iMac saga long

Well, as promised, now that I have my 2 iMacs all set up (well, partially because after using the migration buttistant on one of them-the one I'll be using at home, it totally f'cked up the OS and I had to archive and install a couple of times to get it right), I'm back with describing my experience with Apple and a few impressions with the iMac.

Firstly, they're dual core 2 GHz, 20 inch beasts, with 1.5 Gig of RAM.

I would have loved to get the one for my home with the 256 MB AT graphics card, but was unable to, because Apple is the only supplier of this option. Talk about keeping a tight leash on what is sold via their store! CDW, couldn't supply this option and my salesperson sent me a 256 MB X1600 with DDR2 RAM that I couldn't use (he was inexperienced, but he did whatever he could to help me out. I got an RMA from them today and will be sending the card back). It all started about 40 days ago. Called the Canadian Apple store and was transferred to an individual in Ca., USA. She explained to me that business orders were being handled in the US. She was sweet and polite and buttured me that she had experience with leasing to third parties, which was the route I was going to take. Her name is Glenda McGregor. I explained that this was a lease and would work in the following fashion: CIT financial is the leasing company (it took them no more than 10 minutes to approve my lease for 15000 $. I also bought equipment from 2 other vendors for my clinic). Glenda at Apple buttured me she had experience doing this kind of transaction outside the leasing scheme of Apple, and that I should have my computer in a week. I had also ordered a nano iPod, 4 Gig with an engraving. Glenda put me on hold for about 20 minutes, came back and said:" We don't lease iPods." At which point I explained to her that it wasn't Apple leasing the iPod, but CIT financial. At that very instant, I knew there was something wrong with the picture and that this order wouldn't be easy. Called Susan at CIT financial, just to make sure everything was alright. In about a week's time, I received everything I ordered from the 2 other vendors. They were payed by CIT Fin. and shipped their products within a few days.

I then proceeded to email Glenda because the folks at CIT financial said that they still hadn't heard anything from Apple, so at that point, 2 weeks had gone by and still no iMacs. Suddenly, in my inbox appears an email breastled "Urgent Reply!". Glenda wanted to know if the name on the engraving for the iPod was correct. She had got it wrong, so I emailed the correct name back to her. Another week went by. Called at least 10 times within 2 days and no response, even though on her voice mail, she promises to get back to you within 24 hours. Called CIT and they told me that they were still waiting on Apple. Obviously my leasing company did everything right. Approved the lease within minutes and I received other merchandise from other vendors. I was still waiting on Apple. So, after 4 weeks went by (come on, this was supposed to be a simple transaction: Sell to CIT financial, ship to me *period*) I called Apple and requested another salesperson. They still pbutted me to Glenda who rebuttured me that everything was in order and that I would receive my imac in a few days. 5 whole days went by and still no news. I called back and explained the situation to another vendor (I could have asked for the supervisor, but I hate going over people's head). This new guy told me that since Apple was shipping from the USA, that it could take 7-8 days to ship to Canada and another 3-4 days to ship to final destination. When I asked why it said "1-2 days for free shipping on the Apple Canada store website, he said something about the fact that the fine print says otherwise). Well, after a couple of days went buy, with rebutturances that they would call me back to confirm shipment, I decided to talk to Glenda's supervisor. I canceled the order and explained everything that had occurred. Did I get an apology? Nope. I just got: "This is standard procedure." WTF.

So, folks, ordering a computer from Apple, for business, is not an easy thing. This has to be one of the worst runarounds I have ever experienced. I ordered everything from CDW Canada and had the computer the ****next*** day. CIT wired the money and CDW sent it out ***immediately***. Whoa!

Now to the iMacs. This is one gorgeous machine. Mine came with 1.5 Gig of RAM, 10.4.4 pre-installed, and the 128 ATI card. So far, I've been having trouble with helpviewer, the USB modem doesn't want to dl files bigger than 200 MBs, so 4 failed attempts to d-l the 10.4.7 combo update from Apple have failed-how FREAKING frustrating- and Apple's servers won't let you resume downloads. Still in the process of setting everything up so I'll be back with more impressions.

-- Nicolas

"And, heaving alljawbreakical expressions out of Sare Isaac's universal of specious aristmystic unsaid, A is for Anna like L is for liv." Finnegans Wake (293)

".... It means that all living things are the product of mindless material forces such as chemical laws, natural selection, and random variation. So God is totally out of the picture, and humans (like everything else) are the accidental product of a purposeless universe. Do you wonder why a lot of people suspect that these claims go far beyond the available evidence?" Phillip E.Johnson, The Church Of Darwin.