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The M$ing of Apple (10/13/97)
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A scant two days after we mentioned an example of the outrageous cost of Microsoft support, Apple goes and declares they are adopting the same model: free web-based support (woo-hoo), free automated phone support (yippee), free phone support for the first 90 days of ownership (huzzah), and $35 a call for phone support thereafter. See Webintosh for more coverage.

The truly bizarre aspect of this is Steve Jobs' statement that this move will make Apple's number-one rated support "even better" for their customers. Gee, we know that we feel much more secure now that we'll be shelling out the crazy ducats for every call. Although, by Steve's logic, we'd be even better off if we were paying, say, $95 per incident a la Windows NT support. Maybe next year, hmm? We can but hope. (We think Steve's overtaxing the ol' Reality Distortion Field on this one.)

AtAT wonders if its faithful viewers recall the halcyon days when one of the big arguments you could put forth to evangelize the Mac was the free technical support. Ironically, when the cloners were in their heyday, suddenly Apple-branded Macs became the only major Mac OS machines that didn't include free support; Power Computing had it, and Motorola even had that five-year warranty.

On the bright side, at least Mac users don't have as many technical problems...

 
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors
 

From the writer/creator of AtAT, a Pandemic Dad Joke taken WAYYYYYY too far

 

The above scene was taken from the 10/13/97 episode:

October 13, 1997: (Sorry—this was before we started writing intro text for each episode!)

Other scenes from that episode:

  • 81: AOL Cookie "Hoax?" (10/13/97)   Many of you have probably received a copy of that chain email letter going around warning people that AOL 4.0 for Windows is a huge security hole. Predictably, AOL claims that the warning is a hoax. If you were one of the six people on the planet who didn't receive a copy, the letter, ostensibly penned by two former AOL programmers, claimed that there was intentional code in the new software that stores a "cookie" on the user's hard drive...

  • 82: Rumors "Server Outage" (10/13/97)   While we're on the subject of conspiracy theories, we're all a little nervous here at AtAT. After all, a scant two days after Mac OS Rumors dropped the top-secret bomb that Oracle and UMAX were going head-to-head to buy out/merge with Apple, their site is unreachable due to "continuing server troubles." Yeah, right...

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