No Mac experience, but thinking of new quad core i7

airfrogusmc wrote in post #8946938
Apples customer service is OUTSTANDING.

Phone support (I had one issue with Snow Leopard) is excellent. In my experience, though, Geniuses are questionable and variable depending on who you get and if you ask a question outside their normal set of a few dozen every day answers they normally have to give. Our local Apple dealer (Mac Station) generally has better people in the service and on the sales floor.

When I made the switch I had to deal with Apple, Adobe, Microsoft, Epson and a few others and the Apple customer service was so much better than any of the others.

I have to agree with previous posters that upgrading with a new i7 from Dell would be a good option. Save you a bundle of money too. Mine works great, is fast and most of the industrial applications are built for Windows (as well as Mac). What isn't, I can run on my Mac.

airfrogusmc wrote in post #8946938
Apples customer service is OUTSTANDING.

I have to respectfully disagree. They can clam up like every other company. I have an original black MacBook - many problems for the first year and a half, mostly related to the heatsink (defective hardware) problems. They argued with me, the Apple store wouldn't take it in to fix it because "it was purchased online", and ultimately they replaced the heatsink without replacing the CPU, which failed about 2 months later due to overheating.

I love my Mac. I don't like Apple much.

BuffaloJohn wrote in post #8947224
I have to agree with previous posters that upgrading with a new i7 from Dell would be a good option. Save you a bundle of money too. Mine works great, is fast and most of the industrial applications are built for Windows (as well as Mac). What isn't, I can run on my Mac.


I have to respectfully disagree. They can clam up like every other company. I have an original black MacBook - many problems for the first year and a half, mostly related to the heatsink (defective hardware) problems. They argued with me, the Apple store wouldn't take it in to fix it because "it was purchased online", and ultimately they replaced the heatsink without replacing the CPU, which failed about 2 months later due to overheating.

I love my Mac. I don't like Apple much.

All I can speak for is the way I was treated in my situation which was OUTSTANDING.

Speaking for the non-Apple bunch, my XPS and studio XPS service has always been good. If you call at the right time of the day, 8am to 8pm, you get US based support, other times, it's a 50-50 thing (like most companies). Add in the i7 based Studio XPS 16 and 3 year support, it'll be 30% cheaper than a 17" MBP with same secondary specs (screen, bluetooth, etc) and better base specs (i7, large amount of RAM, etc). Spend some of that on a backup hdd, and some on more software (if you are paranoid about viruses, get yourself norton, avg, even microsoft's security essentials, and then don't worry so much).

Tony-S wrote in post #8946961
You mean COBOL?

shows how long it's been

basroil wrote in post #8947468
Add in the i7 based Studio XPS 16 and 3 year support...

Will Dell even be around in 3 years?

Tony-S wrote in post #8947628
Will Dell even be around in 3 years?

Dell, HP, Sony and almost all the others have a failsafe i their contracts that will let them transfer your care to a third party should the company be unable to fulfill its duties. Dell will be around in 3 years, as will HP, sony, and apple. Will they be around after that? Who knows? Apple was the only one of the three in real trouble at the turn of the millenium (century, decade, etc), so I think the others will do just fine.

EDIT: Damian, technically Apple is the one with more debt right now, they just also have more cash than most. And even so, Dell still has all the contracts... Walk into any medical facility or university, and you'll see 70% dell, 5% Apple.

basroil wrote in post #8947889
Dell, HP, Sony and almost all the others have a failsafe i their contracts that will let them transfer your care to a third party should the company be unable to fulfill its duties. Dell will be around in 3 years, as will HP, sony, and apple. Will they be around after that? Who knows? Apple was the only one of the three in real trouble at the turn of the millenium (century, decade, etc), so I think the others will do just fine.

It is funny how times have changed Apple could buy Dell now wish I have 30 billion in cash and not debt.

BuffaloJohn wrote in post #8947224
I have to respectfully disagree. They can clam up like every other company. I have an original black MacBook - many problems for the first year and a half, mostly related to the heatsink (defective hardware) problems. They argued with me, the Apple store wouldn't take it in to fix it because "it was purchased online", and ultimately they replaced the heatsink without replacing the CPU, which failed about 2 months later due to overheating.

I love my Mac. I don't like Apple much.

I would have to agree here as well. Love my Apple products, have used macs for the past 15 years or so. There service USED to be outstanding when they cared for the clientele. They had to care because they couldn't afford to lose business otherwise. Now since they have gone mainstream, like every other company that tends to get to big, customer service has gone downhill. The kids that work at the apple stores that think they know everything really dont know crap, wouldnt know how to use the machine in a production setting or any other settings except to surf the net and look cool and trendy with a macbook. It actually pains me to walk into those stores now. Once they realize your not in there to buy a $2000 computer, good luck getting them to answer a question. With all that, I will still buy Apple products.

cory1848 wrote in post #8952419
The kids that work at the apple stores that think they know everything really dont know crap, wouldnt know how to use the machine in a production setting or any other settings except to surf the net and look cool and trendy with a macbook. It actually pains me to walk into those stores now.

Hahahah, exactly. When I was buying my first Mac I couldn't even get decent answers on switching from Windows, which is something you'd think they'd have extra training in. There are always a few on the floor that are better (geekier) than the others but on average, I found the Geniuses to be... average.

I was seduced by the shiny displays and great setup at the Apple store but the authorized retailer down the street has much better service.

TheHoff wrote in post #8952439
Hahahah, exactly. When I was buying my first Mac I couldn't even get decent answers on switching from Windows, which is something you'd think they'd have extra training in. There are always a few on the floor that are better (geekier) than the others but on average, I found the Geniuses to be... average.

I was seduced by the shiny displays and great setup at the Apple store but the authorized retailer down the street has much better service.

My experience was on the phone. I bought my computer from Calumet. But the the couple of times I had questions, the techs on the phone had me answered and squared away in no time. I wasn't bounced from one person to the next and they were not only very helpful bet NICE on top of it all.

basroil wrote in post #8947889
Dell, HP, Sony and almost all the others have a failsafe i their contracts that will let them transfer your care to a third party should the company be unable to fulfill its duties.

That's if anyone is interested in buying them after they go bankrupt.

Wow, you're clairvoyant, too?

That's because no one will loan Dell much money because of their shaky financial situation.

Just over 3x the market cap.

Well, maybe we've just discovered why our health care system is so out of wack.

In my department it's 60% Dell, 40% Apple.

airfrogusmc wrote in post #8952481
My experience was on the phone. I bought my computer from Calumet. But the the couple of times I had questions, the techs on the phone had me answered and squared away in no time. I wasn't bounced from one person to the next and they were not only very helpful bet NICE on top of it all.

Oh yea, the phone support is top top top notch. I haven't dealt with Dell, HP, etc, phone support in years but Apple's was above and beyond. I went up two levels to a Snow Leopard specialist and he personally emailed me two weeks later to make sure everything was still going smoothly.

Well, if enough "Apple vs. PC" comments get needlessly made, threads tend to get closed. Like this one now...