WoW_Accounthehe, thanks. I know it puts my in the "uncool" category...but sometimes its good to be a rebel!

Damankas Thanks for your response. Sorry it took so long to get back with you, I am out of town on vacation, but you raise some good arguments.

I actually never intended to write Steve Jobs. It wasn't until his video presentation suggesting that he wanted to satisfy all Apple customers, that I figured "why not." He opened the door and I stuck my foot in.

The tone of my letter ("forced") was the truth. I didn't like Mac's and thought they were overpriced. I wanted to show that they "won me over" with a good machine. You're right, I could have toned the email down and it might have been more diplomatic. I'm usually pretty good at that in my letter writing, but I was frustrated and I think a CEO would understand that. His staff understood enough to give me a call...so I must not have gone too far.

As a small business owner, I know that to stay in business, you have to respect the customer and sometimes you have to take unusual measure if you see the benefits of "making a customer happy" outweigh an angry customer. I would suggest a Mac like mine ...cost of parts and labor, probably would cost Apple $300-$400 to give away (something any other company should have done 6 years ago when they saw the level of problems with this computer). Instead, I have spent my time talking people out of buying them (so now they lose the profit of $1200 or more per computer that I helped talk people out of). And not only would they stop my evangelizing against them, but they would turn me into an evangelist for them...because they went out of their way (as Steve Jobs said they would).

Again, you're right...asking for a 7 year old computer to be replaced is an extraordinary thing. Maybe after going through 3 years of warranty to never have anything really fixed frustrated me and I wrote a letter to give one last shot to see if Apple really was the extraordinary company they say they are. Maybe I knew, even in writing that letter that the answer would be "no" because I had heard "no" so many times before...and that's why I let my emotions fly a little more in it. But to me, the letter and Apple's follow up isn't the biggest issue. Its that they sold me a lemon, certified an unqualified third party to work on it, and just kept dragging me along until it wore me down (in time and money) and I finally gave up.

I'm reminded of a story I heard about a Hall of Fame baseball player named Luke Appling. He played for a cheapskate owner in Chicago who would never give him a raise. Luke had a great batting eye and so he decided to work on fouling off pitches. He became infamous for the amount of foul pitches he could hit in an at bat. He said, if the boss isn't going to give me a raise, then I'm going to make him spend the money on baseballs. Each person that glow's about Macs will always get my dose of reality...I'll just keep fouling off pitches and avoiding Macs.

JMattHicks Sad part is, I did want to be a loyal customer...I bought it because I loved the G4 I worked on at my previous job.

I am still considering buying an iPad (I have a Droid X already, so it would help me in understanding the two main mobile platforms for my business), but it is out of necessity, rather than desire. I was told that I should have bought it somewhere besides CompUSA (the nearest Mac store was in Atlanta-2 1/2 hours away), but I say, if you can't get the vendor to sell and support it right, you should stop working with that vendor.

I think, in the new world of customer feedback as king over ad agency promotion, Apple is doing themselves a disservice by paying more attention to marketing over these lame attempts at satisfying customers. They have won over word-of-mouth...and they can just as easily lose by it.

hannush I think we may have ourselves a full-fledged case study in the making.

I've been looking a buying a new laptop for the past few weeks now. I'm currently on a 2-year old HP and I love it, but I need something a bit newer with more processing power and something that can serve well for photo/video editing and gaming. Not to mention I've put this one through the wringer and back. I've had my eye on the 15" MacBook Pro and the HP Envy 17 3D series.

I love the Mac functionality and I've always enjoyed using one when I did, but I've heard more negative things than positive about their support and such, similar to what you've expressed. But with my HP, I've had great functionality as well PLUS I've always received great support. But, living in the SF Bay Area, the Mac is everywhere and when programming, often times a Mac is easier to use for such. It seems like the more "likely" pick, if you will.

But the laptops are equally priced, and I'd say the HP is just as powerful if not more powerful. So who am I going to go with? The ever-popular Mac with questionable support or the less popular but equally functional HP with great support?

After reading your post, I'm leaning toward the HP. I, too, want to be a loyal customer, and HP is giving me reason to be that.

JMattHicks That's just it. How much money has Apple lost because of me? I have been a web developer for eight years...and you know how it goes when you're in an IT field, your less tech savvy clients look to you for advice on things like computers. I will say I have at least swayed 7 people that I know of away from Mac's just by telling my story. That's $1700 times 7...a lot of money...and Apple thinks its better to just toss me a $100 bucks to shut me up...if they had replaced my unit, my story may still have been told, but it would have had a happy ending, it might actually have me evangelizing for them.

I became devoted to HP's a couple years ago. I have been really satisfied, especially since the move to Windows 7 on all my machines...now the minor bugs seem to be gone. See, I can evangelizing and do so willingly...I have had a great experience with HP's and luckily haven't needed support. I have talked quite a few people into them...over Dells and over Macs. So customer service and sometimes eating a little profit on a deal can actually make you money and build loyalty, as far as I've seen.

You're right, you have to do what's right for your needs (oh, and if you're in the Bay Area, you might also have to watch for the Cupertino spies at your door!). I wish you luck with your decision. Its not an easy one...all I can say is, if you get a Mac lemon...tell 'em to replace it as soon as you find out...they have been known to do that, and I wish I had known that at the time.

Glad you shared.

hannush ha ha the spies are what I was worried about! Thanks for sharing, it's been a great conversation.

Mat Hi Mat, I put all the detail into a very thorough letter (I attached it as a PDF in the post). Did you see that? It was an amazing journey. Thanks for posting.