The IT Nerd

I like Apple products. But a very negative experience that has been ongoing since November of last year has seriously made me reconsider being part of the ecosystem. Let’s start from the beginning.

Back in November of last year, I had an issue with the keyboard on my MacBook Pro. Specifically the “C” key would not work. No problem I figured. I took a visit to my local Apple Store after making a Genius Bar appointment. The Genius was able to diagnose it instantly and tried to repair it by replacing the specific key. That didn’t work so he ordered a new top case which includes a keyboard, battery, and trackpad and sent me home with my MacBook Pro. It came in a few days later and I took my MacBook Pro and it was promised to me five days later.

That’s where my problems began.

Five days came and went and I heard nothing from Apple. I called in and got the run around. And only when I forced the issue did I get an answer. They replaced the top case and discovered that the ambient light sensor was faulty. I was then told that they would put a “rush” on my repair by trying a new screen to see if it would fix my issue. Another day went by and nothing. That’s when I phoned the Apple Store again and pressed the issue again. I got a senior repair tech who said that he would order a new logic board (aka, the main system board) as the screen didn’t fix the issue. He assured me that he would put a new “rush” on getting the logic board into the store and into my computer. Three days after that I got a call saying that my MacBook Pro was ready.

Let me stop here for a second before I go on. I get it that stuff happens when you’re in the business of repairing stuff. But to force the customer to call in to get information on their status of their repair rather than being proactive really leaves a bad taste in the customer’s mouth. And frankly, a company like Apple should know better.

Back to the story.

I got the MacBook home, did a Time Machine restore and I thought all was fine. Except that it wasn’t. When I tried to set up Apple Pay, I got this error message:

Now one thing that I should point out is that the Apple Store asked me to remove my MacBook Pro from my Apple ID account so that the could facilitate the repair. I am guessing that this had something to do with this issue for reasons that I will get to in a moment. As part of my troubleshooting, I noted that the MacBook Pro still had the credit cards that I was trying to add associated with it. I tried to delete them from the computer, as well as from iCloud with no success as they came back within seconds. This ties into my theory about something about my Apple ID being messed up. While I figured that this was Apple’s issue, to be safe I contacted both banks associated with the credit cards in question. After 45+ minutes with each bank, they determined that there should be no reason why I shouldn’t be able to add these cards, and this was clearly Apple’s issue. And to be extra safe, I did a clean install of the operating system as that is what Apple usually falls back on when someone has an issue with a Mac. No change to the behaviour. That’s when I called Apple. And that’s really where the nightmare began. Apple opened a case, then after going through circle of troubleshooting, failing to resolve the issue, pass me along to someone else four times, claimed that the cards would disappear on their own in five days and they would follow up with me to confirm that happened.

Except they never contacted me.

So when they didn’t follow up with me when they promised to, I phoned in again. then after again going through circle of troubleshooting, failing to resolve the issue, pass me along to someone else four more times, they said that they would escalate the issue and I would hear from them in a couple of days.

I never heard from them and attempts to follow up failed. Then I discovered that the case had been closed. At this point I figured that I wasted enough time on this. So I forgot about it as clearly Apple didn’t care enough to solve this issue.That changed today with macOS Ventura 13.2.1 hit the streets. I updated and happened to check my Apple ID and found that the cards had been deleted. Now I don’t know if this Ventura update or just time was the reason why the cards were no longer present. But I decided to try and add a card. Sure enough, it failed with the same error message. So I called Apple and quoted the original case number. And then went through five people. Yes five people. All of which were playing the game of “blame the victim” by saying things like it was my network, I should not have done a Time Machine restore, go talk to my bank as it’s their fault, etc. When I kept calling them on it, the fifth guy I spoke to blamed the fact that I had installed beta software. Which was a bold faced lie as I was running a production version of macOS Ventura 13.2.1. I even offered to show him via Apple’s screen sharing feature. But he stuck to his story. Either he was misinformed, or he was just trying to get me off the phone. Either way this really left a bad taste in my mouth. And since we were engaging in a circular argument, I just ended the call.

So, I’m resigned to the fact that Apple Pay isn’t going to work on my MacBook Pro. And I’ve discovered on Reddit at least one other person who has the same issue:

So seeing as I am not the only person that has this issue, Apple clearly has an issue that they don’t want to own. And as a result, their customers are on the short end of the stick. That’s really doesn’t reflect well on Apple. And as a result several things have happened or are going to happen:

• When customer ask me if they should get a Mac, I will simply say that their hardware is fine. But their after service support leaves a lot to be desired. And the latter is more important than the former.
• I was just about to pull the trigger to get an M2 Pro Mac mini for the purposes of running my Zwift setup. But that’s not going to happen as I am not going to give Apple any more of my money as I feel that the after sales support is simply not there. Instead, I will be investigating a small form factor PC build.

So, am I going to dump my Apple hardware? No. At least not yet. But as my hardware and accessories from Apple fall out of AppleCare, and I need to look for replacements, PC’s are on the table for the first time in over a decade. The fact is that I have been around long enough to remember when Apple’s after sales support was top notch. But those days are clearly over based on this experience. Which means that I will have to make my future purchasing decisions based on the fact that Apple is no longer the company that it once was. Now I am free to be proven wrong. But I don’t think I am as even if Apple reads this, I seriously doubt that I will get a response from them as they are not the sort of company to ever apologize for screwing up. Which means that they will have one less loyal customer as a result.

