Dave Winer's Mac Crashes & the Geniuses Claim Disk ownership. Why?

First off, I prefer Naked Conversations, so when there's a customer support group, called "Genius Bar," who requires I make an appointment, even in an emergency, I get bristly and suspicious.  That being said, I am a new Apple customer, and have had good support from the Palo Alto Apple Store. If the people behind the counter were geniuses, they wouldn't be behind the counter, but that has to do with marketing, not support.

Dave Winer tells a story today, that I have heard twice before. He experience a hard disk crash and went to see his local geniuses.  They quote him a disk replacement price of about double what you would pay elsewhere. He says what-the-hell, signs a sheet and the repair is done. But when the computer is returned Apple keeps the old hard disk. He asks for it and they inform him that he just signed an agreement to let them keep the disk.

Now this sucks on lots of counts. First, most f us have confidential information on our hard disks. I had a crash and took the disk, knowing that if I really needed something I could pay one arm and two legs to a group in Petaluma who can pull the data off a crashed disk. I did it at the only othe Mac repair place I know--also in Palo Alto. My new hard disk was twice the size Dave paid for precisely the same price.

But that's not the point.  We all own our own data. We have the right to keep or destroy our own data.  What is Apple doing with it? Why is Apple getting customers to sign in such a squirrelly fashion?  I can think of no customer benefit derived from Apple's policy and behavior.

Which brings me back to my first point. May the Geniuses are doing something that benefits Apple more than it benefits Apple customers. Of course, if they had a company blog, they could explain.  We could have an open conversation. Perhaps they have good reason for their policy. Perhaps they should listen to their customers.

Like Dave Winer, I own Apple stock. Policies like this make me nervous as an investor.

Comments

[swbuehler]

When the 30 GB hard disk on my iBook G4 crapped out, Apple wanted $300 to replace it. For $200 I did it myself, with a 100 GB disk.

On the MacBooks, Apple made it very easy to replace the hard disk yourself; remove the bracket around the battery as you would when installing new RAM, and the hard disk is on the short end (you'll see the pull strip to pull out the old disk).

[swbuehler]

I failed to add: When my iBook G4 got zapped by lightning (resulting in the new MacBook), the HD I put in was still working, so it became an external disk for my MacBook :-)

[Brian Olguin]

The exact sam thing has happened to me in Norway. I even explained to the Apple store that I had important data and that I wanted a backup if possible. They "fixed" the mac by changing the disk and without any warning whatsoever sent my drive to the trash somewhere in the Netherlands.

This is terrible! Apple have appraently no appreciatino of their customers best interest.

Incredible.