Recently Apple has authorized Best Buy nationwide to do warranty work for Apple computers.  Overall I think it is great to have more warranty options to do repairs, but as someone who does computer repair on Apple computers, I have some opinions about it!

Apple Retail Stores Want You to Buy New Rather Than Fix

Apple has been accused more than once of pushing new purchases over repairs and our client stories are consistent.  The retail stores are a disaster lately and suffer from substantial turnover, even at the top.  You’ll rarely get the same person and get a consistent answer.  It takes days to get an appointment, and Apple employees are accidentally deleting customer data too often.

Sometimes at the store, you’ll get pushed to purchase a new product even if yours is less than a year old.  As soon as they introduce a new product, they’re pushing you away from the old one.

This upselling isn’t just an Apple thing, but tends to be everywhere inretail.  Places want to sell you stuff, that’s the definition of retail, right? Office Depot was caught using deceptive sales tactics to sell people things they don’t need.  They were fined $25 million for that violation.  Office Depot is a well-known brand, and they violated consumer trust by doing this.

They Can Outright Refuse to Help

Apple Geniuses are bound by Apple rules and will follow the “company line” regarding support.  On distressing example is someone who accidentally lost pictures from their iPhone.  Apple refused to help!  That’s wrong.  However, they’re Apple; they don’t have to earn your business. They’re more focused on selling rather than support.

They Don’t Know How You Use the Product

One unique quality of using a small, independent computer repair company is we’ll take the time to understand how you use the computer.  Individualized services yield individualized results.  Apple frankly gets repairs wrong sometimes.  Recently they replaced a customer’s MacBook Pro three times because they misdiagnosed a problem of a screensaver!   The replacement didn’t cost Apple anything since they make the computer.  The customer didn’t pay because it was under warranty, but what about his time and lost productivity?  As a small business owner, I understand downtime is money lost.  Retail employees don’t always think that way.

Pick Someone Focused on Service, Not Sales

We’re not out to sell you stuff, only to fix the stuff you have. If we tell you it is time to replace it rather than repairing it, we’re talking ourselves out of work.  Sure it’s a loss of a short-term profit, but we’re in this business for the long haul.  If it’s under warranty, we’re going to refer you to someplace like Best Buy since Apple will cover the repair.  If it’s out of warranty, we’re going to help you ourselves.

Small, Local, Independent Business

I’m a big believer in support of local business.  Larger retailers don’t have to earn your business, we do.  We live and work in your communities.  If you’re in Lawrence, obviously I hope you’d pick us for computer repair, but if not, please support a local business.  Thanks for all your support over the years and let us fix your Apple computers (as well as PCs)