Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Gotta Love Apple Support

So this is the first thing I'm typing on a new keyboard that Apple replaced for free.

I have a wired Apple keyboard because I like the numeric keypad and they (for some inexplicable reason) don't make a wireless keyboard with a numeric keypad. It's connected to my iMac and I obviously use it a lot. I bought my first one years ago, when I connected it to my laptop when it was connected to an external display. When I got the iMac almost three years ago I got the wireless keyboard with it and occasionally use it to connect to my iPad but primarily use the wired keyboard I had.

Lately my wired keyboard has become unresponsive randomly. It's still plugged in and there's no tension on the cable but the mac stops receiving input. Today it happened for the third time in three days so I said enough and was headed to the Apple store to buy a new one for $49. On the off chance it would help, I brought the keyboard with me.

At 3:30 in the afternoon the store was crowded but not mobbed. As I walked in a couple of employees told me to wait a second and then apologized for the wait which amounted to less than a minute. My experience is that it always pays to be completely honest with them. I explained that the keyboard was becoming disconnected from my iMac on it's own, and before I could get to the part that the iMac was almost three years old and I had AppleCare the guy said, "Well can I just replace it for you?" I said that would be great.

He typed in something to his iPhone and maybe talked to someone else and we chatted for a couple of minutes until someone brought me a new keyboard. He said he was going to take it out of the box to give it to me in just the same condition as the one I brought in (loose). I said "Fine whatever you want" and loaned him a pocket knife to cut open the wrapping. As he started to do that another employee (not in an Apple shirt) came over and said he didn't need to bother, he could just give it to me in the box so it's easier to carry.

That was it. I was done. They didn't even ask me my name or have anyway to check that I had AppleCare or if it was still in warranty.

I never even got to the part where they had replaced this keyboard a year or two ago when I brought it in because I had removed the spacebar to clean it and couldn't get it back on.

1 comment:

The Dad said...

I had a similar experience, with a twist. A year or two ago our outgoing Rabbi donated an older iMac to the Temple before he left. The Keyboard had two keys broken off. I brought the keyboard to the Apple Store with the crazy idea perhaps they had a drawer full of keys and could snap a couple new ones on. They gave me a new keyboard without any questions.