Passing of the Torch

If you read this blog, eat lunch with me, or have a tap on my phone then you know of my recent mac troubles. Our iMac G5 has faithfully served us for over two years. She has spent many hours blogging, doing digital photo work, uncountable hours of video editing and DVD burning. She never once asked, "what's in it for me" I can honestly say the first 99% of her existence in this house has been least troublesome, most worry free computer i've ever owned. Having said that, this last 1% has nearly killed me. I will say that i took my own advice and every single one of our 20,000+ pictures were backed up so there was no fear of precious data loss during all of this experience. Let me recap the past couple of months in my computer life.

January - iMac died (via power problems, thanks sparta electric)
2 trips to West Town Apple Store in Knoxville and we were in business

March 22 - imac dies, same problem as before
2 trips to Green Hills Mall in Nashville, problem still exists

March 29 - imac makes another trip to green hills
2 trips to Green Hills, mac returns home, still unfixed

That brings us to today. If you were keeping score at home, then you did the math and realized that is over a 1000 miles of driving, hours and hours in a car, and lots of cash with gas well over 3 bucks a gallon. Needless to say, this whole situation has had me pretty flustered. Driving hours on end, only to use your computer for 30 seconds and realize it is not fixed doesn't make you very happy. I must say the Green Hills folks have bent over backwards to try and solve the problem, but the problem has remained. Then Genius Bar folks have been the best. I was less impressed with managers and front desk folks whom i talked to on the phone during this ordeal. They are like talking to a recording, and no matter what you say your not going to change their minds. Luckily once you drive the two hours the dudes at the bar have been very accommodating and understanding. So far i have had outstanding hlep from Ellis, Chris and Joshua there at the store.

Joshua helped me today, I gave him my 10 page history on this computer, and told him I did not intend to be rude to him, but was very frustrated with this computer. Being in the tech support business myself, i know that if you come in hot then I'm prob not going to go out of my way too much for you. We spoke for awhile, he went back and spoke with chris who worked on my computer before. This happened a couple of times. Then finally Joshua came out with a look on his face that didn't look good. It was the look of we did all we could, but we couldn't save her. We're sorry but your dog died on the operating table look. He then proceeded to tell me the following.... Man i hate you've had so many problems. I'll be honest with you. I don't think its worth putting another logic board in this computer. It is hard to tell what is going wrong with it. I knew this was probably coming, and had resolved in my heart that she could be dead. He then surprised me by following that with this statement. I tell you want i want to do if its ok with you. I would like to give you a new computer. I said a refurbed G5? He said, no a new iMac just like these here in the store. He said we don't do this very often, but i know you've had lots of trouble and have driven a lot and we want to make it right. I know your a mac fan, and we want to keep you on board. He said i've got to do a fair amount of paper work to make this happen, and I need to order you one in that meets your custom built specs. So let me get this taken care of, it will take me a few days but when i call i just need you to bring all the stuff that came with your mac like keyboard and mouse etc. We will do the exchange and I hope ths can help ease the problems you've had. I was pretty speechless. I shook his hand and thanked him, and was on my way. In hind sight, I wish i had turned flips, and offered him a steak dinner to show how much i appreciate him. I was just so shocked i didn't know what to say. I'm pretty stoked about the new machine. Just when you think you've grown to hate Apple, they bring you back into the fold. Thanks to the Green Hills Apple store for all their help. They could have told me to get lost, but instead turned a horrible scenario into an Apple success story. Go figure. Below is a pic of the new machine when it comes in.