Robin, if you break your promise, I'm calling Batman!

Well, the day before yesterday I spoke with a woman called Robin at Apple Customer Relations. She told me that while they do have a policy for allowing dissatisfied customers to get a refund, "they" weren't going to do it "at this time". However, Robin did promise me that if my iBook did break down again, that she would replace it. Of course, if and when it breaks down again, I won't want a replacement - I'll want that refund. Whether I'll go with another Apple at that point or back to PCs is still up in the air.

In the meantime, Robin got a box to me to ship my laptop back to Apple for a quick swap out of the hard drive. She claimed it could and would be done immediately and that I would have my iBook back in full working order by tomorrow. Which, I do not believe. I'll expect it Friday, if not next week. But she said she'd have it overnighted from me to Apple yesterday. She said she'd have an Airborne guy at my apartment yesterday. He'd have a box and wait while I packed the iBook. When the Airborne guy showed up, he didn't even have a box! After having to borrow my cell to call for advice (he had Cingular, the poor dope!) he was told to come back to the office to get a box. He showed up 30 minutes later with one. I packed it up and sent it on it's merry way.

It's supposed to be at Apple today, where it will have it's HD swapped out and it then, according to her, it will be shipped back to me today, for a tomorrow delivery. Like I said, I'll believe that when I see it. I'll try calling Robin in a few hours to see if everything is on schedule.

If you're an Apple person - don't kid yourself. The only reason to buy Apple is that you're supporting the smaller big-ass computer company. Any alternative to Micro$oft is good. But don't think Apple is any different from any other computer company. They all want to make it easy on themselves and don't care how hard it is for you.

Go with Apple to fight the hegemony, but don't be blindly loyal to any company that treats you just as poorly as other companies treat you. We give THEM our money. They should be thankful to have their business since our business keeps their business ALIVE.

UPDATE 12:18pm: The same Airborne guy just showed up with a box for my laptop. Yes. I know. I don't understand, either. I hope my iBook isn't sitting in some dead-letter bin at Airborne.