Hello fellow Mac geeks and PC nerds.  I was wondering how many ppl use mac products.  Also how many times have you had to have the hardware repaired?  

I have had to send in my macbook 6 times in the past three years for hardware repair.  Never once did they just think about replacing my lemon mac.  Instead they just switched out faulty parts.  At one point they switched everything out and gave back my same shell.   Well Haven't had too many problems since my last repair about two months ago then all the sudden my macbook gets so hot it has left mark on my wooden desk!

Right when I was thinking calling my Apple care program Apple called me!  I was like how did you know I was going to call you?  Is this some kind of black magic? The guy was like I didn't know you were.  I was just going through our reports and we see that you have had to send your in 6 different times and lost a total of over 3 months worth of not using it due to down time.  He then went to say that they are sending me a new macbook with more memory and power.  Thats customer service!  Except the part of my mac being broken down six different times..  But still really good customer service.

I have never had Mac... now that I think of it I have never even seen a Mac outside the movies

Naum said: I have never had Mac... now that I think of it I have never even seen a Mac outside the movies

From my understanding from reading other forums it seems they are only big in america.  Ppl who travel and have problems are screwed since the lack international support.  Never-less most outstanding quote

I have a Macbook, iMac, iPhone, iPod... had an iBook, few old iMac's

only had a problem once with my Macbook.. but I guess all that p0rn wasn't good for it... but good customers support.. way better than my old fujitsu siemens laptop support..

I considered getting one but after using 2 different models my friends own I would never buy one.

They dont live up to the hype and are expensive and inferior to the PC.

I wasn't impressed at all.

"Apple care program"

There you go then. In addition to the expensive hardware with huge margins you signed up for a special support costing $250 (!!!) for three years. And even then you lost 3 months out of 3 years. I'd call that poor service. A new one is just damage control, not a good gesture.

With the reliability of PC parts these days you could build one yourself and keep the $250 + Apple margin for spare parts. The money saved would pay for a lot more than 3 years of repairs.

Soleron,  I agree.  I was beginning to look around for computer parts to build my own tower.  But her to get a free mac after three years I cant complain.  Less money I have to spend this time around which is none.

After my compaq and sony both crashed I think I am not very compatible with computers.

that would be the case if a complaint had been made. Apple Customer service on thier own went into Kzoellner's history, saw his issue and rectified it without being prompted. In no way is that damage control considering the squeeky wheel gets the grease... how many companies that YOU know of replace 1000$+ merchandise without being asked?? Im not trying to be argumentative here, i just disagree with that train of thought.

but back to the original question, i am a Mac user as well. I bought my first one right as the intel macs were launched and i had my first and only problem within a month of getting it. Randomly one day i had a Kernel Panic that completely bricked my machine. I called customer service and i was immediately impressed that the service rep(the first one that answered the phone, not anyone i was transfered to) knew the issue and requested i bring it in to a service center. I dropped it of and within 24 hours i had my I-Mac back and its worked flawlessly ever since. basically this is the quickest and most proffesional i've ever seen customer service act in my life. Im not trying to kiss apple ass here, i just think its sad other companies i've had to deal with didn't act in a similar fashion.

and this is without an apple care plan... ive always though extended warranties in general were a scam and a half.

exnoctem - I usually dont buy a warranty unless it is something expensive (The macbook). I am very glad I did. Because getting all the repairs I needed and finding out they are replacing my macbook for free out of the blue as part of the apple car warranty program couldn't complain. I guess the 250 has saved me a lot of money.

I've never owned a Mac myself but people all around me do. Being at the University of Waterloo, I'd say the ratio of Mac's to non-Mac's is about 1:1 which is remarkably high for Macs in comparison to the regular world.

I've used them and must say that the operating system is fairly solid but they're just not for me. I like messing around with computers and settings too much to be locked into Apple's design methodology. That's why I'm using Ubuntu and have it skinned like a Mac! All the prettiness and all the options! Plus it's totally free! :)

As for Apple replacing your Mac for repeated hardware issues, I suppose it was a good thing they live up to their end of the deal. Some companies would wait for you to tell them that you'd like to take advantage of the warranty and service plan you paid for. Good stuff! And you saved a pile of money too. I just hope they'd do something about their supposedly weak quality assurance with all the cracking of cases, erred GPU's and what not.