I have previously written about Streetwise, an Apple Authorised Service Centre, and its policy of holding onto computers while they wait days for replacement parts to arrive so that they can maintain a high Apple Service Rating.

That original post came about when I had to get the palm rest of my MacBook replaced under warranty, and in the past week another shocking outcome of that repair has come to light: when the Streetwise technician replaced my palm rest, he did not transfer my MacBook’s serial number sticker (which is attached to the underside of the palm rest—inside the battery compartment).

When I contacted Streetwise about this last week, service manager Jedda Wignall was appropriately contrite. “It is incredibly unfortunate that you have been hit with this inconvenience, as could have been put in a precarious situation as a result,” he wrote (sic.). “The technician who performed the work is no longer with the company, and I would like to think that this situation would not arise again.”

The precarious situation to which he refers would occur if damage or malfunction left me unable to turn on my computer to look up the serial number in the operating system. In effect, I would be unable to prove the identity of my computer, and thus unable to obtain warranty service.

In order to make it up to me, Wignall offered to waive the cost of labour on any future repair work I might require. I turned him down: “I’m afraid that it’s reached the point where I would rather pay the labour costs than leave any of our computers in the hands of Streetwise staff again.”

At the same time, I advised everyone else here at SitePoint to avoid using Streetwise to service their Macs. Streetwise would not be getting near any of our computers again … except for one.

While this exchange went on, my colleague Andrew Krespanis was also struggling with his own Streetwise horror story. He had left his MacBook Pro with Streetwise for warranty repair of his display, and when he insisted on taking his computer back while Streetwise awaited the replacement part, he discovered that the screen’s case had been bent and the computer would no longer run on battery power!

It took many phone calls and more than a few trips to Streetwise to do it, but Andrew finally got his MacBook Pro back from Streetwise this morning. It’s in perfect working order … but it has no serial number sticker.

Yes indeed. Part of the repair work Streetwise performed on Andrew’s MacBook Pro involved replacing the palm rest, and just as they did to my machine they again failed to transfer the serial number sticker to the new part. So much for Wignall’s assurances that this would not happen again!

Discovering this, I called Wignall personally. He thanked me for bringing it to his attention, agreed it was absolutely shocking, and promised to take steps. He also dug Andrew’s old palm rest out of the trash and peeled the serial number sticker off of it for us.

My advice? Avoid getting your computer serviced by Streetwise at all costs. If you can’t avoid it, or have already left your computer with them, be sure to check for the serial number sticker when you get it back!

Streetwise replied almost immediately to my email complaint:

Hi Kevin,

I’m not sure why the technician on Saturday would have told you that – perhaps there was some sort of misunderstanding.
I do apologise if you felt that was inappropriate in anyway.
I can confirm that the part to be fitted would not be an issue and you can use your machine normally while we wait for the part.
As the technician is not in today – I will discuss the matter with him when I see him and to see if we can resolve this one way or another.
We will attempt to call or leave a message when the part actually comes in. Do you wish me to order the part for you?

Best Wishes,
Gary Chee
Service & Returns Manager

Quite the reversal. I asked Streetwise to go ahead and order the part. Two days later:

Hi Kevin,

The top case has arrived today. Could you please drop off your Macbook so we can install it for you?
Please allow us at least half a day turn around time to sort it out for you.

Thanks,
Gary

Still no explanation for the original incident, you’ll note. I queried this in my reply:

Thanks. Will do!

Has any explanation for the original mixup been forthcoming?

–
Kevin Yank

http://www.kevinyank.com/

Streetwise’s reply was about as vague as can be, but reading between the lines I believe my complaint was taken to heart:

No worries Kevin – I’ve spoken to the tech and he said there was a small mixup – but I hope that’s been cleared up.

Cheers,
Gary

The repair was completed the same day I dropped off the computer. In total, I was without my MacBook for about four hours. Not bad at all!

The next day, I received an automated email from Apple requesting my feedback on the support experience I had had with Streetwise. As you can imagine, I was very forthcoming, and ticked the box that said ‘You may contact me for more information about my experience’. Two months later, I have not heard from Apple on the matter.

