I don’t know whether it was the anonymous email I got from someone at Apple, or the fact that my article was backlinked by some well-known people, whether it was the “friend of a friend” at Apple, or whether it was the email I sent to Steve Jobs himself. Whatever it was, one thing’s clear: When Apple decide to move, they can move fast.
And just like that, all my Powerbook problems have been resolved, far beyond my expected satisfaction.
Once again, I’m a big-time Apple fan. :-)
Today was, as I’m coming to learn, just another typical day in southern Spain:
On the way to work, I stopped by the computer hardware wholesaler, who called yesterday to report that my two new hard drives and printer were in and ready for pickup. At the shop, I discovered that, unlike Germany, you can’t just pickup stuff and then conveniently pay later by bank transfer; you have to pay prior to pickup. (Too many problems with people not paying, apparently.) Ok, no big deal.
Seems one of our local clients has decided they don’t want to pay, and will no longer answer the phone or respond to emails. We were supposed to meet them in their office yesterday afternoon to discuss it. When I arrived to work this morning, my colleague reported that they had closed the entire office before he arrived. Seems not paying is a common thing with local clients.
We were supposed to have a sofa delivered to the office today, to be paid cash on delivery (of course.) They promised to call first, before making the delivery. It just happened that precisely when I had to run off for an errand, they arrived, without calling ahead. After some quick mobile phone negotiations, I was given 15 minutes to get by scooter to the sofa store to pay. I broke some traffic laws, but managed to make it, and now we have a new sofa on which I’ll collapse after finishing this post.
The air conditioner in our new office stopped working last week. The Carrier tech came by this morning, and discovered the roof unit had, no joke, blown over. He and I picked it up, restarted it, checked that it was ok, and I agreed to call the installation company to come secure it. Half an hour after the tech left, the unit stopped working again. The installation company arrived in the late afternoon to have a look.
While looking at the interior air conditioning unit (in the ceiling of the bathroom), the new bathroom light fixture that the electrician installed yesterday exploded in dramatic fashion, nearly killing the air conditioner guy. So I called the electrician, and he’s coming out tomorrow to have a look.
Meanwhile, the air conditioner guy discovered that when the air conditioner starts running, the voltage drops from 220 to 205, and the unit cuts off to protect itself. Apparently nothing’s wrong with the air conditioner, it wasn’t damaged by the fall, and the ball’s back in the electrician’s court. Called the electrician back, and he said it’s probably a problem with the local electrical company, but he’ll check it out when he comes tomorrow to look at the exploding light fixture.
And with that, it’s about time to go home. No wonder wine and sangria are so popular in this culture.
Just a little note about the launch of IRMA24.com, the small website we just launched for Jesus Cabello, the electrician that has just made the jump to self-employment, and who did a great job for us in the electrical installations of our new office in Marbella, Spain.
I just paid $35 for a t-shirt and one-year membership to help John Gruber realize his dream of working full-time on his weblog, Daring Fireball, and now I find myself gazing out the window asking why.
Although I’ve been reading John’s weblog for the past few years, I’ve never personally met him and I don’t think we’ve even emailed each other. And although I like his weblog, especially his linklog, it’s not something I’m even particularly crazy about. There’s a lot of other weblogs that I equally enjoy and look forward to reading.
So I know I didn’t pay because Daring Fireball is something I can’t live without.
Oddly enough, through the regular — granted one-way — dialog, I think I’ve come to feel some sort of odd friendship with him. And so I think I paid $35 to John in the same way I’d be happy to, based on nothing more than a request, help out a friend. Like, “No problem, man, anytime.”
I’m writing this article in the hope that someone at Apple USA might read it, and come to understand what kind of service your customers abroad are receiving. (And let me prefix this by mentioning that my company has probably spent more than $50,000 in Apple equipment over the past several years.)
A couple of months ago — as it were, about three weeks before the launch of the MacBook Pro (Grrrrr) — I placed an order for two 15″ G4 Powerbooks from Apple Spain’s store. One was for me, and the other for our company’s system administrator, Niall. The idea was that I would take delivery of both, and deliver one to Niall (who lives in Ireland) on our next corresponding trip to the company home office in Germany.