To recap this story, you may recall that last year that a security researcher named Tommy Mysk discovered that regardless of whether you allowed your iPhone to send analytics data to Apple or not, iPhones and specifically Apple apps were sending that data anyway. That led to a lawsuit. Which then became two lawsuits, then three lawsuits. Now we have the fourth lawsuit as spotted by The Register:

The complaint [PDF], filed in Northern California District Court on behalf of plaintiff Julie Cima, claims Apple captures iPhone customer data despite device settings declaring a preference that information should not be shared.

“Apple records consumers’ personal information and activity on its consumer mobile devices and applications (‘apps’), even after consumers explicitly indicate through Apple’s mobile device settings that they do not want their data and information shared,” the complaint, filed this week, says. “This activity amounts to an enormous wealth of data that Apple collects and uses for its financial gain.”

I’ve said this before and I will say it again. Apple trades on being more private than the other guy. The other guy being Android. And these lawsuits really take that perception and rips it to shreds. And as more of these lawsuits get filed, because you know that there are more lawsuits coming, that’s only going to get worse for Apple. Thus they really need to speak to this, and do so quickly. The problem is that Apple isn’t going to do that, and that will make things worse for the folks at Apple Park.

Sucks to be you Apple.

When Apple came out with Activation Lock which stops Apple Products from being reused if they are stolen because they are locked to the original owner, I applauded that as it makes iPhones and Macs less of a target for thieves. Or at least it should make them less of a target for thieves. But there’s one unfortunate side effect that Motherboard has detailed:

Secondhand MacBooks that retailed for as much as $3,000 are being turned into parts because recyclers have no way to login and factory reset the machines, which are often just a couple years old.

In short, Activation Lock is creating a problem with recyclers where they can’t factory reset perfectly good computers. So instead of factory resetting them and selling them on the used market, they are selling them for scrap. Or in the worst case, destroying parts that they can’t use with all sorts of health and environmental effects.

This is a huge optics issue that Apple has unintentionally created. And at least at this point, they don’t seem to want to help solve this problem. And I can see why from Apple’s point of view. If you give recyclers the tools factory reset these Macs, those tools might end up in the hands of thieves who would do the same thing with stolen Macs. And if Apple were to reset these computers themselves, it would be a logistical challenge for them as they would likely have to sort out what’s legit and what might have been stolen. Still, I think Apple may have to do something here as this is a bit of an optics issue for a company that likes to brag about their environmental “street cred.”Let’s see if they do or say something now that this is out there.

I really find the fact that Apple is celebrating Data Privacy Day which is January 28th with a full campaign highlight that they apparently protect the privacy of its users ironic. But before I get to the ironic part, let’s get to the campaign that Apple is running. First, there are dedicated privacy-focused “Today at Apple” sessions. According to Apple, in this session, attendees will learn how they can customize each feature based on their individual privacy preferences. Which I suppose is a good thing. You can sign up for the “Taking Charge of Your Privacy on iPhone” session starting today on Apple’s website in the “Today At Apple” section in your country.

Second, there’s a short film that stars Ted Lasso star Nick Mohammed who plays “Nate the Great” on the show:

Now to the ironic part. Currently there are a total of three separate lawsuits relating to the lack of privacy on the iPhone that Apple is currently dealing with. While nothing has been proven in court, it’s clear that the “reality distortion field” is set to full strength at Apple Park as clearly they don’t see the irony here. And perhaps, maybe their MARCOMM people didn’t really think this through. Or they’re banking on the fact that the average Joe hasn’t heard of the three lawsuits in question. Either way, I am not sure that this is a good look for Apple.

You might recall that last year that a security researcher named Tommy Mysk discovered that regardless of whether you allowed your iPhone to send analytics data to Apple or not, iPhones and specifically Apple apps were sending that data anyway. That led to a lawsuit. Then it led to a second lawsuit. And now the number of lawsuits is up to three:

Paul Whalen, the attorney suing Apple in the New York suit, told Gizmodo he’s worked on a number of high-profile data breach cases over the last 20 years, matters that often involve unintentional errors. This isn’t one of those cases, he said.

“Those data breaches happened in large part because someone made a mistake that shouldn’t have occurred,” Whalen said. “In this case, with Apple, there doesn’t appear to be a mistake. Apple knowingly promised one thing and did exactly the opposite. That is what makes this case feel so very different.”

The fact is that Apple is in very deep trouble here. And they really need to speak to this whole situation as simply letting people sue them and saying nothing isn’t a strategy that’s going to work long term. I say that because they have to address the perception that they’ve lied about privacy on their platform. And the longer that they go without doing that, the worse it will get for them. Thus if they were smart, they’d come out and address this head on. This is on top of the fact that there are sure to be more lawsuits regarding this, and the best way to mitigate that is to address this head on.

Here’s the problem with that, Apple rarely does that. They would rather let people sue them and find some way to make whatever issue that they are dealing with go away rather than address the issue in question head on. That’s the sort of thing that works until it doesn’t. And I’m calling it now, it’s not going to work in this case.