Yesterday the following appeared in my Twitterstream

Turned out that a really great employee didn't allow that to happen though.

The replacement iPod we received when Travis's birthday iPod failed developed a row of dead pixels. We decided that yesterday, after Kellan's soccer game, we would return the defective unit and get a new one. We arrived to a packed Apple Store, and Travis approached the young woman who was functioning as store hostess. We told her what the problem was, she left briefly and then returned to tell us that we couldn't return the iPod until 5:00pm. She told us the Geniuses were really busy and wouldn't be able to look at it until then.

5:00pm was two hours away, we'd driven a long way to get to the store and Jennifer and I were going to the theater that evening. We couldn't wait two hours. We told her so, she said she couldn't help us.

We hung out a bit letting William play a game, while Travis and Kellan checked out the iPhones and I checked out the new Mac Book Pros. While that was going on a nice sales type guy came over and asked us how we were doing. I told him "Not so good, for the first time ever, the Apple Store has let me down." He asked what was going on, we told him. He gave us a rather lengthy explanation of why we needed to wait until 5pm. It was lucid, and completely understandable, but still didn't take the sting out of the fact that we had travelled a long way for a simple return and were apparently not going to be able to accomplish that task.

He asked if we would like to see if there had been any cancellations. We said sure. He checked, and their hadn't been. We would still have to wait until 5:00pm. Then he asked if we would like to "fly standby." Once again we said sure. We filled out the Genius Bar web-app. and stood around to wait for a while. He came back within five minutes and told us "They can see you right now!"

Travis got his replacement iPod and the Apple Store remains in our good graces, thanks to a young sales guy who didn't want his store to have let down one of it's most loyal customers.

We did learn a valuable lesson. Any time we need to go to the Apple Store for anything other than a purchase we will make sure we've scheduled ourselves for the Genius Bar, even if it feels like we don't need to waste the Geniuses time.

I've blogged twice before about how fabulous it is to deal with the people at the Apple Retail Stores. I'm going to add another one to the list. Given my current customer service nightmare with Microsoft, it's wonderful to be able to say something nice.

Travis turned 15 late last month and he wanted an iPod. At first he wanted one of those cute little Nanos but then he looked at the quantity of music he wanted to play and decided he needed a Classic. I didn't think there was any way Jennifer and I could afford one, but I went to the Apple Store online the week prior to his birthday and found that we could, just barely, afford the refurb models. So I ordered it on Tuesday the 22nd, and received it on Wednesday the 23rd.

Travis was ecstatic when he opened his present and discovered what it was. I helped him hook it up to his iTunes and we loaded it with music and all was good.

On August 13th, the boys and their mom were heading to the beach for a camping trip. Travis listened to his iPod the whole way to the coast. Left the iPod in the car that night, and the next day when he turned it on he got a big red X on the screen. Jennifer called me, and I walked her through a reset. That didn't help. When he got home we tried to put the iPod in disk mode and that didn't work, so we made an appointment to see the Geniuses at the Genius Bar in the Apple Store at Bridgeport Village.

We arrived and had a short delay before they could help us. We provided the Genius with the paper work from apple.com, he asked a few questions, tried a few trouble-shooting things, checked it for water damage, reached into a drawer behind him and pulled out a replacement iPod and handed it over.

As we were leaving I told him that it is that kind of service, that has made me a customer for life...

...If only Apple made a gaming console.

We had a power outage in our cul-de-sac last night, so I ended up running my PowerBook on battery until I went to bed.

The power came back on about 2:00am, but when I woke up this morning, the glowing ring around where the power adapter plugs in wasn't lit. My power adapter has seen better days. My rat Turing is quite a big fan of the white cable, and I had to tape over a couple of places where his teeth had left gaps in the insulation. So my immediate and hopeful thought was...Ahhh my power cable has finally failed.

Fortunately, there's an independent Apple dealer on my way to work. I stopped off, took my notebook and power cord in, and asked them if they could tell me which failed. The very kind technician went and grabbed a power adapter and plugged it into my notebook, and my heart sunk, there was no telltale orange or green ring around the plug. The technician then took my adapter into the back room and came back and told me it was working just fine.

I asked him what was wrong and he told me it was a DC input board failure. I asked how hard to fix, and he said quite easy, but they were backed up for three days. Well three days without my PowerBook is not acceptable and I told him so. He said they were the fastest in Portland, I told him no, I got a new hard drive from the Apple Store at Bridgeport Village in 27 hours.

I got to the Apple store about 15 minutes before it opened, sat outside in the lovely sunshine and made a few phone calls. Once the door opened I walked straight up to the Genius Bar, and said "I believe I need a new DC input board." The guy at the counter said "let's just see about that" and whipped out a power adapter and plugged it into my notebook and low and behold there was a lovely orange ring! I cheerfully paid for a new power adapter (though there's NO way those things should cost $79).

I have two possible explanations for what happened at PowerMacPac. The first, and kindest, explanation is abject stupidity (using the wrong wattage adapter perchance?). The second is that they saw a lovely AppleCare repair coming their way and were willing to inconvenience me for three days to get the warranty job.

Whichever one is true, I won't be visiting there again they have yet to show me they want me as a customer...

• They didn't care enough to match Apple's price on my PowerBook + RAM Upgrade + AppleCare when I originally visited (The Mac Store, was happy to).
  
• The first time I had a hardware problem they wanted to take five days to fix it instead of the Apple Store's 27 hours.
  
• Now they have shown that they're either not technically savvy, or flat out deceitful.
  

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Followup
I sent the link to the above entry to the support email address at PowerMacPac. You never know, they might try and make things right, apologize for the situation, something that will renew your faith in them and make you think about patronizing their store again.

A few minutes ago I got a response from them which out of fairness to them I will quote completely unedited...

Thank you for your feedback.

Now my first thought was that it was an automated response, but it actually came from a real person who is listed as one of their technicians.

Monday the hard drive in my PowerBook G4 died. I got a S.M.A.R.T error when I booted from my Tiger Install DVD. I was in the midst of a cold/flu/allergy bout of illness, and in no mood to deal with that kind of problem.

I called the folk who sold me my computer: "Three days at best they said." I called the other independent Macintosh store: "Four to Seven Days." I called the Apple Store at Washington Square here in town. "We're not sure, but about a week. However, you might want to try the new store at Bridgeport Village." I was out of options, so drug myself onto my motorcycle and made the 20 mile trip to this new Apple store.

They were quick to help me. They were willing to do it "right now" if they had the drive in stock. I was pleased. They didn't have the drive, so I left the machine. I called back the next morning, and asked if they had an ETA. They didn't have the drive yet so I went back to bed. I called again just before 6:00pm and got word that they were just finishing up. I hopped back on my bike and picked up my newly running PowerBook.

Just about 29 hours without my PowerBook. That's an absolutely astounding level of technical support.

Thank you everyone at the Bridgeport Village Apple Store!