Mike Benner: Professionals need ProCare,

Professionals need ProCare,

Oct 30 by Michael Benner

So as I said the other day, the network card in my MacBook Pro failed. It was an on again off again issue, that finally stayed off. I took it to the local Apple store and had them verify there was a problem. The concern was my warranty. But this is where I officially fell in love with Apple and will not be buying anything else (at least not for a very long time).

You see, I found out the following things: 1. Apple products have a 1 year (not 90 day) warranty. 2. The Genius Bar is a better than a call center in India 3. Third party hard drives void your warranty 4. Installing 1st party hard drive will void your warranty 5. AppleCare can be purchased for up to one year 6. ProCare is good for 3 machines and worth every penny

That's right. My laptop is technically void of a warranty as I installed a hard drive myself and to top it off it was a third party hard drive, but the guys at the Genius Bar are pretty cool and look the other way for some things.

They did happen to be out of the part I needed, but ordered it and had it in stock in 1 day. This is were things almost went bad. I took the laptop on for what I knew was a 5 minute fix and was told that it would be 2 days before I got it back. Seeing my face start to change through several shades of red, the staff promptly said, "You need this for business? Do you have ProCare? You should get it, you would be in the front of the line." So I broke down, spent $100 bucks and was out of there in 5 minutes.

Yes, on one hand I feel cheated out of $100, but it really makes sense. If it was my wife's laptop I would have waited as it is not a business machine, but for a machine that needs immediate attention, you should pay extra.

This was yet another example of what I can't get with a Windows PC. Even Dell, which has been good to my company and our servers, can't match the service I got from my local Apple store. So to all you Apple users, if you don't have ProCare, get it. There are get benefits to it. And for all you PC users, if you don't have an Apple, get one. It will change the way you look at and what you expect from computers and the companies that support them.