Apple = Dependability?

I am the proud new owner of a 15 inch MacBook Pro.  After years of lusting after one, I finally took the plunge and got one.  It was supposed to be my graduation present from my parents, but I took the advice of some computer guru friends that I should wait until Apple released their new product later in the summer.  Well later in the summer turned into earlier in the semester, and earlier in the semester turned into October, and I was still without one.  But due to my dedication to Apple, and the trust that I was putting in my gurus, I held out for it, and here it is.  My brand new MacBook Pro.  It's a beaute.

I must embarrassingly admit that I know very little about computers.  Besides checking my email and downloading music and pictures, I am an ignorant fool.  It's always awkward for me when fellow Apple owners get overly excited about me joining the family and they start talking about all the different programs and softwares, and I sit there and just nod my head like I know what they are talking about.  I don't even know what software is.  And how does the internet work?  I just don't get it.  Anyway, it's also problematic when all those Apple haters out there in the world ask me why I would change from PC to Mac, I enter pretender mode and say that it has much better media editing programs, it's "user friendly", and it is much more dependable than PC's, rarely ever crashing.  Cue change of subject.

But now one of my arguments is invalid.  I have owned this computer for 5 days, and it has already failed me.  I was having a great afternoon, enjoying this wonderful autumn Kentucky day at home, watching the Aggie soccer babes play CU on tv, and chatting away on gmail with an old friend, when my computer started making a funny noise.  I'm used to PCs making weird noises, so I didn't think twice about it, then all of a sudden, the noise stopped and the backlight on my screen went off.  No matter what I did, it stayed dim.  I then called Apple Care and talked to a very nice British lady for a while, trying to figure out how to get this working again.  She had me take out the battery and hold down the power key for 30 seconds (again, I have no idea what that was doing) and then she told me to put the battery back in.  Hmmm, well, I tried, and I tried some more.  All the while I am on the phone with her, and I ask her if there is some trick to this.  She tells me to put the phone down and try it then.  So I do that, and as I am trying to put her on speaker phone, I hang up on her.  Oh well, no big deal, I'll just call back when I get the battery back in.  Well the battery doesn't go back in.  I end up getting it jammed half way, so now I am stuck with a computer that barely lights up in the first place, and now has to remain plugged into the wall since the battery isn't properly installed.

I must say though that Apple's customer service is first class.  They were extremely nice and stayed on the phone with me for an hour trying to get my computer working.  When they realized it was a hard drive problem, they told me to ship it back in, and they will send me a completely new machine.  I can't really complain about that, except that if there was a week I needed a lab top all year, it's now.  With my first block coming to an end in the next two weeks, I have studying galore to do, and much of that studying is done on the computer.  I guess I will have to stick to my poor ol' Dell desk top to get the job done.

So thanks, Apple, for the warm welcome to the family.