About three days after receiving the two Powerbooks, the display in one — Niall’s, of course — died.
I called Apple’s post sales support, on a 902 number. A couple of interesting observations: (1) If you want to buy Apple equipment, a toll-free number is available for you. If you want service, however, you’ll be paying for a toll call. (2) If you call a sales number, you’ll be attended to in a split second. If you call support, plan to make some coffee.
After listening to an automated voice telling me (at least 50 times) that I might be able to resolve my problem by hanging up and going to A-P-P-L-E.C-O-M, I finally was routed to a service representative, to whom I described my problem with the dead monitor. Of course, they’re trained not to take your word for it; you have to run through some tests first, on this for-pay phone call, to establish that, in fact, the display is dead.
After that, the conversation went something like this:
Apple: So, Mr. Henderson, you’ll need to drive to Pepe’s Computer on the other side of Malaga, and drop off the Powerbook. They’ll in turn forward it on to TecniMac in Sevilla for repair. You should have it back within three to four weeks.
Me: Malaga’s more than 50 km from Marbella. In normal traffic, the drive to Pepe’s would be about 1.5 hours each way. I’d prefer to purchase AppleCare, so that a courier can pickup the device here at my office.
Apple: Certainly, Mr. Henderson. I’ll process that order for you right now.
(Several minutes later…)
Apple: Thank you for your purchase, Mr. Henderson. Here’s your AppleCare confirmation number. Now, about that Powerbook… You’ll need to drive to Pepe’s Computer on the other side of Malaga…
(Insert Twilight Zone theme music here.)
Me: Whoa, whoa, whoa… Uhmm, didn’t I just purchase AppleCare to avoid that?
Apple: Yes, but, you see, you live within 80 km of an authorized pickup location. So, even with AppleCare, you still have to deliver it yourself.
Me: Couldn’t you have mentioned that 10 minutes ago? Look, anyway, in the US, they always send a courier pickup under AppleCare.
Apple: Well, this isn’t the US.
Fortunately for me, an Apple reseller just opened here in Marbella — Marbella Mac Solutions, MMS, who, after hearing my sad story, said they’d be happy to organize the repair for me. As with Pepe’s, that still involves sending the Powerbook off to TecniMac, in Sevilla — apparently the only authorized Apple repair center in this half of Spain.
So, with about six weeks before the planned hook-up with Niall in Germany, I dropped the Powerbook off at MMS.
Turns out, four weeks was optimistic. On the very day before my trip to Germany, I was called by MMS to let me know the Powerbook was ready for pickup. I picked up the computer about five minutes before their closing time, and headed off to Germany.
Reading the repair report, TecniMac had determined that the problem was a “logic fault”, and replaced the logic board, the LCD display, and a related cable.
As things worked out, Niall’s trip was postponed, so I left the Powerbook in the office for him to pickup the following week. About a week later, I get an email from Niall, asking what in the world had happened to the Powerbook — that it looked like it’d been attacked with a screwdriver. He sent some photos:
Niall also reported that nothing happens when he closes the lid of the Powerbook. After a little investigation, he determined that the magnet in the display which signals to the machine that the lid has been close was missing! And, the display intermittently fades in brightness here and there. And, finally, he’s seeing all sorts of weird OS and application behaviour — things I’ve never even heard reports of (and I follow the Mac world pretty closely.)
That’s where we are today. Niall is trying to communicate with the Apple folks in Ireland, but it’s not easy. They want records of the previous repairs. They want proof that we’re really still seeing problems. In short, they’re making it as difficult as possible to get this situation sorted out.
And what’s the best we can hope for? Another repair session with Apple (Ireland). Niall having to work without a Powerbook for weeks. And, in the end, owning one Frankenstein of a portable — composed of bits and pieces from here and there, likely to never quite work like a new one.
