Dancing With The Apple Stars!On Friday morning I was in no mood for any more frustration with Apple. I mean, it was only one wee charger I needed replaced, plus it was only 6 months old, if that, and i'd already spent a day with online support trying to make things happen - Like I say, they were fantastic and polite...but we were stuck in cement as far as getting things resolved quickly - read about my experience here.
I had woken up to the news that Leonard Cohen had died so it kinda took the wind out my sails - check here for my wee tribute to him. I had said in Part 1 that I was just going to head in to the Apple store at Braehead to see if I could get the charger replaced. The reasoning was that last time a charger blew, I had gone into the Glasgow Apple Store and received outstanding service - I was in and out within 5 minutes, with a shiny new charger in hand. I had asked how much it would cost, only to be waved away with, "Ach it's no trouble, at all, it's free!". If I had bought that charger it would have been £60! That really is how to encourage brand loyalty - since then i've bought the iPad Pro, the apple pencil, and the mac mini, and Final Cut Pro X and Motion for video editing, and also encouraged my flatmate to buy a mac mini. I'm honestly not one of those dedicated apple fanboys, I just like the fact that their products work! My macbook pro was a mid 2009 model and was still working to late 2015 until I sneezed a whole cup of coffee over it - even then, after pouring the coffee out, it still worked, though I needed to use a plug in keyboard. It's still in a bag..just in case...but I digress. So anyway, back to Friday, and it's probably around midday I head in to the apple store.I looked for the till points...but couldn't see any - i'm not sure if they even have till points. I also couldn't see an info point. To be honest the adrenalin was running a bit high thinking i'd have to 'argue my case' from soldier level right up to 'high command'. I ended up going to the sales rack and taking a group of chargers over to a table, then did my best 'i'm looking lost' face - which looked cute when i was younger, but nowadays is more likely to get me sat down with a cup of tea and a biscuit, and an 'are you okay dearie?" There were quite a few staff waltzing around which was great, though, and to me, it reminded me of those old American Taxi Dance Halls during the depression where you could buy a ticket to dance with someone. No, i'm not that old, but I did see a 'Cold Case' episode about it. Anyway a happy looking member of staff was pirouetting by till I cha-cha'd in front of him (some moves, right!). He stopped with a ball change, then followed up with a 'closed change' to check out my charger, which i had unfurled in front of his widening eyes with a flourish. He laid it across the table and measured it. I had asked about a replacement - I mean, the charger looked to be in working order, but the passage of time had worn out the inside cable. "It'll be no problem" he said. In my head I was thinking "what..no argument..no, oh I don't know..how rough have you been with your charger" But no, it was 'No problem, I'll just get my colleague to have a look at it for you". What a waste of adrenalin I had built up. I said thanks to him as he bossa-nova'd away (I didn't get his name, just that he was from the Canaries, so if he ever reads this - thank you). My dance card was then stamped by Paul, A tall fellow Scot, and again just as friendly. "It's really no problem", he explained, "Aye if ye bring it in and it looks like yer dogs chewed it tae bits then it might be different, but there's no probs with this one". I did a little 'sailor's hornpipe' in celebration. Tall Paul then ripped out his charger, unwound it and then agreed to let me plug it in so I could give my iPad some juice. After sooking up some energy, Tall Paul salsa-d back over for a final wee chat. I explained to him about the online suggestion of 'mailing in' the charger, and obviously I can see why someone who can't physically see the condition of the charger needs to ask for this to happen. "Just come in here whenever ye need to. We're aye ways happy to help" he says. We shook hands, bowed to each other, Tall Paul breakdanced away (doing the robot, i think) , and I left, tap dancing out the shop with a spring in my step, like Sammy Davis Junior. So the moral of the story - when something goes wrong, go see the guys face to face, especially if you're in a hurry. That's twice i've needed them and they've been outstanding. Remove the middleman, as polite and well-meaning as they are. Oh and the robotic automated woman on the telephone line, that sounded like Mrs Doubtfire but couldn't understand my own Scottish accent...well, give the job to a real live person - it'll mean another wage coming in to someone's house! Davy Comments are closed.
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Whit's he up tae noo?The blog posts of David Brodie, a Scottish artist based near Glasgow. Archives
October 2018
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