Comment by op00to
16 days ago
You’re leaning hard on a No True Scotsman argument here. “With serious vendors, you’re not” is doing a lot of hand-waving to ignore how inconsistent support actually is across the industry. Just because you had a good on-site experience doesn’t mean it’s universally better.
In my case, I had a ThinkPad X1 Carbon with a new, whiz-bang 4k screen that needed warranty service due to a faulty panel. Lenovo sent out a Unisys contractor who botched the repair—cracked the screen bezel, and somehow left the machine unable to boot. Lenovo sent the same guy back, and each visit made things worse. This happened multiple times, and the machine had to be fully replaced more than once because the repairs kept introducing new problems. This same tech also dropped a Lenovo server during a fan swap at a different site. So yeah, I’ve experienced “real” onsite business service, and it was an absolute mess more often than not.
Every vendor has issues. That’s not the point. The difference is that Apple actually rolls out repair programs and has the infrastructure to fix things in a relatively consistent way. You can take a broken machine to a store, talk to someone who can usually solve your problem, and almost always walk out with a solution. Pretending other vendors are more accountable just doesn’t match reality. They’re not immune to problems. They’re just a lot better at quietly ignoring them.
And you are leaning hard into a combo of anecdata and sweeping generalization.
I could recite lots of personal accounts of perfect service from Lenovo/HP/HPE business service (Mainly X/T-Series at Lenovo, Elitebooks/Z Workstations at HP, Proliants and general server/networking infrastructure at HP and later HPE) and terrible "business" service from Apple. Then what?
>The difference is that Apple actually rolls out repair programs and has the infrastructure to fix things in a relatively consistent way. You can take a broken machine to a store, talk to someone who can usually solve your problem, and almost always walk out with a solution.
And that's an idealized version not consistent with reality. "This is not an issue on our side" (very much related to my examples) is not a solution. Hell, in enough contexts "Bring in your device, we'll look at it, maybe repair it and you can collect it sometime later" isn't either (and for the longest time Apple didn't offer anything else - oh, and BTW: at least here in Austria, Apple Care Enterprise on-site is very much done via subcontractor...).
>Pretending other vendors are more accountable just doesn’t match reality. They’re not immune to problems. They’re just a lot better at quietly ignoring them.
Neither is this. Again: repair programs/recalls and associated infrastructure aren't exclusive to apple, they are expected standard in business service. And begrudgingly doing those recalls after (or shortly before) a judge orders you to isn't the high standard you seem to make it out to be.
Too bad you had an issue with your on-site technician - but honestly I don't understand why you allowed them to repeatedly send him back after that mess...