Story Number 2: But wait, there’s more…
In our office here in Spain, a colleague just reported last week that one of the memory slots in his 15″ G4 Powerbook wasn’t being recognized. I nearly wept at the thought of having to contact Apple again. But alas, I connected to the Apple.com Spain support page, to lookup the support number again, and, lo, what did I see in the sidebar, but a link to:
Repair Extension Program: Powerbook G4 Memory Slot (15 inch)
How about that?– turns out the serial number of our Powerbook corresponds to the batch of defective units listed in this article, which have been demonstrated to have a problem recognizing both memory slots.
Great, in a weird way. At least you’d think that in this case, getting support would be easy — there’s an article on Apple’s very own website, listing my very own serial number.
Nope. Not even in this case is it easy to get service from Apple Europe. Seems that the repair terms and conditions of the article are relevant to the US market, not Europe — even though the article appears on Spain’s support page. Once again, I’m asked to go driving off to Malaga. The support representative said he needed to check with “management” to see how to proceed, and would phone us back.
A week later, we’re still waiting for the phone call.
Story Number 3: Yes, there’s even more…
In the year 2004, I reported to Apple Europe that there was a bug in the interface between their ordering system, and their logistics system, which discarded one line of the shipping address. In my case, it cut off the line which specifies in which apartment I live. Pretty serious problem, and the source of many shipping delays.
I received a reply from someone apparently high up in Apple Europe, apologizing for the problem, which he stated was a known issue he thought had been resolved several months earlier, and promising to personally look into it.
Jump ahead to mid-2005, another order of mine is delayed, due to the very same problem.
As far as I know, they still have this problem today. (Today, we specify shipping to our new office, which has a less complicated address than my home address.)
Moral of the stories…
The point of all this is that Apple should be ashamed of their European operations, especially their post sales support service. Maybe if enough people publish their stories, someone at Apple with enough clout (and concern) to do something about it will initiate some changes, to finally demonstrate some appreciation to their loyal customers.
The following email I received this morning is a good example of what can happen when you depend just a bit too much on online translators:
It would like to know itself the Guns N’ Roses has chance of touch that year with you, the event comes being the festival more expected by us fans of the band it to be confirmed, the band already I confirm in others big 8 festivais, to the all so far are 12 shows by the Europe!
Technorati Tags: onlinetranslators
For the past few months, I’ve been doing something I’ve wanted to do for many years — take guitar lessons. My instructor is Mario Solis Sola, and he’s fantastic. Very friendly, and a great teacher. He’s presently looking for new opportunities in the area, and we decided to help him out with the production of a small website where his CV (resume) and contact details are published:
http://www.mariosolissola.com/
If you’d be interested in learning to play the guitar in the Marbella area, he comes highly recommended!
Taking advantage of the Semana Blanca holiday here in Spain, we took the kids for a three-day trip to Granada, a get-away that turned out to be one of the most enjoyable in quite some time.
After the scenic 2.5 hour road trip from Marbella to Granada, we dropped our stuff off at the Cortijo Balzain enclave of rural houses, on the single-track road up between La Zubia and Cumbres Verdes. This is the second time we’ve stayed in the super-cozy rural houses for rent at Balzain, and it’s truly one of my favorite place to stay. The 300 year old little houses are fully refurbished, retaining their original rustic look and feel, while providing for all of the modern necessities (electricity, heating, water, fully equipped kitchen, heated floors, TV, etc.)
On Thursday afternoon, we drove down past La Zubia, and into Granada proper for an afternoon trip to the Parque de las Ciencias. Our children (and my wife and I) just love this place. It’s a huge science-themed parked, offering interesting attractions for kids and adults alike. We saw a dinosaur exhibition, a giant pendulum, rooms full of hands-on experiments demonstrating the principles of physics, math and science, an outdoor area full of “thinking puzzles” (remove the ring from the ropes. It’s impossible. Ok, it’s not impossible.), an outdoor labyrinth, and a greenhouse room full of exotic butterflies. And that’s just a small sample of what this place offers!
