[Chinney]

The local shop where I buy much of my Apple stuff is a hole-in-the-wall that used to be a quiet place with friendly, knowledgeable staff and service. Now it seems to be constantly busy, prices for 3rd-party products and for Apple-certified service have gone way up, the staff is overworked and rude, and the wait times for the simplest service are long (and the staff say that it will only further delay matters if you phone them to ask when your machine will be ready.)

I would go somewhere else, but there are not a lot of choices here in Ottawa. A lot of places here are now selling Macs that used to just sell PCs, but not many are supporting them. The list of Apple-certified service centres is short, and all of them are small little shops with limited staff.

My theory is that sudden take off in Apple sales has left the local Apple technical support capability behind. I expect (hope) that Apple popularity will create the demand that will eventually increase local capabilities, but in the meantime things are rough.

In my case, all I wanted was to install more RAM on my Intel Mini. I have performed this task myself on a previous Mac, but the newest Mini internal design was a bit more than I wanted to take on. To get this done at the local shop, I am paying more than double the online price for RAM, a large extra service charge for installation, and I am faced with an indefinite wait. I should have just done it myself.

[psmith2.0]

Be happy you've got a place to go locally.

And yeah, you probably should've done the RAM yourself, faced with all that nuttiness (expense, wait, etc.).

[Brave Ulysses]

Originally Posted by pscates2.0 Be happy you've got a place to go locally. And yeah, you probably should've done the RAM yourself, faced with all that nuttiness (expense, wait, etc.).

Doing so on a Mac Mini is a grey area of whether or not it is within the scope of your warranty.

Some here will claim otherwise but I have yet to see it in writing that ram is user installable on the mini.

(Hopefully this has changed).

[thegeriatric]

Originally Posted by pscates2.0 Be happy you've got a place to go locally.

If only If only!!!

[autodata]

Our local reseller is so notoriously awful I've been praying that the now many metro area apple stores will force them out of business. Their service has always been literally the worst of any store I know of (there were times years ago when I seriously contemplated throwing a brick through the window and I'm actually surprised no one ever did), so the arrival of apple stores a few years ago was a massive relief.

[ronmexico]

There is this guy at our Apple store who has a touch of chauvinism. My wife, a computer trainer, was purchasing a Macbook... Every time she had a technical question, he would laugh her off and tell her she doesn't need the extra RAM, or the screen size she wanted was not for her...And he would only talk to me when tech specs were discussed. She refuses to go back in the store when he is there.

[caoimhin]

The local Mac Specialist Reseller in my area is actually quite good with one annoying exception: Apple treats them as 2nd class citizens when it comes to delivering on CTO Macs! I ordered a new iMac 24" 2.8GHz system through them on the 8th and there is still NO shipping status. If I had ordered from the Apple store online, I would have had it a week ago.

[thegeriatric]

Originally Posted by Chinney The local shop where I buy much of my Apple stuff is a hole-in-the-wall that used to be a quiet place with friendly, knowledgeable staff and service. Now it seems to be constantly busy, prices for 3rd-party products and for Apple-certified service have gone way up, the staff is overworked and rude, and the wait times for the simplest service are long (and the staff say that it will only further delay matters if you phone them to ask when your machine will be ready.) I would go somewhere else, but there are not a lot of choices here in Ottawa. A lot of places here are now selling Macs that used to just sell PCs, but not many are supporting them. The list of Apple-certified service centres is short, and all of them are small little shops with limited staff. My theory is that sudden take off in Apple sales has left the local Apple technical support capability behind. I expect (hope) that Apple popularity will create the demand that will eventually increase local capabilities, but in the meantime things are rough. In my case, all I wanted was to install more RAM on my Intel Mini. I have performed this task myself on a previous Mac, but the newest Mini internal design was a bit more than I wanted to take on. To get this done at the local shop, I am paying more than double the online price for RAM, a large extra service charge for installation, and I am faced with an indefinite wait. I should have just done it myself.

Part of the price having to be paid for Apple products becoming more popular unfortunatly.

[Chinney]

Originally Posted by Brave Ulysses Doing so on a Mac Mini is a grey area of whether or not it is within the scope of your warranty. Some here will claim otherwise but I have yet to see it in writing that ram is user installable on the mini. (Hopefully this has changed).

I think that I would have risked the warranty. My one-year standard warranty is almost up in any event.

I just thought it would be a bit complicated to do it myself. I found some good instructions online, but the RAM change procedure for the new Mini is quite a bit more involved than I would have liked. I am sure that I could have done it, but I figured that, with my inexperience, it would have taken me an evening (a ‘nervous’ evening), while ‘pros’ can do it in half an hour. I was willing to pay for their time in order to have it done quickly and without any fuss.

This is not turning out so well, as the shop still has not gotten around to doing the half hour job and can’t tell me when it will be ready. If I don’t get it by tomorrow, I am taking it back, ordering RAM online, and doing it myself.