As an IT manger with 20 years of experience I’ve had to deal with all sorts of hardware options and repairing them: Sun Microsystems, HP, IBM, whitebox clones, Toshiba, NEC, etc Not just Apple. Some do it well, others suck at it. It has NOTHING to do with the operating system on the disk whatsoever.

If you can’t afford to wait in long queues or cannot afford to keep a spare Mac around, then don’t a buy a Mac–buy a PC. Or you can buy Apple stock and then form a coalition of shareholders who will vote these nitwits out of power. Then you license Mac OS, sell a few billion copies like Microsoft does, and now you are a “de facto standard” which everyone supports. The Mac is basically a good thing, okay… but not “insanely GREAT.” Just like cars, computers are not reliable. If you buy a Rolls Royce, you had better be prepared to travel a long way to find a dealer, and make an appointment, and wait a long time, and pay through the nose for service. You are still going to need repairs if you drive it every day, but spare parts will be expensive and hard to find… and the same goes for technicians who are qualified to repair it. That’s why businesses do not depend on them for routine transportation. Well, the same is true for the Mac. The first rule of business is: don’t be chained to one vendor and don’t buy equipment that is not widely supported. This is why Apple has spent its life struggling to stem the loss of market share while Microsoft only has trouble figuring out where to park all the trucks full of cash. If Apple’s hardware division cannot compete in a free market, then it should be allowed to fail because this is the only limiting factor on the commercial success of Mac OS. Just split the hardware and software divisions into two separate companies, broadly license Mac OS to other manufacturers, wait a few years, and you will have the best of both worlds: a nice OS that runs on well-supported hardware. Steve Jobs’ philosophy of management is wrong, and now you are seeing why: most people only buy Macs because they run Mac OS. That is the reason for both the “success” and the failure of the one brand that runs Mac OS. In other words, opposing the customers freedom of choice limits their productivity in ways that are not immediately obvious. This in turn limits sales, which limits the number of qualified support technicians, which limits sales again, etc. etc. etc. If Apple does not radically change its sales and support strategy, any improvement in its market position will be temporary at best, since new customers will soon become just as jaded and frustrated as current Mac owners. Apple is its own worst enemy, and making fun of Windows is a waste of time. The market speaks for itself… and so do the customers! Ironically, the people who care about Apple the most have always been the last ones that Steve would listen to–including (and especially) those who would buy Apple products if they could justify it.

It doesn’t make sense, though, that they should outdo Apple in service requests now. Those exact words should be used in a complaint to them. Now that they’re outsourcing support to India, though.. I doubt they care.

Well, Westwind is another matter entirely. Like any small shop, I’ve had good, bad, and in-the-middle experiences with Westwind. I never had to make a reservation to drop-off or pickup a machine being serviced there though. Nor did I ever have to loiter around their shop waiting for my name to be called. They really got screwed by Apple long before the Apple Retail stores opened though. Razor-thin margins, gutting of thr service and education sales channels is what started Westwind on their slide. They were, in their heyday (1990s) an excellent Apple Reseller, and service/repair was always their strongpoint.

Irrespective of all that, how come CompUSA, which has to be the dregs of computer retail “get it” better than Apple? (See Sam’s story above)

–chuck

It’s just like when people complain when a Starbucks moves into town. Every time one pops up near a coffee place I go to, the coffee place does fine. Why? The coffee’s great. The atmosphere is awesome. Etc, etc. If Starbucks moves next to a mediocre coffee house, the coffee house goes away. A better alternative appeared.

When I moved here in 2000, Westwind was a decent supplier of machines for df, as well as a place I went to for any parts or items that I needed that were Apple related. Over the next three years, it became harder and harder to find things, prices were jacked up, service was piss poor, and every telephone conversation I had seemed to contain an undertone of irritation. I eventually stopped giving them business, and as they started to give df the cold shoulder, my interaction with them ceased.

Frankly, I’m not surprised that Westwind is gone, though I didn’t know until now. They needed a serious attitude adjustment to be able to compete with the Apple Store. I’ve had great experiences at the Apple Store thus far with my PowerBook and various iPods and other tech, though I’ve been hearing horror stories like yours and Sam’s more often lately. This would be a good opportunity for a quality Apple retailer to make a dent in the market, but all we have are slimeballs like The Mac Store and its ilk.