CLAMP Campus Adventures

My Saturday trip to the Apple store was full of taunting. Boxes and boxes of Tiger OS taunting me, saying, “Buy me. Don’t wait until your Monday delivery from FedEx.” Alas, the Apple Store charges a restocking fee and I refrained from a premature purchase. My patience (albeit enforced by budget and FedEx) has paid off. My Tiger has finally arrived as of 10:00 a.m.

I immediately dropped my work. After all, how important was figuring out a darker shade of blue for a client application? No, I went upstairs and grabbed my shiny, new OSX 10.4 (a.k.a. Tiger), opening the box as I descended the staircase to make sure, yes, it really was my software! Jubilation abounded. Now, I just had to call Apple and get my supposed free software.

It is the middle of a working morning, so prior to calling Apple, I had to work on a client issue. However, once it was underway, I made my call, and waited on hold for 12 minutes. This time I spoke to a lady. She listened to me explain I was supposed to receive the software on the 29th and since it didn’t ship until the 28th on 2-day FedEx, there was no way it would have arrived prior to today. I then explained the gentleman whom I spoke to on Saturday suggested there would be compensation to those of us who were mislead as to the delivery date of our order, and I was to call back after receiving the software, which I was now doing. I was careful not to mention the free software in order to see what she’d come up with without my suggesting anything. She put me on hold.

She came back and told me I could get $30 worth of free software. I immediately suggested QuickTime Pro 7.0 at $29.95. After all, it’s pretty much the only software under $30 Apple has. She put me on hold again. When she returned, she let me know she couldn’t give me QT Pro because it was download only. I asked what other software they had at $30? At this point, she convienently broke up and we were disconnected.

I immediately called back, receiving a 5 minute hold time, this round. This time I was actually able to understand the consumer rep’s name (Michael) when he spoke it. I explained (again) what was going on, and this time mentioned the $30 in software (trying to prevent another hold) and what the other rep said about Quicktime Pro 7.0. I asked, since they couldn’t do QT Pro, if they could just credit my order $30. I really had no interest in any other software, and since I was going purchase it anyhow, why not give me $30 back on my order so I can make the purchase and everything would even out. Right? Wrong. I explained any software discount was a waste since I was not interested in purchasing any software and asked what they could do for me. Michael kept insisting he couldn’t give me a discount on QT Pro, not seeming to understand that wasn’t want I was asking for anymore. I clarified my position. Michael told me he was not authorized to make any other offers, so I asked him if there was someone who was authorized to do so. He told me he’d “see if he was available” and put me on hold.

Let me make an aside here. I’m quite a difficult customer if I want to be, and I have been trying my very best to be polite and not difficult during this entire procedure. I found this whole process rather insulting to my intelligence, especially when I got Alison on the phone and she told me the following were actually my choices:

1. $30 off any purchase of $75 or more (which means I’d actually have to spend $35 in order for them to repair their mistake).
2. Free iLife (which I owned)
3. Free iWork (which I didn’t own, but I already have MS Office, so why do I need another word processor and power point clone?)

It is important to note, the point where I got really upset at Apple, and this was pretty much it. First of all, the $75 add-on was new when I spoke to the supervisor. Before this point, I was told it was $30 off software, period. Second of all, this was the first time I was offered iWork or iLife, both of which are worth over $70. I found it not only misleading, but outright outrageous I would have to escalate the problem in order to receive this information.

In the end, I really didn’t have much of a choice. I ordered iWork, for free. I was not spending anymore money at Apple online. When they have the next software release, I will walk into the Apple Store in the mall and purchase it myself. This was not worth the hassle at all.

Anyone want to buy a new, unopened version of iWork? Otherwise, I’ll eBay it and see what I can get. You can use the contact page if you’re interested.