The Mac Mechanic is getting this bit of bad press because of their poor customer service.

Here is my side of the story.

On Friday 04/10/2009 I took my 1yr 2mo old 15″  MacBook Pro to the Mac Mechanic in Santa Barbara because it failed to wake up from sleep in the morning. I had used the computer the night before and put it to sleep as I always do. This is one of the great advantages of a mac over a PC.  Long story short, I got on my other computer and searched for solutions from others having the same trouble.  After about an hour of reboots and resets no video at all. I could here is spinning up and I always got the confirmation tone, but no video on either the external screen or the native screen. Bummer! I mean this was the weekend to do the taxes and now I did not have a functioning computer with all the information in it.

Now I have used the Mac Mechanic before and had been somewhat happy with them. Between them and the Mac Shac in Goleta, I could almost always find what I needed with information, hardware or software. They are building our mac store now.

So, I took the computer to the Mac Mechanic in Santa Barbara when they first opened up at 10:00am. I was told they should be able to get a diagnostic on it today. According to their diary of events on my computer, the got to it around 1:15 that afternoon, and by 4:15 had backed up my hard drive and diagnosed the problem to be the logic board. Around 4:30 a voice message was left on my answering service to the tone of:

“We have diagnosed your computer it has a bad logic board and will be about $1500 to repair. We realize this is a lot and wanted you to know we were able to back up your data and can transfer that to any new mac if you decide to buy a new one rather than fix this one. blah blah”

Well, to say I was a little surprised that a computer only 14 months old needed a fifteen hundred dollar repair, was an understatement.

I did not listen to the message until after the Mac Mechanic had closed so, I was unable to call them and ask for more details. I did have enough information to go research the problem though. So on another computer, a pc I might add, I went to the Apple website and searched for answers. I found one too!

According to Apple’s Service article number TS2377 titled MacBook Pro: Distorted video or no video issues, my computer may contain a defective video card and they know about it and are covering the repair for 2 years. Yippee!

Come Saturday morning, I am on the phone with Apple customer care making sure my computer is one of the units listed in the service article. Good News, it is! and there is a test to be performed by the Apple Authorized Service Provider (which Mac Mechanic is) to see if it qualifies for the repair.

Armed with this information, I am a happy camper and visit the Mac Mechanic.  When I get there I speak with their employee Manabu about my woes and ask him for help. He assures me first thing Monday morning he will notify the tech of my findings. In the mean time I drop $800.00 bucks for a new Mac Mini to transfer my hard drive information into so I can finish my taxes in time. Manabu made me spending my money and getting the new unit effortless. Needless to say their customer service when you are spending money is excellent!

Sunday goes by, my mini works great and I get my taxes done. whew.

Now the horror of the story. By Monday afternoon I had not heard anything from the Mac Mechanic of Santa Barbara, so I stopped by. When I got there I asked about my computer and was told that they had rerun the tests, talked to Apple and the repair was not covered. THIS WAS A BLATANT LIE! Disappointed I asked to have my computer back and left quite disgruntled at Apple.

When I got home I read the repair diary of my computer with the MacMechanic, and unlike Friday where they notated everything that was done to the computer, Monday showed nothing except an entry at the exact moment I came in to pick up the computer saying customer came in to pick up computer.

Because of their records, I am positive I was lied to by the staff of the MacMechanic Monday afternoon and that no other work or tests had been performed towards resolving the issue with the Technical article TS2377 from Apple.

Now one of the great things of using a laptop with a second display is two displays. I was spoiled with this and had found out that the new Mac Mini is powerful enough to support two screens, even a 30″ display if so desired. So I went looking for another display. One of my stops was another authorized Apple reseller, Samy’s Camera on Chapala.

I went in, was greeted quickly, and asked how I could be helped. I told him I was looking for a display, preferably an older 20″ cinema display to match the one I already had. Well I guess the stars were shining on me that day, he had a used one on consignment and sold it to me for a very fair price.  Then the conversation got over to my MacBook Pro and how I was disgruntled with MacMechanic because they refused to repair the computer under the Apple Service Article parameters, heck they even refused to look it up!

