Ryan j Budke

Fair warning, this post only tangentially deals with the iPhone, so if you were looking for some great insight on it, go elsewhere. No, this story is about how Apple managed to really alienate a “Mac convert” very quickly.

The power converter for the MacBook Pro, in typical Apple fashion, is set up really slick so that the wire leading away from the brick to the computer can wrap around these two little “pegs” that fold out. Nice for when you’re traveling so you don’t have a jumbled mess, but it puts a lot of strain on a little wire. The power on my MacBook Pro had been acting funky for the past week or so, with it suddenly dropping on to battery even though it was plugged in, and there seemed to be a little bulge right at the point where the wire hits the brick. I was worried that there was a short in it, so I ordered a new power cord via our corporate help desk.

Well, while I was using it yesterday, the power dropped out completely for a minute before flickering rapid fire on and off. I quickly unplugged it, picked up the brick to make sure nothing was physically wrong with it, and set it down next to me. After giving it a few minutes to cool down, I plugged it back in and it worked fine. Probably and hour or so went by and then there was a loud pop next to me. The power cord had “exploded” (nothing dramatic, I didn’t get flung across the room or anything, I just can’t think of a better word) and was currently on fire. It burnt a hole in my jeans (I have a nice blister and welt on my leg) and the carpet was on fire. I yanked the cord out and smacked out the fire real quick.

As with all setbacks, this couldn’t have happened on a worse day. I’ve been working on a big upcoming project for Netscape, was in the middle of about a half dozen important chats and waiting to hear back via email on another dozen. I thought I’d have a chance to wrap everything up, and then go get a replacement as I wanted a second cord anyway, nope. As a bonus, whatever happened left my battery with all of about a five minute lifespan. I grabbed the cord and ran down to the Apple store, completely forgetting what day it was. I got there, the gate was down, and a line of about 30 or so people had formed. In retrospect, I should have just stayed there, but there was a Circuit City right across the parking lot, so I headed there. As I was walking I called the closest Best Buy, who told me that they were out of stock of the supplies. After waiting for a Circuit City employee to let me know that the power supply he swore he had had apparently disappeared, I turned and headed back to the Apple store, and that’s when the problems really kicked in.

In the maybe 20-25 minutes that I was gone, the line had grown to well over 200 people. Aggravated more at myself at this point, I got back in line. I apologize to any of the excited people around me who were trying to talk to me about the impending awesomeness waiting in the store, I was in no mood. After over an hour wait, I got in to the store, had an iPhone put in front of me, but when I politely declined, I was bluntly told that unless I was getting one, I’d have to come back tomorrow. Friday June 29th was iPhone day and that was it for Apple, I couldn’t even buy a new cord. Completely flabbergasted, I left. Went back today, got a new power supply.

So here’s the deal, I’m not oblivious to the fact that yesterday may have well been Apple’s biggest day ever. Up until that moment, I was one of many that were beyond excited with the iPhone. I was lucky enough to travel to Macworld with the TUAW guys earlier this year and had a (more or less) front row seat to his Steveness’s iPhone introduction. It was awesome. I wasn’t ever sure if I wanted to get one, but I was excited not only for Apple, but for the huge changes that would come out of this announcement across the board.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t aggravated by the physical/technical aspect of this, but I understand completely random stuff like this happens from time to time, but the way that a company who prides themselves on their customer experience treated me yesterday has left me severely scorned. This MacBook Pro was my first full-time Mac computer, I’ve been thrilled with it, and over the past year, I’ve been the poster boy for “converting to the church of Mac”, now though… I’m going to have a hard time recommending them. Everyone is out to make money, but yesterday Apple put that above everything else.

As I said, above, this whole incident really left me up the proverbial creek when it came to work yesterday, so I’m still really aggravated. Maybe I should have chilled a day or two before writing. Maybe I won’t feel this way tomorrow. Somehow I doubt that.

UPDATE: Here’s a few pictures and a link to the entire set.