NewtonTalk.net July 2009 archive: Re: [NTLK] Off Subject Apple(D

From: Ed Kummel <tech_ed_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Thu Jul 16 2009 - 17:24:17 EDT

Sorry...I just have to comment on this one thing...
"Sorry to hear they're doling out MS-style support-not!"

Huh?

I have been working with Microsoft products for 15 years now...in both a consumer and premier accounts and I have NEVER had an issue with Microsoft's support. Do you know that every month, Microsoft has a standing conference call to discuss the monthly security updates? Anyone can call into this conference call and ask any question they want relating to the security patches and how they will affect their particular installation. You have direct contact with the engineers who wrote the security updates as well during that call!
When was the last time Apple or Redhat did anything like that?

As for general support? I've called on Microsoft products from Antigen, MSSQL, Server 2000, 2003, 2008, Exchange 2003, 2007, and even Flight Simulator along with Microsoft Money. Most of the times it was my own custom configuration that caused the problem, and sometimes I found a legitimate bug, but never was I turned away from a support issue, or a service support was neglected by Microsoft. The MS reps have always been courteous and professional in every way. And they follow up after the fact to make sure that you were successfully helped.

When my xBox suffered from the RROD (purchased a faulty refurb) MS sent me a box to ship it to them. Free. Repaired the xBox. Free. and shipped it back to me. Free! And they weren't the ones I purchased the refurbed xbox from...

And nothing can beat the inhome repair of Dell. When I purchased one of my Dell laptops several years ago from the company I was working for (they retired the laptops for a newer version) I discoverd that the laptop was covered with onsite repair...sweet! When my bluetooth module failed (came unplugged from the Mobo) I called Dell, and they sent out a repair person to my house the next day. They replaced the Mobo and Bluetooth module, and replaced missing rubber feet and bumpers and ordered a plastic bezel that showed undue wear (it's how I carried the laptop). All at NO COST to me! Who makes house-calls anymore? Well obviously Dell does! I always purchase the inhouse warrantee now...it's a no brainer as far as I'm concerned!
As for an Apple store? There isn't one within a 45 minute drive from my house and I live 30 miles from Washington DC (yeah, it can take upto an hour to drive into DC during rush-hour) So, taking an Apple computer to a repair depot is out of the question!

And I have to say, not once when I received service from either MS or Dell was I ever shipped off to India...One time, I was working on an Antigen issue and I called MS and in the background I heard an alarm go off and over the loudspeaker, I hears someone say that there was a tornado watch ... I browsed to the weather channel and found that there was a fresh tornado watch in one of the dakotas and knew instantly where they were located...

And did you know that for $500 per year, you can get a copy of every MS program that they make? Note, it's for testing purposes and not for commercial use, but for a techie like me, this is a gold mine! And I have had a 2003 server I've been testing now for 4 years! (with SQL and Exchange as well)

So if you mean that MS support is the most thourough and the smartest engineers, then yeah, MS support is pretty good!

Ed
web/gadget guru

------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Richard Feynman, Physicist, Nobel winner (1918-1988)

"There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers."

--- On Thu, 7/16/09, Bob Carls Dudney <kosmicdollop@saber.net> wrote:

From: Bob Carls Dudney <kosmicdollop@saber.net>
Subject: Re: [NTLK] Off Subject Apple(Doesn't)Care
To: newtontalk@newtontalk.net
Date: Thursday, July 16, 2009, 2:22 PM

Hopefully Morgan's suggestion more successful.

Perhaps with economic uncertainty Apple is getting more tight-fisted.
Sorry to hear they're doling out MS-style support-not!

Good luck!

On 16/7/09, D. Matt Dair wrote:
|
>Have been 3 layers up. No dice

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