Anyway that Monday I left the computer with them, and on Thursday I picked it up with a new logic board in it and working beautifully and zero, yes zero cost to me. Come to find out, it was the graphics card on the logic board that had failed and Apple was very willing to repair it under warranty.  I have since reformatted the computer, it is for sale and when I sell it, I will be looking for a MacBook Air for my travels, keeping the mini at home running two displays.

So Mac Mechanic employees, because of your lack of communication with each other, lieing to me because you did not want to check out the information I did the research on (which you should have done) you have lost a customer for life!  and to be truthful I hope you lose a few more because of this blog entry/article.

Hi everyone,

It is that time of year again.  Each year for the past five years I have sent this e-mail out at about the same time every year. You see I am asking for your support in a cause that is very near and dear to me.  The Aids Life Cycle, an event to raise not only money but awareness about AIDs and the HIV virus.  I am very lucky to not have this disease, but I am even more lucky to be healthy enough to help when I can.

So 5 years ago, I decided to become a volunteer on the Aids Life Cycle, where close to 3000 bicyclist and 500 volunteers transport themselves from San Francisco to Los Angeles over a 7 day period.  This will be my 6th year participating, and most definitely not my last since I have promised myself and others that I will help until either there is a cure, or I am unable to.

Let me make this a little more personal, so you can understand why this is so near to my heart.  14 years ago I was a practicing drug addict and alcoholic. On April 16th, 1995 I went to a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous because I had hit my personal bottom and really did not want to go on anymore.  What happened at that meeting was amazing. I learned that there were others out there feeling the same thing I was. You see that meeting was a meeting of gay men who were alcoholics, and I had just found a home. To this day, I still take one day at a time and enjoy life being a sober member of society.

The leader of that meeting welcomed me, and made me feel comfortable. A hard task to do I might add.  His name was Andy. Andy was not only gay, and sober but also HIV positive. He had the courage, energy and love to take me under his care to show me how to be a gay man and be sober at the same time.  He helped me build a foundation of sobriety that keeps me clean and drug free each and every day.

A few years after I moved away from Los Angeles Andy passed away because of this horrible disease.  It was then I knew I had to try and help somehow. The Aids Life Cycle is how I help!

I know times are tough, but these events and people can not be forgotten. Even a dollar helps, but $100 helps even more.

Please help me raise a few dollars to help support those living with and those affected and effected by the HIV virus.  It is very simple, just follow this link to my page on the ALC website. http://www.davidbudlong.com/aidslifecycle . There you will find a large orange rectangular button that says “Donate to support David!” . Click on that button and follow the simple step by step instructions.

If I may suggest you do this now instead of waiting. If you are like me, I always forget to go back and take care of things. I find it easier and simpler to just do it now. Please go to http://www.davidbudlong.com/aidslifecycle now and make a donation now. It is tax deductible and really helps a lot of wonderful people.

Thank You.

David Budlong

P.S.  If you are not comfortable making a donation online, do not let that stop you!  Right now get your checkbook and an envelope.  Write the check payable to ALC (or Aids Life Cycle) and send it to me at:

David Budlong
30 Leslie Drive
Santa Barbara, CA 93105-4120

Again, Thank you very much for your help and support.

You will make a difference!

David

I know, I know, a blog a day keeps the Alexa up and the Googles a checking.

I have been building a new website that is centered around one of my passions.

The one thing every guru talks about, is try to do something with one of your passions.

Well, when you do. It is difficult to stop working on it, and take care of other “to do’s”

Anyway, if you want to see what I am up to, then check out http://www.rallyroutes.com, it is

a website dedicated to one of my passions Road Rallying.  It is coming along nicely and any

constructive criticism is welcome, compliments are cool too.

Now Take Action to Make It a Great Day.

David

Meetup – Does it work

I will admit I was skeptical when someone asked me to create a meetup group.

I mean, meeting people I have never met before. Who knows what could happen!

Well I feel that I am big enough that I would be safe in a public place meeting with people having the same interests.

So to the Coffee shop I go to meet with 2 fellow internet entrepreneurs that want to make a go of it.

I go tthere early to stake the place out, order my coffee and make sure the internet connection was working. My MacBookPro hooked right up to the wireless system and I was checking my e-mails when 1 of the Andy’s who had repsonded showed up.

Andy was a part time affliate marketer and had some pages built at weebly on the Kindle. He proved to me that when Oprah speaks, the world listened. He said the week Oprah mentioned the Kindle as one of her great products he made $3500 in one week.  Ok, I listened!

