This past holiday, I’ve been computer-less: my (first generation) MacBook Pro has been in for repair at Apple, making this repair #5 for the machine. My experience this time around started at the “genius bar”, and that experience left much to be desired. After being passed around a few times, the staff finally took in my machine only to call me two days later asking if they could send it out for repair. This delay, along with the holiday, created a situation where my machine was out of my hands for about a full week. But that’s not all…

When I finally received the machine back, I found that only the “logic board” was replaced–even though my screen (or its cabling) was the defective component. I thought they knew what they were doing, and proceeded to use the machine hoping never to see the screen problem crop up again. Well, sure enough–it came back. Exactly as before.

I took the machine back to the Apple Store, and they said the same thing the first two “geniuses” did: it was probably a display cabling issue. “Why wasn’t the display cable replaced, then?” I asked. They couldn’t be sure; the repairs are done in Texas at the “depot”.

My machine has been anything but reliable, with multiple independent components failing. Obviously, the machine (and the plant it was made in) has quality problems–especially with ribbon cables. I asked what they could do for me to ensure this was one of the last times I showed up here for repairs. They told me, until my machine kept coming in for the same issue, nothing; I’d be sent out for repair this time (free of charge, “of course”), but no new machine for me. The “genius” even had the audacity to tell me, “this type of thing is to be expected with first generation products”. Gee, thanks. I didn’t know the “geniuses” served as gatekeepers for Apple repair service. I thought they were my advocate? I did pay for AppleCare, right?

I balked, and asked to speak to John, the manager at Apple Store Shadyside. He was really understanding, and listened to me politely, and then agreed to fix some cosmetic damage on my machine free of charge (a $500 value) in exchange for my time and trouble. By now I’ve literally gotten a new machine piece by piece, but why Apple couldn’t just cut their losses, and please me as a customer the first time, by replacing the defective machine, I’m not sure.

I think the real mark of a good organization, however, is to find out if they “learn”. Standards that indicate a “learning organization” come in many forms: the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) from CMU, ISO’s 9000 series standards and others. Essentially I want to know, if somebody comes in with the same issue as me, will Apple take what they found out from my machine and apply it to that case?

If somebody comes in with a machine that turns off randomly, will they check the battery cable instead of making the customer come back multiple times for diagnosis (as they did with me)? Will Apple change their store policies to ensure machines don’t stay in the store for two days to be “rediagnosed”, only to eventually be sent out for a non-relevant repair? Is it typical for Apple to replace non-relevant parts? Are these repairs even tracked?

I’m not sure if Apple has any internal knowledge sharing system or analysis procedures, but if there are any Apple techs reading this, please chime in with some answers. Is Apple a “learning organization?”

Today Anne Galloway, one of the peer advisors took us on a walk to tell us about ways of “knowing”: more specifically, using anthropology to look at populations. We visited the cemetery (”Old Banff Cemetery”) as a case study. Things to look for were trends in dates, types of names (Anglo, Asian, etc.) and the like. From this, we could make assumptions about the culture and society that lived here. Very similar to what Susan Leigh-Starr speaks of in “Ethnography of Infrastructure”; looking for trends and making inferences by what is leftover (in the case of Susan, the telephone book specifically). Interesting, but nothing too new to me.