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About 5 weeks ago I wrote about how my gorgeous powerbook had overheated and burned my pregnant fiance Zoe. Well after two months of red tape and quite a bit of runaround between the local Apple store’s “genius” in charge of my problem and the tech support line I finally managed to get a solution that worked out well.

The entire issue started with it overheating enough to cause a small burn on Zoe’s hand. After 3 trips to the apple store and being told “there’s nothing wrong with it”, Apple recalled the batteries of an additional 1.5 million units. I went back to the store and let them know yet again that an injury had taken place and was told to “call tech support” again.

Well knowing full well that I had a planned trip to San Jose I realized that I could just drop by the Apple campus and plunk myself down in the lobby until the issue was resolved. Initially I was put on the phone with someone from the “office of the CEO” named Melissa who said that my only recourse was to call tech support. I gave her my number to have someone call me that day and then went back to the lobby desk and asked for someone to meet with me face to face. About 20 minutes later I was called by Nathan Phillips with Corporate Executive Relations who came straight down to the lobby once he discovered I was still in the building.

I explained the entire story to him and gave him the paperwork and reports I had regarding the initial overheating problem, the response from the Genius bar at my local store as well as showed him the red area on Zoe’s hand (2 months after the burn). He let me know that Apple was not happy with the way I was treated and contrary to protocol took my powebook in order to get in the hands of engineers as quickly as possible.

He let me know that in the event it could be repaired that I would get a new machine. With a quick handshake and a promise to get to the bottom of why an injury claim was processed in an expedited manner we went home.

The next morning around 9am I got a call from Nathan asking if I would mind going through the very lengthy checklist of questions regarding the battery issue and the injury as well as letting me know that it would take Apple’s engineers 2-3 weeks to start examining the unit, so would I be ok with waiting that long to get some sort of resolution. I made sure to tell him that since I hadn’t been able to use the powerbook for two months waiting another month was unacceptable. I said having a working machine as soon as possible would be necessary. He promised to try and figure out a solution and would call me back.

After that call I went back to packing up all of the gifts Zoe received at the baby shower we were in San Jose to attend. About 10:15 in the morning Nathan called yet again to ask if it would be acceptable to get a 17″ machine in lieu of a 15″ macbook pro since I had an 8x superdrive and the 15″ macbooks did not have that feature. I of course said “that would be fine” and after asking a few other questions said he’d call me back.

A few hours later while out at lunch he called to let me know that a 17″ Macbook Pro with all of the options would be waiting for me at the Santa Clara Apple store. I then asked him about getting a new case since my old case liner was for 15″ powerbooks or smaller. He said that it would be unlikely and he was already at the limits of what he could do. I got to the Apple store and identified myself to the manager Ron and he handed me my new Macbook as well as asked if I needed a case to go with it. I said that would be great.

So after all was said and done I did manage to get the issue resolved, Zoe’s hand is fine and I have a brand new $3000 piece of gorgeous dual booting (yay base camp + vista) Macbook Pro as well as a neoprene case to transport it in. Yesterday I received a call from the store manager from the local Apple store to ask me who I dealt with at the store that dropped the ball. I received a very heartfelt apology from her as well as a free year of .Mac service plus Apple Pro Care for a year as well. I’m still waiting though to discover if any data can be recovered from my powerbook and the 2000+ photos in iphoto I hadn’t had a chance to backup once it died.

Thanks to Terry @ the Portland Apple Stores, Nathan Phillips at Apple and the 3 folks at tech support I spoke to. in resolving this, now if you’ll excuse me I have older backups to restore as well as my ipod to connect to the new machine.

Here’s one of the “unboxing” shots I took while opening it:

To all of you on the net, the very merriest wishes. As I sit next to the Christmas tree at my parent’s house in San Jose I’m quite thankful for what I have, the friends, the health I’m enjoying and every great thing in my life right now. It’s one thing to enjoy the hustle and bustle of the holidays and to take for granted the friends, family and comfort we have. I just hope that everyone remembers the people who don’t have that much to be thankful for and that you can give them the care and compassion they all deserve.

I don’t want to get too preachy but as the song goes “God forbid you ever had to walk a mile in his shoes ‘Cause then you really might know what it’s like to sing the blues”.
Hope everyone is snug and happy and enjoying themselves.

Peace in the New Year to you all

Well the first week of Seattle Cascades All Days are in the can and in that time the kids have done about as much work as you can possibly cram into 8 days. While they’ve dealt with rainouts and injuries (as the picture illustrates) we’re all hungry for success this year. It always surprises me that everyone always seems to work harder today than they ever have before. Ah the magical infinite energy of youth lol.

So far I personally have driven from beautiful rustic Mt. Angel, (which is home to the best Octoberfest in the country) up to Seattle and back in one day while picking up the souvie truck and switching vans. Also have done quite a few hospital runs in addition to driving all over the place collecting last minute props and supplies to ready the corps for the big tour. Only 2 days remain before we start out on the road. Next stop will be a quick one two punch to the northern California cities of Stockton and San Jose. After that some relaxing fun in the sun in Ashland Oregon and then back to our home stomping ground of the Pacific Northwest.

I’m really looking forward to seeing the art of the show performed for a big audience since the interaction between members and the audience always seems to result in a massive upswing in the confidence and performance energy. Nothing sounds quite as sweet as the screams of happy corps fans (note: the unhappy screams are usually due to unforseen circumstances like earthquakes and the walking dead; The walking dead thankfully are a very rare occurence) Also looking forward to seeing how we’re going to stack up against the competition since we already know we’re winners, for some reason DCI likes to tell us whether or not we’re right about it ;)

My brain has been overwhelmed a bit with new ideas for designs and much photographic goodness. When I have a chance I’ll be putting up a wallpaper based on the drumline and maybe brassline shortly thereafter. Regardless of all of that it’s been great fun so far and I’m looking forward to writing more as internet time becomes available.