Apple crumble: Mac parts break Jon's heart
Regular readers of Snowblog will know of my devotion, nay love affair, with Apple products. Not any more. My broken blogging heart is sore this morn. As I write this on my faithful MacBook Pro, the tears trickle down my inkless cheeks. I have been slighted by the author of my computing affections. In short, Apple has gone to my core.
For three years I have basked in the robust dependability of my Mac Air…the slighter, slimmer form of iBook. I have taken it from Pakistan to India, from Washington to the Haiti earthquake, from Gaza’s border to Alaska. Never a problem, not one. Wherever I travelled, it travelled – most recently to Cape Cod. A few days ago I suffered the failure of the tiny 3mm spring that keeps the action bar beneath the mouse pad balanced. Small thing – let’s get it fixed.
Not so fast Apple lover-boy! I go to London’s Tottenham Court Road, where I have often bought Apple things. The engineers assess the problem.
“I’m sorry – to replace your 3mm spring you will have to buy a completely new deck, mousepad, bar, and keyboard,” they say.
Cost? Since you ask, £205! Two hundred and five pounds. I glimpse the notice on the wall : ‘We will not tolerate aggressive or abusive behaviour’. No wonder!
I have tumbled into the badly kept secret of Apple spares. Understandably, this brilliant corporation ensures that Apple users can ONLY use Apple spares. Consequently if they make the replacement of a tiny 3mm spring conditional upon buying the entire caboodle…so be it.
Well Apple, think again. This is a nasty bruise, a seeping blemish on your beauteous platinum countenance. I love your products enough to buy a 3G wi-fi top of the range iPad. You have me hostage. But I am suffering no Stockholm syndrome.
I’m not going Apple native, nor am I going quietly. I’m paying up but with my broken heart in need of a lot more than a 3mm spring.
Drat, I’ve just remembered – your policy appears to be that if one of my heart valves goes, I have to buy a new fascia, throat, lungs, oh and throw in the heart too. Have a heart Apple! God knows you can afford it!