Comment from Ryan
Time: January 30, 2007, 2:43 pm

Amazing! Truly Amazing! or rather Not so amazing!

Comment from Graeme
Time: January 30, 2007, 2:54 pm

Well at least they offered you a solution! You didn’t get someone slowly explaining to you why its your fault that is doesn’t work, that would be the textbook procedure in this case.

Comment from Jon Hundt
Time: January 30, 2007, 4:03 pm

here in the Netherlands the most common non-service phrase I hear is “that is not possible in Holland”. I’ve heard this for 25 years now, when I wanted to repair the leaf springs on my girlfriend’s Simca 1000, when I wanted to install a heat lamp in our old bathroom, when I needed to replace the power supply on my computer, when I tried to buy a US-standard electrical plug, and a thousand other times. In each case I solved the problem myself without much difficulty or expense. Sometimes I wonder “what IS possible in Holland?”

Comment from Teapotmonk
Time: January 30, 2007, 5:31 pm

Sorry to hear your sad news Ben, you were so looking forward to the laptop too. But just to balance the picture, my Apple powerbook was bought in England, went wrong in Spain, was taken to the nearest Apple Store (malaga) and shipped to Holland for a new screen. My nationality (Brit) was never raised nor that of the of the laptop. The service was effecient, fast, cordial and free. Perhaps the answer is to use the offical Apple Stores?
Or at least check out the discussion forums on the apple site to get a run down of the problem first - check out its prevalence, and then use your technical support line?
Just a thought.

Comment from Katie
Time: January 30, 2007, 5:51 pm

oh, ben, i feel for you! i agree that customer service in this country is ABYSMAL or worse. that’s to say nothing of how you’re treated in restaurants…

Comment from Ben
Time: January 30, 2007, 6:30 pm

In the end we tried one of the Macbooks in the shop as well and the problem was the same - I think the screen, though beautiful, is not perfect for watching dvd’s - but seeing as in reality I won’t be doing that I’m not too bothered. It is still a lovely computer!

John H - seems Holland is actually worse that Spain!

Comment from Stephen
Time: January 30, 2007, 6:42 pm

They should have an awards ceremony for the worst customer service!!! I was once told to ***k off to my country because they were asking for a document I didn´t have and whats worse didn´t need, also another time my car went missing for three months in Valencia in between the insurance company and the Ford mechanics and never recieved an apology. I just now regard it as part of the fun of living in Spain

Comment from Scott
Time: January 30, 2007, 7:08 pm

I’m sorry to hear about your MacBook problems, Ben. They are really fantastic machines — it is what we’re traveling with. I would encourage your to contact Apple Customer Support directly. Their Spanish AppleCare page is at: http://www.apple.com/es/support/contact/
Apple has a fairly good reputation for customer satisfaction. Never hurts to try.

Since arriving in Spain, we were beginning to think that we were doing something terrible to irritate shopkeepers and store attendants — like exchanging our money for their goods and services. This is a bit different from the US, where many corporate customer service training sessions freely use the mantra of “customer is king.” Of course, this is rarely played out in real life, but it does seem to us that many Spanish businesses we’ve encountered have a general disinterest in customer service.

Comment from Tali
Time: January 30, 2007, 7:12 pm

Ben, I completely sympathise…you already know my feelings on Telefonica and companies of that ilk….but surely it comes under with a handy one year warrantee?? According to my boss - who just happens to run an apple affliated store - that screen sounds dodgy and you can send it to apple techy people in Spain and if they can’t fix it then they send it away….and you only should pay for the shipping. Teapotmonk’s experience should be the same whatever your apple problem so even if you bought it from a random apple store, they should be offering you the same service!!

Comment from Chris M
Time: January 30, 2007, 7:35 pm

What a coincidence - I just bought a Macbook last week. I’m yet another converter/traitor. lol.

You should telephone Apple and explain the problem. There is at least 1 year warranty on it from Apple themselves and they’re very good at customer service.

Comment from eLiNe
Time: January 30, 2007, 7:38 pm

Amazing ….and funny. In England they will probably tell you to go to the store you bought it. Which is reasonable

But are you going to accept the refusal from the store?

