that was available at the time. So, having invested a lot in it you have a pretty high expectation that overall the basics will work and that apple will support it well. Overall its a very fine product and for me the portability useability aspects have been great.
Until perhaps the iPad arrives, the computer has been my pride and joy and has met my needs well save for two in my view rather major problems: viz.
Early on it suffered the sound totally disappearing problem which is a big blow to user experience and delight with a modern day laptop!
Its kind of a part of the core minimum functionality that you come to expect!
Also, read about the clamshell hinge problem so was ultra careful with opening and closing it but in the end it did very badly crack and the display failed - well, to be fair, if you manage to be lucky and tilt it to a certain degree it appears - for a frustratingly short while!
The failure only happened recently though was aware of problems others were having. Apple appear to have been slow to have addressed this proactively with customers to the point where it has become a FOC repair. In my view Apple should have done a gentle recall to the whole MBA user community affected. This should have been done long ago. They appear to have all the customer purchase contact information from the original point of sale and product registrations. Not to proactively look after this with loyal customers does greatly impact customer's views of Apple and then their customer loyalty in my view - since then I've spent much less money with them and am much more sceptical of them. It saddens me as in many other ways they are really great.
Yesterday took MBA into into Thurrock branch Apple store to be fixed. Apple people there very nice and friendly and helpful. Having backed up as much as possible overnight. Part not in so happy to leave the machine. .
.
What concerned me though was the sound problem for which they want to charge, even if turns out its a hardware problem, by saying as it does on the receipt they gave me to tell the customer its OOW, Out Of Warranty. The amount they want to charge is not a great deal, £27, but its the principle that I object to, especially when its premium product at a premium price. Here's the thing and my question to the MBA user community, my view having considered various postings of the MBA sound problem is that even if its fixed, it may re occur? Does anyone have any experience of this? So it may make Apple somewhat reluctant to properly and honestly admit the problem and like the hinge problem (which maybe stays fixed when repaired???)
offer a full FOC repair? Do others have views on this please? At least with the hinge problem it binary, when it finally does go the product is totally unusable!
Again Apple's less than enlightened stance on this directly impacts customer goodwill and outlook, to the great detriment of Apple - loss of ongoing revenue, customer goodwill and sales. This post-purchase dissonance it leaves their customers feeling is just not good. You don't know where you stand and you feel that they are not being upfront or honest with you. Devious infact? It also makes it an impossible situation for the Mac Geniuses, in the shop, who genuinely go out of their way to do a really good job with every individual customer. As it is I have to return at great personal time and hassle and cost to the store to pick it up.
I had stated on the appointment booking exactly what the problem was in advance.
The Apple staff in the shop whilst very Genial and nice and are doing they're very best to be helpful don't then appear like Apple Geniuses which they are on Apple matters, when they try to argue the corporate line with you about charging to fix the sound problem - which looks exactly like a fit for purpose product design issue in the customer's eyes and just like the hinge/display problem. Like the hinge problem they should've proactively addressed and 'fessed up about it early, no matter how bad it is, or what it is, as we Apple customers are generally an understanding and reasonable bunch.
After all we tend to 'get it' and we are on your side. Again the problem so easily and greatly damages the customer experience and customer feelings - to Apple's loss.
Its very easily resolved and fixed to everyone's complete satisfaction with a tiny, but critical, change of attitude and stance by Apple.
In the end protested dissatisfaction and the issue has been noted and escalated. Am waiting.
Given that Apple are doing so well this cannot be a resource issue, Steve Jobs was saying only recently on an analyst conference call about what he plans to do with the multi-billion dollar cash mountain Apple have - how about spend some of it towards properly addressing these customer base satisfaction issues please? -- its about recognising what is going on post-purchase and working as hard as Apple do and inspired as they do and as well as they do on customer base support and issues and as much as they do on designing magical and sensations solutions in the first place.
Its no good a magical front end if the back end customer support has no, or looses its magic!
Many Thanks
// Ivan
15" MBP 2006, 30" screen 2007, MBA 2008
PS: am very forgiving and the iPad looks like its going to be a really great product and one that is going to be very useful and productive. No hinge here to fail!
Have had a touchscreen PC once before at it was fantastically productive and fast with this way of interacting. From the launch event demos Apple appear to have designed a really elegant solution - especially with the software and core hardware - very well considered and done.
PPS: just though I'd mention it - it bothers me greatly that the batteries in newer Apple products are non-user replaceable from an environmental and a customer convenience view - it appears to serve Apple's interests more than their customer's interests. Hope Apple will do much more work on producing longer lasting and more sustainable solutions for the benefit of all.
PPPS: it also bothers me that they haven't proactively contacted early issue Time Capsule customers about the potential heat problems.
Hope Apple sees the light and change their stance on customer help and support a bit please!
