I’m often asked why I like Apple devices over others, and as you can see in other posts I have tried Android and Windows devices at times though I always end back on Apple devices. And I have a couple of other posts for this site planned around Apple so decided I would tie them together under a banner of ‘Confessions of an Apple Fanboy’.

For Chapter 1 I am talking about the best feature I find with Apple, their Support. I have held positions in IT for eighteen years, I’ve been in Helpdesk, Networking, Servers, Customer Services and Operations. And during that time I have dealt with almost every companies support process, and each time I’ve worked with a company I compare them to Apple, which for me has been one of the best experiences I have experienced and surprisingly on par for work with Microsoft.

The most recent support experience I have gone through is why I finally decided to write this up, but first, some other times I have dealt with them.

Bathed my iPhone, they replaced it under warranty

As the title says, I stupidly threw my pants into a bath full of water to soak them since I got cat food on them. And I forgot my iPhone 5 was in my pocket at the same time. I found it 4 hours later when I couldn’t find my phone.

But I walked into Apple and admitted what had happened and asked how much to fix/replace. At this time AppleCare didn’t exist. But next thing they handed me a brand new iPhone and told me it would be covered under warranty.

Wife’s iPhone rocker kept failing, replaced in seconds.

My wife’s iPhone rocker (going between silent and normal) wasn’t working, sometimes it wouldn’t realise we had flicked the switch, and other times it would randomly active itself. The Genius took it out of the case, saw the phone was bent (iPhone 5) and swapped it on the spot. I hadn’t noticed it was bent and thought they would have denied it then and there.

MacBook Pro, phantom trackpad movements.

I went in with random trackpad movements when a mouse wasn’t connected. They saw the issue and then ran their diagnostics. They found that the trackpad needed to be replaced, but so did a few other issues that required more replacements which they went ahead with. I know other companies that would have repaired only want they needed… not all the other gear.

iPad Pro Pencil/case scratch.

My iPad Pro and Apple Pencil had developed a scratch where the magnetic connected them. I don’t know whether it was the pencil that caused it or the iPad housing, either way, both ended up with scratches and they replaced them both with advanced replacements.

As you can see from above my experiences with Apple Support have been fantastic except for one when I got a 2018 15” MacBook Pro I started to run into issues. As many would know the keyboard on these devices are dog shit… sorry for the bad language but a quick google search shows that.

I have had 4 repairs done on my 2018 MBP, and the first one was the worst. Now from the beginning, the reason for the repair was mine, I closed the lid of the MBP while my iPad Apple Pencil was in the way… CRACK! Though what happened next is what bugged me, I contacted Apple and was told to do an Apple Care Repair via a local authorised repairer.

I went over and gave them to MBP, told them I had broken the screen and they told me it would be 7 to 14 days.

2 weeks later I call up to find they haven’t even looked at it, I also got a lot of attitudes because I had called up 14 days later not 14 business days later. They begrudgingly started the process, reviewed it to agree… yes I need a new screen and told me it would be another few days to arrive and I would then jump the queue to be repaired. They said all this like is as if I was getting some gold class standard. I thanked them and picked up my MBP a few days later, though I was told that they couldn’t do all the checks since the diagnostic system was down, and with the system down they also suddenly wouldn’t tell me what else they had done other than replacing the screen. The device worked so I left.

Jump forward six months and I started getting the issues with the keys… keep in mind they have never been great though they had gotten worse. I spoke to Apple Support and when they suggested I take it to the same repairer I refused and told them the last update. They agreed it was wrong and asked if I would like the On-Site repair which I was entitled to under my Business Apple Care. I jumped on that and within a week the keyboard was replaced. Brilliant.

Jump forward again another six months and the keyboard issue had returned, and I had been dealing with it when suddenly the touch bar completely failed. Again I requested some support and was given it, a tech came out and replaced all the parts required.

Skip forward to the last month and my Apple Care expired and the keyboard was again failing, though I didn’t want to go through the process again when I knew it wouldn’t be a long term fix. I also only have 12 months left on its lease so would be replacing it by end of 2022. Though I kind of hit a perfect storm of spare time.

I was on leave, Christmas had been done, and I was put into isolation pending results from a PCR test… which took 5 days. And then I saw on Reddit (link) that someone with a 2019 MBP keyboard issue got a replacement from Apple that was a brand new unit. So I thought why not.

I started with a chat process with Apple, they said there was nothing they could so I asked to speak to a Senior Advisor Alex, who agreed the device had been through too many changes, so they asked me to go to the local Apple Store (which is an hour away) and I did so. They wrote up the MBP had no damages but confirmed the keyboard issues, and I had to go home and get back on the phone. There I spoke to another lovely Senior Advisor, this time called Gill who agreed it had taken too many and we spoke through the process again and the approval has been granted.

As I write this on my iPad Pro and Magic Keyboard because the 2018 MacBook Pro keyboard sucks, I am waiting for confirmation on pickup and then delivery on a new MacBook Pro which should start on Thursday, not sure on the timeframe of the new MacBook Pro. Though I am blown away with what they are sending me in return… a 2021 16” MacBook Pro M1, 10 Core CPU, 16 Core GPU, 512 SSD.

Now as I said I’ve had some great experiences with Apple Support, though this one is amazing, a 3-year-old MacBook Pro has been fully replaced with a brand new MacBook Pro of similar value. I had an issue with a Toshiba laptop my wife used, they admitted it was a lemon and that it needed to be replaced, though they didn’t have that device anymore. So they offered me the current value of the laptop as a replacement, so we could get nothing in return because after 2 years the value of the laptop was around three hundred dollars. To go from that to what Apple has offered me is just amazing.

I’m going to stop typing now until I hear out what is happening next.

Skip forward 4 days.

I’ve just got off the phone with Gill, and on Tuesday my 2018 MacBook Pro will be collected, and a new 2021 M1 Pro 16” MacBook Pro is on its way.

What blows my mind about all this is that this has all been achieved over the New Years break, granted the new device hasn’t arrived but I have tended to find that once Apple has something in writing they do it. As a user, this level of support is amazing and is another reason I will be shopping at Apple again.