Isam Bayazidi’s Blog

OK, I had it, I can’t stand this anymore, and I got to spill it out. I love my Macbook Pro, and I can’t imagine how I was computing before it. But, the level and quality of support an Apple user get in Jordan is basically, the worst anyone can get.

I bought my Makbook Pro as soon as it was available, and I was from those unlucky ones with a defect in the battery, where the machine randomly shutdown when it was getting near being empty. As well, a dent or a swallow in the back of the battery appeared, looked like it is gonna explode, and dangerous to use. So I stopped using the battery, and went looking for Apple support in Amman. That was around the 1st of June 2006.

First stop was a shop in Swaifiyeh, that identifies itself as an Apple Reseller, and Support provider. Went to them, they checked the laptop serial number, and they reported back “Your laptop is not covered with support, replacing the battery will be 200JDs” (That is 300$USD), WHAT ! I asked “Is my laptop less than 2 months old”, they answered “Yes”, I asked again “Is there an Apple Laptop that is sold without Warranty”, they said “No”, “So How-come my Laptop isn’t covered with support” .. no answer.. So, I left the shop, and went to the other Apple Provider located in Abdali.

There was a totally different experience, it seems to me that the people there know what they are doing, but the package (offices, dress-code, etc..) isn’t as pretty as the shop in Swaifiyeh, but it didn’t matter, I wanted the battery replaced. The guy there entered the laptop serial number, saw the same message that the other store saw about coverage, and smiled “It seems that the shop you bought your Laptop from didn’t fill your purchase information, or it didn’t sync yet with Apple Database” and they asked me for the contact information for the shop I bought from, and photo copied the invoice, and told me “It will take 6-8 weeks to have the battery arrive”.. that was June 5th.

Since then I had been using the laptop without a battery, I can tell you that the MagSafe works.. I lost count of the number of times that my laptop went dead because the power connector popped up and disconnected because of a movement near the laptop, it is supposed to “protect” the laptop from being cough up with the power wire if someone or something pull it off, but it ended up as the reason I have countless improper shutdowns for the machine.

Now, I had been emailing the Apple Agent in Amman almost weekly, asking them with an update, and getting answers such as “We made the Order”, “We are waiting for Approval”, “It is being shipped”, “It reached Dubai”, “it should come next week”, “it didn’t come with this shipment, maybe with the next one in few weeks”, etc… It had been 3 months now (13 weeks), and I am still waiting.. What bugs me the most, is that a client in USA, who probably have double my income, and payed for the same Laptop half the price I payed, is getting his battery exchanged in 2-3 days using mail, or immediate if he heads to one of the Apple stores or authorized service centers. Why is that ? Is the problem with Apple, focusing on US? and leaving their customers in this region under the mercy of bad service, or it is our problem for asking for a premium service when paying premium prices ? Tell you what, I don’t want premium service, I just want a service, any service.

UPDATE: After 4 months 9 days, and more than 50 follow up call, I got the battery, at Oct 16th.. At last, my Apple Portable is portable.

Apple, Internet & Technology, Jordan

It seems that as Nader got cured from his Draft-but-not-publish syndrome, I caught it up. I discovered that my latest post was more than a month ago, and what’s worse, it was about IE7 :) Now, since then I wrote many drafts for posts, about several topics: Google Arabic translation, how excited I am about my new laptop, about my observations for the interview with slashdot a couple of months ago, the latest meeting for JP, and so on.. but they never got published because I was either too lazy, or found them not good enough.

Which brings me to another related “Syndrome” that I caught from some bloggers. The “I-can’t-write-because-I-am-so-exposed” Syndrome. For those who didn’t notice, some JP members contact us everynow and then asking for their removal from the planet. It seems that the exposure that Jordan Planet gives to them, makes them think more than once before hitting the publish key. While there are always the brave of us who are always willing to hit “Publish” regardless, other think twice, and then save as draft or delete. While this was a known issue even before the exposure that JP might give, it seems that JP only made it worse. I am not sure if I do have such issue, but I am sure that many do, so why not me :)

Last, but not least, I have the can’t-follow-up-with-everything syndrome. Probably this comes from bad personal organization and management. I know that many of my readers are waiting or expecting something from me: Ohoud on the Bookclub, Laith on another matter, Ammar, Lina, Salam and the list go on and on.. not counting those who submitted their blogs to JP, and wait for the slightest indication that their blog submission was read by someone :)

Now, I will be working on having my long draft list published, and the queue of people waiting for something from me shortened. And hopefully this post will make me overcome such fear-to-publish issue if it exists.

About Me, Apple, Blogging, Jordan Planet

Apple just announced the MacBook Pro Laptop. It is built with the Intel Dual Core processor. Noe regardless of what’s inside, no one can make a laptop that is as sexy as this one. Now I need to read more about it, to know what’s really the deal with it. To know if existing Mac OS X applications will work on it or not.. now Rosetta is supposed to do the trick, but I need to read more.

About Me, Apple, Internet & Technology