Why I'll ONLY buy Apple

I'll start with the bottom line: Apple did the right thing by me today. My 3 year AppleCare policy expired a month ago, and right after my iMac started crashing. It didn't seem like a coincidence and I was disappointed and annoyed. Because I use the excellent Time Machine backup program, I had backups of my data, so it's not like I lost anything, but the timing felt as if it was designed to happen right after the warranty expired.

I thought I needed a new hard disk, so I called the local apple store to get a quote. They wouldn't give me one over the phone and wanted me to schlep in my computer. iMacs aren't big, but they are heavy enough, and it was raining and I didn't really want to, but they said I could have an appointment at the "Genius Bar" today, so I took it.

I dragged my computer in (when I got there they told me that they are happy to carry your computer to and from your car!), and waited about 20 minutes. Then I was greeted by Lee who plugged my computer in and ran a bunch of tests, and announced my hard disk was fine, but I probably needed a new power supply, which cost $69... and a new logic board which cost $400, and $40 labor... which brought it up to $500.

I was stunned. I said, "My AppleCare plan just expired last month..." hoping I could get some kind of discount, and he said, "I know, that's why we'll do this at no cost to you."

WHAT?

That's right. My plan had expired and Apple (by giving the power to please to their Genius, Lee) was still doing the work for free. He explained that those are the two most expensive parts and when the power supply has problems it can affect the logic board, so might as well replace it now as well. And then both will only have 90 day warranties after that, so I should make sure it's working right so if there's another problem it'll be fixed under warranty again. Thank you, Lee.

That was, of course, the right thing to do. It's just so surprising when companies do the right thing now I was stunned. Yes, it'll take a week to get the part and do the work. But I have a Macbook I can use in the mean time, and the idea of not having to spend $500 to fix a computer that was just out of warranty made me so giddy I almost spent the $500 on an iPad2 (and still might!)

The whole experience--from the ease of buying it in the first place (when they let me sit there for four hours to use the computer to make sure I liked it), ease of setting it up and using it, excellent beautiful interface and technical support, the store itself where you can take classes for free (I actually learned a lot of tricks in a one hour iphoto class), the ability to go into any Apple Store anywhere and use it as if it was an Internet Cafe... And now this.

It's like being a member of a really nice club where they want to make sure you're happy. What? A company that actually wants to make sure you are happy and taken care of? Doesn't sound like something an MBA matrix would calculate, but the value is priceless.

So--my next computer will be an Apple. And my next phone, too (I debated between Android and iPhone, but given this level of service and support, there's just no contest). And, for the first time in almost 30 years, I am loyal to a computer brand. And recommend you be, too.

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I've been using personal computers since 1983. During those 28 years I've had at least 12 computers, so the average life expectancy has been less than three years. I started with CP/M KayPro computers (they were portable, the size of a sewing machine, and only weighed 29 pounds!) and went through the IBM PC/XT/AT, 286, 386, 486, and various Pentiums. Until three years ago, I didn't use Apple computers.

Part of the reason I never got into the original Mac is because it was expensive, and in the following years, Apple's were usually about twice as expensive as Windows-based PCs. I also thought the Mac OS was brilliant in some ways, closed in others. I didn't really like Windows, but it got the job done and there was a lot of software for it. And, because it was harder, I got to write a number of books about how to get things done using it--I wrote the first book about DTP (Desktop Publishing, a term rarely used anymore) on the PC.

I say all this to explain that I'm not a life-long Apple fanboy, and until now I haven't even been "loyal" to any particular computer brand.

Now I am.

I switched to Mac just over three years ago, because of Windows Vista. I wasn't going to use it. It was slow and buggy and Windows computers were big and noisy. The iMac I bought was exactly the same price as a similarly equipped PC, but was quieter, more beautiful (as all Apple hardware is), and I could still run Windows XP on it so that I could use the few great Windows apps I use--especially Xara for graphic design--can't be beat by any Mac program).

Once I switched I immediately saw the advantages of OS/X, based on the time tested Unix. I didn't have to worry about all the technical details I had to constantly worry about under Windows. IT JUST WORKED. And worked beautifully.

And it did, for three years. I always buy extended warranties on computers and they've always paid for themselves. In the case of AppleCare, This $99 warranty also gave me three years of excellent, free technical support by phone. The amazing part was that I hardly needed it, but the few times I did, it was thorough and got the job done. I also got two replacement mice, as the little scroll ball tends to get gunked up after a while, and when cleaning wouldn't fix it, Apple Fed Ex'd me new mice--for free.

Two weeks before the warranty was over, the computer just turned off. Then it started taking a long time to boot up. Up to 10 minutes. While google searches give you a ton of useful information on how to handle this stuff on the mac, a 90 minute call to AppleCare tech support walked me through it all.

TIP: At least once a month start up by holding down Command (clover)-S. You'll see a black screen with white text. This is Unix, which underlies the Mac OS.

There's a prompt that shows you /sbin/fsck -fy

Type it and press return.

This checks your hard disk for errors. If it finds and fixes them, run it again. If it doesn't find any errors, just type "reboot" to restart your computer.

So far the only complaint I have about the Mac OS is that I think it should be doing this automatically by itself. Maybe even once a month, when you turn it on it could say, "Please wait while I do a check of your hard disk, just to make sure it's in tip top shape..." or something.

So--I learned how to do this, and run disk utility, and then everything was fine. Until I went out of town, and my wife was using the computer and it just shut off, after which it wouldn't start up. Now out of AppleCare, she couldn't call tech support, so she used Googled it and went through the fsck stuff and disk utility and still nothing.

So she ended up reformatting the hard disk, which can be necessary when things get messed up, and when I got back I used TimeMachine to restore my files (and then I had to re-install OS/X as well). Which was all fine and good until the hard disk started making "woo woo" noises and I was pretty sure it was going to die--which is when I called the Apple store.

So, while I wish the computer just didn't have a problem, the average life expectancy of a computer is around 3 years, and mine was just over 3 years old. And, quite amazingly, Apple did the right thing by me. And, in doing so, they made me a customer for life.