Even compared to other Apples, MBP 17 is too pricey

You could technically talk face-to-face with someone if you purchased a computer (Mac or not) from Best Buy along with their Black Tie extended warranty. Apple has the benefit of doing something like this themselves whereas warranties from Dell, HP, etc. don't offer store support (but they do have expensive in-home service options that will work only after you talk to someone in a country that shall not be named and get them to have a contractor drive over).

 

I've rarely met someone who WASN'T happy with in-store Apple support, and I've rarely met someone who WAS happy with in-store Best Buy support. Just sayin'. Best Buy has the right idea but the wrong execution.

 

Yeah, I know. I was simply pointing out that there are other stores/companies offering in-store customer support for products. Then again, I have also heard my fair share of horror stories in dealing with a "Genius" at the Apple bar.

 

Fair enough, but it just seemed a tad insensitive when you seemed to singled out "3rd world support" as a reason to overpay.

I think Apple's position as the underdog in the cyberworld has pushed them to offer unique services in these areas, but I daresay the prices still don't justify the service - not everyone uses it after all.

IMO every company should back their products like apple do, but we don't live in a fairy world.

 

It is rather odd that companies (Apple or not) still charge an arm and a leg for warranties on their products. I remember buying the 3 year warranty for my Dell notebook back in 2005 and it set me back by 20% of the total notebook cost (which was $1500). A friend of mine has another notebook from Dell and her Mom blindly purchased all of the upgrades and warranties for it. She ended up paying $500 for the at-home service warranty on a $1400 system. HP is the same way.

To me, it seems a little outrageous that companies (again, even Apple) are charging so much for their warranties when they are already drastically subsidizing costs by contracting their support out to call centers. Not only that but many brands don't even have local retail stores for face-to-face support thus decreasing the cost of running such a service.

Although I think AppleCare is a bit more manageable in terms of costs ($183, about the same as Dell charges for their 14" "thin and light" notebook not including in-store or in-home support, also about $40 less than HP), I think it is still too much money for the average consumer who doesn't live near an Apple Store as they won't get that face-to-face service. I paid for it this time around, coming in at almost 15% of what I shelled out for my MBA, but I think most companies need to take a step back and improve their warranty services if they are going to start asking these high prices.

OK, my rant about warranties is over.

 

At least in Apple's case, their call center in based in North America, which is something you don't get on most consumer-grade laptops. The only exception I can think of off the top of my head is support for the HP Envy.

On the business notebook side, I think Dell has a lot of nerve charging extra for North American support. I'm almost 100% sure such service comes standard with comparable HP and ThinkPad systems.

 

Did they change that over the past 7 or 8 years? The reason I ask is I have only dealt with calling Apple support once in my life. That was back in 2004 when I purchased a 4G 40GB iPod. The white earbuds that came with it didn't work and Best Buy wanted me to return the whole thing just to get new earbuds (they wouldn't swap them out). Since it had all of my music on it, I didn't want to go through the process all over again so I just called Apple's iPod support knowing that they would ship me a replacement pair rather quickly for free.

I was clearly talking to someone from India on the other end. This was back in 2004 and other than that one incident, I have not contacted their customer support line again.

Back when I had my Dell, that was one of the reasons why I purchased their XPS Inspiron notebook. In 2005, all XPS owners who purchased the extended warranty would be connected to a call center in Texas. Of course that changed sometime between 2005 and 2007 as I was never connected to a call center in the U.S. again when it came to support for my Dell.

 

They might have. However, Apple might operate different call centers for iPods than they do for computers. I owned a MBP back in 2007-2008 and had a couple technical questions. I called them up and was connected to a very nice, very helpful young lady (at least she sounded young) whose first language was clearly English. The call was answered promptly, and my questions answered completely.

 

I'm sorry it sounded insensitive...let me clarify. I've got no problem with people from third-world countries. But when someone is working in a call center in southeast Asia and their native language is not English, they are far less likely to "go off script" and just have a conversation with me, frankly and plainly, about what problems I'm having. That's not their fault, it's not that they're any less worthy, but nevertheless, the language barrier makes it harder for an American customer to have a frank conversation about why they need tech support and what needs to be done. The problem would be just as bad if customers in Beijing were being routed to tech support in Iowa with a bunch of tech support people who had one year training in English. The people in Iowa wouldn't deviate from the script they were given. It's not their fault; it's a language barrier. Tech support based in Beijing for Beijing-based customers is best to serve their needs. Likewise, tech support in the United States is best to serve the needs of US customers.

 

Dell's precision (small business) support is US based. And three year warranty is standard (even on outlet).

Their consumer line support is another story though.

 

Hey mate, I totally understand what you were trying to say, of course ideally I'd only want to talk to someone who understood me completely, and especially when dealing with expensive equipment. Also simply knowing you are talking to someone in your own country suggests things might move a little faster. Just you know, word it a little differently next time, some may raise a couple of eyebrows over what has become somewhat a contentious issue