I don`t know spanish law, but at least the national law must be in compliance with EU regulations. As far as I know, as a costumer (the weakest contracting part), you have the right to make all complaints to the store where you bought the thing in question. And the store (the strongest contracting part) is obliged to help you/ replace a defect product. And instead of you, they have to deal with the producer/ apple.

I would also look at the guarentee, and contact apple. I`ve heard of a similar experience, but with a canon product. The guarentee in that case was valid in all the europeean countries.

I don`t know, you have probably thought of all theese things, its the lawyer in me awakening

Comment from ValenciaSon
Time: January 30, 2007, 9:03 pm

Sorry to hear of your troubles with your Mac, Ben. I think, like so many others, you should contact Apple customer service and explain the situation. I hear they are very responsive for the customer. I wouldn’t waste time with the store, unless that is the route Apple wants you to take.

I’m thinking about getting a Mac myself because I hear that MS Vista will only load on PCs that are are a year and a half or less old. I also hear that the Vista OS is crap compared to the most recent OSX rev.

Comment from Edith
Time: January 30, 2007, 11:17 pm

Service in Holland can be appalling or good - it all depends on the shop and its owners. Today I wanted to listen to a CD I had found in the Boudisque world music store in the Drieharingstraat in Utrecht, but the shop attendant couldn’t find the CD. He didn’t even apologize and just left me standing there, the boorish lout! So I just walked out of the shop without even saying good-bye. The CDs in this shop are probably overpriced anyway, as is most world music in Holland (you pay 220 euros for a Mercedes Sosa CD which will cost you 8 or 9 euros at the Corte Inglés). Apart from that, the shop looks very scruffy and the carpet smells of body odor.

Comment from greytop
Time: January 31, 2007, 4:00 pm

“you pay 220 euros for a Mercedes Sosa CD which will cost you 8 or 9 euros at the Corte Inglés” You might Edith - I certainly wouldn’t! 22 maybe:) And sniffing carpets could get you into serious trouble - or at least a bad reputation.
I don’t find service in Spain that much worse than UK. Once you get hold of someone they are yours for as long as it takes. You do need a lot of patience though:)

Comment from gary
Time: January 31, 2007, 5:32 pm

Ben - if you have an apple store drop it off and they will ship it and fix it…
Failing that return the whole thing to the shop and demand another.
Do ring apple service - you have 1 year free - if you decide to upgrade your warranty to applecare they will pick it up from your house and return it usually within a week. Always wise to keep the box for shipping but UPS, apples carriers, will send a box if needed - DONT send any leads or peripherals and DO Back up your sh*t before you send it….
My Son had a 24 inch monitor repaired under applecare after 2 years 362 days ( they even let you run over a bit sometimes) it was back in the week

Comment from gary
Time: January 31, 2007, 5:34 pm

If you drop it off at an apple store or have apple care you dont pay any shipping costs

Comment from Ben
Time: February 1, 2007, 10:23 am

OK, I took it into the store and all the others in there were the same, meaning any replacement was bound to be similar. As this is only a problem I will notice when I am watching widescreen dvd’s, which I never do, and as there was a good chance that any replacemelnt had some other niggle wrong instead, I decided to keep it and be happy. Life is too short to get too worried about something I only noticed after a week anyway. What is certain is that Apple, a company fighting to keep a 5-10% market share, should make sure their monitors are perfect if they are to carry on getting people to switch. But that is another story. Thanks for all the help!

Comment from Michele
Time: February 4, 2007, 12:40 am

Ben,
It sounds like there is something fishy going on at that store you visited. A dodgy screen is not par for the course with Apple. Are you sure it wasn’t something wrong with the DVD? I’m a lifelong Apple user and have never had any problems with my Mac laptops or Mac desktops. Apple has superior customer service, at least in the U.S., and no customer would be expected to be satisfied with a less than perfect machine. While the machine is still under warranty, you should get it thoroughly checked out because a dodgy screen could be a possible indicator of something else that may go wrong.

Comment from Ben
Time: February 4, 2007, 5:14 pm

Thanks Michele. I think it is not uncommon - see this thread:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=275308

So I am happy to hang on to it. I only notice it when looking at a dvd, which I never do, and the rest of the computer is great!

Ben