My mother bought an Apple desktop computer last March. She had to be convinced that she needed a new one, since her old one was a hand-me-down from my sister that was at least 8 years old and she was still using dial up internet access! My sister is a huge Apple computer enthusiast, and I agreed that for my mother that type of computer was probably the best choice, except for the cost. My father was never really sold on the price, but he went along.
Since March my mother she has been waiting to show it to me and she also wanted me to help her learn some new things that she has been wanting to do but unable to figure out on her own. I told her I am not an Apple computer expert but I would read the manual and the books she bought and help her if I could. Why doesn’t she ask my sister, you might ask? I think she does, but sometimes my sister does not seem to have the patience to explain the basics and she is so busy, so when I come to visit, I am never busy doing anything but visiting and I have more time and seemingly more patience. I often wonder if my mother would still think I have more patience if I lived closer.
So my mother was really looking forward to our visit that was scheduled for the week after Christmas, but on Christmas day my niece was using mom’s computer and all of a sudden the screen when completely white. My niece felt bad because she thought she broke it, and my sister tried to fix it but couldn’t get it to do anything. My sister knew how much mom wanted to show the computer to me, so she took her the day after Christmas (ugh), to the Apple computer store with my father in tow (double ugh). And of course the mall in general and the Apple store in particular was crowded, and I am sure my father had a fit because first he hates going to the mall, and going to a store in the mall that has a line just to get in the door! Oh, I can just imagine how much fun that whole trip was.
My sister, sensing my father was ready to tell my mother that they will come back later, busted the line and found a salesman named Brian and explained what happened to the computer. Brian could probably tell that neither my sister or my mother were very happy, and if my father went in the store with them I am sure the scowl on his face would have been priceless. Brian took the computer and said he would have to send it off for service. He said it could take 3 or 4 business days and he didn’t know what the problem was but it could be that the hard drive crashed.
This was not good since it was not going to be repaired in time for our visit, and worse, my mom could lose all of her pictures on the hard drive. My mother does not do much with the computer, other than email, surf the internet for quilting, sewing and cross-stitch patterns and copy the pictures that my father usually takes from their digital camera to the hard drive. And surprisingly, my father has become quite the picture taker and he takes a lot of them, so that meant a lot of pictures would be lost.
But on New Year’s eve Brian called my mother and told her that they had looked at her computer and determined that it was the monitor that needed to be repaired, not the hard drive. He said that since it would take so long to repair, they would give my mother a choice – she could either have them finish repairing her old computer, which would take several more days to a week, or she could take a newer, bigger, faster one with a brand new one year warranty. Plus, they would transfer all of her pictures from the old computer to the new one. My mother thought there must be a catch, so she asked Brian a lot of questions and finally asked him what he would do. Brian said he would take the new computer. So she agreed, hung up the phone, and then told my father. He also thought there was a trick and told my mother to call back and make sure she wasn’t going to be charged anything. He thought there had to be a hidden fee. She called back and Brian assured her there would be no charge. Later that day she told me and asked what I thought. I said it was great! Then she told my sister. She too said it was great! The only bad part was that she would not be able to get the new computer until the day that we were leaving. Guess you can’t expect everything.
So on our drive home last Saturday my sister called and said they had picked up the new computer and it was wonderful. The monitor was larger, the RAM and hard drive were a lot larger, it came with an wireless mouse and keyboard (but Mom got to keep her old mouse and keyboard if she preferred to plug them in), and it had a SD card reader slot directly in the computer so she no longer needed an adapter to copy her pictures. But the best part was when she turned it on, it looked just like her old one… all her settings had been copied from the old computer to the new computer. She didn’t have to relearn anything. And my sister showed her how to back up her pictures on a flash drive in the future, just in case…
To say my mother is pleased with the outcome is an understatement. I think it was fantastic and I know she would not have gotten the same deal from any other computer manufacturer after 9 months, and even if she did, chances are that she would have had to relearn the layout of a new computer all over again. This is a big deal for someone her age and it is getting to be a big deal for me, too. That is why I have been procrastinating and holding off on buying a new computer myself (which is also over 8 years old) – I just don’t seem to have the time or inclination to relearn a new setup. Although an Apple seemed a good solution for the relearning problem, it has always seemed cost prohibitive when compared to the Windows products.
But I think my mother’s positive experience has convinced me otherwise.
