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Almost bought an AppleTV, but didn't....

"Customer Service Reputation of Dell"

Rich1963 said:
Just as an aside to what Linmac said, Apple does respond to directed criticism. I had what could at the very least be described as a rude and disrespectful experience at an Apple store by a 19 year old smarmy 'genius'. I was pleasantly surprised, that, upon filling out a survey I received after shopping there, I was a) called by an apple rep, and b) called by the store manager with an apology. All within 48 hours. As was stated elsewhere, I pay extra for an Apple branded product for better hardware and software design, as well as the customer service. The day Apple forgets this, they'll gain the customer service reputation of Dell.
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I work with Dell & Apple in my technology business. Dell has been better to work with. I have 100's of examples but my latest was this: I ordered a Precision T7400 and ordered an X5450 XEON which is not compatible with 800MHz RAM. I called Dell Support and they overnight shipped me 2 X5482 which are 3.2/1600/12mb to swap with the X5450's - try calling Apple Support with that and they would treat you like an idiot. I find it funny when Apple people think they are so much above everyone. Dell in my professional opinion blows them out of the water! And on the consumer side I just ordered a Dell Laptop and it arrived with a slight scratch on the LCD screen, one quick call and Dell overnight shipped me a replacement. Again, from my experience with Apple not even a comparison. I do own a Mac Pro, Apple TV, IPOD Touch, so I like Apple, but I think Apple Support / Return Policy, could use some work and could get some pointers from Dell.
 
I think at this point I'll be holding off on the purchase at this point. Now I'm hoping for a possible update or at least a refresh before I pick up one. Heh, maybe they'll introduce the AppleTV with a remote like the ones for the iPhone/iPod Touch instead of that white thing.

Though, if the Best Buy around here has it and I happen to find one of those 10%+ coupons.... :p

As for the Roomba, we actually have one. Heh, wish it knew how to go down stairs though. Kinda reminds me of the ED-209....
 
I have the AppleTV and a PS3. The AppleTV has the PS3 beaten hands down as far as ease of use. Yes the PS3 has Blue-Ray capability and can handle more formats, but you're going to need to purchase a remote and probably a wireless keyboard to make the most use of it. Not to mention that the models for sale right now are loud. Not XBox 360 loud, but loud.
With AppleTV I can use their simple remote to cruise podcasts and my iTunes library for hours. Ripping your DVD collection for use with your AppleTV is much easier than it used to be as well.
I wouldn't hold your breath for any kind of real "updates" to the AppleTV anytime soon. It already does about all they want it to. A storage capacity bump maybe (which is easy enough to do yourself), or at the very most a transition to SATA hard drives. I don't see any major form factor or function updates coming down the pipes though.
My $.02
 
Apple TV purchase

I think it's hard to justify an AppleTV for many people who have a digital cable box and can rent movies On Demand. As for streaming iTunes music to an entertainment center, one can just plug in their iPod with a cheap cable from Radio Shack. Podcasts and youtube videos can be watched on the computer, as well as lots of other video that are in formats that AppleTV doesn't support.

This being said, I do have an AppleTV and enjoy it very much. I don't have a cable box and cannot rent movies any other way. I also like that the AppleTV has a complete backup, via syncing, of all my media (music, photos, video). I have read many posts from users who are ripping their DVD collections to the AppleTV. Consolidating media into one place seems to be the big draw for AppleTV. It looks like Apple will need to be shipping bigger hard drives in future versions of AppleTV.

I'm thinking of ditching cable TV altogether (to save $$), and just go with over-the-air stations and my AppleTV.
 
Apple Stores

Over the course of the last week I've been to 4 different Apple Stores in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. All of them had long lines for iPhones (which I waited in and got!) but they were all letting regular non-iPhone customers in without a wait. All these stores were crowded but there was no "just browsing" line. I find such a concept to be unthinkable. There is no store I would wait in line to just browse in.

As far as Apple TV goes, take the plunge! You won't regret it. Try BestBuy or order online, quick ship, no hassles! DO IT!
 
I will take a wild guess, drfutures, and say you're in the tech field, possibly using a slightly different means to get tech support, say through business or enterprise channels at Dell. As a rank and file consumer who has built his fair share of PCs, calling Dell and having to muscle your way through their tiered tech support service, attempt communication with people barely speaking english, and having to start fom scratch all over again when you call them back because, as usual, they cannot locate your case number in their system, is hardly ideal.

At least with Apple, there are numerous retail locations where I can take the product back and deal with a person face-to-face. The last time I received a follow up call from Dell was after struggling with them over the phone for two days, finally giving up trying to convince them it was a faulty RAM module and just buying a new one myself. It was stunning that they couldn't call me back the four (yes, four) times their phone system disconnected on me, but after I had fixed the problem without incurring a warranty cost, they had the sudden ability to call me to find out if there was anything else they could do.

Suffice to say, I walked away from Dell, walked away from the DRM-laden crap-pile known as Vista, and eventually Windows-based PCs in general. The PC market has gone the way of auto manufacturers in the US. Why be outstanding when just being mediocre and making money on volume sales is good enough?

Cheers.
 
FaasNat said:
The PS3 route seems to be decent. However, don't know if my wife would go for a system that plays games. I keep hearing her voice in the back of my head, "If you have time to play games, you have time to vacuum!" :(
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Yikes. Glad my GF likes playing games.

As for a just browsing line...I went into the new Apple store in Kansas on the way to the GF's quite a few times post 3g to look at the new cases they were getting in daily. There was an iPhone line through the store but the rest of us were free to browse. Weird how they were doing it. I would have been pissed. Just browsing? How about just buying an expensive piece of hardware??
 
The thing that's currently holding me off buying one is the 160 GB harddisk. I find it a bit small.

I also noticed that AppleTV is actually the only product not listed in the Buyers Guide of MacRumors. Why is that?

Does anyone want to comment on a possible future upgrade of the internal HD? Any rumors?
 
peterdevries said:
The thing that's currently holding me off buying one is the 160 GB harddisk. I find it a bit small.
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Unless you plan on taking your :apple:tv with you on vacation, you really don't need a large hard drive. All content can easily stream; the hard drive merely acts as a cache.
 
Just last weekend I bought a 40GB :apple:TV at the Sam's Club in BeaverCreek, OH for $179.01. (I don't know why they thought they had to get that odd penny... :confused:)

I'd been going back and forth about getting one before but, I never could bring myself to pay the full retail price they were asking for it.

At that price it was so good I couldn't turn it down. :D
 
I'm curious to see what September may bring around. There may not be any AppleTV upgrades, but it's not too long of a wait for me to find out.

As for the Apple stores with the just browsing line. I'm in the Bay Area so I'm not sure if there are just more tech inclined folks or not. I stopped by the Valley Fair store and the Oakridge Mall store.

The Valley Fair line was (IIRC) about 15 - 20 people for just browsing. The workers there told me it was so they could ensure enough workers were available to service the iPhone purchasers. At the Oakridge Mall store (which is quite tiny), I didn't speak to a worker, but the lady in front of me wanted to by some iPod adapter or something and they pointed her to a second line next to the iPhone line that had about a dozen people or so.
 
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