iBook Conclusion

So, I'd just explained my frustration with Apple. Here's how it wound up.

The Apple Store is great for issues that don't require followup. Your iPod is broken? Here's a refurbished replacement. Unfortunately, since they don't often use the concept of "issue ownership", if you need to go back multiple times for a non-trivial problem, you have to explain, from scratch, what's going on. If one manager is handling your problem, they don't communicate with other managers outside of post-it notes, and work less than half of the hours when the store is open, so they're hard to catch.

I got a call at four PM yesterday that the MacBook they were giving me to replace my iBook was in. They got my voicemail, as I don't answer the cellphone at work. I drove to the store by five. Waited a bit for a free employee, then explained I was there to pick up my laptop. No luck. He came back, I explained the whole thing again. He checked again, no luck. He listened to my voicemail, called the manager who had left for the day, and handed me a box with a laptop in it.

I'm happy to have the laptop. I didn't have the patience left to find out if it's under the original warranty, a one-year warranty, or whether I may buy AppleCare for it. Rephrasing, the employee had no idea, and the manager apparently wasn't thrilled they were called when they had left work for the day.

XP SP3 Pro is installed and running smoothly, really impressed with Bootcamp, much less impressed by XP's installer than with OS/X's. Debated on Vista, but since I'm planning a DirectSound 9 implementation, figured I'd go with the older system. Having to install everything twice is kind of surreal, and I think I'm going to scale back the XP install at this point to simplify things. Now, to find a freeware virus scanner.