8 May 2002

Have I mentioned that I love Apple's tech support service? Because I really do.

Monday I called and told them that the battery on my Powerbook was broken - specifically that it was draining even when it wasn't even in the computer.

The tech support guy I talked to did not treat me like an idiot. He did not ask me to repeat myself, though he did repeat the problem back to me to make sure he'd understood it. He did not try to make it my fault. He said, "All right. We'll send you a new battery right away," and explained to me about how it would include a shipping label so I could send the old battery back to them, and if I didn't send it back in 15 days, I'd be charged for the new one.

I knew about this part already, actually, having replaced my AC adapter and a faulty DVD-ROM drive before also, but that was all right.

Yesterday afternoon, when I got home from work, there it was. One day later.

Open the box, swap out batteries. The new one appears to be charging (and holding its charge) correctly. (Also, it does not make the wrist-rest area uncomfortably warm, which is what alerted me to the problem with the old battery in the first place.)

I put the old battery in the box, close it up again, and peel off the top label, revealing the return label already on the box underneath, ready to go. All I have to do is arrange for pickup. (And I don't even really have to do that, since Airborne does a regular pickup at my office - I'll just add this box to the rest.)

Apple rocks. Apple's tech support rocks even more. I simply can't get over it. It was the best $300 I've ever spent. I was hoping when I bought the protection plan that I wouldn't need it. But having used it on several occasions, I'm glad I bought it.

All right. I'll shut up now... Until next time. Expect my next Apple-luv entry when I upgrade to OS X and buy an iPod, sometime in the next few months...

(I'm sorry this is so short and I don't have anything else to talk about, but I have about thirty pages of code to print out and read in the next forty-five minutes...)

--Liz