Before heading to the Parque de las Ciencias, we had one of the best meals of the trip, at the Fuente del Hervidero, a really old restaurant sitting just off the dirt road above Cumbres Verdes, heading into the Sierra Nevada national park. We sat on the sunny and warm terrace, and enjoyed some of the best cooked chicken and potatoes I’ve had in a long time. And what would be a country side lunch without wrapping things up with a home-made Crema Catalana, and Cafe con Leche!
Friday morning, after a pretty good breakfast in La Zubia, we headed up the 30 km drive to the Sierra Nevada ski station. We expected relatively few people, being Friday and not quite the weekend, but were we ever wrong. The place was packed. Unfortunately, and quite unbelievably, they don’t have anywhere at the lower levels for kids to play around in the snow. We ended up having to hire skis and boots for the little ones, and enroll them in a 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm ski orientation class for children.
All in all, we didn’t really enjoy the trip to the Sierra Nevada Ski Resort. There were just too many people, the place was kind of dirty, and as a family with small kids, we sorta felt unwanted.
Friday night we took a trip to the local Mercadona grocery store, and picked up some hot-dogs, buns, tiramisu, and wine, for a nice little cozy (and too easy-to-prepare) dinner at home.
Saturday turned out to be the best day of all. After a nice breakfast at the rural house, we took the car up the dirt road past Cumbres Verdes. At around the 1.5 km point or so, we parked the car, geared up, and started the hike up the trail towards the famous Trevenque mountain. The trail, which is wide and perfectly suitable for kids (at least as far as we got), circles the Trevenque, and forms a nice looping 11 km route. With the kids, we couldn’t do the whole thing, so we hiked up about 2 to 2.5 km, to a point where we could get a good look at Trevenque, had a picnic lunch, and headed back down.
During the hike, we were pleasantly surprised by a pack of wild mountain goats (or some kind of largish mountain animal) rushing down the mountain, and across the road.
On the way back home, we stopped just outside Granada, in Santa Fe, to pick up some those famous and incredibly scrumptious “Piononos”, from the source itself, the Pasteleria La Isla. (Thanks for the recommendation, Diego!)
After what happened to me today, I will do my best never to do business with Telefonica (the main Spanish telecoms provider) again.
Today I went to a friend’s house to install (a) his new Telefonica ADSL wifi (wireless) router, and (b) his new Apple iMac, which, in theory, would access the internet via the wifi router’s wireless network.
After plugging in the router, a Comtrend model CT356+, all the LEDs successfully came on, but I couldn’t see the wireless network using the Apple Airport software.
I called Telefonica tech support, and explained that I have their Comtrend CT356+ router, and that the device is not broadcasting the wireless network. And this is where my bad day began.
Telefonica: Ok, sir, we first have to conduct some tests to confirm that your network is not available. Can you startup your Windows XP machine please?
Me: I’m using a Macintosh.
Telefonica: Oh, just a second please. [On hold...] Sir, I’m sorry but Telefonica doesn’t support Macintosh.
Me: This has nothing to do with the platform. I’m trying to tell you that the router is not creating a wireless network.
Telefonica: Yes, but you could have mis-configured the router.
Me: The router comes pre-configured.
Telefonica: Oh, right. Well, anyway, I’m sorry, but we don’t support Macintosh.
Me: So what are my options?
Telefonica: Either find a PC, or we can send a technician that you’ll have to pay for (if the router proves non-defective.)
Me: If I had a PC with me, what would you do?
Telefonica: We would conduct some steps to confirm that a network isn’t available.
Me: What steps would those be?
Telefonica: I can’t tell you.
Me: Can I speak to the second-line support please, or your supervisor?
Telefonica: No, there’s nobody else here.
Me: Of course there is. Please transfer me to your supervisor.
Telefonica: No, I can’t because I would first have to confirm those steps.
Me: The steps which, for some reason, you can’t tell me?
Telefonica: Yes.
Me: What is your name?
Telefonica: Bruno Castaño.
Me: Thank you, Bruno.
