I spent almost three hours at the APPLE store trying to pick up a Mac Pro yesterday.  The plan was simple.  I was suppose to go to the APPLE store and pick up a mac pro that I already had configured via a phone conversation with a genius.  I got there and it took almost 30 minutes for them to figure out how to get the transaction completed.  Now interestingly enough they already sent me a total amount the day before so the check I had was all ready written in the amount they told me via email the day before.  Apparently it was a few cents off.  Not  a big deal to most retailers but apparently APPLE, inc. has very strict accounting practices and this was unacceptable.  Since I could not re-write the check this caused a bit of confusion.  The store manage came to assist at this point…

During the accounting fiasco I noticed they forgot to include the airport card that I specified in my configuration of the machine.  The cost of the airport card is $49.  They decided to include the airport card at a price of a few cents to make the whole transaction work (mark one score in my column).  Now what was interesting was we discovered that the online price and the store price were different for the same machine.  This was the culprit…not sure how or why.

So it came time to pay.  APPLE, inc. has a third party check verifying process…let’s just call them TELECHECK.  TELECHECK declined the check for a ‘non-specific’ reason.  Seeing how I did not want to waste my time any further I called TELECHECK.  After finally getting through to a person I was informed that the bank had sufficient funds and there were not problems with previous checks…however the check did not meet their requirements.  When promoted to elaborate further on ‘their requirements’ I simply got dead silence.  Seems to me TELECHECK needs to define this for their employees.  I went back and forth with the APPLE employee’s and TELECHECK for almost an hour.  When it finally cleared up, we were able to identify what the problem was.  Apparently TELECHECK had misspelled our organizations name…all I can say is ‘GRRRRR’.

So we wrapped up the transaction. At this point I am two hours behind schedule, and about to miss a meeting that I had previously scheduled.  The APPLE, inc. employee informs me that they have to ‘install’ my ram and airport card.  I looked at this person in complete disbelief.  They had known since the day before that I was going to pick this machine up and waited until now to configure it….’GRRRRR’.  Seeing how I had no choice (I was not interested in a voided warranty) I donated another hour of my life to sites and sounds of the APPLE store.

Today, I shall configure the mac pro.  Although I appreciate mac’s, I did not appreciate my experience yesterday at the APPLE store.

Another interesting note:  The APPLE store has hundred’s of thousands of dollars of equipment…however I discovered yesterday that they don’t have enough pen’s to write with.  Seems kind of funny.