Peeve Farm

g r o t t o 1 1

Peeve Farm
Breeding peeves for show, not just to keep as pets

  Blog \Blôg\, n. [Jrg, fr. Jrg. "Web-log".
     See {Blogger, BlogSpot, LiveJournal}.]
     A stream-of-consciousness Web journal, containing
     links, commentary, and pointless drivel.

On My Blog Menu:

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As the Apple Turns
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Capitalist Lion
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Eric S. Raymond
Tal G in Jerusalem
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Corsair the Rational Pirate
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12/17/2001 - 12/23/2001

Monday, February 3, 2003
09:37 - Apple's Dirty Little Secret http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/02/03/BU19749	(top)
SFGate has a long, detailed expos� on Apple Certified Resellers and how they're being systematically screwed by Apple. This, the article says, is something that's been happening for many years, possibly as long as Apple has existed-- but it's gotten worse lately, specifically since Apple started opening its own retail stores. That's apparently when Apple's relationship with its third-party dealers went from uneasy to downright adversarial. What angers him the most, Santos said, is that Apple's own sales representatives, when talking to customers, regularly disparage the competence and even the integrity of independent dealers, including dealers like him who have a long record of success and have been certified by Apple to service as well as sell its products. Kohler, who is getting out of Mac sales and service after 12 years, agreed. "Our clients regularly report that when they talk to Apple, they're told they'd be better off going through the company" rather than a dealer like him, he said. The disparagement issue that Santos and Kohler raise underlies several parts of Santos' lawsuit, including charges of unfair competition, trade libel and "intentional interference with economic relationship." And there are tons of stories of Apple's refusal to pay enough or at all for things that should be warranty repairs, and tales of incompetence in the Apple-to-Dealer shipping channel that results in lost shipments and time-consuming inquiries. Readers of MacCentral are roundly criticizing the article as a groundless smear, but a friend who sent me this article from his job in an Apple Certified Reseller assures me that it's not even slightly exaggerated. He's got stories of his own that make my hair curl. (Or straighten, as the case may be.) There was a big renovation of Apple's service channel a little while back, but it only resulted in more problems. My friend reports that after the shakeup, his reimbursement rates were reduced once again by a minor amount or slightly raised, but only for what Apple designated as "big-ticket items"; the reimbursement for "smaller, easier things"-- like modems and hard drives, for instance-- now netted only about a third as much. On top of which, they now have a new, web-based tracking system called GSX that's web-based (using WebObjects), which is where the benefits end-- it's hideously slow and buggy, and actively impedes the service technician from doing his job. It seems to my friend as though it's "intentionally left unfinished right now". Up till now, this is one of those issues that's been lurking under the surface, making the resellers mad but without much exposure anywhere else. After all, Apple seems to consistently get extremely high marks in Service in the tech press, compared to other computer makers like Dell and HP. Besides, the Apple Stores are very nice showplaces, and customers walk out of them extremely satisfied, having talked to the Geniuses and used the nice new machines and stuff, and gotten all their problems fixed and all their questions answered. It's been hard to go up to people and try to convince them that Apple's service system is cancerously broken, or to get anybody to really pay attention. But now that this story has run in SFGate, which isn't even a tech-centric site, maybe it will get a little more attention. Is Apple's overall goal to eradicate the third-party resellers and bring all service under its own umbrella? If so, they're going about it in an extremely Machiavellian way, and one that everybody on up to Jobs should be ashamed of. Plus I can't imagine such a move would be beneficial to Apple, particularly in a PR sense. Sounds like it's time this story started getting tracked on a more exposed level, which maybe it will be. After all, there's a lot I really, really like about Apple; but there are obviously a lot of ways in which Apple can be improved. And if this is the only way to bring that improvement about, well: time to grab some whistles and start blowing.