Why I’ll never regret my switch from a PC to an iMac

Bear with me on this as I need to paint the picture.

The dreaded red ring of death!

E-Cubed’s Xbox 360 decided to bestow upon our team the dreaded Red Ring of Death (RRoD). The gaming equivalent of the BSoD, Blue Screen of Death, for PCs. The first time we got this nasty surprise was bad enough but twice in just over a year made the team’s blood boil (We are self-admitted Halo 3 junkies).

As Da Big Cheeze at E-Cubed it is my responsibility to take care of these highly important corporate emergencies. I immediately jumped on my iPhone and called ‘Fred’ who sounded decidedly like he may have been from Bombay or Calcutta to discuss the need to get our team a replacement.

I was given two options:

1) Wait 3 – 5 business days for Purolator to drop off an empty packaging container complete with pre-paid shipping label. Wait another 3 – 5 days for them to send another courier to pick up the package. Then wait 3 – 5 weeks for a replacement to arrive.

2) They could email me a shipping label within 48 hours and I could provide my own packaging and ship it back myself saving 6 – 10 days in the process.  The caveat here of course is that Microsoft would not guarantee that it would be covered under warranty if the package was damaged during shipment.

Decisions….decisions….

OK we’ll go with Option 2 and gamble that the package would not come to any undue harm from Vancouver to some undisclosed destination in Eastern Canada.

72 hours later still no email from ‘Fred’. E-Cubed team starting to go into low level anxiety attack. Call to confirm status of email. ‘Fred’ got the email wrong. Another 72 hours passes and still no email. Call again. Got disconnected twice after being on hold for over 20 minutes and feeling very technophobic of the VOIP services to South Asia. Bad taste in my mouth about Microsoft’s ability to send a simple email so I switched over to Option 1 – Send Purolator.

Good as Gold Purolator showed up on the 3rd day. Now we are getting somewhere!

Here is where the vindication for my PC – Mac switch manifested itself. While waiting for the Xbox to get returned my sleek and shiny aluminum keyboard that was almost  a year old became dysfunctional.

Said keyboard decided that it wants a divorce from the big shiny iMac that its tethered to because the iMac gets all the attention. The differences between the keyboard and iMac are irreconcilable and as such I need to seek a new dance partner for my 24″ beauty.

I call Apple Care. 4 minutes with a guy who’s in Cupertino. He speaks English and truly cares about solving my problem. He obviously understands separation anxiety and wants to get me reunited with my baby and show me how well the Apple experience proves its dedication for its customers.

He promises to ship me an immediate replacement. I’ve heard these empty promises before and know that “I love you” does not necessarilly mean for more than one night. I felt so ashamed when it was sitting on my desk at work the next morning before I arrived.

The instructions were very simple. Remove brand new keyboard from supplied box, swap with broken keyboard, call for pick-up before end of day.

In just over 16 hours my brushed aluminum iMac was fully operational and I barely had time to miss it.

3 Weeks after receiving the new iMac keyboard and 2 months since I made the first call to Microsoft to get the

RRoD erased from my mind the refurbished Xbox 360 finally showed up.

It only took 16 hours and 7 minutes for Apple to prove how important I am to them. They now have a dedicated follower who will never buy a Microsoft based PC again unless I am forced by circumstances beyond my control.

Somebody should have told Mr. Gates that you can never force someone to love you.