j'ai la tête qui éclate

[jawnbc]

With my MacBookPro on its last gasps (3.5 years is good for me; I'm hard on things), and Apple's annual summer Back2SchoolYo promotion, it was time to order a new machine. Work has given me a shiny, lovely MacBookPro, which I can use at home. But really do I really ever want to be asked to speak to IT again because of my browser history? I think not.

Comparing specs it was clear to me that the differences between the 13" Pro and 13" NotPro (a/k/a MacBook) were largely cosmetic. When I costed out maxing out the RAM and hard drive, for some reason the NotPro worked out about $40 cheaper with identical specs.  Decision made: MacBook with 500GB hard drive and 4GB RAM. Onward!

As part of their promotion you get a "free" iPod of some sort...or a discounted one. I have an iPhone and Himself has an iPod Touch, and since I couldn't get 2 Nanos and split the savings, I opted for iPod classic and it's 120GB girth and mirth.  I saved this to my account, and planned on placing my order towards the end of August when the promotion was wrapping up. The Classic was $20 more than the 16GB Touch, so net cost to me: $20 plus taxes.

But then I noticed another promotion--a combinable one at that. I could get a "free" Canon printer. Or rather a $99 rebate on any Canon Printer costing $99 or more. Most of them looked similar except the one with Wi-Fi. So I went for the Wi-Fi one with a next cost to me of $69.00 plus tax.

Then I swallowed my Oirish pride and clicked the 2-3 day expedited delivery for $36.00 button (rather than free). And had it all shipped to work.  *squee*

The iPod was delivered 2 days early, on Wednesday--wow! The printer a day early on Thursday--wow! The computer scheduled for Friday.  Except shortly after noon a message on UPS's (Unprofessional Pigfucking Scumbags) tracking said there was a "postal code" error. Really? UPS delivered the iPod to my office no problem, which was part of the same order. FedEx had no problems either.  But I was reassured it would still be delivered today.

So I made a special trip out to the office...and of course it didn't show up. The UPS woman was sheepishly apologetic but unable to do anything. Pick it up on Saturday myself? Nope. Reroute to my home Monday? Nope. I fucking hate UPS--always have, always will--why the fuck does any business with customers outside the US use these fuckwits?

So I rang Apple. Who immediately took ownership of (UPS's) problem and credited me the proportion of my expedited shipping fee for the computer ($19 apparently). I don't expect things to always (ever?) go seamlessly. But I'll remain loyal to a company who doesn't screw things up routinely...and who fixes things when they go wrong. 

I'm going home to eat chips and dip. Himself is at a homsexualist yoga retreat/pot luck. And set up my new printer!

Comments

[qnetter]

The big difference between the 13" Pro and the 13" non-Pro is the battery. The non-Pro has a replaceable one, but the Pro's sealed battery gets an easy 2x the life for me.

[jawnbc]

actually that's another reason i went with the bog-standard one. I'm always dubious of Apple's first rollout of "new improved" hardware.

[qnetter]

Actually, it's much more like an improvement on the 13" aluminum MacBook than anything else: my problems with odd charging behaviors, for instance, have disappeared.

[jawnbc]

Really? Kewl! I've never got my brain around the "how to season a battery" bit. But this MacBookPro burnt out 2 batteries within 6 months--and Apple refused to replace either, despite admitting it was a fault with the power port. So the stakes of having a non-removal battery give me a bit of anxiety.

Some day I'll get over it though. And I do appreciate your feedback/experience.

Once I get the new machine and configure it, I'm gonna try to zap this one and turn it into a Linux machine. I am increasingly getting enquiries at work about using some of our rich content tools and their incompatibility with Linux. Parallels or VMWare are good, but not the same as booting up in the OS properly.

[theorybunny.livejournal.com]

"a homsexualist yoga retreat" - intriguing... care to give more details?

[jawnbc]

That's about it really. He goes to a nude queer men's yoga class on Monday nights. The guy who founded has moved to Vancouver Island and invited some of the lads over there for the weekend.

:)

[aadroma.livejournal.com]

It's not just non-US customers UPS are fucknuts about.

When I was trying to travel to Japan, I needed to get a copy of my birth certificate, and the state of Illnois UPS'd it to me.

And I couldn't get it for nearly two weeks. Because there's no fourth floor on my apartment building. What???

[theorybunny.livejournal.com]

Naked yoga is fascinating. I am not sure I would be able to focus on my practice there though ;)

[foresterx.livejournal.com]

when I priced my backbook, it worked out that upgrading the specs of a white macbook would cost $100 less that buying the black one. I asked the store if there would be any difference between the 2 and they said no, just the cost

[jawnbc]

exactly!

[jawnbc]

that's so wrong

[foresterx.livejournal.com]

i later found out it as called the apple black tax