The other person who had RSVP’d did not show, so it ended up being the two of us for about 1 1/2 hours taliking about internet marketing and how to do certain things. The one thing that struck me about Andy, is he followed the instructions well and did what someone had showed him from a to z and it made hime some money. Pretty Cool, It can be done.

My problem is wanting to do everything my way. I have always been the one to look at a whole bunch of ways to do one thing and then think I am smarter and do it my way. Sometimes it pays off, and sometimes I waste a lot of time getting nowhere.

Now, about this meeting, and what I would like to see happen. I started this meeting because I believe in a product called the List Building Club by Tellman Knudsen.  It is one of the most extensive step by step systems I have seen to Create Wealth On The Internet

Back to the meeting, by no means was it wasteful and was by far very productive. I am glad I went and will be rescheduling the next one in a few weeks.

If you would like to no more about this meetup group in Santa Barbara Califonia, then visit

http://www.meetup.com/The-Santa-Barbara-List-Building-Club/

Now Take Action to Make It a Good Day

David

Soon I will be going to a meeting at a coffee shop close by with other people interested in using the internet to increase their business by building a list.

I started this meeting by using a service called meetup. You can find the service here;

http://www.meetup.com

and you can find see how a meetup posting looks by going here

http://www.meetup.com/The-Santa-Barbara-List-Building-Club/

What I find very exciting about this service is that it is easy to use, guides you in just about every aspect, notifies you when things need to be done, etc…

One of the best features is every week I get an e-mail telling me what kind of meetup groups people are looking for in my area. So if I find something that is interesting, I can start up a group and pretty much already have attendees waiting to come.

If you are an organizer, and are willing to put out a little work, then I believe this is an avenue is used correctly could be used to make many new friend and network with like minded business folk. it is most definetly not a waste of time.

No Go Make it a Good day and Take Action to make your life better.

David

Building a list? What kind of list? What am I talking about.

If you are new to internet marketing you may not know the importance of list building!

To me, list building is the backbone of internet marketing success. With a proper size list you too will be able to make statements like “I made $41,257 in 17 minutes”.

What is a list? My definition of a list is a collection of names and e-mails that you have received permission from the owners of the e-mail to contact them via this medium. It is to me, the number one thing to start doing when you decide to begin internet marketing! Yes you can get more information from each one of your contacts, and the list will become more valuable as you build it in size and quality of information.

How do you build a list? That is too long of an answer to complete in a simple blog post. It is also something that I will refer to a professional who has dedicated his entire online business to building a list. A mentor of mine, Tellman Knudsen has over the last 4 years become one of the most well known internet marketing gurus on list building and I respect him (even though he needs a shave) very much.

If you are serious about making money on line, and this cost you absolutely nothing to do, then go to:

http://www.CreateWealthOnTheInternet.com and register immediately. It takes less than 15 seconds and will be (if you allow it) the most important move you make in your pursuit of Internet Wealth.

Do Not Delay, Take Action, go right now to http://www.CreateWealthOnTheInternet.com and register! The first bit of information you get will be about how to start your very own money producing list.

Now go and make it a great day.

David Budlong

Create Wealth On The Interent dot com is up and running.

Using tools provided to me with my subscription to a great service called

Traffic Geyser, I was able to create a great landing page for the Create Wealth

on the Internet web site. What is really cool about the tool is that it allows to

easily change the design or wording so you can make several versions of the

same page, thus allowing split testing.  Remember Test, Test, Test when you

are internet marketing.

Beside that, on this first Sunday of 2009 My life partner Kurtis and I took all the

Christmas decorations down and rearranged the furniture in the living room.

Not sure why we didn’t do this earlier, the plan works great.

Well it is time to spend some time with him, so I will sign off for tonight.

Talk at you tomorrow.

http://www.CreateWealthOnTheInternet.com/loophole Open a “back door” traffic source with The Ultimate Search Engine Loophole. Generate Amazing Amounts of Free Traffic in Any Market at Will!

www.CreateWealthOnTheInternet.com/surveys Learn the little known secrets on how to fast earn cash on the internet by getting paid to take surveys. Easy proven system lets you make as much money as you want!

Read the rest of this entry