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Re: Applecare or Self-Repair

We've institutionalized extended warranties on all of our hardware for the past 3 years or so. We bought over 2000 ibooks a couple of years ago and no one argued the cost - we were able to show that most repairs could have been covered by AppleCare and that the typical repair costs more than the cost of the coverage. We also don't have the staff to adequately service what we have. The tech people at our schools (teachers with additional responsibilities) can usually diagnose up to where a warranty repair would be required. Except for the occasional "reinstall the operating system" answer, there usually isn't a problem getting the repair scheduled. They've been instructed to check with me before doing something that drastic anyway. (Repeat after me - reimage, don't reinstall - this took a while, but they finally caught on) Of course, If you also happen to work closely with vendors that are Apple certified, they'll sometimes, as a courtesy, pick up a machine or two for you and do the repairs.

We also keep a contract with a vendor (at an hourly rate + parts) that can handle these and other repairs. That gives us two ways of getting our equipment repaired. The deciding factor then becomes how fast does it need to be repaired.

My 2 cents

Curtis
On Nov 30, 2005, at 4:48 AM, David Riddle wrote:

Totally agree.

Considering that no soldering whatever is involved and there can't be more than about four-five 'modular' components to any system.. what on earth is the big deal?

OK.. laptops possibly excepted..!


I disagree. I don't think it's "fair" at all! The basic computer as we all know it hasn't changed in 20 years. Motherboard, drives, processor, RAM. Sure, they keep putting them in different cases, but Apple seems worried that they've somehow done something so "complex" that it's beyond the scope of us run-of-the-mill idiots. "Idiots" who, I should say, have been doing this sort of thing for many years!

They haven't.

Publish tech notes. Let us know that if we diagnose Module A as being bad on a model 123 Mac then we ALSO have to replace sub- module C. Or whatever. But the TAKE-APART isn't anything special. And it never has been.

Gateway lets us order warranty parts via E-mail. No phone calls, no middleman. It's GLORIOUS and I've waited a LONG time for Apple to wise up and allow this. I think I'll be waiting a long time more.

$0.02,
...ROMeyn



At 12:28 PM -0500 11/29/05, Ball, Dan scribbled:
I have been fighting Apple over the past 5+ years to change the self service and they finally have this past summer if some of you don't know.

There is no fee anymore......the only payment is getting certified which is roughly $300 the first year for all the tests then $50 a test for the following year and after. Depending on what you want to fix, laptops, desktops or whatever, you don't have to get both the Desktop and Laptop certs.

As much as the machines are updated I think this is somewhat fair Apple forcing us to keep updated with the latest. Its better than having to pay a premium every year at $799 like it used to be.

There are different accounts as well now....I just signed our school up for the basic just so I have access to GSX and Self Service documents and to order parts for out of warranty machines. But if you want to be able to fix in warranty machines you have to be certified (Desktop, Laptop, OS).

I personally don't agree with Certifications because any idiot can go and memorize the book and take the tests and pass, but Apple is somewhat different, I think its good for the techs to know what has changed over the past year.

Here is the link for more info:
http://www.apple.com/support/programs/ssa/

Thanks,

Dan

------------------Original Message------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2005 15:25:38 -0500
From: Romeyn Prescott <email@hidden>
Subject: Re: Applecare or Self-Repair
To: Client Management <email@hidden>
Message-ID: <p06230931bfb117672e4d@[192.168.0.3]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"

We don't bother calling Apple anymore.  We simply ship any defective
unit to our closest AASP and let THEM figure out what's really wrong
and order parts/fix them.

We DO buy AppleCare, so it's all "covered."  But it's NOT worth our
time to talk to flowchart monkeys.  If we had a way to call real
techs, that might be different.

We USED to be a self-servicing AASP, but that was before Apple
started requiring an annual fee to prove we still knew how to use a
screwdriver.


This might not make sense, but I LOVE Macs. I just don't like Apple very much.

...ROMeyn

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David Riddle, Senior Micro Officer (Macintosh Systems)
Goldsmiths College London
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Curtis Frazier, Network Manager
East Orange School District
973-266-5637 (voice)
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References: 
 >Re: Applecare or Self-Repair (From: "Ball, Dan" <email@hidden>)
 >Re: Applecare or Self-Repair (From: Romeyn Prescott <email@hidden>)
 >Re: Applecare or Self-Repair (From: David Riddle <email@hidden>)



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