Customer Service, Apple’s Achilles Heel

So, I happened to be in the neighborhood yesterday, so I walked into an Apple store. I went to the back, where several ‘geniuses’ looked to be ‘idle’. One of them asked if I needed help, and I showed him my iPhone and asked if Apple was still replacing screens that have bubbles forming in in the glue that bonds the digitizer to the glass. He said yes, but that I needed to make an appointment. Idle staff telling me they can’t help me without an appointment. This is the part that Apple does not understand: Customer Service.

‘Servicing the Customer’ does NOT mean screwing them at every opportunity.

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Windows 7 – Proving Microsoft Can’t Add

If you can’t handle math, or managing lists, how the hell are we supposed to trust you with writing an operating system for a computer?

  1. Windows 1.0
  2. Windows 2.0
  3. Windows 3.0
  4. Windows 3.1
  5. Windows for Workstations 3.11
  6. Windows NT 3.1
  7. Windows NT 3.5
  8. Windows 95
  9. Windows NT 4.0
  10. Windows 95 OSR2
  11. Windows 98
  12. Windows 98 SE
  13. Windows ME
  14. Windows 2000
  15. Windows XP
  16. Windows Vista
  17. Windows 7

You may question whether some of these are actually different versions, but I am taking the view that if Microsoft didn’t have an upgrade utility, and made you go out and buy a new copy to get the ‘new version’, than it is a distinct software release. Microsoft set the rules, that Windows 95 OSR2 and Windows 98 SE were not ‘upgrades’; so they can’t complain if I hold them to their own definitions.

This is my short list, and isn’t nearly as extensive as some other lists, and I still count at least 17 major versions of Windows. Does this mean that Windows 7 is the tech we should have gotten ten versions ago?

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My awesome geeky wife!

Who says the studios don’t make money from people who watch ‘television’ shows on the Internet? Mel and I were watching Big Bang Theory on-line, and they had an ‘in show placement’ of a ‘Cylon Toaster’. It looks awesome:

cylon_toaster

We joked about how cool that would be, especially since we don’t have a toaster at this time. We paused the show, and thirty seconds of googling had us at the NBC/Universal Store.

We paid for it with the money we just got from selling on eBay some of the unused gift cards left over from our wedding presents. So, essentially, we just got a Cylon Toaster as a wedding present.

We both love it; and I love that I can share these geeky impulses with my awesome geeky wife.

UPDATE 2011-11-25 – Sadly, the original Cylon Toaster os no longer offered at the NBC store. It has been replaced with a cheesy looking Caprica toaster (which is now unavailable as well). Not nearly as nice. Sadly, this means if you want the cool one you’ll have to bay big bucks on eBay. Sorry. 🙁

I use Amazon affiliate links in some of my posts. I think it is fair to say my writing is not influenced by the $0.40 I earned in 2022.