Now a day later … Thursday June 12th … I was again working on my computer, when the whole 24″ display went black! No warning. No dying wheeze. Nothing. Blackness. Wow … the screen went to sleep? No. The MacBook Pro screen was NOT black. Panic time!

I reached deeply into my troubleshooting repertoire and tried everything within my powers to resuscitate it … but it was DEAD JIM! I tried zapping the PRAM (holding the “Command”, “Option”, “P” and “R” keys while restarting) 4 to 5 times. Nothing. I searched the Apple Support site and Apple Discussions. Some similar issues, but not results, other than replacement. I tried starting up from one of my multi-partitioned external USB drives which have clean installs of both OS 10.5 and OS 10.6. No go. Still blackness. I reached into the depths of my Library folder and trashed the Users/xxxxx/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.windowserver.xxxxx.plist and did a restart. Still nothingness.

It was time to admit the problem. My 16 month old, our of warranty, no AppleCare extended warranty, 24″ LED Cinema Display was gone. History! After about 10 minutes of shock, anger, and grieving, I went online to the website of the Seattle University Village Apple Store and made an appointment with a Genius.

Fast forward to my appointment. The Genius hooks up the display to his MacBook …. and … nothing! Black! He tells me it’s out of warranty and that it will cost $600.00 to replace the LCD panel. Though he will wave the $160.00 per hour labor fee. WTF!!!! More Shock (anger) and not much awe! I grabbed my display and went home. I WAS PISSED!!!!!!!

After only 16 month of use on a $899.00 display, and that’s it? I expected much more. Oh … like a replacement, and an apology? This isn’t the Apple I knew and loved. I was angry and depressed. After dinner that night, I cleared my desk, and reorganized it to work without the 24″ display. I was ready to move on.

Friday morning I woke up and was pretty much resigned to my fate. Not having enough money to repair or replace the display, I had to make due without it. So I started my morning ritual. Start the MacBook Pro & check mail. Wouldn’t you know …. a survey from Apple. “How did we do?” Oh boy … I get to unload! Of course there were the rate-us-questions. Fail! Fail! Fail! And finally, do you have any comments? With razor tongue I was ready to slice, dice and julienne! But then I had a “What Would Chris Do” moment. Chris being my partner, and the more business savvy person in this relationship. I heard him say, “…leave the anger and emotion behind. Give the facts. And don’t berate.” So I composed a letter.

In the letter I spoke of my disappointment that Apple didn’t stand behind a product that was only 16 months old. I spoke of how I had been purchasing and using Mac computers since 1986 and expected longevity in all their products. I stated that I was Mac consultant and would now have to think twice before recommending Apple displays without the caveat of buying AppleCare on all Apple products, because they don’t last as long as they once did. I also commented that I would have thought Apple would have replaced the display without even a second thought. That was the Apple I knew and loved.

At the end of the survey, I was asked if I would like someone from Apple to call. So I left my number etc. And sure enough … I got a call from Kelii Moreau, the Senior Manager of the University Village Apple Store just a few hours later. He told me that he read my eMail and I was right. Apple should have replaced my display. And if I stopped in later today, they would! It was music to my ears! I was told to box up my old one, and ask for a manager when I entered the store. A brand new fully (1 year) warrantied display would be waiting for me to swap for my old one.

After finishing my morning errands, I was at the Apple store with my defective and boxed display. I asked for a manager, handed the greeter the eMail from Kelli … to eliminate repeated explanation. Within a minute I was greeted by a salesperson and he went off to retrieve my new display. The entire team had already been briefed. Another manager Jennifer Dance came out to greet me and thank me for my letter. She said (and I paraphrase) ” you are a bit of a celebrity here. Everyone on the team got to read your letter. It reminded us all of what Apple has been and what we need to strive to be. You made an impression! And you did it without getting angry. Thanks you for that too.” Really? Wow! Cool! Thank you!

And that was that. I got my display replaced and went home to set it up.

Thank you Apple. And thanks to all the Apple managers and staff at the University Village Apple Store, for stepping up, and doing the right thing.

The moral of this story …. be the squeaky wheel! Use all the avenues available to obtain what you think is a fair result. No anger. No animus. Just honesty and fact. Leave hyperbole home. You may end up getting more than you bargained for.

Thanks again to everyone at Apple who helped achieve this result!

When the going gets tough … the tough go shopping!

Took a little trip down Portland way this past weekend. It was a Valentine’s getaway. Little did I know I’d be coming home with a new computer and display. Up until this point my Al SiO2 iMac and my old school MacBook Pro 15″ G4 were doing the trick.

Then there was that fateful trip to the Portland Apple store that Saturday. I laid my eyes on the new Apple 24″ LCD display, connected oh so nicely to a new uni-body MacBook Pro. I was in love … or at least certainly in lust.

Apple has finally made it too easy to connect this beautiful 24″ display to to its new line of uni-body MacBooks and MacBook Pros. In an instant I saw my future. It entailed selling my old 24″ iMac & my trusty MacBook Pro, in order to make way for this magnificent new combo. I was hooked. I must have it. I must have it now! To my credit, I waited an entire day before making the purchase. I was doing my duty as an American citizen to help stimulate the sagging economy. Yeah! That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Now that I’ve had the 15 x 24 combo … I’m liking it so much. I like having two displays. This is an awesome way to get a 15″ pallet display, and a 24″ working display. Yes it takes up a little more desk space … but in the long run it’s worth it. I also don’t have to sync two computers. When I go to a client … I have everything I need on this one computer. Oh … and did I mention it’s even faster than my old 2.4 Ghz 24″ iMac? Now all I need to do is replace the 350 GB 5200 RPM HD currently in the MacBook Pro with a new Segate 500 GB 7200 RPM HD and it will be even zippier. Woo hoo!

The downside … if any … is no FireWire 400 on the new uni-body MacBook line. The MacBooks only have USB 2. No FireWire at all. The MacBook Pro had only 0ne FireWire 800 port. Onthat count I’m lucky. All the external storage I have I bought with multi-interface ability, including FireWire 800. But my trusty LaCie DVD burner, will go by the way of the Dodo. It only has FireWire 400 capability. Yes there are adapters to be had to use it on a FireWire 800 bus. But once a single FireWire 400 device is connected to an 800 chain, the entire chain is slowed to 400 speeds. Drat!

Like every technology advance there will be those who wax nostalgic and or rant about how Apple is forcing them into a place the user is not ready to go. From my point of view … oh well. Don’t buy it. But at some point you’ll have to give up your OS 6 running Mac of yore. Or not. That’s the beauty of being a Mac user. Macintosh computers tend to last (almost) forever. And we are such a vocal and loyal bunch that sometimes we don’t want to give up what we have known and loved in our pasts.

Not me baby! I’ve always been bleeding edge. Ouch! I’m always a dive in head first and see how long I need to tread the digital waters. It’s how I learn. It’s part of how I keep up. I need to go through some of those growing pains. I need to experience what my clients might go through, so they don’t have to. It’s part of being a consultant. I bleed so you don’t need to.

As of this moment though … I’m in love with my new gear. As always I’ll keep you informed as I find new things to rant or rave about. Right now … I have some new external hard drives I need to look at. Mmm … technology.