I can’t tell you how frustrating this kind of experience is. You know what you’re talking about, but you have no way to get past the front-line support imbecile. So, I went off and found a PC notebook that had a wireless network card, and went back to my friend’s house, and called Telefonica (and spoke to a different person, of course). I described the situation, and we began proceeding through the oh-so-mysterious steps that Bruno couldn’t discuss:
Telefonica: Can you please go to the wireless networks area of the control panel, on your Windows XP machine.
Me: I’m there.
Telefonica: Ok, are there any networks available in the box that lists the “Available Networks”?
Me: No, it’s empty. (To myself: “Of course”)
Telefonica: Thank you sir, that means the router’s not creating a wireless network. I need to pass you to our second line support.
It’s a darn good thing that at this point, I didn’t happen to see a Telefonica technician walking by on the street outside, or the poor chap would have received a quick crash-course in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu’s more painful holds.
Telefonica: Hello, sir, this is Miguel. I’m going to walk you through the steps to reset your router.
[...At this point, we spend the next 30 minutes in total confusion. Nothing Miguel described worked as expected, the router didn't reset like he described, and finally each of us was convinced the other was out of his mind... Then the following happened...]
Me: Look, Miguel, I happen to know how to access the router’s admin area, you know, the web page that says, “Comtrend ADSL”, and…
Miguel: Wait! Did you say “Comtrend”?
Me: Yes, why?
Miguel: CRAP! My colleagues told me you had the Zyxel router! No wonder we’ve spent the last 30 minutes in total confusion!
Me: –sigh–
Miguel: If you’ve got the Comtrend router, then I know exactly what the problem is. There is a known factory configuration mistake with that device; it’s broadcasting on channel 12, and it needs to broadcast on another channel (3 or 4). Since you know how to access the admin area, you can modify that directly .
Me: Done, and it’s now working.
All in all, this little episode cost me over three hours of my time. And to add insult to injury, most of that time spent calling a Telefonica number, to cost of which is shared by both parties. (Not to mention the fact that Telefonica is shipping a router to people that it knows is mis-configured at the factory!)
So, like I say, I will, as far as possible, never do business with them again.
Technorati Tags: spain, telefonica
Yahoo! On Monday night, at Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training just after returning from the European championships, instructor Edson Jorge awarded me the purple belt! After almost five years of training in this sport, it sure feels good.
This, however, is both good, and bad.
A lot of responsibility goes with the purple belt. It’s the first belt in BJJ that generally qualifies you to teach. And it’s the half-way point to black. That’s the good.
The bad, for me, is that the student are really gunning for you when rolling in class. I’d kind of decided to modify my training, to try to reduce the number of little niggling injuries that seem to have accumulated, by rolling hard only once a week. But now it seems like I’m going to be fighting for my life every time we train.
Technorati Tags: bjj
This past weekend was very special to me, as, after several years of training in the martial art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ), I traveled with our team Gracie-Barra BH Marbella to Lisbon, Portugal, to compete in European BJJ Championships.
All the training paid off, as I won the gold medal in my category (Blue belt, 76 kg, Seniors 1) and nearly won a medal in the Open Class (all weights) category.
In all, I had five fights. Three were won by submission (foot lock, choke from the mount, and arm-bar) and one by judges decision. In the third round of the Open Class, I was disqualified as I went for a foot lock and rolled. The judge said that turned the move into a leg-bar, which is illegal.
I met a lot of interesting people at the event, including US grappler Mike Fowler, PrideFC fighter Fabricio Werdum, Carlos Gracie Jr., and Gracie-Barra north american representative, “Papa John”.
I plan to write up a team report on the GB Marbella website, with videos and photos.
Our company has a little feedback form on its website, and any submitted data is forwarded to me. Today, I received what must be the most interesting feedbacks ever:
Dear Prime Minister of The UK,
A lot of The SMS got Stuck in The Air without Reach (The Whole World!). The ESA took Them out of The Air, knowing that such Amount of Money reaches a High of Hundreds of Billions of Euro(500)!!
