06.14.06
New and Renew
What a miserable day yesterday was. I thought Apple Support was better then any other support I have had to deal with, but in the end that is the only part I am upset about. We verified that my laptop was fuckered, so I said i wanted to do a return. Because I ordered it online and made changes to it, like adding another 512mb RAM, that I don’t qualify for a normal return or refund. I have to take it to a certified Apple support center, have them verify the problem, then they can help me setup the return. The nearest one is in Salt Lake. So I drive my ass all the way up there and the main Apple technician has no idea what I’m talking about. Said they only do repairs there, which I could have done at a place 1 mile from my home. I told him everything I tried and that somebody in a forum said they had the exact same problem and it was determined to be bad RAM. He was way ahead of me though and already at the Memory Tester that comes on the Mac install disc. Almost immediately it failed. Lame thing is, he still has to ship it all the way to Apple. Can’t just swap it out right there.
Now here are three problems I have with that situation. First, the only way to order online is through the customization screen. Yet if you choose anything at all, you are negating the option for a return for exchange or refund. That’s a dirty policy. Secondly, telling me something that gives me 2 hours of driving in nasty weather and rush hour when it isn’t even remotely accurate. The support people should have told me straight up that I don’t qualify for a return, instead of tricking me into the repair solution. Thirdly, why the fuck don’t they run their own damn RAM test before shipping it to people? Sounds like this isn’t a rare problem. The guy at the Mac store said he gets at leat two a week with bad RAM issues.
But on the plus side, I should have my MacBook in good working order next week. Hopefully they’ll ship it to the house and not make me do that drive again. And after I got home I went to a real Mac store called Mac Something. “Something” is really part of the name, it’s not me forgetting like usual. Sweet digs. Had a gorgeous 30″ cinema display running with all kinds of sexy accessories. Sosacms came with me and he was drooling over everything. Karen’s work PC is a 900mhz, 256mb ram pile of shit. And once again Windows fucked over my folks. Second time they have legitimately bought Windows and had it disable because it was “pirated”. I’m sure it is some idiot with a keygen who actually registers his ill gotten Windows. So instead of spending more time and money on this garbage we went the Mac Mini route.
Brought it to work with me and put it on my 2nd monitor. It’s a bit noisy, unlike the pre-Intel ones, but I hear that will be fixed soon since it is just a software glitch in one of the patches. Doing updates now, hopefully that will resolve it. Other then that I am as happy with it as I was with my MacBook. And getting it from a local store will make any possible woes easier. I also had them upgrade and test the RAM when I bought it. The Mighty Mouse is wild. 4 button, 3D scroll mouse. Crazy thing is the button is actually the entire bottom of the mouse. So if you are a savage, you can just mash your entire hand down to click. Or you can do left and right clicking as it is pressure and position sensitive. Also has two side buttons that do some pretty neat effects in the OS. Scroll wheels works great too. And it’s nice to have horizontal scroll without having to hold down a keyboard button.
I think my mom will have a blast with this thing. She is a hobby artist, but damn good at it and definitely has that mind set most of the time. Have until Monday to have all her office needs setup on this thing. Should be fun for me.