17 Nov 2003 by Chris     No Comments    Posted under: Other Stuff

New iMac, same old lack of customer care

Just got a new iMac. Very nice. But disappointing service from local dealer Cancom (although I suspect it’ll be the same elsewhere). Only in response to a casual query as I left the shop (“everything’s all the latest version etc is it?”) did the sales assistant point out that the iMac didn’t have the latest Panther OS on it. Apparently I have to call Apple to get it, and pay more than ten quid shipping charge for the privilege of waiting several days for them to send it to me. The Panther OS has been available for two weeks or more. Even if the machine was built before it was available, surely they should be including the new OS in the box? Compare and contrast: I bought a Dell laptop last month, and it came with MS Office 2003 installed, three days before MS Office 2003 was officially launched. Sometimes I think we love Apple despite themselves.

Postscript: It got worse. There was a faulty drive on the iMac, so I asked the dealer to replace the machine. “Oh no Sir”, they replied, “it doesn’t work like that. You have to send the machine back to Apple, who will test it and certify it as dead on arrival, then we can get it replaced”. Er, I don’t think so. Ever heard of my consumer rights? Of course you have, you’re a shop. So don’t pretend that if I got a bad lettuce at Tesco, they’d tell me to get it checked out with the farmer before they’d replace it. Good grief. What I worry about is how many other people get told this nonsense and then go along with it. Just say no. If someone sells you a faulty product, demand they replace it immediately; do NOT take any crap about the manufacturer having to get involved. This web page spells it out.

Got anything to say? Go ahead and leave a comment!