Unfortunately, my MacBook is in need of a little in-warranty TLC (a crack has a developed in the casing, a common defect). So today I dropped by Streetwise, an Authorised Apple Service Centre, to get it looked after.

I discovered that, in an effort to gain the highest possible “service rating” from Apple, Streetwise has decided to make it really inconvenient to get a minor problem with your MacBook fixed. I therefore walked right back out with my cracked MacBook in hand.

Here’s the note I just sent to Streetwise.

Hi there,

I visited the service department at Streetwise today to seek in-warranty service for my MacBook (Apple case no. XXXXXXXX).

When I spoke to Apple regarding the case, they informed me that I would merely have to take in my computer to an Authorized Service Centre like yours to confirm the problem so that you could order the part, and then arrange a separate time for me to bring in my computer for it to be installed.

I got a very different story from the person who served me at your service department today.

I was informed that, in order to maintain a high “service rating” (I assume some metric calculated by Apple based on how long a customer service case is open with you), you required customers to leave their computers with you for several days while you ordered the part from Apple, awaited its arrival, and then installed the part.

It seems customers cannot be trusted to return in a timely fashion once a part has arrived, which damages your “service rating”. Consequently, you have adopted a policy of inconveniencing your customers in order to satisfy an artificial metric of service quality.

I would ask you to reconsider this policy, so that I might reconsider my decision not to frequent your business. If there is someone at Apple I can contact to lodge a complaint about how its “service rating” is affecting your ability to provide meaningful customer service, please let me know so that I may do so.

In the meantime, if there is an Apple Authorized Service Centre that has a lower “service rating” that you can recommend, I would appreciate the pointer.

Sincerely,

–
Kevin Yank

http://www.kevinyank.com/

Update: Streetwise replied to my message.

For the main event for our three-day getaway in and around Marysville, Jess and I went horse riding in Rubicon Valley on a perfect morning. We lucked out and got a guide all to ourselves, so we got to learn a lot more about riding than we had done on our previous ride.

Jess’s horse Bounty must have been having an off day, because she made several attempts to bite my horse, Apache (Yes geeks, Apache. Believe me, I was geeking out about it all the way!). Otherwise, the ride went smoothly, with lots of high-speed cantering that had Jess calling me “the geekiest cowboy around”.

View ‘Rubicon Valley Horse Riding’ set on Flickr

The one essential tool for geocaching is a GPS receiver (GPSr), which gave me the perfect excuse to add this long-coveted piece of technology to my car. But finding a unit that would make a good on-road navigator (with good maps, nice screen, useful routing features, and an extensive Points of Interest (POI) database) as well as a good tool for geocaching (offering accurate coordinates and useful off-road navigation features) would prove to be a challenge.

The conventional wisdom seemed to be that the combination of a Pocket PC or other Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) and a Bluetooth GPSr would provide the most flexible solution, allowing me to use different software and maps for each type of navigation. But despite my rampant geekiness and confessed addiction to gadgets, I just didn’t need another computer in my life. I wanted a purpose-built gadget that I could rely on while driving, and that Jess and I could pass back and forth while out hunting for a geocache.

Also on my wish list was a device that could record position tracks that I could later use to automatically geocode photos (embedding position information into the file) that I took while out and about. Since none of the sub-$1,000 in-car GPSr units on the market offered this feature (you have to either spend a lot of money, or get a GPSr designed for hiking), it seemed like I’d have to shell out another $200 or so for a device like the Sony GPSCS1 built specifically for this purpose.

In the end, however, I found everything I needed and more in the TomTom GO 710 portable GPS car navigator. All it took was a little rampant geekiness.

In my next few posts, I’ll describe both the built-in features of the device that led me to choose it as an in-car navigator, as well as the tricky hacks and add-ons that have enabled us to take it geocaching and more.

The problem is homemade robots usually malfunction, before turning on their creators and going on homicidal rampages.