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Stepping Backwards (4/8/99)
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Remember when great technical support was just one more reason to buy a Mac? In addition to a decent one-year warranty, you got free lifetime phone support and a machine that was much less likely to need technical support in the first place. But over the last couple of years, Apple's been chipping away at the Apple support advantage. Free phone support is gone; after the first three months of ownership, Apple charges customers by a "Microsoft-like" plan, now-- pay per call, etc. They still offer a one-year warranty-- but at a time when competitors might offer three years, or even five.
Well, now it looks like one more facet of Apple's once-superior support is changing for the worse: AppleCare. AppleCare is Apple's extended warranty program. Customers can pay up front to extend the warranty on their Macs beyond the initial one-year period; many people consider this crucial when owning a PowerBook or refurbished equipment. Unfortunately, according to MacObserver, Apple continues to cut its support costs by introducing new changes to AppleCare. For one thing, Apple will no longer sell new AppleCare coverage for systems that are out of warranty; you used to be able to buy an AppleCare contract for your Mac even if it was a couple of years old, though we believe it had to pass an inspection to qualify. This change doesn't seem like that big of a deal to us, because it likely won't affect too many people.
The difference that'll hit some people in the pocketbooks is that pretty soon Apple may no longer be selling AppleCare in two-year chunks. Buying two years of coverage at once was a way for customers to save money, but under the expected new plan, coverage will be sold on a year-by-year basis only. Reportedly Apple was "losing too much money" with the old way, and we're all for Apple making a profit, but we're a little sad to see technical support options on the Macintosh continue to get worse instead of better.
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SceneLink (1452)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 4/8/99 episode: April 8, 1999: AppleCare just got more restrictive and more expensive, as Apple continues to chisel away at the Mac's former technical support lead. Meanwhile, one study shows that less than 3% of web surfers are using Macs-- based on traffic to Windows-centric sites, and Apple offers to buy back your PowerBook 5300 or 190 if you agree to buy a G3 to replace it...
Other scenes from that episode: 1453: The OTHER Truth (4/8/99) People who think that numbers don't lie are the same kind of people who think that photos don't lie-- apparently they've never spent an hour with Photoshop sticking Steve Jobs' head onto Jennifer Aniston's body... 1454: Mistakes Were Made (4/8/99) Do you have a PowerBook 5300 or 190 kicking around somewhere? If so, it may finally be worth something. Longtime Apple watchers will recall that the 5300 was the first PowerPC-based PowerBook, and the 190 was a 68040-based unit with the same boring PC-laptop-wannabe chassis and plastics; however, both units received less-than-stellar reviews, both from the press and from the user base...
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