Could you Make a Demand on your Part?!
My Regarded Gratitude,
Yasing El Ballouti
We do a lot of work for the European Space Agency (ESA), and it looks like Mr El Ballouti feels they plucked some SMS messages out of the air, wants a refund, and that, well, Tony Blair must be employed by MakaluMedia.
Update: It seems Mr Ballouti also sent some comments to President Bush not long ago, in the comments of a weblog.
I don’t know whether it’s the lively coming and going of people, the aromatic smells, the taste of a great coffee, the change of pace, or a combination of them all, but I love hanging out in coffee shops. Hardly a week goes by that I don’t shut the Powerbook, slide it into its Waterfield sleeve, throw that into my Timbuk2 messenger bag, and head off to work for a few hours in a local cafe. And here in Spain, there’s no shortage of good ones!
Given that I couldn’t find a good local online guide, I decided to build one myself, CostaCafes.com, — as much a resource for myself, as for the public. So far, it’s been a blast to put together (even though it hasn’t netted me any free coffees as I’d planned!)
Tidbits for the week ending Saturday, January 21, 2006:
So our design director, Mike Rohde, who knows how miserable I am for having just purchased a new Powerbook one week before Apple’s MacBook Pro announcement (which happens to only be five times faster), decided to have a little fun at my expense tonight. Thanks buddy.
Technorati Tags: meanmike
Maybe Steve Jobs will read this (in the next minute or two, as I’m sure he’s got a Google Alert configured), feel sorry for me, and dispatch an early Easter present or something.
One of our recent customers, Outer Level, has written up a weblog entry describing the process of working with MakaluMedia designer Mike Rohde in the development of a new corporate logo.
Our company’s design director, and my good friend, Mike Rohde, was recently featured in an article from the Milwaukee Area Technical College. Be sure to check it out:
http://www.matc.edu/matc_now/Mike%20Rohde.html
Mike was our first employee in MakaluMedia, way back in 1998, and has been working as our Design Director ever since. He ensures that everything the company produces — whether a man-machine interface for a satellite tracking system, a corporate website, a desktop application icon, or a system user’s manual — is well designed.
Mike, with a classical design background, is an excellent example of the modern designer that made the transition from analog to digital with the realization and appreciation for the extent to which classical design theory and fundamentals are just as applicable in this medium as in print.
We’re thrilled to see his work and accomplishments recognized in articles like this. Congratulations, Mike!
PS: Mike also maintains a personal weblog which you might also want to check out.
Some time ago, I purchased an upgrade to Adobe Acrobat Professional, version 7. The installer didn’t ask for the previous version’s serial number, as most do, but rather asked me to locate the older version of the software on my hard drive. So I pointed the installer at version 6, completed the installation/registration, and then proceeded to remove version 6 from my hard drive.
Here were are now, about a year or so later, and I’ve migrated to a new Powerbook. First launch of Acrobat 7, and I’m asked to enter my serial number, and … once again, locate the version 6 software, which, of course, is no longer on my machine.
Fortunately, I kept a copy of version 6 in an archive, but what in the world is one to do in the case you no longer have the older version around (which I could easily imagine someone deleting)?
I can’t begin to express how fortunate I feel that about one week ago in the US, I purchased a new 15″ Powerbook, given that yesterday, Steve Jobs introduced the new Intel-based Powerbook which happens to be only about FIVE TIMES FASTER! They were NOT supposed to do that yet! Aaaaaarg!
For all you buggers with blazing new Intel Powerbooks, I wish you an abundance of Revision-1 hardware problems. (Maybe they’ll spontaneously combust!)
In other news, you’ve got to feel for Dan Wood at Karelia Software. A few years ago, Apple stole his thunder by releasing Sherlock, effectively killing Dan’s popular Watson software. For the last couple of years, he’s been diligently working on a new easy-to-use website builder, Sandvox. Well, yesterday Apple released iWeb, which, from what I can tell from the demo, absolutely blows Sandvox out of the water. In Dan’s own words, lightning can apparently strike twice.
