#1435, Wednesday, May 27: Apple fan-boy

Post 1435, Day 147 of 2015
- 1,608 days since I started this blog -

Daily Comment

This is off-topic (the topic mainly being me): I just want to say that Apple Customer Service is really good. Startlingly good.

I didn't get Apple for a long time (about twenty years). I started working with/on computers in 1981; Apple was a thing then, but not one I was interested in. Hobby stuff. No use for me. When I started working on computers (and for about eight years after), I worked on mainframe machines. Which, as far as I know, no longer exist in the First World countries, having been replaced by smaller, faster, more powerful supercomputers that fit in a lunchbox.

My son had a different experience. His first major purchase in life, with money he earned himself, was an Apple MacBook. A couple of years later, after video-taping my wedding, it took him 90 minutes to pull together a DVD that was very professional and satisfying. I was impressed. Later, of course, he would work for Apple for around eight years, and finally, in 2009, guide me into the fold.

My relationship with Apple hasn't been all that smooth. They make great products, in the best-designed, museum-worthy packaging I've ever seen. And they charge like Tiffany's for it.

But as good as their hardware and software is, it does not check all my boxes. Windows does, except... It isn't, overall, as good, and everything Windows is designed to be replaced every year or two. Everything. You go to Windows, and you're on a permanent, mandatory upgrade path. Apple? They entice you to upgrade by making better products, incrementing some functionality, but their older stuff doesn't become obsolete quite so quickly (and manages to never look old or dated). I have a working six-year-old MacBook that I put to work on this very blog I am writing today, including the weight chart. It could use a system refresh, it isn't as quick as it used to be, but functionally, it works. Period. After being unplugged and neglected for a month, it did what I asked it to do, and did it the same way as my brand-new computer (being replaced by an even newer brand-new computer, which is what prompted today's Daily Comment in the first place).

Around six weeks ago, I bought a new, top-of-the-line MacBook Pro. Stacy (Alex's girlfriend) arranged it so I got he employee discount (15%, but Apple never puts anything on sale, so any discount...). I picked it up in Syracuse, and it worked almost right out-of-the-box. A non-Apple software product I used needed customer service from the manufacturer, and it was excellent.

But when Apple announced a new, top-of-the-line MacBook Pro last week, that just happened to address a quibble I had with mine, Alex suggested I try to do a trade-up. Stacy couldn't do it from LA, so she suggested I call customer service and see what could be done.

Expecting and anticipating a struggle or an outright refusal, what I got instead was someone who spent a whole half hour with me on the phone, finding the best and quickest way to give me what I wanted. Exactly what I wanted, and as efficiently as possible.

The end result was to arrange a shipping deal with Apple, where I bought the new computer, and when I got it, returned the old one (no shipping charges either way). The cost to me was only the difference in price (5%, and that due to not having the employee discount available and being given a 10% education discount instead). The computer was shipped before the day after I ordered it (last Friday) and was to be received on Thursday. Instead, it came yesterday.

Apple isn't the only company giving good customer service, but their customer service has consistently been the best I've ever experienced. I think, more than the status cache that comes with having Apple products (that is definitely a thing), it is this service that keeps customers loyal.

I had a problem migrating my older computer's data to the new one, so I made a Genius Bar appointment. Again, everybody I spoke with in the Apple Store seemed anxious to make certain I had a good experience and was satisfied. And I was.

It is this experience, as much as the quality of the products and packaging that justifies Apple's premium prices and high status.

So, yes, I have to say, I'm an Apple fan.

Food and Diet Section

Today's Weight:                   206.8 lbs

Previous Weight (5/26):           208.2 lbs

Day Net Loss/Gain:                - 1.4 lbs

Diet Comment

Nice loss, almost back to pre-weekend weight.
 

Food Log

Breakfast
A Quest bar.

Lunch
Cheese, greens, peppers and onions omelet with bacon.

Snack

A Quest bar.

Dinner

At Tilted Kilt: Spinach Chicken Salad (spinach, citrus mustard vinaigrette, grilled chicken, hard-boiled eggs, chopped bacon, dried cranberries and bleu cheese crumbles).

Snack

A Quest bar.

Liquid Intake
   Coffee:  28 oz.   Water: 92+ oz. 

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