[Ti] Fujitsu Drive Troubles?/ apple support issue

[Kynan Shook]

"Paul Watkins" <hamok at easynet.co.uk> writes:
> Any suggestions? What treatment should I expect of Apple, if I were in 
> the
> US?

Sounds to me like a large part of the problem is the courier; in the 
US, Apple generally uses either Airborne Express or FedEx for most of 
their shipping (UPS often for ground service, but they don't use ground 
for repairs), though other carriers get some business too.  Anyway, in 
most cases they would send a box, you would return the PowerBook in the 
box, and then the PowerBook would be returned in anywhere from 3 days 
to much longer, depending on parts availability  Most repairs are 
completed quickly, however.  There are other options too; Apple 
Authorized Service Providers can perform the mail-in for you with no 
cost to you, but this often adds a lot of time to the procedure as some 
providers will sit around doing nothing with the computer for a while.  
The service provider I work for actually has special authorization with 
Apple to repair PowerBooks on-site, but that's just because we're one 
of the largest Mac-buying universities; very few service providers can 
do this because of a limited parts supply.

It is true that Apple is switching repair systems over the new year; 
most of the old system was shut down around December 27th, with the new 
system running by January 2nd.  I actually experienced more delays when 
performing repairs over this period because of people in my department 
being gone on vacation than because Apple was switching systems.  I'm 
not sure that *all* countries are using this system yet, but the goal 
is for them to do so eventually.

My experience with getting my PowerBook repaired before I worked for a 
service provider was OK; I dropped my PowerBook off at a different 
service provider than I work for now-I was going to be out of town for 
about a month or so, and wouldn't be able to accept a return 
shipment-and left a friend's name and phone number as a contact.  The 
company did nothing for most of the time that I was gone; they sent it 
in a couple days before I returned, so I had to wait about a week to 
pick the computer up after I returned.  I wasn't happy with the service 
provider.

My only other mail-in experience was with my 20 GB iPod; they were very 
quick about getting a box to me, Airborne Express came on the day they 
promised to pick it up, and I got a replacement shortly afterwards once 
Apple confirmed the problem.


Kynan Shook
kshook at mac.com
http://homepage.mac.com/kshook/index.html