I had a roller -coaster of a ride yesterday dealing with Apple’s Customer Support, after making a purchase on the online store. I’ve been using the 30-day trial of iWork ’08, and have decided to switch to iWork from my Microsoft Office Mac 2004 installation, so yesterday I ordered a serial number for the product, which was supposed to be emailed to me “immediately.”

After about an hour, I had received an order confirmation, but no serial number. I called the customer support line, and talked to a gentleman about my situation. He explained that the online serial number system had been malfunctioning, and that there were two options for me. The first option was for him to cancel the order, and refund payment, so that I could try the online system again later. The second option was for him to ship me a retail-boxed copy of the software on standard overnight FedEx at no additional charge. Being that this was Friday afternoon, he said the “standard overnight” would get to me by Tuesday at the latest‚Äö I didn’t love that idea, but it seemed better than refunds and reorders with no promise to succeed.

Some time after that conversation, I noticed that the order, which was originally not going to be shipped anywhere, since it was email-based, had been setup to go to the wrong shipping address. I had corrected the shipping address in the online store before speaking to the gentleman on the phone, so this was distressing. He didn’t verify it with me, and I didn’t think to do so either.

So, I called Apple back, and spoke to a rather abrasive woman who told me there was nothing they could do to fix the problem. You see, according to her, once an order is “Prepared for Shipment” in their tracking system, it’s “out of their hands.” She was very insistent that my only recourse other than to allow delivery to the incorrect address, was to call 1-800-FedEx and ask them to redirect the package. Without a tracking number. Before it had left Apple’s fulfillment center.

I gave it a shot anyway, but FedEx didn’t have any way (or desire) to help me. “It is to-ta-ly up to thee shiping party to mod-i-fy any add-ress in-for-mation.”

At this point, I was frustrated beyond belief. My good friend Calvin was working to calm me on Instant Messenger, but I wanted to scream. I guessed I’d just wait until Apple gave me a tracking number, and then try to contact the local FedEx office to see if they’d hold the package at the depot for me to pick up, instead. I didn’t like that idea, but it was better than the package being delivered elsewhere. However, my dear wife insisted that I call Apple back one last time. As she is usually correct in the appropriate course of action to take when I have lost touch with reality, I complied.

My third call to Apple went better. I had a hunch it would be better the second Jenny answered. She sounded energetic. Awake. Louder than the others had, but not in a bad way. I figured that the best way to approach it was from a calm and honest point. “Hi there. This is my third call to Apple today, and I admit, I am pretty frustrated. Let me give you my order number and billing address for you to open my account, and then I’ll give you the background.”

“Uhh, okay‚Äö ” Jenny sounded nervous, probably anticipating me turning into a rabid idiot and chewing her out at any moment. She verified my information, and then I explained the situation. After telling her my story, I paused for her response. I heard dead air for a few seconds, and then she said “Let’s see‚Äö I’m not sure what the options are, but we’ll make this right, and we’ll get the package to you. Let me try talking to a Manager Rep.” That was great. I thanked her for at least considering that there may be something they could do.

And then it happened. She did it. She changed the address, before she even went off the line to talk to the manager. She startled me, and herself. I hit refresh on my online order status page, and sure enough, it was correct. Jenny had done it!

Just to be sure, she checked with a manager, made a few other changes to ensure promptness of service, and came back on the line to assure me that all was as it should be, at least, as it should be for being a substitute for what I ordered in the first place. I was ecstatic. I told Jenny she had the magic touch, and that I’d blog about her. She seemed flattered, but I’m sure it’s not the first time some weird random webgeek was impressed by her technical support enough to write about her; she was probably freaked out.

Either way, Apple, and by that I mean Jenny, made things right. I should have the boxed version of iWork ’08 by Tuesday at the latest. And you know, even though I’ve had some issues with Apple, they still have better support than Toshiba, Earthlink, RoadRunner, or Vonage, which are the other corporate beasts I’ve battled before. Apple hasn’t lost my business yet.

Thanks Jenny!

Those of you who know me well know that I am fond of the work of Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. I’ve often said that Driscoll is one of my “favorite Pastors I don’t know” as his ministry to me has been in the form of preaching podcasts, books, and articles he’s written.

In 2008 Driscoll will be publishing a number of new books. The first, Vintage Jesus, will be out in February, but is currently available for preorder. Driscoll co-authored this book with Dr. Gerry Breshears from Western Seminary. The first 1000 people to preorder get a 35% discount, autographed copy of the book, and most exciting, an advanced PDF copy.

I got in on the deal. You should too!

I recently wrote about my MacBook, and how pleased I am with it. It is my first Mac, and has largely been a joy to use.

It’s not all perfect, however. Over the first six months of using the machine, two very nasty habits developed. First, the Superdrive (CD-R/DVD-R combo drive) started to mangle a lot of the writable media I threw at it. Eventually it got to the point where it wouldn’t burn any discs correctly at all. This was a real problem, as I burn audio CDs from our church for distribution.

The second, and more annoying habit was that the screen would flicker randomly. When it first started, it was a very slight change in brightness. I remember thinking it was my eyes because I was up late, writing a sermon. In time, it got worse, and was quite noticeable. At one point, the left half of the screen went all-but-completely dark. That was the last straw.

I found a number of folks with the same screen issues on the net, and decided that I ought to get the machine serviced, as I suspected it needed a new power inverter. I scheduled an appointment with a “Genius” at the Apple Store in Syracuse, 70 miles south of my home. The guy I spoke with was great, and said that he thought I was right, and that they should repair both the screen inverted, and the Superdrive. He told me it would be two weeks. I was prepared for that, and left it with him, as pleased as one could be in such circumstances.

Diana and I went from Syracuse out to the Watkins Glen area to spend a week with her family. Two days later, I got a phone call that the MacBook was back, and had been successfully repaired.

We picked it up in Syracuse on the way back from our vacation, and the screen was noticeably brighter, and didn’t flicker. The burner worked, and incidentally, even sounded better (which makes sense, because as I found out, they replaced it with a different model).

Everything was good. The key word of course is “was.”

Two weeks ago, on September 12th, the flicker came back. It’s not as bad as last time, and so far the screen brightness hasn’t deteriorated as far, but it does seem darker. This bothers me immensely, and because my warranty will be up in December and the problem doesn’t seem to be a one-time-thing, I’ve decided to purchase the additional two years of AppleCare.

Despite these problems, I still love my MacBook. It’s the best system, from a software and workflow standpoint, that I’ve ever owned. I hate to sound overly dramatic, but it really has changed the way I work. I guess that’s why it’s worth it to me to pay an extra $250 to have two more years of coverage. I’ll probably post in the future about the experience I have when I eventually get this flicker fixed. I certainly pray that it goes as smoothly as the previous one, and stays fixed.

Diana had the twenty-week ultrasound today. From what they could see everything looks good, but the baby was in a funny position. Diana will have to go back in four to six weeks.

We did find out one interesting tidbit‚Äö We’re having a girl!

Once again, for the second time in three months, my site has been hacked. This time it wasn’t server-wide, and didn’t have anything to do with my webhost. I made a minor mistake (apparently with major consequences) when I setup this site, and that allowed some ruthless scoundrel to do insalubrious things. You know, like forward the site to a non-English hacker’s forum. Fun stuff.

I think my site was only affected for a day or two, because I’ve been working on it more often recently, and thus noticed it soon after it happened. The databases weren’t corrupted, so I didn’t lose any content, which is excellent. All I had to do was upload a backup file from the last time I made some major user interface changes, and then fix the issues that allowed for the attack in the first place. Not a bad recovery process, really‚Äö but boy was I miffed!